Xu Qing’s expression remained placid as he stood in the wind and the snow. Lifting his hand in the direction Lan Yao had disappeared, he gently closed his fingers into a fist. In that manner, he grabbed the air, pulling the dao lineaments there to him, and causing all of the sound that had once existed there to converge from all sides.
It was a process that required a much higher level of control of the godly authority of sound. Though Xu Qing’s godly authority of sound had absorbed the authority of Golden Crow's musician, and had also taken the authority of Lord Spiritsound, it wasn’t at the point where it could snatch sound out of time itself.
However, he also had his sundials! Heaven and earth rumbled loudly as an illusory sundial appeared in the spot where Lan Yao had vanished. The gnomon spun, and the time in that small area reversed.
Soon, Lan Yao appeared again, and out of her mouth came the same words she had spoken moments before.
“Looking to die!?” she snapped.
The moment the words rang out, Xu Qing snatched them. The sundial blurred, and everything went back to normal. And yet, by that point, those three words had been imprinted like a mark in Xu Qing’s god perception. They became part of his godly authority....
In addition, Feng Lintao’s voice drifted with the wind into Xu Qing’s ears. He also heard his Eldest Brother’s outlandish words as well as the sound of the falling snow.... In addition, there were the sounds created by the countless living beings in the surrounding ice plains, including mutant beasts, cultivators, and other natural sounds. All such things appeared within Xu Qing’s god perception. Next, by relying on the mark of that sound, and the qualifications that came along with it, he made an inquiry.
He inquired of the wind: did you hear that sound?
He inquired of the living things: does that sound exist?
He inquired of heaven: do you remember that sound?He inquired of earth: where are the traces of that sound?
The wind, blowing far and wide, explained where the sound was heard. The endless living things explained where the sound was located. The canopy of heaven sensed where the sound existed in memory. And finally, the wind and snow blowing over the earth explained... that it was in the north!
Countless images. Countless sounds. Heaven, earth, mountains, rivers. Living things. Wind and snow. All of them flashed through Xu Qing’s god perception, providing him with a very precise location in a mountain of ice!
Surrounding the ice mountain was a thick haze. Inside of it was an ice cave where Lan Yao and Yue Dong sat cross-legged across from each other. At almost the exact same moment that Xu Qing’s god perception locked onto their position, Lan Yao shivered. Then Yue Dong’s eyes snapped open, her expression flickered, and she quickly performed an incantation gesture and pointed out.
All of a sudden, a wave of emotion erupted in Xu Qing, clouding his thoughts, interfering with his sound authority, and shaking him mentally. An instant later, the positioning lock was severed.
It was an instant too long. The reason was that in the image Xu Qing had locked onto, he had detected... Lan Yao’s heartbeat. That sound linked with the mark from earlier. That was enough.
“Found you,” Xu Qing said coolly. Lifting his hand in Erniu’s direction, he closed his fingers.
Erniu chuckled darkly as Xu Qing’s grip locked onto both him and the trembling soul of Feng Lintao. Two people and one soul vanished from sight. They had been swept up within Xu Qing’s godly authority, sucked into the void, and made part of the surrounding sound. Wherever something existed that could make sound, he could move through it.
An instant passed... and then Xu Qing, Erniu, and Feng Lintao’s soul crossed a seemingly endless distance to appear on the border between Firemoon Darkheaven territory and the north of Revered Ancient.
The wind was stronger, and there was more snow. What was more, there were no more snow-covered mountains towering over the icy plains. Instead, there were numerous towering, frozen peaks. The cold was more intense than ever, so much so that it seemed capable of sealing all signs of life.
All of a sudden, one of the ice peaks exploded, and two figures shot out from within, their expressions very serious. They didn’t hesitate at all to flee off into the distance. They were none other than Yue Dong and Lan Yao.
Behind them, Xu Qing stepped out of the collapsing rubble of the peak and chased after them. He had come through Lan Yao’s heartbeat to arrive right in the middle of the ice peak. He saw Lan Yao, and he saw Yue Dong.
Lan Yao looked the same as she had earlier, except that she was now visibly flustered.
As for Yue Dong, the wind and snow made her seem unusually elegant, and her silver wings shone in the cold. Her skin was as fair as the purest white jade. At the same time, her black robe with its gold embroidery made her seem like an immortal from a painting. She had eyebrows as elegant as distant mountains, and eyes that shone brightly. Yet the pupils within those eyes did not glow radiantly. Instead, there was something dark and mysterious within them.
There was no doubt that these two women were the pinnacle of beauty. In fact, any lustful person who saw them would struggle to control their desire.
However... it didn’t matter to Xu Qing whether they were beautiful or ugly. When he looked at people, he saw them as either friends or enemies. And these two were enemies.
Therefore, the moment Xu Qing showed up, he didn’t hesitate for an instant. He began to shine with bright light. In fact, a sun rose within his sea of consciousness, causing him to become like the incarnation of a sun, radiating boundless light and heat. He also pulsed with terrifying pressure as he closed in on the two women.
As crisis loomed, Lan Yao’s face turned pale. As for Yue Dong, that mysterious light in her eyes grew more intense, and at the same time, her hands flashed in a double-handed incantation gesture. Then she waved her finger in Xu Qing’s direction. That motion caused Yue Dong’s power to finally become fully manifest to Xu Qing. It was an art that used emotions to cause fluctuations in fate! To some extent, it was actually a type of authority, and it was very unique. ℝἁꞐȪ₿Ëꞩ
Xu Qing barreled right into the effects of her attack. Emotional fluctuations were like a hand reaching into his heart and mind, drawing out surprise, terror, sorrow, and despair, all at the same time. It was like a massive wave sweeping over anything and everything.
Even more astounding was there was also fury within those emotions! That fury had a specific origin. It was an emotion shared with Yue Dong!
That gap was what she was targeting to attack Xu Qing’s mind and sea of consciousness! If the dam burst, then the world of Xu Qing’s mind would be marked by Yue Dong. And his threads of fate would converge to create an image of her face. It would lead to something like a possession.
If this event was taking place before Xu Qing had fought Floating Fiend, then Yue Dong’s power would have been very difficult for him to deal with. In fact, he would have been required to try a host of different strategies. Yue Dong’s magic was truly difficult to counter.
But... Xu Qing’s authority of erasure was the perfect counter to Yue Dong’s ability! It glittered brightly, causing a formless hand to come into existence. It was a hand that surpassed the power of natural and magical laws. And it could erase all things! It instantly erased all of the emotional fluctuations!
The moment he recovered, a pair of ancient shears appeared over his head. They appeared to be made from bronze, and they pulsed with a primeval aura. The rust that covered them seemed to hint at them having been baptized by the passage of immense amounts of time.
The tips of the shears... pointed at Yue Dong! Then they snapped viciously in her direction.
A crunching sound echoed out across the ice plains. Emotions were severed. Fate was severed. Threads were severed. Something like a wind swept out, causing the ice peaks to tremble.
Yue Dong’s art was shattered, and she shivered from head to toe as her eyes became completely bloodshot. She also suffered a backlash that caused her five yin organs and six yang organs to vibrate violently. Blood sprayed out of her mouth.
Expression turning grim, she grabbed Lan Yao by the arm and sped away at top speed. As she fled, the glow of teleportation began to build up on her. Apparently, that was how she planned to make her getaway.
But then... Erniu suddenly appeared out of nowhere behind her, licking his lips. He erupted with power, causing wind and snow to scream as he took control of all the frigid coldness in the area. All of a sudden, creaking and cracking noises filled the sky as everything froze over. In an instant, everything became solid.
Meanwhile, Erniu shimmered with blue light, all while a host of vicious faces appeared within his eyes. Then his chest split open, and a skeletal blue hand stretched out toward Yue Dong and Lan Yao, pulsing with cold, avarice, and madness as it did.
Xu Qing strode forward. He and Erniu attacked from front and back respectively, unleashing deadly force.
However, that was when a magical symbol suddenly flickered into being on Yue Dong’s forehead. It was a magical symbol... that Xu Qing had seen before. It was the very same symbol that Yue Dong had tried to use in the past to seal Feng Lintao. It was the mark of a Grand Emperor’s spell formation.[1]
The mark flickered, turning into overlapping layers of fluctuation that almost resembled water. They spread out from her at the center, turning into a defensive barrier. And it fought back against the powers of Xu Qing and Erniu. Rumbling sounds rose to shocking levels.
Erniu’s eyes glittered as the backlash shoved him backward. However, only an instant later, he managed to fight back and charge back toward the spell formation.
Xu Qing’s eyes narrowed as he stopped in place for a moment as if powerful storm winds had slammed into him. He even took a few steps backward. Then he vanished as he entered the sound. Reappearing as a huge sun above Yue Dong’s spell formation, he dropped down. Deafening booms rang out.
The Grand Emperor’s spell formation was so extraordinary that it managed to repel the joint attack of Xu Qing and Erniu. Yet the spell formation clearly wasn’t going to last for very long. And that meant that Yue Dong wouldn’t hold strong for much longer. She shivered from head to toe as blood sprayed from her mouth. Her beautiful face was now twisted viciously. Though the formation was offering defenses, it was also serving as a prison!
Given how Xu Qing and Erniu were attacking, it was easy to imagine what would happen once the formation vanished: she would die!
At that moment of crisis, Yue Dong scowled at Xu Qing and Erniu. Then she lifted her right hand and shoved it forcefully down toward the ground. That act caused the glacial surroundings to shatter.
A host of figures shot up from the depths below. They were powerful experts from species subservient to the Firemoons. Their eyes all shone with pain and fury, and within their fate threads were faces that resembled Yue Dong. All of them were emotion puppets. None of them feared death as they shot madly toward Xu Qing and Erniu. However, instead of fighting... they self-detonated! They blew themselves up, using their own lives as a way to delay the two opponents.
At the same time, Yue Dong dropped into a cross-legged position all while forcing Lan Yao to sit down in front of her. Then Yue Dong reached out and touched Lan Yao’s forehead as if to extract something from within it. Lan Yao shivered, and her expression became one of pain. In contrast, Yue Dong’s aura began to grow stronger, and dao lineaments began to form in her eyes.
Outside, the puppets charged forth and self-detonated, causing booms to fill the area. The sky rippled, the ground cracked, and frigid energy turned into a massive tempest. That said, although there were a lot of self-detonations, they were relatively weak. And clearly it wasn’t going to be enough to actually stop Xu Qing and Erniu.
That was especially true of Xu Qing. The self-detonations hardly seemed to affect his fleshly body. The heat he emanated ignored everything else as he once again attacked Yue Dong’s spell formation.
As the spell formation shook violently, Yue Dong glared at Xu Qing and finally spoke for the first time.
“It is not possible to live eternally thanks to the six thieves that deceive life. The eyes deceive sight. The ears deceive hearing. The nose deceives smell. The mouth deceives taste. The body deceives labor. The mind deceives thought. And thus, all is lost. This is the origin of the seven emotions and six sensory pleasures, as well as a forbidden skill of immortals!”
As Yue Dong chanted, she began to shine with seven-colored light that formed a tempest around her.
“Disciple Yue Dong hereby uses this skill to deprive these two of their six sensory pleasures, and purge them of the seven emotions, thus turning them into my puppets! Karma and fate is devoured. By means of the bloodline of Lan Yao, daughter of the blood of a Grand Emperor, let one person sustain it! Immortal skill: Six Thieves Deceive Life!”
Yue Dong looked up as she suddenly unleashed a taboo forbidden magic to take control of Xu Qing and Erniu!
1. Yue Dong used the Grand Emperor's power in chapter 926. ☜