Chapter 178: Sweeping the Sea, Sealing a Dragon!
Rumbling sounds rolled out over the sea. As the waves crashed, Xu Qing sat on his dharmaskiff trembling from head to toe, his breath coming in ragged pants, and the coldness in his eyes transforming into madness. The reason was... he was hungry! More hungry than he had ever been before. One reason for that hunger was that his withered fleshly body needed to be replenished in order to return to normal. The violet crystal couldn’t help out at all in that regard. It could speed up recovery from injuries, but it couldn’t create energy, blood, and nutrients out of nothing.
The other reason for that hunger was right behind Xu Qing. There was nothing in the air behind him. But both Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior and the shadow were both very nervous, as they knew that right behind Xu Qing lurked something extremely vicious and dangerous.
Xu Qing also knew that there was something behind him.
Put precisely, the patriarch and the shadow were both tense with fear because, beneath Xu Qing’s clothing, right on his back, was a magical totem tattoo.
The moment the eyes of the golden crow opened, an image appeared on Xu Qing’s back that looked exactly like it in every aspect. And it pulsed with a hair-raising aura.
This was the second phase of activating the legacy seed!
During the ten days in which Xu Qing studied the legacy information about Golden Crow Assimilates Myriad Spirits, he came to find that activating the legacy seed involved two phases. The first phase was stimulating the seed, causing a totem tattoo to appear on one’s body.
The second phase was making that tattoo visible as a projection of energy and blood. Once that was done, the legacy seed was considered fully activated. The second phase needed massive amounts of energy and blood, and also resulted in extreme hunger!
As Xu Qing panted for breath, he turned his bloodshot eyes to Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior.
The patriarch shivered. The look in Xu Qing’s eye made it seem like he was getting ready to devour someone. The patriarch immediately revealed a projection of himself, making sure to keep himself mostly transparent to reinforce the fact that he had no energy or blood.
Xu Qing looked away from him to the shadow.
The shadow also trembled.
“Bring them up here,” Xu Qing said, his voice faint and raspy. The shadow didn’t hesitate for a second. It slid down into the water, and a moment later, dragged up a huge armored mackerel.
As Xu Qing eyed the fish, the tattoo on his back shimmered as though it wished to manifest itself, but couldn’t. What did happen was that a host of illusory golden feathers shimmered into being behind him, making two wings. As they swayed, they created a gravitational force that locked onto the armored mackerel.
Instantly, the 300-meter-long fish trembled as all of its energy and blood were sucked out of it. They converged into a 30-meter sphere of rippling blood that collapsed in on itself until it created a tiny point of golden liquid. The golden wings swayed as it absorbed it.
At the same time, Xu Qing waved his hand, causing black balefire to sweep over the armored mackerel and extract its soul.
The shadow couldn’t restrain itself, and greedily devoured the mutagen and spirit power that remained behind. Then the shadow dragged up a second sea beast. Then a third. A fourth....
During the previous ten days of study, Xu Qing had intentionally kept a group of twenty-three sea beasts confined in the water beneath his dharmaskiff, that way, once his tattoo manifested the golden wings, he would be able to have instant access to nourishment. As the wings absorbed the energy and blood, they became more and more corporeal. At the same time, Xu Qing replenished himself, and became less and less withered. He was starting to recover.
Now he could clearly sense that his fleshly body power had progressed past its previous point of stagnation. He was stronger and faster. He also had a new level of perception. That perception was apparently a resonance with magical techniques, allowing him to tap into some of the abilities he knew without using incantation gestures.
Unfortunately, after performing some tests, he wasn’t able to use it properly.
I wonder if this is one of those innate species abilities mentioned in the Golden Crow Assimilates Myriad Spirits description. And I haven’t assimilated enough living beings to use it.
Right now, his hunger was only partially abated. After some thought, he stood, put away his dharmaskiff, and dove directly into the water.
Once under the surface, rumbling sounds surged out as he entered the profound radiance state. The tattoo on his back radiated an awe-inspiring aura that made the pressure he exuded even more powerful. Off to the side, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior crackled with electricity, and the lightning symbols on the iron skewer glittered. The shadow spread out in all directions as well, resembling a ghastly tree, its over one hundred eyes open and looking in all directions.
Xu Qing’s overall battle prowess vastly surpassed what he was capable of before. Though the Forbidden Sea was still a place where caution was needed, he was strong enough to be virtually all-powerful in most situations.
Rumbling swept through the sea as Xu Qing vanished into the distance and began slaughtering every sea beast he encountered.
He needed many more sea beasts, and a lot more blood, to sate his hunger and complete the second phase of the legacy seed activation.
Half a month passed.
***
In a remote part of the Forbidden Sea, seawater exploded as a 500-meter long bluegreen dragon jumped up into the air. It had a terrifying aura and appearance; even when its mouth was closed, its razor-sharp teeth were still plainly visible. These dragons were simply a nightmare for most trading ships and cultivators who traveled the Forbidden Sea. [1]
The Seven Blood Eyes sea annals went into a lot of detail about bluegreen dragons. They were apex predators in the Forbidden Sea and were known for being vicious and terrifying. What was more, their mutated cultivation base gave them shocking battle prowess.
This particular bluegreen dragon was an extraordinary specimen. As it leaped into the air, it was possible to see two balls of red fire burning within it. That indicated that this bluegreen dragon had reached the level of two life flames. As the sea exploded around well over a thousand meters in each direction, its normally cold and indifferent eyes actually brimmed with fear. And looking closely, it was possible to see a totem mark on its abdomen.
That mark looked exactly like a tree, with over a hundred blinking eyes on it. They almost looked like mouths as they devoured the bluegreen dragon’s shadow.
Then, a host of lightning bolts shot up from the water, within the middle of which was a black iron skewer. It moved with astonishing speed as it stabbed directly into the bluegreen dragon. A boom rang out as the spot where the dragon had been stabbed exploded. The intense pain caused the dragon to attempt to open its mouth and howl in pain.
However, it couldn’t open its mouth!
Instead of a howl, it could issue little more than a muffled grunt. And that was because a young man stood in its mouth. He wore a violet daoist robe as he stood between two of the dragon’s teeth, his hair dripping wet.
As the bluegreen dragon thrashed, his hair whipped about, spraying water like black ink. Water flowed down his face, accenting his delicate features and fair skin. He was so handsome as to be beautiful, with eyebrows like willow leaves, a body like a jade tree, and long black hair that was both wildly unkempt and stunningly breathtaking. His eyes contained something fiendish. And that fiendishness wasn’t just visible on his stunning face. Instead, his entire person exuded it.
At the moment, he had one hand on the bluegreen dragon’s upper teeth, while his feet were planted like nails into its lower teeth. Using his power alone, he was preventing the dragon from opening its mouth!
This young man was none other than Xu Qing. For half a month he had been hunting and killing sea beasts. The totem tattoo on his back was very close to being complete, having absorbed quite a bit of energy and blood.
Thanks to the nourishment, Xu Qing had recovered. He was now vastly stronger and faster than before, to the point that he was able to contend with a bluegreen dragon using fleshly body power alone.
As his cold eyes flickered, black balefire erupted out to cover the bluegreen dragon that he had been chasing for half a day. At the same time, countless golden feathers materialized behind him, rippling as they sent out a gravitational force to absorb the dragon. The bluegreen dragon thrashed as it splashed back down into the water. However, that was when a snakeneck dragon appeared, slamming into the bluegreen dragon and stopping it from sinking down.
Although the snakeneck dragon collapsed, it created enough of a delay that the balefire covered the entire bluegreen dragon. Also, Golden Crow Assimilates Myriad Spirits was fully unleashed.
A howl barely managed to escape through the bluegreen dragon’s teeth as countless amounts of energy and blood were sucked out of it and absorbed into the wings.
Its soul then appeared within Xu Qing, serving as kindling as he opened his 47th and 48th dharma apertures!
His dharma force surged, and nourishment from Golden Crow Assimilates Myriad Spirits swept through him. Cracking sounds filled his body, causing him to become even more good-looking, and at the same time, boosting his fleshly body power!
I only need a few more sea beasts to finish the second phase of Golden Crow Assimilates Myriad Spirits. At that point, the totem tattoo will fully manifest, and this imperial-class technique of mine will be mine permanently.
Xu Qing then sped off into the distance, leaving behind the desiccated corpse of the bluegreen dragon to sink to the bottom of the sea. As the shadow raced to follow him, it sent out emotions of frustration.
It felt that it had been too slow in consuming the dragon’s shadow. The dragon had been killed before the shadow even finished. Unexpectedly the shadow was sending these emotions to the patriarch, who didn’t take the opportunity to try to mess with the shadow. Instead, he was looking at Xu Qing, his long hair and violet robe rippling. The patriarch’s mind was spinning.
He had witnessed Xu Qing unleash slaughter. He had witnessed Xu Qing go crazy. He had witnessed Xu Qing cause members of the opposite sex to swoon. And he had witnessed Xu Qing getting stronger and stronger the entire time. All of it caused a specific thought to occur to him.
This is what the main character of a novel is supposed to be like! I need to start taking notes, then later on, I can write my own book!
1. This “dragon” bears the same name as mosasaurs. That’s the dino from Jurassic World that leaps out of the water in a Shamu-style water show. Guess what? A mosasaurus has already made a cameo in this novel’s footnotes, specifically in the picture attached to the chapter 108 footnote of Battle Boy and Princess Deathblade at the ammonite exhibit at the local museum. Above them was a big painting of ammonites and a mosasaurus. , showing the mosasaurus. To reiterate, I’m not using the Latin-based dinosaur names for creatures in this novel. ☜