Chapter 569: Imperial Sovereign’s God-Weapon Suppresses the Northern Plains (part 1)
Beneath the surface of the glacier, the Heir Apparent of an Imperial Sovereign merged with the nail stabbed into his third younger brother’s forehead. After that, no energy fluctuations emerged whatsoever. There was absolutely no change to the nail. It was as if nothing had happened.
Xu Qing sat cross-legged in the distance, looking down at the glacier. After some thought, he slowly got to his feet, then carefully took a step backward to see if it was possible for him to leave. Although he hadn’t run into any danger up to this point, that didn’t mean things would stay that way. Right now seemed like the perfect time to make an exit. Given the level of his cultivation base, it made sense to not participate in whatever was to come next.
However, he’d barely made it ten paces when the face beneath the nail flickered. And then a growling voice echoed in Xu Qing’s mind.
“The time hasn’t come yet, boy. Wait for me.”
Xu Qing stopped in place and tried to decide what to do.
As he did, the voice continued, “If you want to leave, I won’t stop you. Right now, I’m not strong enough to. But you’re the one who pointed out that you and I have a mutual enemy in Crimson Mother. And right now... I’m planning to do something huge. If you help me, then my chances of success will rise significantly. But even if you don’t help me, I’m still going to try. You’re standing at a crossroads. You just have to decide which direction you want to go.”
Without any change in facial expression, Xu Qing looked at the huge figure in the glacier below. A moment passed, and he clasped hands and bowed. Then he turned and sped away as fast as he could.
In the silence that followed, a faint sigh echoed out over the glacier.
About eight hours later in the distant darkness, Xu Qing stopped moving. Having confirmed that he really was being allowed to leave, he turned and went back. After arriving, he sat down cross-legged in the same spot as before.
“I’ll wait for you for a day!” he said.
“Thank you!” the voice replied from beneath the glacier.
Xu Qing closed his eyes and waited.
Meanwhile, deep below the surface of the glacier, something momentous was playing out. The Heir Apparent had told the truth to Xu Qing. The Gloomite patriarch really had been a subordinate of an Imperial Sovereign, and really had turned traitor when Crimson Mother arrived. Later, he was killed by the Imperial Sovereign, and his major world was shattered and reduced almost completely to ash. Only a small fragment survived, landing in this location and ending up buried beneath the glacier.
That fragment contained countless deceased souls from that rebel major world. There, they milled aimlessly, without any consciousness. In fact, most were asleep. However, because of the services they had performed, the deceased souls in that world fragment were allowed to come out by means of parasitization. And that was how the Gloomite species came to be. That said, the veil between life and death was not easy to cross. There were also other restrictions in place. As a result, during the countless years that had passed, though a lot of Gloomites had returned, the vast majority remained in the Moonrite Region.
Some people claimed it was the Imperial Sovereign’s rage, suffused into a heavenly dao.
The vortex at the bottom of that lake was a passage that led to the major world fragment. Though it was only a fragment, being buried beneath the glaciers, it was essentially a minor world. Ghostfire was the only illumination under the surface of the glaciers.
Black snowflakes filled the sky, covering all the lands. And a sinister wind blew, weeping like ghosts or wolves. Any mortal who heard that sound would be shaken down to their soul. It sounded like something from the underworld. Even in the darkness, it was possible to see into the black glacier and glimpse vast lands and even mountain ranges, filled with deceased souls, wandering aimlessly everywhere. To them, time had no meaning. Everything was a blur, except for their hunger.
They would instinctively try to attack any living beings they encountered. Right now, on the edge of the world fragment, a different sort of light was glittering. It started out as red. But then blue was added, and yellow, then more, until it was seven-colored light.
As the seven-colored light flickered, the countless souls in the world fragment locked onto that area. There were even some souls sleeping beneath the glacier who seemed like they might wake up as a result. Next, strips of light appeared out of the seven-colored vortex, like tentacles that wrapped around the coffins and placed them down on the black glacier. After the hundreds of coffins were in place, the seven-colored tentacles retracted into the vortex and disappeared.
However, the vortex still remained, waiting. Before long, the wind screamed as the deceased souls floated toward the coffins at high speed, like ravenous wolves. It was as if, to them, the coffins were plump sheep. The life force emanating from the coffins drove the deceased souls toward madness.
From a distance, it was possible to see a swarm of souls closing in on the coffins. They were like a black tempest.
The coffins were obviously made from special materials, as they kept the disciples sealed within, but didn’t stop the deceased souls from entering. In the blink of an eye, well over 10,000 deceased souls had entered the coffins.
The bodies had already been prepared fully. They had no souls in them, and were only empty husks. That made them much easier to parasitize.
That said, because the souls were chaotic and unthinking, they wouldn’t immediately parasitize a body. Their first instinct was to eat. That was one of the reasons that not every Gloomite parasitization attempt worked out.
Because of that, a few dozen of the body shells in the coffins began withering up as hundreds of souls fed on them. In a few breaths of time, they became little more than skeletons. After that, the souls would burst out of those coffins and move to new coffins.
At the same time, the fragrant aroma coming from the hundreds of coffins was attracting even more sleeping souls.
Before long, souls whose auras vastly surpassed those of the ordinary deceased souls were moving through the black glacier, pulsing with greed and madness. They fought fiercely to be the first into the various coffins, snipping and biting at each other. Compared to the ordinary souls, the ones that were sleeping in the glacier were much stronger, and therefore, it was easier for them to acquire bodies to parasitize.
It didn’t take long for the first parasitized body to appear. The coffin exploded with a boom, revealing a person seated there cross-legged. It was a young man whose slack facial expression was only now changing. A vile energy began to pulse off him, and longing appeared in his eyes as he looked toward the seven-colored vortex. Slowly, he rose to his feet, then started walking forward unsteadily. At first he looked like a marionette, struggling to walk smoothly. But he soon got used to the body, and the rigidity faded away. After about ten breaths of time had passed, he seemed fully acclimated. Running toward the vortex, he leaped in, thus returning to the world of mortals.
Before long, another coffin exploded, and a figure stepped out.
However, there was yet another coffin that seemed very strange. Lots of deceased souls were pouring into that coffin... yet nothing was coming out. It was almost as if that coffin contained a black hole that swallowed everything up. Within the other coffins, many of the bodies withered up, and the souls within them turned their ravenous attention toward that strange coffin.
All of a sudden, about a hundred deceased souls entered the coffin, where they saw the Captain laying there. They pulsed with greed as they prepared to drop onto him.
However, as they neared, a host of mouths suddenly popped into being all over the Captain, and simultaneously, they inhaled. Instantly, those souls were sucked into the mouths, after which chewing sounds rang out. Then the mouths disappeared, and everything went back to normal.
Not long after, another group of souls burst into that same coffin....
And thus, time passed. Most of the body husks in the coffin turned into ashes, with only about ten of them succeeding in waking up and leaving through the vortex.
The seven-colored vortex was gradually turning dark, until eventually, it vanished. As for that strange coffin, it was the only one present that had life force in it. As a result, the surrounding deceased souls continued to pour into it ravenously.
All of a sudden, a terrifying shockwave surged out of the coffin. The souls who had been about to charge inside instantly turned and fled in terror.
The Captain, still inside the coffin, didn’t just produce a host of mouths. Numerous arms also stretched out to grab the deceased souls. However, too many of the souls had entered the coffin, and a lot of them were now trying to flee. Seeing that, the Captain took out a mask and put it on his face.
A howl echoed out as the illusory image of a massive heavenly dog appeared, which lunged toward the fleeing souls and gobbled them down. A moment later, all of the souls in the surrounding 300-meter area had been devoured. And those beyond that area were like rabbits in the presence of a hungry wolf. They fled in the opposite direction.
Ignoring them, the heavenly dog vanished, after which a loud burp echoed out from within the coffin. The Captain then sat up, stretched, and glanced around, looking very pleased with himself.
“Hahaha! Using myself as bait is the best way to get nice and full!” He waved his hand and proudly continued, “Get out here, both of you. Am I that warm and comfortable? Hurry up! We have a big job to worry about!”
Two people flew out from the Captain. They started out extremely small, but quickly grew to the size of normal people. They were none other than Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu. They had been accompanying the Captain recently on all sorts of fantastic jobs. Wu Jianwu was no longer high-spirited and full of mettle like before. Instead, he looked completely on guard. Ning Yan seemed numb to everything. That said, both of their auras were much stronger than before.
Seeing their facial expressions, the Captain sighed, clasped his hands behind his back, and started walking.
“Keep up and don’t be too loud. You don’t want to wake up these old souls that are sleeping under this glacier. Though I do have ways of dealing with them, our priority is to reach our destination as quickly as possible.”
Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu hurried to follow. Wu Jianwu didn’t spout any poetry as he glanced around, looking so nervous that the sound of the wind stirring a leaf would make him run in the opposite direction.
Ning Yan glanced at him out of the corner of his eyes. Keeping his disdain in his heart, he smacked his own belly, revealing some vines, which he fiddled with as he walked along nonchalantly.
After they were some distance away, the Captain sighed. “Oh, you two. You’re really not on the same level as little Ah Qing. Ai. I miss little Ah Qing so much! I wonder how he’s doing nowadays. Probably eating poorly and sleeping even more poorly than that.”