Chapter 1054: A Woman Battles Fiercely to Protect Her Children
The 50,000 kilometers of black fire went out. The heaven-devil prison formed by the seven major worlds collapsed. The dome of heaven returned, the lands went back to normal. The mountains and rivers were there just as before.
Xu Qing stood on the level ground, his face pale and his soul weak. The ground before him, and the front of his garment, were both soaked in the blood that he had been coughing up constantly. In fact, the act of standing had caused a bit more blood to ooze out of his mouth and drip down to the ground.
He took a breath. This was the first time he had officially used the godly authority of fate. Considering that, it was also his first time getting a deeper understanding of the paramount godly authority. The more he understood it, the more he feared it. This godly authority was terrifying to the extreme. The price to use it... was similarly extreme.
It was clear that if he hadn’t come up with a third concept, then it wouldn’t have been possible for him to sustain the effort of carving Sir Westdevil’s fate. And in all likelihood, he would have ended up dead.
And even though he had used that third concept, and thus had been able to move a thousand catties with four ounces , he had still been forced to pay a huge price to transform Sir Westdevil’s fate and put him to death.
His soul was now very weak. His fleshly body was cracked and crumbling. His cultivation base power was running on fumes, and both his cultivator authority and godly authority were extremely dim.
This godly authority is not something I can use casually....
Taking a deep breath, he wiped away the blood from the ground, then turned to leave.
Sir Westdevil’s death was definitely going to cause some big waves, and sticking around would be dangerous. However, he had only taken a single step before he stopped and frowned grimly.
A flame wisp had appeared on the red candle on his back! It was already so intensely hot that everything in the area was rippling and distorting. The candle’s aura of awakening had surged, and it seemed to be taking advantage of the moment to ignite itself. If it fully ignited, Xu Qing wasn’t sure how much danger he would be in, but the sense of crisis in his heart was already significant.
That sense of crisis was like a sea of flames threatening to overwhelm him. As a result, Xu Qing couldn’t leave the area. The most important thing right now was to handle the red candle.
Therefore, he didn’t hesitate for an instant to temporarily ignore his injuries and tap into his authority of erasure, all while reaching out to Little Shadow as well. The authority shot toward the red candle, and Little Shadow trembled and followed.
In the middle of the candle, the flame wisp glittered.... It was just on the verge of igniting!
When Little Shadow and the authority arrived, they worked together to suppress the candle and extinguish it. Because the candle had absorbed the devil fire, it was now showing signs of waking up.
Thankfully, Xu Qing had worked quickly and efficiently to smash the heaven-devil world, and therefore, the candle had only been able to absorb a limited amount of the devil fire. And the combined effort of Little Shadow and the authority of erasure immediately proved effective.
It didn’t take long before the flame wisp vanished along with a defiant howl. The fluctuations of awakening had been thoroughly crushed.
Unfortunately, the sense of crisis didn’t disappear. It came partly from the dome of heaven, and partly from Sir Westdevil’s withered carcass. The former was outright terrifying, while the other brought lingering traces of fear. The carcass was so withered it was starting to smoke.
Then the smoke converged into the image of a heaven-devil. When it formed, it didn’t look at Xu Qing, but rather, at the horizon. Then it vanished, leaving behind only a few words.
“The fruit of Sir Westdevil had not ripened. But since you stirred his fate, I had no choice but to devour that fruit early. You need to make up for any karma going forward.... I hope that you can avoid the coming deadly trial. If you don’t die... then I’ll find you in the future.”
Normally, Xu Qing would have found such words to be very thought-provoking. But at the moment, he was far more focused on that sense of crisis coming from the dome of heaven. That crisis surpassed anything from this heaven-devil, and it also surpassed Sir Westdevil himself. In fact, it surpassed any enemy cultivator Xu Qing had ever faced.
To him, it felt like a god! And that was because this was the power of an Imperial Sovereign who could indeed fight against gods. This wasn’t an Imperial Sovereign who had just broken through, like Floating Fiend. Instead, this was someone who could truly be considered almighty within the Imperial Sovereign level.
Xu Qing’s soul was trembling, his mind was spinning, and his authority was in chaos. The sensation of crisis rose explosively within him, and the shadow of death seemed to overwhelm everything. He wanted to flee, but he couldn’t.
The sky pulsated as a massive mirror came into view. It was fully 500,000 kilometers in size, such that it was like heaven itself! It was circular and pitch black. And of course, everything it covered was cast into darkness.
Then... snowflakes started drifting out of the mirror, filling the darkness with snow. The snow was also black. There was no wind, but the snowflakes drifted about as if guided by natural and magical laws. It was as if the entire area had become a world of its own.
And Xu Qing was inside it. The heaven of that world was the black mirror, and it now seemed as if it was falling. Collapsing. It dropped an inch, and all of the mountains in that 500,000 kilometers blurred and vanished.
Then, the outline of all those mountains appeared within the mirror. They had been sucked into the nonexistent reality of the mirror.
Xu Qing shivered as cracks spread out across him, and a sensation of imminent death filled him. His eyes were already bloodshot, and he wanted to struggle, but couldn’t. All he could do was cough up mouthful after mouthful of blood. In fact, blood was seeping out of him all over, until it ran down like a river. In the end, he simply couldn’t stand up to this Imperial Sovereign.
When this Imperial Sovereign took action, Xu Qing’s godly authority and cultivator authority became meaningless.
The black mirror that was now the canopy of heaven dropped down by another inch. Within the 500,000-kilometer area, all of the rivers blurred and disappeared. Their outlines appeared in the mirror.
Next came the lands. All the lands in the 500,000-kilometer area rippled and disappeared.
And then, within the black mirror, something else appeared. It was... an outline of Xu Qing himself, slowly starting to form. Death had come. All it would take would be for the mirror to drop down another inch.
Xu Qing was shivering from head to toe, and he was soaked in blood. And yet, there was no despair in his eyes. Instead, there was a crazy look. He knew that he wasn’t a match for an Imperial Sovereign. Whether it was Floating Fiend or whatever cultivator he was dealing with now, it didn’t matter if he had some destined opportunity and a boost to his battle prowess. Imperial Sovereigns were not people he could harm. However... that didn’t mean he was out of options here.
Looking very crazy, he threw his head back and roared. And then, just as he was about to burst into motion, the black mirror... dropped down another inch. It seemed that something very dramatic was about to happen.
But then, a burly figure appeared out of thin air. He entered the world created by the black mirror, approached Xu Qing, and stood in front of him. He looked like a mountain himself, towering over the chaotic battlefield.
He was Lu Lingzi!
Of course, it was more accurate to say that it was Empress Summer Departure in the form of Lu Lingzi. The moment shē appeared in front of Xu Qing, shē blocked the tempest winds, blocked death, and dispelled all the pressure weighing down on him.
Xu Qing relaxed slightly. Now he didn’t have to put everything on the line. Clasping hands, he bowed. The empress looked up at the black mirror above. The passage of that gaze was like a grand army that could send fires raging and mountains crumbling into ruin. And that gaze... focused on the middle of the mirror.
It was a gaze full of power, and it caused the black mirror to tremble. It was a gaze of abstrusity, and it caused a pinpoint of light to appear within the black mirror.
That pinpoint of light was a sun in the night. The moment it appeared, boundless white light spread out everywhere, shattering the darkness with unstoppable momentum. It spread through the mirror. Where it went, the outlines of the mountains in the mirror vanished. The rivers and lakes and lands and even the blurry outline of Xu Qing were all wiped away.
The black mirror was turning white!
When the outlines disappeared, everything in the 500,000-kilometer area reversed. Everything was returning. This was a confrontation between ‘Lu Lingzi’ and this unknown Imperial Sovereign. And the confrontation wasn’t over.
At about the same time as the mirror turned white, a cold harrumph echoed through the sky. The mirror shattered, and every bit of white turned back into black. And then a middle-aged man appeared. The shattered bits of the mirror converged in the dome of heaven.
It was... the seventeenth Imperial Sovereign of the western Devilbirds. He was none other than Sir Westdevil’s Master.
He hovered in the sky looking at the empress for a moment, then flicked his sleeve, causing endless amounts of black snow to appear.
The empress’ facial expression didn’t change as hēr forehead split open and a blood-red eye appeared. Instantly, the sky rippled as a large red sun rose behind the seventeenth Imperial Sovereign.
The empress coolly said, “Sir Blood Dust, as you know, my authority relates to wind. Do you know how the authority of wind manifests at a higher level?”
Xu Qing inhaled and shook his head.
The empress’ expression remained placid. “Air has weight. And so does wind. Watch.”
The empress reached a hand out and pushed it down.
Instantly, the red sun behind the seventeenth Imperial Sovereign blurred. Then, all of the air in the 500,000-kilometer area started converging there. In the blink of an eye, the effects spread beyond 500,000 kilometers to 5,000,000... and the movement created wind.
In the briefest of moments, a rumbling tempest formed. But the real deadly attack didn’t come from the wind, but rather... the weight of the air.
That weight all bore down on the seventeenth Imperial Sovereign, causing his expression to flicker. He was unable to resist and unable to flee. Under the consummate force of this authority, he immediately fell down toward the ground below. The ground quaked as he slammed into it, and there was suppressed, unable to free himself no matter how he struggled.
And then an even more shocking scene played out. The air converged on him, weighing down with such intensity that it broke open his defenses and entered his body, causing him to scream shrilly. Numerous wounds opened up, yet no blood flowed out. Instead, it went inward.
The pain was incredible.
Lu Lingzi was just that horrifyingly mighty. It was the first time that mightiness was being made manifest among the western Devilbirds!