Chapter 674: A Trove; a World
From the moment Xu Qing and the Captain led the way into this Spirit Garden, until the current moment... two years had passed. During that time period, a lot of things happened. And a lot happened to Xu Qing. Few people could have predicted that the Nascent Soul cultivator who stepped ashore two years ago would end up starting a world-shaking tempest.
Truth be told, that tempest started to build back at the Heavenfire Sea. When the Twofold Alliance collapsed, storm winds started to blow in the north. Wherever those winds blew, things started to change. Later, the dream of a god was interrupted at Mount Heavenly Ox. And events in the Bitter Life Mountains had repercussions far and wide. Pill Nine rose to prominence in the Moonrebel Congregation, and the God Decapitation Altar caused sparks to fly.
And now, after two years of preparation and hard work, the storm winds reached the door of Paramount Temple.
In the Moonrite Region, wild colors flashed in heaven and earth, mountains and rivers trembled and seethed. An awakening will rose in the hearts of the living beings. A door was opening, not just in heaven and earth, but in the hearts of the people.
It was similar to how the images of the God Decapitation Altar also affected everyone. By means of the Moonrebel Congregation, everyone could see the door of Paramount Temple opening. As it did, dazzling light spilled out, driving the despair out of the hearts of the people, and awakening their hope. Sparks again began to fly.
In the east, by the Heavenfire Sea, the same Holy City where Xu Qing had helped the humans relocate was now in ruins. Deep beneath the ruins was a cave where Duanmu Zang had taken the survivors to hide.
The cave was quiet, and it was filled with numbness and despair. Duanmu Zang lay gasping for breath and waiting to die. The curse in him was very strong, and it was already eating away at his skin. But then his eyes snapped open. All the humans in the cave were looking around in shock. Exclamations rang out as... they saw an image in their minds!
Duanmu Zang started breathing heavily. He was a Moonrebel Congregation cultivator, so he recognized that bronze door. He knew what it signified. As he reacted with complete disbelief, he saw the door opening and two figures emerging. One of them was very, very familiar to him.
“Xu Qing!”
In the north of the Moonrite Region, on the endless ice plains, a massive spell formation had everything locked down. It was designed to trap people, and outside of it were innumerable cultivators from the Red Moon Cathedral, all working on powering it. Inside the formation... was an army several hundred thousand strong. And it was being led by someone similar to Fourth Vice-Bishop. It was Third Vice-Bishop!Thanks to the betrayal of First Vice-Bishop and Fifth Vice-Bishop, the resistance forces in the Moonrite Region were located either in the Bitter Life Mountains or this place. The large army was on its last legs. After the Moonrebel Congregation was sealed, they had no way to communicate with the outside world, or to escape. They could only remain trapped, waiting for the red moon to fully rise.
Their fighting spirit had been just about to flicker out. Their exhaustion had finally surpassed their will to live. But then, an image appeared in their minds, causing them to feel like they were being struck by lightning.
Third Vice-Bishop, a middle-aged man, shot to his feet and blurted, “The Moonrebel Door!!”
Similar scenes played out in locations in the west and south. Cultivators who had gone into hiding, or who had been scattered by the enemy, suddenly felt their hearts racing. In terms of numbers, they vastly outnumbered the armies in the Bitter Life Mountains and the northern ice plains.
After all, the Moonrite Region was massive, and the Red Moon Cathedral would rather the scattered resistance forces be kept around for food. There were cultivators of all species, as well as people that Xu Qing and the others had dealt with on their journeys. For instance, Mistress Rosyclouds, who had taken a liking to Wu Jianwu. And regardless of whether people were members of the Moonrebel Congregation, they were shaken.
That was because this was the first time in the epoch that the door of Paramount Temple in the Moonrebel Congregation had been opened! What was especially noteworthy was how it opened at the most critical moment, allowing its light to drive away the darkness and the clouds. Heaven and earth were being turned upside down.
In the Bitter Life Mountains, beneath Crimson Mother’s mortal husk, dazzling light shone everywhere. All cultivators were deeply moved, especially those from the Moonrebel Congregation, who instinctively dropped to their knees.
Fourth Vice-Bishop struggled to breathe steadily as he looked at the bronze door.
More shocked than them were Ning Yan, Wu Jianwu, Li Youfei, and Patriarch Inkrule. Dazed, they simply looked at the two figures standing in the doorway. Nethersprite frowned, her eyes flickering with revulsion for the Captain. She hadn’t seen him in a while, and had thus been calming down a bit. But now, she was starting to feel irritated again.
And that was because Chen Erniu was speaking.
“Hahaha! I, the Archbishop of Moonrebel, am right on time!”
The bronze door was fully open. Xu Qing and the Captain strode out into the light. And as the Captain's words spread out, Xu Qing’s expression flickered.
He had just sensed a blessing. It came from the Moonrebel Congregation, along with a stream of astonishing power. It came out of the door, poured into them, and filled them from head to toe. The power was boundless and majestic, and seemed to contain unfathomable time within it, as well as faith and karma.
All of a sudden, Xu Qing understood. It was a blessing from the Moonrebel Congregation, a boon for becoming the Archbishop of Moonrebel. It could be accepted. It could be rejected. Accepting it would mean shouldering the karma of the Moonrebel Congregation, shouldering its mission, and shouldering responsibility for the entire Moonrite Region.
After sensing that, Xu Qing paused in place. The Captain also sensed the same thing, causing his eyes to glitter. He stopped walking as well.
The two of them looked at each other.
“Should we do it?” the Captain asked.
“We do it!” Xu Qing nodded.
The Captain laughed heartily, and together with Xu Qing, stepped forward to shoulder the karma. The power of blessing flowed into both of them.
Xu Qing shivered as intense heat swept through him. Blessing power that had been building up for countless years in the Moonrebel Congregation rushed into him and toward his golden crow nascent soul. The golden crow appeared in projected form, a piercing cry ringing from its beak. It now had a thousand tails, and had broken through from the four-tribulation to the peak of the five-tribulation level. It was now in the great circle of Nascent Soul.
The black spear appeared inside of it, pulsing with a terrifying aura and a power to destroy worlds. It was like a burning sun that could incinerate anything and everything.
Xu Qing’s aura grew stronger. And the breakthrough wasn’t even over yet. Next, his Ghost Emperor mountain appeared. It was 3,000 meters tall, its eyes open, and it also pulsed with fluctuations of the great circle of Nascent Soul. After that was D-132. With the blessing power, it broke through. The sealing power within it grew terrifyingly stronger, and the will domain of amnesia more prominent. What was more, the inmates in D-132 also transformed. They were the only living beings that existed within Xu Qing’s nascent souls.
Of course, his battle prowess climbed.
A roar erupted from the bluegreen dragon as it swirled in midair with the golden crow, sending out heavenly dao fluctuations. It was also breaking through, resulting in natural and magical laws manifesting around it.
The profoundly majestic power of blessing still had not begun to weaken, and proceeded to Xu Qing’s taboo poison nascent soul. Soon, his eyes became pitch black. The power of the taboo nascent soul broke past the four-tribulation level and into the great circle of five tribulations, resulting in a black canopy forming and spreading out in the dome of heaven.
Next came the daybreak light nascent soul, which was capable of unending transformations, and contained a myriad magics. Also, a timescape stream appeared, swirling around Xu Qing as it broke through. His sundial life lamps were next. The gnomons spun as the blessing caused the aura of the great circle to erupt in every direction. Last was his violet moon, which became a sea of blood, out of which rose a red moon. It was very realistic.
Because of all that, Xu Qing’s aura skyrocketed to an astonishing level. The blessing of the Moonrebel Congregation ensured that everyone present was watching very closely.
Most terrifying of all was that behind Xu Qing, it was possible to see an illusory secret trove! It was sucking in the power of blessing like a whirlpool, causing the surroundings to shake. The aura from it surpassed everything because of how terrifying it was. And despite being blurry, everyone could see what formed the secret trove. Those things couldn’t be described in any other way than unique.
It had the golden crow in its sky as the sun, and the violet moon as its moon. Taboo poison formed the clouds in the sky, and the Ghost Emperor mountain rose up from the ground. Timescape streams were its waters, and the heavenly dao bluegreen dragon exhaled magical laws. Daybreak light formed countless inanimate objects, while D-132 brought the living things. The spinning sundials governed the motion of everything in the secret trove, including the rising and setting of the sun and moon, the transformations of the wind and clouds, and the vicissitudes of time. Although it was all illusory, the general structure of the secret trove was so big that it was almost like a world.
This was the first secret trove Xu Qing had prepared for himself. It was his life essence secret trove! Though it was still in an embryonic form, it was easy to imagine how astonishing it would be when complete. Of course, the nutrients required for such a secret trove would obviously be terrifying.
Xu Qing wasn’t the only one to be growing dramatically. The blessing also helped the Captain. With the power of the Moonrebel Congregation, he laughed heartily and removed two of his seals. His aura immediately rose to the great circle of Nascent Soul. There was a third seal that he managed to open halfway, causing Spirit Trove fluctuations to seep out of him.
That was when the blessing finally ended!
It wasn’t that the Moonrebel Congregation didn’t have deep reserves. Rather, Xu Qing and the Captain had reserve powers that were just too profound, and required far more nutrients than what was ordinary. Furthermore, those nutrients needed to be varied, otherwise Xu Qing couldn’t form his secret trove, and the Captain couldn’t undo his seals. They needed different types of power to do that, and thus, it wouldn’t help them to go overboard in taking the Moonrebel Congregation’s power.
Next, as everyone looked on, tribulation clouds formed underneath Crimson Mother’s mortal husk. Rumbling thunder echoed out everywhere. Tribulation clouds also appeared in the outside world.
It was the final heavenfate tribulation for Nascent Soul. Once Xu Qing passed it, he would truly be stable in the great circle of Nascent Soul. And because he already had a secret trove, he would be able to skip dao begetting and step right into Spirit Trove!