Chapter 500: I’m... Back! (part 1)
For the time it takes an incense stick to burn, Qing Qiu scrambled to compile all the information from Injustice Prefecture and Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, then carefully put it all into two jade slips. Racing back to the Secretariat Division, she found Xu Qing waiting for her, his eyes closed in rest. She hadn’t done all the work herself. She’d enlisted the help of some of the other swordsages, who double checked everything and added their personal sealing marks to their work. This was all to ensure there were no slip-ups, since any mistakes could be easily traced back to their source.
Opening his eyes, Xu Qing took the jade slips and examined them.
Sea-Sealing County needed more troops, and they couldn’t be levied from the nonhumans. Therefore, the only thing Xu Qing could think to do was look toward Injustice Prefecture and Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. Because of the incidents in Forbidden by the Garment and Forbidden by the Zombie, the palace lord had exempted the sects there from sending forces to the front lines. After all, they needed to focus all of their attention on keeping those two forbidden grounds under control.
Sea-Sealing County had a total of thirteen prefectures. If he could divert the forces of two entire prefectures to the forces on the front lines, it would be nearly a twenty percent boost. That would be a huge help to the troops on the front lines.
However, that wasn’t going to be easy, even if he asked Qingqin to help. And that was why he wanted to look into the details of what was going on in those two prefectures.
The situation was summarized in the opening remarks on the first jade slip.
“The situation in Forbidden by the Garment is under control. However, it required the combined power of the entire prefecture, led by the local Swordsage Court. They managed to place an initial seal on the forbidden ground, but are still dealing with counterattacks. They can’t afford any reduction in battle prowess, and still need an entire month before the situation is fully contained.”
Xu Qing sighed. A month was too much. The troops on the front lines simply couldn’t wait that long. However, if the forbidden ground wasn’t contained, then the sects in the prefecture would be destroyed, and countless humans would end up being devoured or mutated. Eventually, it would lead to all of Sea-Sealing County being dragged into chaos.
The nonhumans in those two prefectures were also participating in the effort to keep the forbidden grounds under control. The situation there was different from the other prefectures. After all, when a crisis was at your front door, it didn’t matter what species you were, you sent people to deal with it. There was no way Xu Qing could order the forces in those two prefectures to simply ignore the forbidden grounds and send their forces to the front lines.
Besides, Emperor-Receiving Prefecture was where Xu Qing’s home sect was. It had taken over ninety nonhuman species from the Forbidden Sea plus the majority of the forces in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture to get Forbidden by the Zombie under control.
Things were currently in a deadlock.
Xu Qing silently perused the jade slips. At a certain point in going through the information from Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, he came across a bit of information that caused his eyes to narrow slightly. It was in one of the routine reports sent in by the Swordsage Court there.
“The majority of the nonhuman species and organizations in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture participated in the war with Forbidden by the Zombie. But some did not participate. That contingent was led by the Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountain and the Ghost Emperor mountain.
“That said, both of those parties agreed that, during the duration of the conflict, neither of them would deploy any of their forces outside their own territory.
“The Dao-Suppressing Mountain’s three spirits, and the Ghost Emperor mountain’s seven fiends are manifestations of the spiritual and physical souls of the Ghost Emperor. The seal which remains on the Ghost Emperor mountain is something that can only be broken by a Smoldering God. As a result, they’re all undying. Forcing them to join the conflict would create friction, and unless they were willing participants, it wouldn’t help the situation with Forbidden by the Zombie, and would cause unnecessary distraction.
“In order to prevent side issues from cropping up, and in order to not waste time, the local Swordsage Court made the decision to exempt them from the war effort.”
Xu Qing read the message and then mulled it over for a while. Finally, he stood and started pacing back and forth. His eyes sometimes flickered with determination, then with hesitation. He was clearly pondering some course of action.
Neither Qing Qiu nor Ning Yan had seen Xu Qing act like this before, not even back during the Nightshade godchild situation. The two of them exchanged a glance, and both were clearly hesitant to even breathe too loudly.
Frowning, he walked a few dozen more paces, then stopped in place. Sensing the Ghost Emperor palace within him, he looked out at the dome of heaven, and his eyes glittered with determination.
“Qing Qiu, Ning Yan, I’m leaving you in charge of the Secretariat Division. Keep on top of the reports from the front lines. Keep an eye on the progress of the supply shipment. Qing Qiu, you’re in charge. If there’s anything important, use the Swordsage Palace to send a message to my command sword.”
Qing Qiu stood up a bit straighter and was about to say something loudly, but then thought about her pride, and instead just nodded coolly.
Ning Yan didn’t have such reservations. “Yes, sir!” he said loudly. Then he curiously asked, “Elder Brother Xu, where are you going?”
Xu Qing looked at Ning Yan. He didn’t want to reveal the truth about his plan to anyone, so he said, “I’m taking a trip to Forbidden by the Garment.”
With that, he left the Secretariat Division and, without any hesitation, flew up into the sky.
A loud caw echoed out as Qingqin poked his three heads down out of the clouds and looked excitedly at Xu Qing. He seemed to be salivating at the prospect of wiping out another species. He extended his right head down, and Xu Qing stood atop it.
Then Xu Qing reached out with divine will. A moment later, Qingqin’s eyes glittered with brilliant light. He flapped his wings, and intense rumbling sounds filled the sky above the county capital. In the blink of an eye, Qingqin disappeared with Xu Qing.
As long as Qingqin was traveling short distances, he could move so quickly that taking a teleportation portal wouldn’t have been much faster. When greater distances were involved, though, he couldn’t match up to a portal. However, Xu Qing didn’t want to risk revealing where he was actually going. Though the likelihood of that information reaching the wrong ears wasn’t high, he still preferred to be careful.
When he was some distance away from the capital, he found a teleportation portal belonging to the Swordsage Palace. After having Qingqin shrink down a great deal, they went through the portal. After a number of such teleportations, the two of them reached the northern tundra of the Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. The trip took about three days.
It was currently noon, yet the sun didn’t seem very bright, and it didn’t provide much warmth. The wind brought with it a frigid coldness that pierced into the bones, and it stirred the flakes of snow into motion, so that the landscape looked almost like a white sea.
Off in the distance, the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pillar rose to shocking heights, imparting a sense of wonder to those who looked at it. Xu Qing remembered the time when so many tents surrounded the massive pillar that they formed an entire city.
Now, though, there were few tents. And those tents that did exist were battered by the endless wind. A few people could be seen here and there, and they were all bundled up heavily against the cold. Those people weren’t swordsages. They were locals, people that the Swordsage Court had left behind, primarily older ones who didn’t need to participate in the war effort.
Xu Qing hovered in the air taking in the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pillar and the black palace at its top. He could sense that there weren’t very many swordsages inside.
“The Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pillar...” he murmured, and then he had Qingqin glide in a few circles around the area.
As clouds gathered because of Qingqin’s presence, Xu Qing looked at the shocking pillar. Before going through with this plan of his, he needed to confirm something using the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pillar.
Extending his hand, he made a grasping gesture. The Ghost Emperor palace within him activated, and the cross-legged Ghost Emperor opened his eyes.
Instantly, the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pillar trembled, which caught the attention of the rogue cultivators gathered at the base, as well as the Swordsage Court on the top. Many people looked up and saw the vague shape of a huge bird in the clouds.
“Who goes there?” rang out a voice from the Swordsage Court.
Now that he was in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, there was no need to stay in hiding. Therefore, Xu Qing drew his command sword and calmly said, “Xu Qing.”
As his words rang out, Qingqin flapped his wings, parting all of the clouds and revealing himself to the swordsages.
In the other prefectures of the county, the swordsages might have first recognized him by name. Then, the combination of his physical appearance and his command sword would confirm his identity. But here in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, the swordsages already knew what he looked like. After all, back when he was given the 30,000-meter pillar of light, all swordsages from the prefecture were there to witness it. Therefore, after the Swordsage Court’s spell formation authenticated Xu Qing’s command sword, the swordsages rushed out to meet him.
“Xu Qing!”
“It’s Secretary-General Xu!”
Most of these swordsages looked familiar to Xu Qing. They came out with friendly expressions on their faces and offered formal greetings. The swordsage in charge took a step forward and clasped hands.
“Secretary-General Xu, do you need to activate the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pillar? Can we help you in any way?”
Xu Qing shook his head. He knew that the pillar was being used to suppress the ghast hollow, and because of that, it couldn’t be activated. He had just come to do a test. He clenched his hand into a fist, whereupon the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pillar started vibrating with even more intensity. Of course, he knew that there was a limit to what he could do in this regard. His cultivation base was too low to extract the pillar.
That said, he wasn’t here to take the pillar. Rather....
“Spirit Automaton!” he said, his voice booming like heavenly thunder. He was calling out to the spirit automaton of the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pillar. That was why he was here.
A short time passed, and the pillar continued to vibrate. And then a very distant moaning sound echoed out from within the pillar. As the sound rose high into the sky, an enormous pair of eyes opened up on the pillar. They seemed to radiate something profoundly ancient as they looked at Xu Qing with suspicion.
This scene shook the swordsages to the core. They all knew that the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pillar had a spirit automaton, but normally speaking, it stayed in a state of slumber. And in all the Swordsage Court, only the grand elder could communicate with it.
Yet right now, Xu Qing said one thing, and it unexpectedly regained consciousness.
As Xu Qing looked at the eyes which represented the pillar’s spirit automaton, he activated his Ghost Emperor palace. The eyes of the Ghost Emperor seated within it started glowing brightly. But that wasn’t enough for Xu Qing. Waving his hand, he tossed out some demonization talismans, whereupon the vague image of a Ghost Emperor mountain appeared.
“Ghost Emperor mountain!”
“Th-that... that....”
People in other prefectures wouldn’t necessarily be familiar with the Ghost Emperor mountain, and thus wouldn’t understand the significance of what they were seeing. But cultivators in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture knew exactly what the Ghost Emperor mountain signified. And people there could recognize it on sight.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pillar vibrated dramatically as those eyes looked out with confusion and a bit of excitement.
When Xu Qing saw that, he breathed a sigh of relief. His return to Emperor-Receiving Prefecture was all going to revolve around his Ghost Emperor palace, and he had needed to do this test to make sure he was on the right track with his plan.
“Spirit Automaton, do you recognize me?” Xu Qing suddenly said.
The spirit automaton was silent for a few breaths of time. Then it sent out divine will, not to answer Xu Qing’s question, but to say four words that carried deep meaning.
“The emperor has awakened!”
That wasn’t exactly what Xu Qing had been expecting. Based on his theory, the spirit automaton should have said something about accepting a legacy. That said, it didn’t matter too much. The spirit automaton’s actions fit in line with his plan.
“Do you mind sending a message to the three spiritual souls and seven physical souls? Tell them... I’m back.”