Chapter 350: A Message From Plumdark
As the voice echoed through the city, the countless humans therein looked up into the dome of heaven.
A figure was descending from the cloudy apex of the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pillar. He was middle-aged and looked very intimidating in his government uniform. His head was adorned with a sky-blue cap inlaid with silver, and his hands were covered in violet scale gloves. On his back was a greatsword wrapped in black cloth, with only the hilt visible.
Shockingly, three massive abyssal vortexes appeared along with him. The abyssal vortexes looked like natural phenomena, and caused everything around them to shake. The feeling they imparted made it seem like each one contained a secret trove within it. Anguished howls, enraged roars, and terrifying fluctuations emerged from the three secret troves, almost as if enormous, fiendish entities were imprisoned within them.
Wild colors flashed everywhere, and the wind swept back and forth as he clenched his right hand into a fist and launched a strike toward a distant spot in the sky. His action caused the three secret troves behind him to erupt with dazzling light. Countless flying swords appeared, filling the space between heaven and earth with something like a flood.
Every individual sword radiated hair-raising power, as if it could split apart the dome of heaven and pulverize space itself. And all of them were shooting off into the distance.
At the same time, a howl echoed through the sky as a blurry figure appeared. Previously, that figure had been in concealment, but it could no longer hide its fluctuations, and was forced to reveal itself.
It was an extremely ugly beast. Precisely speaking, it was an enormous maggot with overlapping flaps of skin covering it. It was 3,000 meters long, was covered with viscous fluid, and it reeked. Sticking out from its head were two feelers. Each feeler had a head on the end, one male, one female. They had green skin, red eyes, and vicious facial expressions. Shockingly, the maggot also had a head on its tail. It was an old man who was currently belching out black mist. As the mist billowed out, the enormous maggot shot backward at high speed.
However, it was too slow. Countless flying swords shot down, stabbing into its repulsive body. None of its defenses were useful in any way. In the shortest of moments, the swords slashed it to pieces in grisly fashion.
Only the three heads managed to survive, and they started fleeing in the black mist. Of course, the idea that they would escape was pure fantasy. After the beast’s massive body collapsed, the man in the government uniform took a step forward. Moving with incredible speed, he lifted his right hand, causing countless swords to converge there and take the shape of a massive green sword.
He swept the sword down, and the female head exploded. His second sword attack destroyed the male head. For his third attack, he threw the sword, causing a green flood dragon to surge out and devour the old man’s head in a single bite.
After those things were accomplished, heaven and earth went still. All the cultivators below were deeply shaken.
Voice cool, the middle-aged man said, “Recently, the Swordsage Court operated on orders to crush the Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountain and take August Spirit Nethersprite captive. Because of that, these demons, devils, ghosts, and monsters are on the move. That’s what this was about. Let me reiterate the rules of the Swordsage Court. This area is off-limits to nonhumans. Only humans can set foot here!”
The man performed an incantation gesture and pointed at the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pillar. In response, the pillar vibrated, and the battle spirit within it erupted out. It contained deadly extermination, as well as a baleful, tyrannical energy that spread out in all directions.
Shockwaves filled an area of 5,000 kilometers, completely unstoppable. The battle spirit seemed conscious as it swept through all the cultivators present. Apparently, it was screening them. Occasionally, popping sounds rang out here and there as several hundred individuals in the city exploded. Seven or eight flew up into the air, only to scream in agony as they died.
A moment later, everything went back to normal.
With that done, the middle-aged man vanished back up into the clouds.
After a long moment of silence, gasps and cries of astonishment could be heard. Xu Qing took a deep breath, as did the Captain. They had also been scanned by that battle spirit. Even though both were human, and knew that there wouldn’t be any problems, the feeling they had experienced left them both feeling jumpy. It also went to show how domineering the Swordsage Court was.
Obviously, the man in the government uniform had been in the Spirit Trove level, not Void Returning. However, once he showed his face, all of the patriarchs in the various sects were completely cowed, not by his cultivation base, but by his identity.
He represented the true orthodoxy of humanity, one of the Five Greater Celestial Divisions, the Swordsage Court!
After enough time had passed for an incense stick to burn, the city was back to normal. That said, the eyes of all the cultivators shone brightly, and many of them couldn’t help but look toward the top of the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pillar, where Emperor-Receiving Prefecture’s Swordsage Court was headquartered.
The actions taken by the Swordsage Court just now ensured that the vast majority of disciples present were very enlivened. The Captain was included. In fact, he was already dreaming about what it would be like for him to be a swordsage.
Though Xu Qing also wanted to become a swordsage, what was more impressive to him was what happened with the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pillar. When the pillar vibrated earlier, he had clearly sensed a similar vibration in the Ghost Emperor mountain in his sea of consciousness. What was more, a few dozen magical symbols had appeared on the mountain. Those symbols contained a very powerful battle spirit that was very thought-provoking to him.
Are they the battle spirit symbols the Captain was talking about? I guess they really are easy to get.
That said, Xu Qing wasn’t absolutely sure of that assessment.
Regardless, he could tell that it was possible to extract the symbols. He waved his hand and exercised a thought, whereupon one of the symbols disappeared from his sea of consciousness and reappeared on his palm. It glittered with bright light and a tremendous battle spirit. Xu Qing could already sense that the symbol could be used as a magical technique to unleash deadly killing power.
“Eldest Brother, is this the battle spi—”
“Battle spirit symbol?” the Captain said, looking stunned. However, he quickly regained his composure. Sounding relaxed, he continued, “That thingy... isn’t anything to take lightly. Not bad. Not bad at all. Now you have a shot at some bonus points! So... when did you gain enlightenment?”
“When the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pillar vibrated. They just appeared in my sea of consciousness.” Something strange seemed to be going on with the Captain, though Xu Qing wasn’t sure of the details.
Meanwhile, the Captain cleared his throat and, ignoring the disappointment he felt in his heart, laughed heartily. “You have good powers of understanding, little Ah Qing. That said, you’re not quite on my level. You see, I also gained enlightenment just now. So remember not to get cocky. One symbol doesn’t really count for much. After all, I got five, but I didn’t say anything. And that’s because you have to get nine to get any bonus points.”
Xu Qing sensed the dozens of battle spirit symbols in his sea of consciousness, but didn’t say anything. He was getting the sense that gaining enlightenment of those symbols wasn’t as easy as the Captain made it out to be.
“Alright, you keep working on that enlightenment! I’m going to go see the patriarch.” With that, the Captain prepared to leave and seek enlightenment of the symbols somewhere else. After seeing how easily Xu Qing succeeded, he was now feeling a lot of pressure. That was especially true considering how he’d previously made a big deal about how easy it was. If he couldn’t succeed soon, it would become a case of picking up a rock only to drop it on one’s own foot.
Seeing the Captain leaving, Xu Qing decided to do some more work with the symbols, and turned to head to his accommodations.
However, the two of them had only taken a few steps when the Captain suddenly stopped in place. It was only at this point that he realized that, moments ago, Xu Qing had used the word ‘they.’
Eyes widening, he turned in place. “Hold on, Xu Qing. Did you just say ‘they’?”
Xu Qing stopped in place.
“How.... how many did you gain enlightenment of?” the Captain asked carefully.
Xu Qing looked at him, then waved his hand, causing thirty symbols to fly out and swirl around his hand, pulsing with an intense battle spirit.
The Captain slumped visibly. “You got all of those just now?”
“Yeah. You were right, Captain. It wasn’t hard at all.” Xu Qing blinked a few times.
The Captain wasn’t sure what to say. He just knew he suddenly felt very tired.
Turning, he hurried away and didn’t look back. Inside he was fuming, and had already decided that he was going to sit in front of the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pillar and work nonstop until he had forty symbols.
No, forty isn’t enough. I’ll get sixty!
Xu Qing grinned inwardly, then turned and went into his residence. Once inside, he set up his various defenses, then sat down cross-legged to study the symbols. He knew why all of those symbols had appeared at the same time. It was obviously related to the Ghost Emperor mountain. After all, both things had the same origin.
Xu Qing lost himself in study. Three days passed in a flash.
On the third day, Huang Yikun showed up. Clearly he hadn’t come of his own accord. All he did was toss a jade slip to Xu Qing and say, “The matriarch said to give this to you.” Then he left. [1]
When Huang Yikun said ‘matriarch,’ he was referring to Arch-Immortal Plumdark.
Xu Qing hesitated for a moment, then picked up the jade slip and sent some divine will into it. Instantly, Arch-Immortal Plumdark’s languid, enticing voice filled his mind.
“Do you miss me, child?”
Xu Qing sat there in silence.
“I really liked the gifts you sent me before you left.”
Xu Qing looked up in the direction of the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pillar, to where he assumed the Captain was.
“I also read your letter. Oh, you! I would never have guessed that a quiet person like you would write such audacious things.... You said you wanted to focus on getting stronger, and wanted to avoid gossip. And since it’s not easy for us to meet in public very often, you decided communicating by letter would be best. Since you asked for a reply, I sent it to you with Huang Yikun.”
Xu Qing’s eyes went wide.
“I saw your request about Chen Erniu. Considering all the things you promised, I can just forget about the situation with him. For the time being, I won’t bother him. But don’t you forget about all those promises you made!”
Xu Qing was having trouble controlling his breathing.
“I heard you were going to the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pillar. Can you make sure things go smoothly for the Dark Serenity Sect disciples there? Then hurry back. By the way, regarding the way you wanted me to address you. Oh, child, you really are something else. For now, that can’t happen. I need to see how you behave going forward.”
Veins bulged on Xu Qing’s forehead. For quite a while, he sat in place trying to calm down. Then he took out his bamboo slip, found the Captain’s name, and forcefully scratched out the question mark behind it.
1. Huang Yikun most recently appeared in chapters 278-279. ☜