Chapter 259: Stabbing into the Sea of Consciousness
Taboo treasure!
After Xu Qing became part of the echelon, he earned the right to summon a projection of the sect’s magical treasure. Some chosen from the Seven Sect Coalition similarly had the ability to tap into the reserve powers of their sects. That said, such authority was only vested in a few people, and was usually given out as a special reward, and to be used for defensive purposes only. After all, the magical treasures of the Seven Sect Coalition were in the ‘taboo’ level. That meant they could only be used for short periods of time. And if their effectiveness was to be maximized, they were only supposed to be used at specific times.
Master Shengyun had plentiful battle experience, and thus, he didn’t immediately resort to summoning that projection. Instead, he made sure to create the perfect set of circumstances to unleash it. He knew that it wasn’t going to be a simple matter to take Xu Qing’s life lamp. For one thing, he would have to make sure Xu Qing didn’t escape in a critical moment, for instance, by means of a teleportation jade slip.
There had been two instances during the fight in which Xu Qing took out a jade slip and seemed about to crush it. Though Master Shengyun had pretended not to notice that, he had immediately guessed at what Xu Qing was thinking of doing.
As far as he was concerned, this fight was like a fishing expedition. He needed to wear out his opponent and make sure he didn’t have any special moves left. He also needed him grievously wounded. Only then could he be completely confident in succeeding.
At this point, he was confident that it was time to actually make his move. It had started with taking out his pen of flesh and blood. Regardless of whether the pen injured Xu Qing or not, Master Shengyun had planned to destroy it and use the curse power within it to trap Xu Qing.
Then he would unleash the taboo treasure. By creating?nets above and snares below, he would make sure Xu Qing couldn’t escape, and would then be able to take away his life lamp.
When Xu Qing heard his words, his expression flickered. The bloody arms surrounding him were extremely tough, and had latched onto him with such force that he couldn’t break free. Seemingly without hesitation, he had prepared to crush the jade slip he had been holding in his hand this whole time. Unfortunately, there wasn’t time.
The sky above suddenly turned bright red, making it look matchlessly bewitching and gruish. And that redness quickly became an entire world of blood with Xu Qing right in the middle. Spatial ripples flowed within it, ensuring that no teleportations were possible in its bounds. And then it began to shrink. The sealing power grew stronger, cutting off everything inside the world with that outside.
Then, a red-colored seed appeared up in the dome of heaven. It was different from the seed that the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect had sent flying to the Young Arbiter Sect. It was illusory, not corporeal. But it still emanated a shocking might as it dropped to the ground and transformed into a huge, blood-colored tree.
A deadly tempest sprang up around the tree which slammed into Xu Qing and sent blood spraying out of his mouth. It was like some massive force trying to wipe him out of existence.
Master Shengyun threw his head back and laughed uproariously, his eyes shining with greed. Tapping into the full extent of his cultivation base, he shot toward Xu Qing.
The ravagemist bird cried out behind him, and his life lamp umbrella radiated dazzling light above him. Now that he had locked down the area to prevent Xu Qing from escaping, it was time to go in for the kill and take his life lamp.
“This area is now sealed by the projection of my sect’s taboo treasure. There are two of us inside, and only one will get out!”
Master Shengyun closed in with deadly force, and blood sprayed out of Xu Qing’s mouth as he backed away. The pressure of the sealing power was so immense that his own life flames seemed to be on the verge of sputtering out.
Looking at the strange, gruish tree, Xu Qing’s eyes flickered with cold light, and he growled, “I hereby summon a projection of Seven Blood Eyes’ magical treasure!”
Seven Blood Eyes’ magical treasure was not at the taboo level, and Xu Qing had never summoned its projection before.
The moment the words left his mouth, the surrounding world of blood vibrated, and the sky shook. A massive power descended that seemed capable of ripping the blood world apart, and then an eye appeared in the sky. It seemed calm and peaceful, lacking any hint of emotion as it stared down at the projection of the taboo treasure.
In response, the taboo treasure trembled even harder. However, there was clearly a disparity between the two treasures, as the taboo projection didn’t collapse. Xu Qing was unable to escape.
That said, the eye was able to lock down the blood tree so it couldn’t do anything. And thus, the pressure weighing down on Xu Qing was slightly alleviated.
“A measly magical treasure from a subsidiary sect couldn’t possibly do anything to my sect’s taboo treasure. This blood world is going to be your grave!” Continuing to laugh, Master Shengyun closed in on Xu Qing with another attack, his eyes gleaming with greed.
Xu Qing’s expression darkened. Without a word, he sent the golden crow forth, and summoned the black umbrella of his life lamp. As black fire raged around him, he and Master Shengyun started fighting back and forth within the world of blood.
Xu Qing was obviously weakened because of the pressure of the blood world, and was soon on the defensive. Seeing that, Master Shengyun started pressing the attack even harder.
Eventually, the blood world had shrunk down to a size of only 30 meters. The huge tree inside of it had also shrunk down. Rumbling echoed out left and right as Xu Qing staggered back, blood spilling from his mouth. Once again, he had a jade slip in his hand, and he was looking around.
“Don’t bother!” Master Shengyun said. “You can’t escape. Not even I can control the taboo treasure. I have to just wait until it dissipates. The only reason I used it was to prevent you from getting away. That teleportation talisman that you’ve been hesitating about won’t work. I’ve blocked all your paths of escape!”
Master Shengyun surged with energy as he grinned and stalked toward Xu Qing, looking at him as if he were already dead.
“You’re right, we’re sealed in here pretty tightly,” Xu Qing said calmly. Having confirmed that what Master Shengyun said was true, he tossed the jade slip aside and pulled out an iron box. Opening it, he spilled out the contents.
The jade slip he had been holding was not a teleportation talisman. It was just an ordinary slip with random information in it.
The iron box, however, was a wish box, and sealed within it was the poison pill that not even that monk’s head had been able to resist. The moment the pill appeared, its aura spread out.
Seeing this, Master Shengyun gaped, and his eyes narrowed. He had no idea what this pill was, but he instinctively got a bad feeling from it. He launched an attack to destroy it, but Xu Qing blocked that attack, allowing the pill’s aura to spread. Because the area was completely sealed, there was nowhere for the aura to go to. It just gathered in the shrinking blood world, growing stronger and stronger.
This had been Xu Qing’s plan all along. He didn’t know what trump cards and secret weapons Master Shengyun would use, so he couldn’t be on guard against them. He knew that the two of them were evenly matched, and it wouldn’t be easy to kill him and take his life lamp in a short time. What was more, Xu Qing knew that his biggest disadvantage was that, if he was around when Master Shengyun’s dao protector showed up, he would die. Therefore, there seemed to be only one way to finish the battle quickly. And that was to first trick Master Shengyun into thinking he was going to teleport away, and goad him into doing something to prevent that.
He was using Master Shengyun’s greed against him. If Master Shengyun wanted his life lamp, he would have to make sure Xu Qing couldn’t teleport away. And Xu Qing knew he could use that as a way to control how the fight played out.
Step by step, he got Master Shengyun exactly where he wanted him. Bit by bit he got Master Shengyun to think he was setting things up perfectly for his own benefit, when in reality, he was setting things up perfectly for Xu Qing.
And now, it came down to finding out one thing. Between Xu Qing and Master Shengyun... who could survive longest when surrounded by deadly poison?
Of course, Master Shengyun was an intelligent person. He had no idea exactly how dangerous this poison pill was, but he could guess. Eyes still flickering with killing intent, he took out a handful of antidote pills, consumed them, and then prepared to continue fighting.
But then his expression flickered as he suddenly noticed the skin on his right hand rotting and decaying. It was a terrifying sensation, as he hadn’t experienced any pain at all. He quickly started checking the rest of his body. His pupils then constricted as he found that, without him being aware of it at all, there were many other areas where he was starting to rot! And his antidote pill wasn’t doing anything to stop it!
“What poison is this?” he blurted. The skin on Xu Qing’s face was also rotting, but the effects clearly weren’t as pronounced. Not bothering to answer Master Shengyun’s question, he raced forward and began his counter attack. He didn’t plan to give Master Shengyun any chance at all to recover or fight back against the poison.
For the first time, fear appeared in Master Shengyun’s eyes. He wanted to try to take control of the taboo treasure projection, and undo the seal. But as he himself had just mentioned, it wasn’t possible. What was more, the taboo treasure was also being tied up dealing with the projection of the Seven Blood Eyes magical treasure. Because of those two obstacles, there was simply no way he could do anything about the sealing. He could only wait until it dissipated naturally, which he expected to take no longer than two incense sticks’ worth of time. Yet Master Shengyun’s fear grew more obvious as the decay and rot spread. Even worse, the shadow covering his dharma apertures seemed to be twitching in anticipation, as if it planned to spread out further within him.
Upon all that, Xu Qing attacked with brutal ferocity. He led with a fist strike, then converted it into a head-butt that Master Shengyun didn’t dare to meet directly.
Master Shengyun dodged to the side.
However, Xu Qing wasn’t holding anything back in terms of speed, and boldly pressed the attack. The golden crow exploded with the power of assimilation, and black flames spread out in all directions. Xu Qing wasn’t targeting Master Shengyun’s throat. He was targeting his abdomen. Hitting the throat would be lethal. But the abdomen was where the life lamp was. Because Xu Qing had a life lamp of his own, he knew exactly where it was.
Master Shengyun was in a frenzy. Howling shrilly, he consumed a mass of medicinal pills designed to bolster life force. His eyes were filled with terror and madness as a sensation of imminent death filled him. He was now fully aware that this was a competition of seeing who could stay alive for the longest.
There was no escaping, and thus, it was with bloodshot eyes that he started fighting back. Booms rang out for a short time.
Xu Qing’s mouth was covered in blood, and his skin was rotting off. But he kept launching blows at Master Shengyun’s abdomen.
As Master Shengyun defended himself, he was shoved backward, all while his flesh rotted so badly it was dripping off of him in liquid form.
Xu Qing’s ruthlessness was fully on display as he attacked again, slamming his knee into Master Shengyun’s belly.
Master Shengyun howled hoarsely; his internal organs were starting to rot, and it was all he could do to block the attacks. Unfortunately, his arm had reached such a horrific state of rot that it collapsed.
That said, Xu Qing’s knee was also rotting, and cracks spread out across it after he landed the blow. He didn’t care. Opening his mouth, he lunged forward, his teeth bared as he tried to bite Master Shengyun’s throat.
The madness in Master Shengyun’s eyes had already been replaced by pure terror. He flew backward, except that his right leg was starting to melt, putting him off balance. Then Xu Qing lunged forward again, and the two slammed into each other.
Because of the poison, both of them were very weak and were almost at their limit. The battle was reaching a conclusion.
Master Shengyun truly deserved to be called chosen. With his secret magics, his medicinal pills, and various other methods, he had already lasted more than an incense stick’s worth of time. But he couldn’t last much longer. Despair filled his eyes.
The ground was covered with rotting flesh and blood, but much of it was Xu Qing’s; he was in such bad shape he hardly looked human. Yet his eyes still shone with utter ruthlessness. Jumping forward again, he saw the opening he had been looking for and buried his teeth into Master Shengyun’s neck. Then he viciously ripped out a chunk of flesh.
Blood sprayed out of Master Shengyun. His ravagemist bird tried to defend him, but Xu Qing’s vicious attack affected it as well, and the golden crow pounced. The ravagemist bird shrieked as the golden crow started to assimilate it.
Things weren’t over yet. Xu Qing was gasping for breath, as the rot had also reached his internal organs. But he was so close to Master Shengyun that he was able to punch him hard in the stomach.
Master Shengyun let loose a gurgle of pain, and tried to get away. But Xu Qing viciously head-butted him, provoking another shriek. Blood flowed down Xu Qing’s face, and he felt completely weak. But, Master Shengyun was even weaker, and Xu Qing realized the time had come to make his move.
Mustering all of his strength, he stabbed his hand into Master Shengyun’s abdomen!
Shifting his hand about inside, he found a dharma aperture. Then he started probing Master Shengyun’s sea of consciousness for a lamp-shaped object. His eyes lit up. As Master Shengyun screamed in agony, Xu Qing grabbed the life lamp... and wrenched it out viciously!
It was the ultimate display of ruthlessness! Blood sprayed like a fountain! Two of Xu Qing’s fingers had rotted away, but he still had three left, and that was enough!
Seven-colored light spread out into the world of blood, illuminating Xu Qing’s face. It was... a seven-colored ceramic lamp!! It almost looked like crystal, and emanated a seven-colored glow. Within that glow, it was just possible to see the faint image of a dazzling seven-colored umbrella. It was covered in blood and also emanated an ancient aura. Obviously, it had existed for countless years and had seen many, many things. It was an exceptionally unique item, covered with countless striations filled with the magical laws of heaven and earth, all of which combined into the image of a person. One look at it would cause anyone’s mind to tremble. Any life lamp was an absolutely precious treasure!
“Xu Qing!!” Master Shengyun screamed shrilly, despite how his throat was rotting away. The sensation of having his life lamp ripped out from inside him was driving him into utter insanity.
However, that was when Xu Qing’s eyes flickered with cold light. The five fingers on his left hand had rotted away so badly that only bones were left behind. Without any hesitation, he stabbed those sharp bones right into Master Shengyun’s throat!
And they came out the other side!