Chapter 1095: Treasure Light. Blade Light. Sword Light.
Grand Emperor Immortal Skill had performed a very special service back when Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity conquered Revered Ancient. He created the immortal skills, which boosted the battle prowess of human cultivators and made them far more gruish and deadly.
There were no shortage of such immortal skills that could be considered outright brutal. There had been no other choice but to treat Dark Serenity’s enemies with complete ruthlessness.
However, after the war was over, the fact that immortal skills were harmful to natural harmony resulted in them being sealed away forever and not passed down by legacy. And for unknown reasons, Grand Emperor Immortal Skill disappeared into the sands of history. He became one of the only human Grand Emperors that later generations hardly knew about.
Later on, after the broken face and the gods arrived, many species left Revered Ancient to form the holy lands. Some of them took immortal skills with them and passed them down. The Immortal Skills Halls appeared which were centered on various immortal skills from Revered Ancient.
However, this was the first time the immortal skills had appeared in the Fifth Star Ring. As a result, it was no surprise that this Imperial Sovereign was shocked to the core by what was happening.
The sea of six desires that had swept over his nine devils, plus the vortex in his sea of consciousness, were all of utmost concern to him. Especially noteworthy was the latter, that sensation that there was something hidden in his memories. And then there was the vortex of white hair that turned into a gate, and pulsed with a sinister will. This indecipherable immortal skill was something he had no idea how to defend against.
An intense sensation of danger erupted in him like an unstoppable tide about to overwhelm him. In fact, he also felt like his memories would soon not belong to him. It was almost like his memories had become his own enemy.
As the critical moment approached, the Imperial Sovereign made a quick decision. Without any hesitation, he placed one hand on his forehead and the other at the pit of his stomach. He pushed down at the same time. Rumbling sounds echoed out as he tapped into his incredible cultivation base. The hand over his forehead affected his soul and his memories, causing the gruish transformations there to slow down. The hand over the pit of his stomach sealed his sea of consciousness, suppressing the eruption there.
Having accomplished those things, his eyes glittered with crimson light as he opened his mouth and inhaled. The nine devils that had been surrounded by the sea of six desires all howled as they collapsed, turning into streams of devil energy that flew back into the Imperial Sovereign’s mouth. He swallowed all of them.
Then thunderous booms erupted from inside of him as his previously skinny frame filled in with muscle, his wan face became ruddy, and he grew from ordinary height into a 300-meter-tall giant. His baleful aura raged, and devil flames spread out under his feet. An astonishing and berserk will pulsed out from within him.
By means of the baleful aura and the explosive energy in this body, he managed to viciously rip the invading immortal skills to shreds. This was one of the Imperial Sovereign’s trump cards, Baleful Devil Comes.
As cracking and ripping sounds echoed out, Xu Qing’s face turned grim. He could sense that his immortal skills had been destroyed, as had the memory he had implanted in the Imperial Sovereign.
Meanwhile, the Imperial Sovereign, who was in the form of a baleful devil, looked at Xu Qing with crimson eyes that burned with madness. He lunged forward.
Xu Qing had barely had a chance to feel the raging tempest and towering energy before his entire body was filled with stinging pain.
The Imperial Sovereign was so fast he became a series of afterimages as he launched a palm strike.
Xu Qing reacted with lightning speed. His cultivation base surged as he fell back as fast as he could move. Yet he was still affected by the palm, which caused tremors to pass through him and filled his flesh and bones with the feeling they were being ripped apart. Blood sprayed out of his mouth.
The power of an Imperial Sovereign was truly spectacular. In fact, any other Smoldering God wouldn’t just have felt like their bones were being ripped apart. They would have been killed in body and soul. However, he had the body of an extreme immortal, which was extraordinary in unique ways. Though he was injured, he was actually able to borrow some of the power of the palm strike to pick up speed and put some distance between himself and his opponent.
He didn’t flee, though. After gaining the distance, the Imperial Sovereign closed in with another attack. Xu Qing’s eyes glittered coldly. He lifted his right hand in the direction of the Imperial Sovereign, then lowered it.
Metal became a blade. Earth became an altar. Wood became a blade trough. Water became an axle. Fire became the killing force.
Xu Qing was using his own five elements to form a new God Decapitation Altar! And when his right hand dropped, the magnificent five elements God Decapitation Altar appeared in front of him, right in front of the Imperial Sovereign.
It surrounded him!
“Execute!” Xu Qing growled.
The energy fluctuations of the God Decapitation Altar sealed the opponent in all respects. The power of fire erupted and blade light glittered. The sharp blade fell.
A crack rang out!
The blade landed on the devil neck of the Imperial Sovereign. And yet, the God Decapitation Altar, which had never failed to date, simply couldn’t decapitate the Imperial Sovereign. It sliced about halfway through his neck before the power of the blow ran out, and it got stuck. Blood flowed out of the wound as the Imperial Sovereign howled in rage.
Then his body started splitting apart from itself as the nine huge devils came back out. The devils were partially transparent, almost like soul shadows. And they rushed toward the God Decapitation Altar, slammed into it, and exploded. Nine booms rang out. The God Decapitation Altar shook violently and, unable to stand up to the attack, crumbled into pieces.
Xu Qing reeled mentally. Blood sprayed out of his mouth as he backed up again.
Meanwhile, the devilish Imperial Sovereign, having lost his nine devils, now shrank back down into his previously skinny self. There was a gaping wound on his neck that gushed blood, although the wound was already closing up.
“Just what I would expect of a chosen. You have a seven-world Smoldering God cultivation base, but each of your magical techniques is more gruish than the one before it. You’re definitely strong.”
Though the words the man spoke seemed ordinary in nature, they caused Xu Qing’s heart to fill with a sensation of danger. All of a sudden, Xu Qing’s surroundings rippled as a host of spell formations appeared.
It started with 3,300 formations. Then 33,000. And then 330,000!
There were too many to simply count, and as they built up with astonishing speed, obfuscating the sky and enshrouding the land, they exerted crushing pressure onto Xu Qing. This was another of the Imperial Sovereign’s trump cards!
It was called 33 Taboo Formations.
The 33 in the name came from the way the technique worked. As long as 33 words were spoken beforehand, then all it took was a thought to unleash the technique.[1]
It was a devious divine ability that was hard to identify ahead of time unless you were familiar with it. Considering it was Xu Qing’s first time facing it, it would have been difficult to evade it. As the formations surrounded him, and a sense of danger filled him, his right eye glittered as a dao lineament appeared there.
The authority of erasure erupted! And it erased all formations he could see!
Though the formations were being erased in large numbers, they were still working, and Xu Qing was still trapped in place, surrounded by intense rumbling sounds and flashing light.
Seeing what was happening, the Imperial Sovereign coldly said, “So you finally used authority. I was beginning to think you didn’t have any.”
He had not underestimated Xu Qing at all, from the beginning of the fight until now. He knew full well that anyone who could travel alone from a foreign star ring would have trump cards to call on. And from this opponent’s cold manner, it had seemed highly likely that he had a trump card that could harm Imperial Sovereigns.
As the fight had played out, and he saw his opponent’s methods, he had kept his guard up even more. Now, after his opponent used the trump card of that decapitation altar, and he used his 33 Taboo Formations, he still wasn’t going to be careless. In fact, his eyes were glittering.
He wanted to force Xu Qing to use another trump card. As Xu Qing used his authority to get out of the formations, the Imperial Sovereign suddenly lifted his hand. He had produced a treasure.
It was a seed. The moment it appeared, the seed sprouted, and in the blink of an eye, it turned into a sapling, then a full-grown tree, and then a gigantic, hulking tree! It was 147 meters tall![2]
It was sparkling and translucent, like crystal. That was true even of its leaves, and as it glowed with ‘treasure light,’ it looked incomparably beautiful.[3]
Apparently, it had a gravitational force of its own. As that force covered the battlefield, all of Xu Qing’s energy, as well as all traces of his magical techniques, were sucked toward it by some unimaginable power.
Astonishingly, three sealing marks then appeared on the tree. The first was Xu Qing's heavenly dao hand of the five elements. The second was for immortal skills. The third was the God Decapitation Altar.
After the three marks appeared, they fused together to form the projection of a humanoid figure. The outline of that figure... was exactly the same as Xu Qing. Killing intent surged from within the projection, and that killing intent locked onto the real Xu Qing.
Even as Xu Qing used the authority of erasure on the spell formations, his mind and heart reeled.
“This treasure....”
The treasure not only had a gravitational force, it also created a projection that corresponded to him. The figure that looked like Xu Qing was struggling to get out of the tree, which was already starting to split apart to free it. Given the great level of danger, Xu Qing unhesitatingly spoke inwardly.
“Little Shadow.”
Instantly, the shadow beneath his feet surged outward, sending deep darkness out in all directions. Cackling laughter could be heard as a towering black tree rose up. The tree had black leaves and a black trunk, and there was something like a black coffin hanging from it. It also had countless eyes that were now fixed on the crystalline treasure tree.
“Still not using more authority, huh...?” the Imperial Sovereign said. He laughed coldly, and instead of closing in for an attack, he lifted his right hand and then shoved it down.
“Ghost gate: open! Heavenly fury: come!”
The movement of his hand caused heaven and earth to grow dark. A pitch-black door made of bones appeared out of nowhere. It was an ancient door that was obviously produced by means of a magical technique. Along with it came the sound of countless screams and howls from inside. A huge black claw then stretched out from inside. It grabbed the door frame, and an aura of death erupted, along with countless evil ghosts which swept out and swirled around the gate. Whatever terrifying entity that lurked inside was about to crawl out.
He had trapped Xu Qing with his 33 Taboo Formations. And then he was summoning a heavenly fury out of the ghost gate. But things weren’t over yet.
The Imperial Sovereign’s eyes glittered with the same cold light as before as he also took out a violet stick of incense.
“Let the life-locking incense burn, linking to your life. When the incense goes out, your life goes out!”
As the words left his mouth, the incense ignited.
Xu Qing instantly felt like he had been cursed, and that his life force was draining away.
“I forgot to tell you the reason I was selected to guard my clan’s spirit mine,” the Imperial Sovereign said coolly. “It’s not because I have a strong cultivation base. It’s because I live by the motto: never leave loose ends. Therefore, if you don’t have any more trump cards to pull out... then you’ve reached the end of the line!”
Xu Qing’s eyes glittered. Even within all the spell formations, a piercing cry could be heard as a flower of black flames appeared. A golden crow flew out of it, rising into the sky, surrounded by an aura of death and the evil ghosts.
Next came three beams of light!
The first beam contained a shield that shot toward the ghost gate, growing larger and larger as it prepared to block the path of whatever was coming out. The second beam of light contained a huge pair of shears that pulsed with the aura of a Grand Emperor. And the shears chopped right toward the burning incense. Karma was severed! The third beam was a beam of sword light.[4]
It wasn’t Grandpa Ninth’s sword, but rather, Xu Qing’s Emperor’s Sword. The Emperor’s Sword could sever heaven and earth. It could smash innumerable formations. And as it gathered the power of the lands, he used the Earth Treasury stance as he shot toward the Imperial Sovereign.
“That sword. You have that sword...?” The Imperial Sovereign’s pupils constricted as he suddenly backed up, his heart racing. “A precious treasure of humankind!”
1. The last thing the Imperial Sovereign said before using the technique was a sentence with 33 words. It was 33 characters in Chinese, and I made sure to make the sentence 33 words long in English as well (remember that two words connected by a hyphen make a single word). ☜
2. I know some will wonder how many ‘zhang’ that is. It’s 49. However, that specific number isn’t relevant in any numerological sense as far as this technique goes, so I’ve just converted it into the real-world measurement. The number 49 actually does come up again shortly, but it’s in a different context, so I think that number was probably just in the author’s mind at the time. ☜
3. The ‘treasure light’ here is made up of two Chinese characters that would normally be rendered as something like ‘unusual brightness.’ But in this context, it’s a magical xianxia word similar to ‘sword light.’ By combining just about anything with the character for ‘light’ you will get a specific light associated with that thing, usually (but not always) something that can move about or has some inherent power of its own. Or at the very least, it’s unique type of light that comes from that specific thing. ☜
4. Chapter title explained: It’s not 100% clear even in Chinese, but the wording in the opening paragraphs of the next chapter make the title of this chapter much clearer. Basically, the first beam of light is the ‘treasure’ light, as the shield is a treasure. It doesn’t actually explain that in this chapter, although it’s sort of clear by context (the author plainly states it in the next chapter). In Chinese, shears (which could also be rendered as scissors), combines two characters. The first is “to cut (as with scissors, shears, or clippers)” and the second is “blade.” So though it doesn’t directly call it “blade light,” it’s obvious in Chinese that the “blade light” is coming from the shears. The third beam is outright called “sword light.” ☜