Chapter 676: Above the Violet Moon
Xu Qing wasn’t in a very good situation at the moment. He wasn’t sure if his fleshly body was in an illusory state, or if instead, his soul had left his body.
During the previous three deaths, he had experienced innumerable reincarnations. He was having a hard time thinking clearly, and his memories were fuzzy. But there was one thing he could remember very clearly, and that was the situation with the building and the ceremony beneath the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pillar.
He could almost hear the singing in his ears.
“In past lives forlorn, always reborn, sever lovesickness and endlessly mourn....” [1]
He looked up at the stone stele in front of him and suddenly understood why the Captain had called this ceremony by the specific name Hidden God Reborn.
It was a godly ascension ceremony, although it wasn’t the only ceremony of its kind. However, it was the ceremony Crimson Mother had chosen, and it was also the ceremony chosen by the woman in the ghast hollow. The latter... had obviously been carrying out the ceremony for a long time.
She’s trying to plunder from the god sleeping in the ghast hollow. She wants to use that god to form her own godly personhood. In the ceremony of Hidden God Reborn, the five elements are used in a certain way. Metal to dissect. Wood to strangle. Water to drown. Fire to immolate. Earth to bury. In that case, earth and fire should be next.
Expression one of determination, he reached out and continued writing his name.
He had already finished writing Xu. Now he had to finish writing Qing.
By now, he could sense that the actual name and brushstrokes weren’t necessarily connected. Even the most simple brushstroke would instigate the five elements punishment. This time, he completed two strokes, after which his body collapsed, and he found himself surrounded by burial soil. There was nothing he could do to fight back.In the blink of an eye, Xu Qing was gone, and in his place was a lonely gravestone with no writing on it.
This was the five elements buried corpse!
The cultivators underneath Crimson Mother’s mortal husk stared in shock at the perilous situation. This ceremony surpassed the understanding of most people present. Only Fourth Vice-Bishop and a handful of his subordinates had any idea what they were looking at, and even then, they didn’t know much.
“God tribulation!” Fourth Vice-Bishop murmured. That said, he didn’t have any idea why this legendary ceremony was playing out.
It was the same with Ning Yan and the others. More than once, Ling’er tried to run to Xu Qing, only to be held back by Nethersprite. After all the time Nethersprite had spent in the Green Spirit Pharmacy, her opinion of Ling’er had changed.
As everyone watched in awe, the soil in front of the golden stele trembled, and then a hand clawed out.
Xu Qing emerged. And yet, what was truly gruish was that the soil wasn’t moving. It was as if Xu Qing and the grave didn’t actually exist in the same space and time.
Xu Qing was like a blurry projection that seemed like he might wink out of existence at any moment. Once he was out in the open, he walked up to the stele, a blank look on his face. Experiencing countless deaths had pushed him into a state of complete weariness. Both his memories and his life force were blurry and fading. It was almost as if he acted on instinct alone as he reached out and continued writing until there was only one stroke left.
Before he could complete it, flames engulfed him, burning him into a charred, blackened state, whereupon he fell to the ground as a corpse.
It was a five elements immolated corpse!
Now there was only one stroke left before the name Xu Qing was complete on the stele. There were mortal husks in all five directions, all with different causes of death, and all of them unmoving and gruish.
Seeing that, the Captain’s eyes glittered mysteriously, and he took out a scepter. Pointing the scepter at the five mortal husks, he chanted, “The command of a god; thy soul will transcend; mortal husks are reverted; evil in anything and everything; five lives to earn grace.” [2]
As he chanted, the Captain approached the stone stele and started walking past the five mortal husks. As his chanting grew more impassioned, a stiff breeze picked up.
“The drowned will surpass; the dessicated corpse rises; the strangled dead freed; the buried body escapes; the immolated life will live.”
It was as if death and life were being transposed. Even Crimson Mother’s mortal husk up above was shaken. The area was filled with wind, rain, thunder, lightning, suns, moons, stars, and heavenly bodies. And the chanting became like the roar of a god.
Xu Qing’s five mortal husks all started shaking, as if some bizarre power were awakening within them.
The Captain walked faster and faster, until he was a blur speeding around Xu Qing, the stele, and the mortal husks. And as he went in circles, his voice became like booming thunder.
“Lives saved by edict; urgently surpass life; escape the sea of suffering; return alive to the world.”
The moment those four passages were spoken, the Captain suddenly stopped moving next to Xu Qing’s mortal husks. From a distance, it looked like there were five versions of the Captains, each lifting a scepter overhead before bringing it smashing down onto the mortal husk in front of it. A shocking boom rang out.
“Return!” the Captain shouted. The wind became sinister and cold, causing all living beings it touched to shiver. It was as if the Yellow Springs had been opened, bringing with it a sound like the wailing of ghosts and howling of wolves.
Instantly, Xu Qing’s five mortal husks opened their eyes. That included the one buried in the soil.
Then the five mortal husks stood, raced toward each other, and slammed into each other. The five bodies merged, becoming Xu Qing’s true form. His eyes were closed. He seemed different, though it was hard to say exactly how. Opening his eyes, he took a deep breath. Just now he had sunk deeply into death. It was like his body was a world of darkness in which he lost himself and then became a combination of infinite deceased souls. Then he had heard his Eldest Brother’s chanting, which was like a guide, leading him from death into life. That said, his thoughts were still muddled.
“Little Junior Brother,” the Captain yelled. “Hurry up and draw the final stroke!”
Xu Qing looked up at the stele and noticed that there was a brushstroke missing. Instinctively raising his hand, he completed his name.
The two characters Xu and Qing were now inscribed on the stele.
The stele vibrated as golden light converged on Xu Qing’s name, transforming it from red to gold. Xu Qing shivered as his memories suddenly became clear again. In the blink of an eye, his muddled state vanished.
I’m experiencing god tribulation!
Upon seeing that Xu Qing had recovered his senses, the Captain breathed a sigh of relief.
“Little Junior Brother, you don’t have godfire, so it’s not a real god tribulation. In other words, this imitation ceremony can’t be completed. But that doesn’t matter. With the god stele, you already have the foundation for godly ascension. It will come in extremely handy after you plunder power from a god. In fact, that’s the biggest good fortune you have!
“So we’re going to skip the godfire, and you’re going to take the god stele with your name on it… and put it into Crimson Mother’s mortal husk! Make hēr into an ancient god and leave your mark. Though you can’t control the mortal husk right now, you probably will in the future.” The Captain’s eyes burned with a crazy look. “This kind of opportunity only comes along once in a very long time, little Junior Brother!”
Xu Qing looked up at Crimson Mother’s mortal husk, and though his eyes burned with an even crazier look than the Captain’s, he shook his head.
“Eldest Brother, sending this god stele into Crimson Mother’s mortal husk would be a big waste. After all, a mortal husk is just a mortal husk. Our goal is the actual Crimson Mother. So I think I’ll keep this god stele... and find an opportunity to send it into the red moon, and take away that which Crimson Mother seeks to fuse with! Red moon authority cannot have two masters!”
The Captain’s eyes shone with a strange light. Even to him, Xu Qing’s idea sounded completely crazy.
Xu Qing waved his hand, and his illusory secret trove appeared behind him. Rumbling sounds echoed out as the violet moon within it glittered, and an endless sea of blood spread out from it, creating a vortex. As the vortex spun within the secret trove, it exerted a gravitational force that pulled the golden stele toward it.
The 300-meter-tall god stele was dragged into Xu Qing’s secret trove, where it came to a rumbling halt. Gold light spread out from it, covering the violet moon. Then projections of Xu Qing’s five mortal husks appeared around it, bathed by the fluctuations of the violet moon, and immersed in the golden light. Five elements. Five punishments. All were very gruish.
If it were visible outside, any cultivator who saw it would react the same way Xu Qing did when he first saw the red moon. They would be astonished and terrified. After all, this conformed to the pattern of the gods.
And it was all in Xu Qing’s secret trove.
As the god stele settled down along with the violet moon, Xu Qing’s tribulation... was finally over! His cultivation base raced past the great circle of Nascent Soul and into the dao begetting phase. His aura rose to shocking heights, as did his battle prowess. Most people needed to take their time in the dao begetting phase. But Xu Qing already had a heavenly dao, which meant there were already natural and magical laws in his secret trove. And thus, he didn’t need to stay in the dao begetting phase.
Next, his secret trove started rotating. At the same time, Xu Qing’s sundials transformed into an enormous furnace, burning with intense heat. Intense rumbling sound shook heaven and earth as the secret trove transformed from illusory to corporeal. In the blink of an eye... it became true and real!
Xu Qing’s cultivation base had broken through. He was now in the first stage of Spirit Trove!
From a distance, it was possible to see Xu Qing standing there, his long hair swaying behind him, his secret trove like an entire world behind him, with a furnace inside erupting with intense flames. Among the hundreds of thousands of cultivators present were some who were in Spirit Trove, and all of them were staring with their eyes wide and their jaws hanging open.
Xu Qing’s secret trove was truly unprecedented. But what was even more astonishing was that, right next to the huge opened door in midair behind Xu Qing was a blur of ripples that formed into a huge mirror. It filled the sky, emanating a magnificent and ancient sensation. Visible in the mirror was a large mountain with hundreds of thousands of temples on it. And inside each temple was a statue.
Also within the mirror was an old man. He was none other than the spirit automaton of the Moonrebel Congregation. Looking at Xu Qing and the Captain from within the mirror, he clasped hands and bowed deeply.
“Well met, Archbishops.”
Instantly, massive amounts of information about the Moonrebel Congregation poured into the minds of Xu Qing and the Captain. They exchanged a glance. And then, speaking as one, they said, “Let all of the statues... make their way back!”
1. This song first appeared in chapter 364. It was repeated in a few subsequent chapters. ☜
2. The scepter was introduced in chapter 578. ☜