In the World Origin Pocket Realm, Xu Qing felt immense coldness building on the collapsing planet that was located roughly in the midpoint of the halo cast by the red candle.
Only moments ago, there had been immense heat surrounding him. But now, there was frost on the ground, and the cold was getting more intense. Within that coldness was a boundless killing intent, rushing toward Xu Qing from all directions.
Eyes glinting, he lifted his foot and then stomped it onto the ground. The frosty ground trembled, and cracks spread out from where Xu Qing had stomped down. They spread quickly, making the ground look like a spiderweb or a shattered mirror. The air flowed chaotically around him, forming into a tempest. Mud splattered everywhere as the tempest grew in size, picking up countless bits of frost as well.
Xu Qing tapped into the power of the tempest to leap up into the air to start moving.
However, the killing intent of the invisible grieves had been stoked by what just happened, and they were converging within the tempest. Cracking sounds echoed out from the wind, which froze, turning into a huge ice column that connected to the ground. The freezing extended rapidly toward Xu Qing, as if he were being chased.
Xu Qing frowned. According to Sir Blood Dust’s memories, he had originally come to this place to avoid other dangers. It had mostly been an accident, and there hadn’t been anything particularly dangerous on the surface of the planet.
Things had gone very smoothly when he just entered that one large valley. But now things were different.
Is it that something around here changed recently? Or is it... my presence that’s causing things to happen?
As Xu Qing accelerated, the frigid coldness behind him grew more intense. The lands behind him were being frozen, and even the wind was becoming solid. Some of the frozen gusts of wind fell to the ground. Some converged into curved shapes like claws that connected to the sky. In fact, even the dome of heaven seemed like it was on the verge of being frozen.
Apparently, it was killing intent from the grieves, and it came from the sky, the land, the wind, the void. In fact, it came from everywhere as it closed in on Xu Qing. I’m really in a passive position at the moment.
He passed a lake, and as it froze solid, he stopped midair to survey his surroundings. After confirming there were no cultivators present, he unleashed his godsource, causing boundless golden light to spread out from him. The godly authorities of sound and the violet moon became a deadly force that swept in all directions. Wherever it passed, the areas that had been frozen solid exploded. The ice in the sky became violet as a violet moon rose within the snapshot, and the color violet filled the collapsing planet. Massive amounts of xeno-immortal soul threads shot out from Xu Qing, like a flooding river that replaced the tempest, becoming a vortex that shredded everything in its path.
Even a five- or six-world Smoldering God who encountered force like this would be shocked. But here... even though the power of Xu Qing’s godly authority was destroying the heavens and crushing the earth...
The frigid and freezing aura didn’t go away. Though it was temporarily rebuffed, it swept around and then converged on Xu Qing yet again.
In fact, the fluctuations rolling out seemed to be attracting more grieves, who raced from all directions toward the planet. Though the grieves weren’t visible, the frigid cold coming from the starry sky made Xu Qing realize something.
They can’t be destroyed?
Xu Qing’s eyes gleamed. Instead of using godly authority, he took a deep breath. Then, within his sea of consciousness, a sun rose, casting out profound sun immortal light. As it swept forth from Xu Qing, it created boundless light and heat in the surroundings.
The result... was middling at best. Although it kept Xu Qing safe temporarily, it was clear that the invisible grieves were still coming for him.
If things keep going like this, then even if I find that valley, I won’t be able to focus on finding the source of that white dust I found on Sir Blood Dust.
After the successive clashes with the grieves, Xu Qing had come to some realizations. Being absorbed by this place involved losing one’s fleshly body and being turned into a grieve by the red candle. When that happened, one gained the attribute of indestructibility.
However, that attribute was relative. After all, Xu Qing had encountered a lot of beings in his life and none of them, not even gods, could be considered eternally indestructible. Not even True Gods. Otherwise, why else would Yu Liuchen have targeted a True God?
In other words, it doesn’t matter if you’re talking about being undying or indestructible, both can only happen under certain circumstances. In that case, what are the circumstances that allow these grieves to be undying and indestructible?
A few breaths of time passed as Xu Qing kept moving. Then he suddenly looked over his shoulder, and his eyes shone with an aggressive light.
Now I see it! The grieves are undying and indestructible when they’re invisible! You can’t see them, therefore you can’t kill them! In other words, if you want to kill them, you need to be able to see them first!
Almost at the same moment that Xu Qing realized that, he felt some emotional fluctuations from Little Shadow.
“Milord... is correct... I can fuse... and thus see....”
Xu Qing frowned. Little Shadow’s fluctuations had come at a very opportune moment. It was almost as if the shadow had been waiting on purpose.
“Why didn’t you say something earlier?” Xu Qing said in a cold voice.
The shadow nervously stammered, “M-milord... I... couldn’t... this place... image candle... limitations... unable say....”
Xu Qing knew what it was trying to convey. The so-called ‘image candle’ in this place imposed limitations that the shadow wasn’t able to explain. Because of that, Xu Qing needed to react before it could say anything. At some other time, Xu Qing would want to look further into the situation with the shadow. But right now there wasn’t time. 𝑅ἈŊօᛒЁs
Suppressing his curiosity, he quickly gave some orders to Little Shadow. Little Shadow’s aura surged as it spread out over Xu Qing.
Many years ago, Xu Qing and the shadow had created the Shadow Fusion Secret Magic, which allowed him to fuse with the shadow in moments of crisis. The downside was that most divine abilities didn’t work in that state. However, it provided a massive boost to fleshly body power. As Xu Qing’s cultivation base grew, he found fewer reasons to fuse with Little Shadow. In fact, this was the first time in a very long time that he used the Shadow Fusion Secret Magic.[1]
In the blink of an eye, the shadow became like a black cloak that covered Xu Qing. Something like a black cape flapped behind him, and as his violet hair rippled, terrifying fleshly body power pulsed off of him. Wild colors flashed in heaven and earth. Winds screamed.
Even more terrifying were his eyes, which were pitch black. Now he could look out at the world using shadow eyes. It was as if a veil had been removed from the world around him, allowing him to see what was really there!
The dome of heaven was empty. The starry sky was a void. Everything was jade.
The dust, the planets, and everything else formed a painting. Even the terrain features and lands were part of it. The only thing that looked the same as before was the red candle, which burned its gruish flame as normal.
What was more... the previously invisible grieves... were now completely visible! What was even more astonishing was that they were black shadows being cast by the candle flame! They came in a variety of shapes and sizes. Some looked humanoid. Others looked like animals. Sometimes they were made of strange shapes, or even just threads. Fantastic oddities were visible everywhere. And all of them were pitch black, as if they were substructurally nothing more than shadows!
Over the countless years that had passed, the cultivators who had been absorbed by this pocket realm ended up losing their fleshly bodies and leaving behind only... their shadows. In reality, this pocket realm was really just a painting made of shadows!
That discovery caused his heart to leap in his chest. He had long wondered about the true origin of Little Shadow. And today... he had found a clue.
He turned to look at the distant red candle. He looked at the countless shadows in the area, looming over him.
Then Xu Qing’s profound sun immortal light erupted, causing light and heat to spread out. Screams rang out everywhere. It was almost like a special divine ability. Even being fused with Little Shadow, he was able to send out the immortal light.
Before, he couldn’t kill these shadows. But as the immortal light shone, they screamed and vanished like smoke in the wind.
The heat levels started rising.
Xu Qing flew into motion, sending immortal light out around him. He passed the painting of the lake and flew into the painting of a mountain. He destroyed the shadows he passed. Then, after enough time passed for an incense stick to burn, he spotted a huge valley.
Just like the lake and the mountain... the valley was a painting.
Although it looked very real, it wasn’t possible to enter it. He stood at the edge of the painting and mulled over the situation. Immortal light once again flared, and he sent it into the valley, where it swept back and forth. After doing that a few times in a row, the blackness retreated from his eyes as he unfused with Little Shadow.
His view of the world returned to normal. The valley was no longer a painting. Instead, it looked like an ordinary valley. With the blackness in his eyes, he couldn’t see the tangible.
After studying the valley for a long moment, he walked inside. Keeping his god perception out, he began searching. He wanted to find the place where that white dust originated.
Unfortunately... after about two hours passed, he flew out of the valley. Hovering above in midair, he frowned. The valley was deep, but not very big. In the two hours that had passed, he had thoroughly searched the place with god perception and hadn’t found a single thing.
There was no indication of any sort of white dust there, nor any evidence that there had been in the past. He even wondered if he had come to the wrong place.
Is this not the place? But Sir Blood Dust’s memories indicate that this very valley is where that dust became attached to his fate.
After a moment, he flew high up into the air and studied the area from above. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
He flew higher, until he left the planet. From that vantage point, he studied it, only to find nothing.
“In that case....”
He once again fused with Little Shadow. When his eyes became black he hovered high above the planet and looked down.
This time, his eyes went wide. Using shadow eyes, he now saw a painting of a planet... in which the valley was a big mouth. The mountain was a nose. The two lakes were eyes. The painting was not of a planet. It was of a face! [2]
1. He created the Shadow Fusion Secret Magic in chapter 344. ☜
2. As I mentioned in the footnote in the previous chapter, there are different words/characters for ‘face’ in Chinese. In the last chapter, the ‘Mask of Wishes’ has one of those characters that could be rendered as ‘face’ depending on the context. A different word is used in this paragraph. In other words, the planet/face here has a totally different set of characters from the broken face or from masks. I’m not saying this to spoil anything or give wink-wink-nudge-nudge clues. I’m just pointing out something that’s obvious in Chinese but not in English. If we later found out that the planet/face was actually a mask, it wouldn’t be a surprise. Or if we later found out it’s somehow connected to the broken face, it also wouldn’t be a surprise. But based on the characters alone, there is no reason to assume that there are any such connections. And incidentally (and completely not related to this chapter, but it just occurred to me), though context (and also official art) makes it clear that the broken face in the sky is indeed a face, if it later turned out to be a mask, that also wouldn’t be a surprise. Again, this is not a spoiler or a clue, just something linguistically that is obvious in Chinese but not necessarily English. ☜