For 5,000 kilometers in every direction, the lands looked like a shattered mirror. Black fire rose up from the cracks and crevices, turning the entire area into a sea of flames.
As it burned, countless human souls shrieked in grief. They couldn’t break free, as they were bound in the sea of flames, which surrounded the long spear.
Mount Heaven’s East didn’t exist anymore. In the spot where it had once stood there was now a shocking spear plunged into the earth. Standing on the spear was a figure that resembled a devil looking down on the world, surrounded by swirling red hair. Within that figure were seven brilliant balls of fire.
He was none other than Sir Westdevil.
But what Xu Qing was focused on was the heaven-devil projection behind Sir Westdevil. It filled him with a sense of both vigilance and impending danger.
Though the heaven-devil was illusory, the burly figure in the scintillating pitch-black armor imparted a sense of immense pressure. His eyes were filled with callous coldness, as well as a fiendish light that could penetrate to the core of a person. His long hair swirled like fire in the middle of the night, and emanated a gruish glow. His fingers were long, with sharp nails that seemed like they could rip anything to shreds. His entire body was covered with complex magical symbols, which seemed to serve both as his source of power and as the carrier of some mysterious curse.
His arrival caused darkness to build around him, a wind to kick up, and lightning to crackle. It was a pure manifestation of might and power.
Authority... thought Xu Qing, his eyes glittering as he looked at the devilish projection. He could clearly sense the fluctuations of dao lineament authority. And he could tell that this was not an ordinary type of authority.
“My authority is called devil-spirit rot-crushing,” Sir Westdevil said coolly as he looked down at Xu Qing. “Frankly speaking, it doesn’t matter whether or not you admit to being Sir Blood Dust.
“I’m from the seventeenth Imperial Sovereign mountain, and I’m here to fight you. To avoid claims of bullying the weak, I’ll only attack with three divine abilities. If you perish, Lu Lingzi will have no grounds to complain. If you survive my three attacks, then consider it good fortune that I spare your life.”With that, he pointed directly at Xu Qing. Instantly, the air in front of Xu Qing shattered as a spear appeared that was several feet thick and several dozen meters long. It immediately shot toward Xu Qing. Where it passed, natural and magical laws shattered, which showed how astonishingly powerful it was, and highlighted the authority it contained.
As it locked on to Xu Qing’s mind and heart, it pulsed with a horrifying aura that was very close to the strength of an Imperial Sovereign. It arrived in an instant.
Xu Qing’s pupils constricted. This Sir Westdevil was stronger than any of the other Smoldering Gods he had encountered. In fact, this was probably the strongest Smoldering God he had ever faced. Without any hesitation, he shot backward at top speed, all while keeping his eyes fixed on the spear.
Unfortunately, even as he started moving, a second spear appeared, its tip glittering as it shot toward Xu Qing with just as much power as the first spear.
And yet, the deadly attack wasn’t over yet. There was more to come. In the blink of an eye, a third, fourth, and fifth spear appeared.... Ultimately, a total of nine heaven-shaking, earth-shattering spears appeared, all in different spots, and all of them closing in on Xu Qing with deadly force.
It seemed like the spears were about to pierce through him. However, Sir Westdevil clearly didn’t know much about Xu Qing. Perhaps it would be accurate to say that he did know a lot about Sir Blood Dust. But he was dealing with Xu Qing, not Sir Blood Dust.
The nine spears of this attack contained power similar to that of an Imperial Sovereign, and they were arranged in something like a sealing mark. Unfortunately... they didn’t seal sound.
The nine spears thrummed with destructive power, letting loose deafening rumbling sounds as they smashed together in the same spot.
However, Xu Qing had already disappeared, leaving behind only a fading shadow. His true form had merged into sound and vanished into thin air. When he reappeared, he was behind Sir Westdevil. Without the slightest pause, he thrust his hand out.
Unfortunately, Sir Westdevil had abundant experience in battle, and had lightning-fast reflexes. At almost the exact moment that Xu Qing launched his counter attack, Sir Westdevil also blurred into nothing.
Xu Qing’s palm struck nothing but air. He looked up.
Sir Westdevil appeared high above, looking down at Xu Qing with shining eyes.
“Well, isn’t this interesting,” he said, again lifting his hand and pointing at Xu Qing. The black sea of flames erupted, causing flames to shoot up into the sky. Within them, the souls of the human quivered as they turned into numerous spears.
There were well over 10,000 of them that flew up, like a reverse rain that was focused completely on Xu Qing. Even more terrifying was that as the spears shot through the air, they proliferated, splitting apart. Each individual spear became ten, until there were more than 100,000. They moved with shocking speed, and what was more, they didn’t emit any sound.
Although they weren’t as mighty as the previous attack, the sheer numbers involved made them far more capable of inflicting annihilation. This soundless attack was Sir Westdevil’s second move.
In the blink of an eye they were about to hit Xu Qing.
Xu Qing’s eyes narrowed as he considered what to do. In the end, he didn’t evade. Instead, energy and blood surged within him, and he closed his eyes. 100,000 spears shot toward him from all sides and slammed into him. Light flared. Natural laws shattered. Magical laws vanished like smoke in the wind.
Yet Xu Qing didn’t seem affected. In fact, when the spears hit him, they unleashed a force of annihilation that swept back onto themselves. The spears were destroyed by their own power! They simply couldn’t do anything to Xu Qing’s fleshly body defenses.
Sir Westdevil’s eyes narrowed. However, he didn’t seem surprised. After all, he had been told already that this person excelled in defenses. And as it turned out, he had made this attack for another reason. When the spears shattered, they caused more black flames to sweep out. And the gruish fire was now right next to Xu Qing’s fleshly body. Instead of burning him, they formed a host of small-scale flame vortexes that spun rapidly.
Seeing that, Sir Westdevil’s eyes flashed with killing intent.
“Now’s my chance.”
He shot down toward Xu Qing. As he closed in, he extended his right hand. The heaven-devil projection did the same. And then, the heaven-devil’s eyes shone with underworld light as he gave voice to a complicated enchantment. It spoke every word clearly, yet no one who heard those words could possibly understand them.
As the enchantment echoed out, the black flame vortexes spun faster and headed toward Xu Qing’s forehead. At the same time, any spears that hadn’t exploded yet began to do so. More black fire burned, and more flame vortexes formed.
All of them were converging on Xu Qing’s forehead. In the blink of an eye, they merged together to create one incredible vortex.
As the vortex spun over Xu Qing’s forehead, Sir Westdevil reached out with his right hand. Within his palm was a strand of his own soul! He was using a killing move! And this killing move wasn’t about annihilation!
Everything he had said and done up to this point was a smokescreen. They were deceptions to hide his true strategy.
Spirit substitution! Put precisely, he didn’t actually want to defeat Xu Qing. And the reason he had rushed tirelessly from the battlefield had nothing to do with matters of face for the seventeenth Imperial Sovereign mountain. He had come for the Netherflame Secret Magic! He wanted to use Xu Qing as a substitute to get that secret magic!
For most people, that would have been a very difficult thing. But when it came to his special devil-spirit rot-crushing authority, the reality was that annihilation was only a secondary manifestation of its power. That authority had another ability hidden deep within it. And it was the ability of spirit substitution.
It was like a forced transfer. The soul strand he had produced was the secret technique that could be used to force the transfer. That soul wouldn’t fall under the control of the target. Rather, it would instantly come back on its own. It was a heaven-devil transfer!
Unfortunately, there are always counterparts to everything. When one person plots against someone else, it’s entirely possible that the other person would be doing the same.
As the vortex spun over Xu Qing’s forehead, and Sir Westdevil reached out with a soul strand in his hand to make the transfer... Xu Qing’s eyes snapped open. They glowed with cold light!
The authority of Six Thieves Deceive Life erupted, filling the area. Instantly, Xu Qing could see threads of the seven emotions and six sensory pleasures surrounding Six Thieves Deceive Life. They connected to him. And thus, the Sixth Thieves became a path. A path that led to the soul.
Within Xu Qing’s sea of consciousness, his soul stepped forward onto the road. It emerged from his forehead and directly faced the incoming right hand of Sir Westdevil!
Floating next to Xu Qing’s soul form was a black carving knife. It didn’t matter what transfer was going to happen, or what technique was being used. The carving knife slashed down. That slash caused the soul strand in Sir Westdevil’s right hand to emit a shriek of anguish as it was cut in half.
Xu Qing wasn’t finished. His soul bore the knife forward, charging toward Sir Westdevil and slashing into his sea of consciousness.
Sir Westdevil’s sea of consciousness was vast and filled with black fire. Seven major worlds orbited above the fire, and seated cross-legged beneath them was a heaven-devil with a long spear in its hands.
Upon spotting the heaven-devil, Xu Qing’s killing intent surged, and he rushed toward it with the knife.
The heaven-devil’s eyes opened and it rose to its feet. Then its spear surged with power as it stabbed it toward Xu Qing.
The knife and the spear clashed. As rumbling sounds echoed out, the knife remained unscathed. In contrast, the spear exploded. The heaven-devil fell back.
Xu Qing was about to pursue it when a sense of impending crisis filled his soul form. Behind the fleeing heaven-devil, he spotted what appeared to be an ancient and rusty bell. As it floated up, it pulsed with terrifying power.
The eyes of Xu Qing’s soul form flickered. Without any hesitation, he fell back. As he left Sir Westdevil’s sea of consciousness, returning to his body, a terrifying power erupted out.
Xu Qing and Sir Westdevil backed away from each other in midair until they were about 300 meters apart.
Sir Westdevil scowled. He still felt lingering fear from the danger he had just been in. Glaring at Xu Qing, he said, “You knew from the beginning what I was planning to do!”
Xu Qing’s face remained calm as he replied, “I didn’t know the exact details. But based on your words and actions, it wasn’t hard to guess that you weren’t actually trying to kill me.”
Sir Westdevil looked at him, his eyes glittering. Then he turned to leave.
Xu Qing lifted his hand, and the air vibrated. A tempest sprang up in front of Sir Westdevil, blocking his path.
Sir Westdevil stopped in place and looked back at Xu Qing with a grim expression. “I made my three moves. And I promised to spare your life if you survived. You’re making a mistake.”
Xu Qing shook his head. “I never promised to spare your life.”
And then he took a step forward. Killing intent surged.