Chapter 485: Golden Crow Dao Soul Accompanied by Daybreak (part 1)
“Exalted jailer, let me plan things out,” Sir Inkwell said excitedly. “In order to buy time for you, sir, I can just use the same general method I’d devised earlier in the hopes of getting myself out of this situation. Originally, I didn’t have much faith that it would work. But with you here, sir, I think it should work fine.
“Exalted jailer, all we have to do is wait until the finger returns. I’ll explain that you have a Golden Crow Body, and therefore, you can bring life back to these remains. You just need to fuse with it.
“I’ll start painting for the finger, but I can control how long it takes. I’ll go really slowly, and wait for your signal before finishing.
“However, the entire thing will be a trick. I’ll paint something that looks like a body, but is, in reality, a cage of flesh. The finger was injured in the prison break, and lost some of its thinking ability. Besides, it won’t be possible to identify what I’m painting by just looking at it. I’m very confident no one would be able to notice it’s a trick. Once it’s inside, then we lock the cage and flee!
“Because this cage will be made from the remains of a sun, it will be quite sturdy. My original estimate was that it would hold strong for a few days. But with the life provided by your golden crow, sir, I think it would trap the finger for half a month or more.
“That should give us plenty of time to get away. What do you think, sir? If you have some other ideas, I’m happy to follow your lead.”
Despite having gone through that entire explanation, Sir Inkwell apparently had more to say. “Oh right, exalted jailer. I’m not sure if you’re aware, but I came to realize that the palace lord used a taboo treasure to strike the finger during the prison break. Because of that, the finger has become somewhat forgetful....”
Xu Qing looked at Sir Inkwell and nodded. Then he closed his eyes and focused fully on directing the golden crow to devour the power in the sun’s remains. As the golden crow wildly absorbed the power, Xu Qing could sense more tails growing on it. In a very short amount of time, it reached the level of over sixty tails.
Based on his previous experience, he was fairly certain that once he broke past ninety-nine tails, Golden Crow Assimilates Myriad Spirits would reach the third stage. The power of the third stage was equivalent to Nascent Soul!
Furthermore, because his golden crow was already part of his fifth heavenly palace, once the golden crow reached the next stage, that heavenly palace would experience a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering transformation. In fact, it would make an advance transformation into the pseudo-Nascent Soul level.
Xu Qing was looking forward to that very much.
As time slipped by, the golden crow continued its work, and Xu Qing’s aura climbed higher and higher. In fact, he began to pulse with fluctuations that terrified both the head and Sir Inkwell. At the same time, the sun’s remains showed more and more signs of life, as if they might awaken.
All of a sudden, the terrifying divine will of the god’s finger swept forth from the depths of the Abyssal Sea. Then the finger appeared, dragging a host of nonhuman cultivators with it. The majority of them were Smokewights. They were all in a tattered state as the finger threw them toward the sun’s remains.
One of the reasons Smokewights often lived in desert environments was because of the sun. As a result, they provided a lot of nutrients, which was a help to Xu Qing’s cultivation.
That said, the return of the finger made Xu Qing more than a little nervous. He opened his eyes. Obviously, the finger sensed that something unusual was going on with the sun’s flesh, and it sent divine will sweeping about.
Off to the side, Sir Inkwell looked like the paragon of piety as he kowtowed, “Oh great lord, you truly are a god favored by heaven, sir! While you were gone, I discovered that you happened to capture a very interesting fellow. It’s him!” Sir Inkwell pointed at Xu Qing. “Exalted one, you might not remember him, but he was actually the guard back in our D-132. I just took a close look at him and found that he has a Golden Crow Body. That means he’s the descendant of a sun!
“Discovering him is like an amazing blessing from heaven and earth, oh exalted one. He can actually bring a certain level of life back to the sun’s remains!
“And because of that, your humble servant can paint a new god body for you! The mere thought of having the honor of painting a new body for someone favored by heaven has filled me with the utmost excitement!”
Thrumming, the god’s finger turned and locked onto the sun’s remains, then began pulsing with fluctuations of hope. Everything in the area rumbled. The water shattered, and the ground cracked.
Alarmed, Sir Inkwell was about to start painting. However, that was when Xu Qing gritted his teeth against the discomfort of being in this god’s presence.
“Exalted god,” he said, “there isn’t enough life in this sun’s remains. Check if you’d like. If you give me some time, I can bring more life into it. If you use flesh full of life to paint your body, it will turn out perfect!
“After all, there aren’t many of this sun’s remains left in the world. If you waste this one, who knows when you might find another. Exalted god, do you mind waiting a short time?”
As Xu Qing spoke, the golden crow expanded its influence, causing the sun’s flesh to emanate an aura of awakening. When the finger’s terrifying divine will picked up on that, the finger seemed hesitant and thoughtful.
Off to the side, Sir Inkwell’s eyes flickered imperceptibly as he noted that Xu Qing had already gone off script.
Xu Qing ignored him. Looking at the finger, he suppressed his anxiety and continued, “Exalted god, the Smokewights you just brought have a unique body composition, and are full of life. I’m sure you noticed that. They’re very useful. If you can get more, we can bring even more life into the remains. Furthermore, if you’re able to bring some daybreak light to this sun’s remains, it will reach an incredibly high level very quickly!”
Based on the records back on Mount Daybreak, he knew that the most recent daybreak light to appear had been seventy years in the past, and had been recovered by the Swordsage Palace. None had appeared since then. That said, nothing Xu Qing had said so far was a lie. Everything was truthful. He could bring more life into the remains, and the Smokewights would be helpful in that regard. As for daybreak light, it was related to the fallen sun, so adding it would make the process better, were some of it to be recovered.
The finger scanned the area again with divine will, all the while pulsing with fluctuations of irritation. However, after a few breaths of time passed, the finger vanished into the distance.
Xu Qing breathed a sigh of relief. He’d made a bit of a gamble just now, and it had all been based on the assumption that the finger was completely focused on that new body.
If Sir Inkwell could use that method to manipulate the finger, then Xu Qing was willing to bet that he could too. And by doing so, he had taken the upper hand in the situation.
“Well played, exalted one,” Sir Inkwell said, chuckling.
Xu Qing ignored him. With the finger gone, he pushed the golden crow again, and it started assimilating the power in the remains. If the god’s finger really did try to find some daybreak light, then it wouldn’t return any time soon.
Daybreak light was exceedingly rare, to the point where Xu Qing doubted the finger would even be able to find some.
At this point, the golden crow had over eighty tails.
The breakthrough point wasn’t very far off.
Xu Qing was now feeling confident that the golden crow would indeed break through to the third stage. If he could get free from the warding spell, then he could use the power of the taboo treasure the palace lord had given him to strike a powerful blow. And if he did that, then he would most likely be able to make his escape.
Off in the distance, the head could tell that Xu Qing and Sir Inkwell were playing some game. Therefore, it climbed onto the stone lion and surreptitiously started planning to escape once Xu Qing and Sir Inkwell made their move.
In that manner, time passed.
Xu Qing’s aura kept getting stronger and stronger. Soon, the golden crow had ninety-three tails.
And it kept going.
Ninety-four. Ninety-five. Ninety-six....
Around the time the ninety-seventh tail grew out, powerful fluctuations suddenly swept over them. The god’s finger was on the way back! It was carrying several thousand Smokewights, all of whom were moaning in despair. If that were all there were to it, it might not be a big deal. But to Xu Qing’s utter shock, the finger also had a seven-colored beam of light with it!
That light contained life force, and it gave off the sense of being newly born. It seemed completely and utterly holy, as if it had actually come to exist when the sun perished, but now was filled with hope and a sense of new life!
It glittered dazzlingly, sending out immeasurably powerful pressure that felt vastly superior to what Xu Qing remembered feeling from the tree branch from the Ten Entrails Tree. When he saw that light, he started breathing heavily, and his eyes went wide.
Daybreak light!
Even as the golden crow continued to absorb the sun’s remains, it pulsed with intense hope, as if it wanted both the remains and the daybreak light.
It actually found some? Xu Qing was so astonished that he had a hard time believing it was true. He wasn’t sure how the god’s finger had pulled this off. Daybreak light was clearly very rare, and hardly ever appeared. And yet... īt managed to bring some back!
Xu Qing didn’t care about the Smokewights; all of his attention was focused on that daybreak light. At any other time, he would have been shaken to the core by this level of godliness. But now... he was conflicted.
He needed time.
That was why he’d told the finger that Smokewights would work, but that daybreak light would be much better. He’d assumed the finger would stay away much longer as a result. That, in turn, would give him the time he needed to advance his golden crow to the next stage, then break through the warding spell.
Never could he have imagined that the god’s finger would return so quickly... with daybreak light!