Chapter 672: Ranked Seventh
The Moonrebel Congregation was being rocked like it never had been before! Paramount Temple’s door shone with dazzling red light that spread out over the entire mountain. From a distance, it looked like this entire world was wearing a garment the color of blood.
The red glow coming from the door was a solid, single color. However, if someone had been able to approach and study it closely, they would get the confusing sensation that they were actually looking at two colors. And that was because... there were two wills struggling over one type of authority.
Red moon authority. The mysterious red moon was one of the original thirty-seven moons in the Revered Ancient mainland. From ancient times until now there had been stories told about how, after the broken face arrived, twenty-five of the original thirty-seven moons perished, one after another, ultimately leaving behind twelve. [1]
The red moon was one of those twelve! And it was ranked seventh!
In ancient times, īt had been called different things. It was the firefly moon, or the blood moon.... Nowadays, it was simply called the red moon.
Crimson Mother lived on the red moon like a parasite, constantly devouring its authority, seeking to supplant it. If that happened, there would no longer be a ‘Crimson Mother of the red moon’. Instead, there would be a ‘red moon of the Crimson Mother’.
Red light shone out from the door as Xu Qing’s mind was overtaken by godliness. As of this moment, his human nature was almost gone, leaving behind animal nature blessed by godly nature. In that heightened state, he lunged toward Crimson Mother.
The Captain wasn’t in the same position as Xu Qing. He was in a very gruish state, shining with blue light. He apparently had no pure godliness, but at the same time, no human nature. Even his animal nature seemed to be in chaos. His mind was like a mix between a god, a human, and an animal. And they were mixed so thoroughly it was hard to tell the difference between them. Together, they formed a very unique state.
With both Xu Qing and the Captain focused on devouring, the projection of Crimson Mother rippled. And then the projection’s hands shifted as though they might drop away from the eyes. The projection began to superimpose over itself, all while the blood-colored light grew brighter. Immense pressure weighed down on Xu Qing and the Captain.
When all was said and done, Crimson Mother was asleep, and what was left behind here was just a bit of divine will. Fundamentally speaking, it was very similar to what happened at the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pillar. The difference was that what was sealed at the pillar came from one of hēr followers. In contrast, what Xu Qing and the Captain were dealing with came directly from Crimson Mother, and was thus vastly mightier. [2]If ordinary cultivators were in this position, they would have a very hard time fighting back. It would take an extremely high cultivation base to do that. But Xu Qing and the Captain were not ordinary cultivators. The moment Xu Qing experienced god-glimpsing, he became a god cultivator! And the Captain had his own gruish assets, so naturally he wasn’t an ordinary cultivator. [3]
In the blink of an eye, two wills slammed into the projection of Crimson Mother. Xu Qing became a blood sea, pulsing with greed and hunger as he devoured the red moon authority. As blue light shone, the Captain became a blue worm that landed on Crimson Mother’s forehead, opened its mouth, and took a vicious bite.
But Crimson Mother was still a god, and as more projected versions superimposed upon each other, creating hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of layers, it became increasingly true and real.
The superimposed versions brought an explosive power of god magic that sent Xu Qing’s blood sea form tumbling backward. The Captain in worm form also collapsed. But only a fraction of a moment later, the collapsed blood sea transformed into Xu Qing’s emotionless face, which lunged back toward Crimson Mother with jaw snapping. With every bite he took, his red moon authority grew stronger.
However, the reverse was also happening as Crimson Mother tried to assimilate him. If Xu Qing had been operating alone, he couldn’t have turned things around.
But the Captain was here! His worm form had collapsed into numerous chunks of flesh. However... each of those chunks formed anew, until there were hundreds of worms shrieking toward Crimson Mother. His vicious bites caused blue light to seep into Crimson Mother’s projection, which interfered with hēr attempt to fight back against Xu Qing and assimilate him. Thus, Xu Qing was able to devour hēr smoothly. As that happened, Crimson Mother’s projected power slowly vanished, which made the Captain’s job easier.
The two of them were working together perfectly. If either was missing, it would have made the job much more difficult.
As time passed, the superimposed projections disappeared one after another, and the projection in general started to blur. Xu Qing and the Captain were methodically wiping it out.
Crimson Mother started twitching. And then, for the first time... she lowered hēr hands from hēr eyes. Time seemed to go still. Space spun. Godly might swept out in all directions. An immaculately beautiful face appeared to Xu Qing and the Captain. The only thing that marred the beauty was the fact that both eye sockets were empty and bleeding.
Shē was looking at Xu Qing. His blood sea form exploded. At the same time, a gravitational force erupted from the empty eye sockets, which dragged the blood sea into them. In the blink of an eye, the blood sea was sucked into the eyes, as if it had been devoured.
The Captain’s worm forms were sent flying backward. But then, Crimson Mother’s projection reached out, grabbed one of the worms, and crushed it. A boom rang out as the worm exploded. And then, the karmic power that had been unleashed caused all the other worms to collapse. It seemed like everything was about to conclude.
After dealing with Xu Qing and the Captain, the projection’s hands returned to cover hēr eyes. But then, something completely unexpected happened.
Massive amounts of fresh blood exploded out of hēr. At the same time, hēr face transformed until it looked like Xu Qing. If this had been Crimson Mother’s true form or even hēr doppelgänger, Xu Qing wouldn’t have been able to act defiantly. His level of authority wasn’t high enough. But he could defy a bit of divine will.
It was the same with the Captain. His worms had exploded, but the flesh that made them up hadn’t gone anywhere. And now they clumped back together to make a hand. It was withered and decaying, and even had sealing strips on it. It looked like it was stretching out from the Nine Serenities underworld. Close examination would reveal that there were countless deceased souls grabbing onto the hand, as if they didn’t want it to appear, and were trying to drag it back.
The withered hand ignored all of that and pointed at Crimson Mother’s forehead. The pitch black fingernail hit the forehead.
A rumbling boom echoed out as Crimson Mother shook from head to toe and then started rotting. Shē tried to negate the effects, except that was when Xu Qing chose to burst into action and start devouring hēr from inside.
Crimson Mother shivered as pressure now built up from inside of her as well. Soon, shē reached hēr limit. A few breaths of time passed, and then a boom drifted out as shē collapsed. The projection turned into a stream of golden light that immediately started fading away.
Xu Qing flew out in his blood sea form. The sea quickly turned into a face that pulsed with red moon authority. However, it was unstable, as if Xu Qing had taken in too much force to control.
The Captain’s withered hand faded away, leaving behind some blue light that turned into a worm. A face appeared on it, looking completely crazy.
The exploded remnants of Crimson Mother turned into a river of blood that flowed together and then changed into a blood-red eyeball. As it snapped open, divine will echoed out.
“Red Curse. Hex Paper. Extend Soul. Merge Life.”
Four words. Eight characters. After being spoken, the blood eye closed and disappeared.
As of this moment, the door of Paramount Temple did not have Crimson Mother’s totem on it anymore. Xu Qing and the Captain had succeeded.
However... a cold wind sprang up out of nowhere, containing within it an inescapable power of karma. As it arrived, both Xu Qing and the Captain sensed it immediately. Xu Qing’s will collapsed. The blood sea shattered. And then a gruish power forcibly ejected him from the door. Once he was back in his ordinary body, he coughed up a massive mouthful of blood.
Then his body blurred, becoming red, and also paper-like. All of his flesh and blood were affected. It was as if he... was being transformed into a paper person. Not even his soul was able to escape, nor his life force. They were all being transformed.
The same thing happened to the Captain’s worm form. The gruish power shattered it, and after it turned back into a little totem, it started turning into paper. The Captain’s face suddenly appeared.
“Little Junior Brother, this is the hex of an angry god. A god curse! Hang in there for a moment. I’ll figure out how to get free and then help you. This thingy is really fierce!”
The totem glittered with blue light that turned into a vortex. Sounds echoed from within that resembled the wailing of ghosts and howling of wolves, as though countless entities inside were screaming. It was a sound that could shake the mind.
Xu Qing’s eyes shone with cold light. It was indeed a very fierce curse. Only a few breaths of time had passed, yet he had already transformed halfway into paper. The blood-colored paper was extremely gruish, and it seemed to completely ignore his red moon authority. Not even his taboo poison did anything to it. Apparently, this type of curse didn’t rely on personhood. It was some type of karmic law that led to certain death.
There was at least an upside for Xu Qing. His fluctuations of godliness were being suppressed by the curse, thus allowing his human nature to return and bring balance. Unfortunately, having his human nature back didn’t give him a way to break the power of the curse.
He could sense himself transforming. His soul was fading, and he felt unending cold filling him. It was the sensation of death, and he couldn’t do anything about it. Given how things were progressing, Xu Qing could tell that before a hundred breaths of time passed, he would be fully transformed into a red paper person.
Maybe this curse... isn’t totally unbreakable.
In that critical moment, Xu Qing closed his eyes. Inside of him, D-132 rose up, and the domain of amnesia he had been seeking enlightenment of spread out. It covered him, and then it covered Paramount Temple, including the Captain’s totem on the door.
“Eee?” Even as the Captain went all out to try to negate the curse, he looked around in surprise.
Amnesia could sever karma. And this curse was fundamentally karmic. As long as the memories of the curse were erased from the soul, then the karma would be severed. This was a case of a will domain fighting against a god magic! During the days of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity, people in Revered Ancient believed will domains to be the only way to fight against gods.
Time passed.
After enough time had passed for two incense sticks to burn, Xu Qing opened his eyes. “What just happened?”
The Captain’s face appeared in the totem on the door. He looked at Xu Qing, seemingly confused. “Yeah, something just happened, didn’t it? Weird. It’s like I’ve forgotten something. No! I have to figure out what it was....”
1. We first learned about the perished and surviving moons in chapter 361. ☜
2. The encounter with Crimson Mother at the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pillar was in chapters 360 and . ☜
3. Specifically, the word I’m translating as “ordinary” is the word for “pure, unadulterated.” ☜