Chapter 142: Massive Killing Intent
Time was like water, flowing by day by day. The beast corpses were like dead leaves, drifting down. In the blink of an eye, more than twenty days passed. Xu Qing was no longer in the same bay as before. He had changed islands five times. This was his sixth uninhabited island, and on this one, he had dug out a simple bay to use. During those twenty days, he had done only one thing other than change islands: focus on breaking open dharma apertures. He just opened his 10th.
Within the black iron skewer, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior had spent the last half month in a state of absolute trepidation. By now, he was in somewhat of a daze, and was convinced he was in one of the ancient records he’d read in the past. With each dharma aperture that a cultivator opened, more soul power was needed, and the process became more difficult. Because of that, it had taken the patriarch eight years to open 10 dharma apertures. But Xu Qing had done the same thing in twenty days.
It was a rate of progress that left the patriarch gobsmacked. Based on what he knew, even in Seven Blood Eyes, it was common for disciples to take two years or so to open that many dharma apertures. The only exception would be in the case of a huge war, in which a cultivator could kill large numbers of enemies.
But there had been no major war for Seven Blood Eyes in many years. There were only occasional small battles. As for the use of sea beasts, the Forbidden Sea was vast, but although the sea beasts weren’t very intelligent, it was hard to kill them in large numbers.
It was only by using poison and spell formations that Xu Qing was able to achieve such rapid progress. There weren’t many people who could do that. It not only required special resources, it necessitated an exceptional level of strength to begin with. And it also required the ability to make sure truly dangerous sea beasts didn’t show up.
Xu Qing knew that he couldn’t keep this up for a long time. First of all, ghostlonging horseshoe crabs were rare, and he had already refined the two he had, and only had a bit of their blood left. At the same time, he didn’t have a large number of chrysanthemum mollusks. What was more, Xu Qing was starting to feel nervous. He was creating a lot of beast corpses in the bays he visited, and if he kept it up, he was worried it might attract the attention of something truly terrifying. Because of that, he was already thinking of going back to the sect. Right now, he was extracting the soul of a snakeneck dragon, which he used to batter at his 11th dharma aperture.
Even as a crack appeared on the 11th dharma aperture, Xu Qing’s pupils constricted, and he looked off at the distant sea, his eyes gleaming.
That aura....
Off in the distance, the surface of the water exploded as a roughly 300-meter long sea beast shot up into the air. It was covered with what appeared to be a metallic suit of armor, and it had a huge, vicious mouth. While it hung in the air over the water, it looked over at Xu Qing in the bay.
That’s a Foundation Establishment armored mackerel!
This wasn’t the first Foundation Establishment sea beast he had encountered in the past twenty days. Just seven days before, he’d run into a spiraltooth horseshoe crab. Its terrifying appearance, astonishing aura, and the furnace-like heat it had in it gave Xu Qing the impression it could enter the profound radiance state. He had immediately retreated to the land, maintaining full vigilance, and keeping his dharmaskiff’s godliness ready to use. However, the creature hadn’t seemed very interested in him. It simply examined him for a moment then left. Ever since then, he had been even more on guard against such dangerous beasts.
As he looked at the armored mackerel, he came to the conclusion that it was very powerful. It seemed intelligent, as it didn’t get too close to him, but rather circled the island as if taking stock of him. Its armor made a distinctive clinking sound as it swam through the water. Then, after enough time had passed for an incense stick to burn, it suddenly shot toward the bay Xu Qing was in.
Halfway toward him, it leaped into the air and howled in his direction, releasing a shockwave that created a wave on the surface of the water that rumbled toward the island with mountain-toppling, sea-draining force.
Xu Qing’s eyes glittered coldly, and his dharmaskiff thrummed as godliness converged within it. Xu Qing reached out with a grasping motion, and his snakeneck dragon appeared in midair. Rumbling sounds echoed out as the snakeneck dragon flew toward the armored mackerel. In response, the armored mackerel stopped and backed up to flee. Apparently, it realized Xu Qing was someone who shouldn’t be trifled with, as it dove into the water to flee.
It can’t enter the profound radiance state!
Xu Qing’s eyes lit up. He had been hoping to find a Foundation Establishment sea beast that couldn’t enter the profound radiance state. Now that he had found one, there was no way he could let it get away.
Bursting into motion, he became a streak of light that shot forward, while at the same time, he raised his hand over his head. The image of a heavenly saber appeared above him, which he slashed down toward the surface of the water.
Water crashed as a 300-meter-long furrow opened up in it, revealing the armored mackerel. However, its armor was truly spectacular, as the heavenly saber didn’t damage it at all. Instead, the fish turned to look at Xu Qing with a ruthless expression.
However, that was when the iron skewer flew forth, a bluish light glittering on it that revealed it was covered with poison. Xu Qing had done that at the fervent request of Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior. It seemed like the iron skewer was intending to hit the fish’s armor, but at the last minute, it spun bizarrely in the air, then stabbed into the armored mackerel’s eye.
The armored mackerel let loose a howl, then shivered. Instantly, the area around it became filled with countless projections of fish scales. All of them thrummed with dharma force; if they struck a Qi Condensation cultivator, that person would definitely die.
Yet they didn’t stop Xu Qing. The black flames within him spread, emerging from his right hand to form something that looked like a dagger.
This was a magical technique from the Balefire Soulswallowing Scripture that came after opening 10 dharma apertures. It was called Baleblade, and it changed its appearance depending on the needs of the cultivator. Right now, the dagger of black fire pierced right into the armored mackerel, destroying its armor and sending fire out to cover it. Xu Qing wasn’t done. Next, he sent his shadow out toward the fish. Looking very alarmed, the armored mackerel twitched, causing its armor to vanish and take the flame with it, then transform into a metallic tempest that raged toward Xu Qing.
Having accomplished that, it swished its tail, which caused a huge wall of water to rise up between it and Xu Qing. Glaring at Xu Qing, the fish then opened its mouth and spat out a huge black pearl.
The pearl was filled with rotting corpses, some of them beasts, some of them humanoid. The corpses all opened their eyes and howled as if they wanted to escape from the pearl. In fact, their arms began to emerge from within the pearl, making it look like it was covered with spikes as it flew toward Xu Qing. His eyes were cold as the fire billowed higher around him. The spectral drought demon appeared behind him, howling, while at the same time, his snakeneck dragon shot out from the water and toward the black pearl.
Rumbling sounds echoed out as the snakeneck dragon swallowed the pearl. The dragon’s belly suddenly swelled as if the pearl were fighting violently to escape, but the dragon kept it contained. After all, the dragon was the manifestation of a magical technique. That said, it seemed like it wouldn’t last for much longer.
Meanwhile, Xu Qing burst through the metallic tempest sent at him by the armored mackerel. His personal defenses were activated as he closed in on the fish with his dagger of flame aimed at its eye.
The fish howled, and seemed to want to dive back down to the bottom of the sea. But Xu Qing’s shadow had split into two parts, one stretching toward the island, and the other wrapping around the armored mackerel. As the fish struggled against the bonds, Xu Qing’s dagger stabbed into its eye. Then he lifted his left hand, and his 10 dharma apertures raged with fire, covering that hand. Pushing down on the armored mackerel, he began to immolate it.
As it burned, and soul power streamed into Xu Qing, he suddenly felt a sensation of profound danger.
Looking up, he saw dozens of ancient bronze swords flying through the air toward the armored mackerel.
They were arrayed in such a way that the attacker obviously didn’t care about hitting Xu Qing. Worse, a huge vortex appeared directly below, giving Xu Qing no other option than to back up and use his black flames to create a shield to defend himself.
Rumbling sounds rang out as the dozens of swords fell, stabbing into the armored mackerel. Of course, it had lost its armor, so it was immediately sliced to bits. At the same time, Xu Qing backed away at top speed. After making sure he was clear of the falling swords, Xu Qing’s face turned extremely grim as he looked at the fish corpse floating on the water. Then he looked up to see a young man flying atop a huge ancient bronze sword.
His crimson daoist robe made him very eye-catching. As the First Peak disciple stood with his hands clasped behind his back on his sword, streams of energy and blood rose from the corpse of the armored mackerel, which he then absorbed.
Looking down coldly at Xu Qing, he said, “It is no waste to wait from dusk ‘til dawn; as you wish, produce a new treasure to add on.”
Then he turned and left.
Xu Qing didn’t say anything. Looking at his snakeneck dragon, he saw that the pearl inside it had stopped struggling now that the fish was dead. It was completely suppressed by his snakeneck dragon, who was now consuming it. He hadn’t been able to extract all the soul power from the armored mackerel, but he had managed to take about forty percent of it. So he sent it toward his 11th dharma aperture.
A moment later, the 11th aperture opened, and his dharma force rose to new heights. Then he looked in the direction the First Peak disciple had disappeared to. Knowing that the disciple didn’t have a life flame, Xu Qing’s killing intent began to burn. Waving his hand toward his dharmaskiff in the bay, he sent the terrifying godliness within it out in an attack. A golden beam of light shot off into the distance toward the First Peak disciple.
When the First Peak disciple saw that, his face fell, and he scrambled to pull off an incantation gesture. As he did, the huge bronze sword he stood on tilted up to block the incoming godly attack. Then the sword shattered, and blood oozed out of the corners of the First Peak disciple’s mouth as he was shoved backward 300 meters. There, his eyes shone with killing intent as he looked at Xu Qing.
“Easy it is for youths to discard an escort; the fifth watch sounds, taking the escort’s life.” [1]
Xu Qing had no idea what that meant, so all it did was make his killing intent stronger. Bursting into motion, he closed in on the First Peak disciple, his dagger slashing toward the young man’s throat.
1. This particular poem contains two lines from a real-life poem, except tweaked slightly by the author. Most Chinese readers did not realize this, but some readers in the comments made the connection. It’s a poem by Song Dynasty poet Yan Shu. I could not find any existing translation of the poem, although it might exist somewhere. For the most part, all of the other ‘poetry’ spouted by this guy is invented by the author. ☜