Chapter 536: Bai Xiaozhuo’s Grand Finale (part 1)
Although the divine will was only coming from the imperial palace that Xu Qing had previously visited, all of the eyes above all the imperial palaces in the entire Ancient Spirit world were twitching.
The reality was... that encounter had been more frustrating to Emperor Ancient Spirit than anything since the destiny aura of Revered Ancient destroyed hīs species and banished them to this place. Given hīs personhood, and hīs former glory, it was possible to guess hīs state of mind when hē ended that encounter by screaming, “Screw off, NOW!” [1]
In hīs eyes, Xu Qing was a bug. For a bug to attract the attention of Crimson Mother to use as a threat and take a soul that had been offered to hīm... well that was one thing. But then Xu Qing extorted some of his Ancient Spirit destiny aura. It was such an incredible offense and disrespect that it took hīm months to calm down after Xu Qing left.
And now, this person dared to return?
Emperor Ancient Spirit was nowhere close to as glorious as hē had been in the past, and hīs mental faculties had suffered after hīs fall. Hē couldn’t think as deeply, and hīs thoughts were simpler than before. However, hē was just as proud as hē’d always been. And in terms of hīs personality, hē was still an Ancient Emperor of Revered Ancient. To hīm, Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity was a member of the younger generation.
As such, upon sensing this familiar aura, hīs first reaction was to fly into a rage. As hīs divine will surged out into the Ancient Spirit world, everything shook violently.
The souls in the sky all looked up. Sensing the emperor’s rage, they howled noiselessly, creating invisible sound waves that rolled out. On the ground, the countless vicious zombies raised their bone blades over their heads. The Underworld River churned as numerous colossal and monstrous creatures rose up from the waters. The clouds in the sky churned just as violently as black war banners appeared and a magnificent army with thousands of men and horses appeared out of nowhere. Hostility raged in all parts of the Ancient Spirit world.
Then a massive vortex appeared above the mountain of flesh in the imperial palace that Xu Qing had previously visited. That was the very same location where Xu Qing had sent Ling’er away, and it was right in front of Emperor Ancient Spirit’s massive eye.
Rumbling sounds emerged from the vortex as two figures appeared.
One was large, one was small. One was on the left, one was on the right.
The large one was roughly 90 meters tall. The small one was the size of a normal person, and was holding the large one’s finger. They almost looked like intimate friends who had stepped into the vortex hand-in-hand!
“You brought an accomplice?”
The massive eye opened wide, causing golden light to brighten heaven and earth. Everything rippled and distorted as a unique mutagen spread out, dissolving all outside powers and suppressing them. The godly authority of Emperor Ancient Spirit erupted from the eye. The power of that godly authority, when focused on an enemy, would make any injuries inflicted ten times worse! A minor injury would become a serious one. And a serious injury would result in death!
Before those two figures could fully materialize out of the vortex, they shivered as the godly authority started affecting them.
The one on the left had a god body that started crumbling.
The one on the right had a transparent body that instantly disappeared, revealing a broken face. The broken face, upon sensing his surroundings, looked unprecedentedly shocked. In fact, it was the first time such a distorted expression had ever appeared on the face of the lieutenant governor. Even before, when all of his plots and schemes had been publicly exposed, he had not reacted like this.
There was no way he couldn’t be shocked and moved. After all... upon seeing this gigantic eye, he could sense the startling personhood radiating off it. Although it didn’t measure up to Crimson Mother, it surpassed the sleeping god in Forbidden by the Immortal. For all intents and purposes, this gigantic eye was a god.
It took only a moment for the lieutenant governor to deduce the identity of this god.
Emperor Ancient Spirit??
Never could he have imagined that Xu Qing’s trump card would be Emperor Ancient Spirit! This was not something he could have anticipated. After all, Emperor Ancient Spirit had been hidden for so long that, if it weren’t for Ling’er, there was no way Xu Qing could have known about hīm.
Thus, the lieutenant governor was left reeling. Then, without the slightest hesitation, he shot backward, golden light spilling out around him as he tried to initiate a return teleportation to leave this terrifying place.
But how could Xu Qing possibly allow him to do that? The moment the broken face of the lieutenant governor started moving, and even as Xu Qing’s body collapsed, filling him with intense pain, he respectfully bowed at the waist to Emperor Ancient Spirit.
“Oh great Emperor Ancient Spirit, I of the younger generation have come here today to deliver some food to you. Sir, this is the first round of interest I owe you for that Ancient Spirit destiny aura. After you finish digesting this bit of food, I’ll bring you the second round of interest!”
“Interest?”
Emperor Ancient Spirit’s enormous eye was visibly taken aback. Widening, it looked behind Xu Qing at the fleeing broken face of the lieutenant governor.
Previously, hīs attention had been focused on Xu Qing. But upon shifting focus to the lieutenant governor, a heartbeat like that of heavenly thunder filled the Ancient Spirit world.
Thump-thump. Thump-thump!
The Underworld River seethed, almost as if it were the saliva of Emperor Ancient Spirit. Surging over its banks, it began spreading rapidly in all directions. Then it abruptly disappeared. A sound like saliva being sucked back into the mouth echoed out in terrifying fashion.
The lieutenant governor, furious and alarmed, held nothing back as he fled, causing cracks to spread out over his broken face. Golden light surged around him as he raced like mad in the opposite direction.
That golden light hit Xu Qing, causing his body to crumble even further. Inside of him, the god’s finger wailed in anguish and fought back in an attempt to save the body.
Meanwhile, the golden light coming off the lieutenant governor became like sharp spikes that stabbed into the vortex and tried to get it to rotate in the opposite direction, thus opening a way out. However... in the lieutenant governor’s current state, he would have been a tasty meal even to Crimson Mother, much less Emperor Ancient Spirit, who had been starving for countless years, and could only absorb the souls of random other Ancient Spirits who stumbled into his presence.
The Underworld River was virtually boiling. There was simply too much saliva to be swallowed back, causing the river to rise into the air and speed toward the vortex.
Emperor Ancient Spirit was too hungry.
Meanwhile, the light shining from the massive eye illuminated all of heaven and earth.
The opening the lieutenant governor was trying to carve out collapsed under the gaze of Emperor Ancient Spirit. It was replaced by the Underworld River, which quickly surrounded the lieutenant governor.
A swallowing sound erupted from the far end of the river. It was a terrifying sound filled with greed, excitement, and anticipation. And it exerted a gravitational force that dragged the delectable lieutenant governor down to be devoured.
When the lieutenant governor realized he was being dragged down, his broken face glittered with light, and two enormous hands of white jade appeared. The hands reached out to rip the river apart. The power of ancient time waned, the gravitational force ended briefly, and the lieutenant governor struggled to escape.
But then, a majestic pulse of divine will echoed through the entire Ancient Spirit world.
“In my world, there is no ancient time!”
The divine will pulsed with godly might and an indescribably tyrannical dao, which caused the Underworld River to return to its previous state. The gravitational force grew even stronger, and the broken face of the lieutenant governor couldn’t stand up to it. Cracks spread out across the surface of the face.
The two hands of white jade began crumbling, sending pieces splashing down into the river, where they were devoured.
The lieutenant governor shrieked as more cracks spread out over his broken face. Holding nothing back, he tried to send more golden light out. As he put everything on the line, light spread out, revealing a totem tattoo on his broken face. The totem had always been there, it just hadn’t been visible. But because of the pressure weighing down from Emperor Ancient Spirit, it was revealed.
Tattooed on his face was an image of the Sea-Sealing County of antiquity. It looked exactly as the transformed version of the county on the outside. That was the core essence of the lieutenant governor’s return from ancient times. Back then, before he died, he used the blood of the common people to tattoo that image onto his face!
Now it was revealed within the surrounding sea of light. Sea-Sealing County, which had been a magnificent place in the days of the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan, appeared like a mirage.
This was not simply the power of ancient time. This was the result of all the lieutenant governor’s plans and schemes, to snatch a section of time from the River of Ancient Time, and combine it with the existing Sea-Sealing County to activate the tattoo on his face to bring antiquity back to the present.
Using that blessing, he was able to suppress the Underworld River. Waves surged across the river as it neared the point of being destroyed. The water within it began to dry up and disappear.
The Sea-Sealing County of antiquity appeared in the golden light, and seemed as if it might descend into the Ancient Spirit world, block the mouth of Emperor Ancient Spirit, and thus give the lieutenant governor his chance to escape.
“In here, everything is food.”
The divine will echoed out lazily, carrying with it something like a command as it approached the sea of light.
The Sea-Sealing County of antiquity in the sea of light couldn’t persist, and began to fade away.
The rivers in the county collapsed. The mountains crumbled. Intense rumbling sounds spread out as the endless evil souls of the Ancient Spirits lunged toward it with mad greed. The souls didn’t fear destruction as they swarmed the sea of light. The lieutenant governor fought back, destroying them in swaths, but there were too many. They surged into the light with pure insanity, descending on the Sea-Sealing County of antiquity in a scene very reminiscent of what had played out earlier on the outside.
The evil souls of the Ancient Spirits began to devour everything. Land. Air. Living beings. Everything was targeted. After all, their emperor had told them that everything was food!
The seething of the Underworld River grew more intense.
Seeing all of that, the lieutenant governor sighed. An irregularly shaped chunk fell off of his broken face during that sigh, which then became a golden beam of light that shot up into the dark sky.
In the blink of an eye, that beam of light vanished, and a loud rumbling sound echoed out that shook everything in existence. At the same time, golden light flashed, revealing the tip of a sword.
The sword was gold, and it looked like it was stabbing through the canopy of heaven toward the lands below. It landed on a mountain in the Ancient Spirit world.
The mountain collapsed, revealing a 30,000-meter sword.
Winds screamed in a tempest, and countless evil souls howled. Emperor Ancient Spirit didn’t stop the sword.
Before long, a second chunk fell off of the lieutenant governor’s broken face. Then a third and a fourth. They also flew up into the sky, and when they pierced the canopy of heaven, thunderous rumblings echoed out. A second 30,000-meter golden sword descended and stabbed into the ground, followed by a third, a fourth, and a fifth.
As more chunks fell off the lieutenant governor’s broken face, the face grew smaller and smaller, until it finally collapsed. All the pieces floated up.
A total of thirty-three chunks became thirty-three swords. Heaven trembled as they stabbed into the ground.
All of this happened in the shortest of times. The light of heaven dimmed as thirty-three massive swords stabbed into the ground in a rough circle surrounding the broken face. All thirty-three of them glowed with golden light, which turned into golden threads that linked the swords together.
It was a massive, deadly spell formation.
Within the formation, the thirty-three swords thrummed, causing the power of ancient time to surge toward them from all directions. The Underworld River stopped moving, and a figure began to take shape in the spot where the lieutenant governor had just disappeared from.
1. The previous encounter with Emperor Ancient Spirit ended in chapter 473. ?