Chapter 803: Flowers Bloom, Flowers Fall
A moth to the flame. That was what came to the minds of many observers.
The emperor was currently the only member of humankind who was in the Imperial Sovereign level. Other than Grand Emperor Swordsage himself, any person who the emperor faced, be they in Void Returning or Smoldering God, were a far cry from being on his level.
Bai Xiaozhuo had ignited the heart from the god domain, burning his God-Merging body in exchange for burning power that surpassed the fiery flowers. Sadly, he was far from achieving eternal indestructibility. And this was definitely not a true igniting of godfire. It was not godly ascension. Without godly ascension... it was going to be very hard for him to defeat an Imperial Sovereign. In other words, the end of this fight was a foregone conclusion.
However, Bai Xiaozhuo didn’t just give up. His eyes were clear, and his heart was calm as he accelerated. With the lifespan and pāramitā flowers, as well as the golden-red sea of flames, he could ignore spatial conventions.
The emperor was visible in the Imperial University, but that was a projection originating in the imperial palace. And yet, right now, there seemed to be no difference between illusion and reality as far as Bai Xiaozhuo was concerned. He was like a meteor shooting through the highest heavens, speeding up as he pierced through the air to appear right in front of the emperor. There, he placed his hands together in front of him, with his two index fingers pointed straight out like swords.
Then, he took all of his power, both internal and external, and placed them into that sword of two fingers. That included the golden and red fire, as well as the two flowers. He included his life force and his time. Everything about him. He closed in on the emperor, radiating heat waves in all directions. The world around him rippled, making it seem like the projected image of the imperial palace would be consumed by flames at any moment.
The heavenly kings unleashed their energy and were about to take action. Before they could, the emperor stopped them.
“Very amusing,” the emperor said in a cool voice. He raised his right hand and pointed at the incoming meteor and the surrounding sea of flames. The movement of his finger seemed ordinary in nature, as if it didn’t contain any cultivation base power at all. No shadowy projection appeared as a result.
However, the moment his finger touched the dual fingers extended by Bai Xiaozhuo, a deafening boom rang out. It was as if countless stars had all exploded at the same time. The entire world trembled! In fact, the Imperial University shook so violently it seemed like it might collapse.
Outside in the capital, wild winds sprang up everywhere, and the sky turned dark. Black clouds spread out, accompanied by booming thunder and an indescribably terrifying pressure.
The spot where the terrifying power originated was right between the emperor and Bai Xiaozhuo. As for the emperor, he hardly seemed affected by the blast. His garments stirred, and a few strands of hair swayed. That was it.
As for Bai Xiaozhuo, he shivered from head to toe, then began to blur. He was like a dandelion disappearing into the wind. However, his eyes were bright. Being so close to the emperor, he spoke in a voice like a chant.
“Between the lifespan and pāramitā burns the fire of a god.”
The burning lifespan flower seemed to bloom again, reaching its peak. Then it withered, collapsing into ash that gathered in front of Bai Xiaozhuo. The pāramitā lily did the same, becoming incredibly brilliant, then collapsing into nothing. The red and gold seas of flames shrank down until they were right in front of him.
As that happened, a special and unique flower bloomed in front of Bai Xiaozhuo, a flower that contained the characteristics of both the lifespan flower and the pāramitā lily. It was a holy flower, the fire of which burned in incredibly dazzling fashion.
It instantly caught the attention of the emperor.
Bai Xiaozhuo gently exhaled. His breath reached the strange flower, causing petals to swirl forth and surround the emperor. With the emperor in the middle of the flower petals, he looked like he had become a flower.
The emperor’s eyes glittered with profound light.
“Decease.”
The flower petals surrounding him swayed back and forth before exploding into countless fragments that became drifting ash.
Bai Xiaozhuo had apparently completed his mission. He closed his eyes. His body... collapsed into smoke. Countless mirror-like memory fragments shattered and became ash.
Apparently the emperor didn’t want to be tainted by such filthy remains, so he pulled his hand back and swished his sleeve. The gradually disappearing debris in front of him scattered, leaving behind no trace of its existence.
An ancient sigh emerged from the god domain rift up above. Then the rift closed. It seemed everything was over.
In the days of the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan, Bai Xiaozhuo had been a close follower of the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan. He had been appointed as the governor of Sea-Sealing County, but most of his history was lost in the sands of time. Today, he had met his fate. From beginning to end, the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan never showed up.
In the outside world, the sky was no longer dark. The afterglow of evening spread out, covering the capital with amber light.
The face of the Grand Emperor on Planet Ancient Emperor looked at the Imperial University with a profound gaze. It was hard to say if he was looking at the emperor or Xu Qing. Or perhaps... he was looking at something in the god domain rift that no one else could sense.
Xu Qing’s heart pounded as he looked at the rift disappearing. After everything that happened in Sea-Sealing County, it had been completely unexpected to actually run into Bai Xiaozhuo and the Crown Prince here.
Bai Xiaozhuo is first in line. Next in line is the crow!
The students in the Imperial University were unable to calm down. Some were excited, some conflicted, some anxious, and some confused. All sorts of thoughts were present.
The dao debate was over.
The emperor slowly sat back down on the Dragon Throne. The projection of the imperial palace blurred away. The Emperor’s Sword made its way back into Xu Qing. Now that Bai Xiaozhuo was dead, his puppets slumped and fell to the ground.
Seeing that the curtain was falling, the chancellor of the university looked around with a sigh in his eyes, and opened his mouth to announce the official conclusion of the dao debate.
However, that was when some intense emotional fluctuations reached Xu Qing’s mind.
“Milord... eat... time soul... about to flee!”
Hearing that, Xu Qing looked up. His eyes turned pitch black as the power of taboo poison erupted in them, giving him the vision of a god. However, looking around, he didn’t see anything out of the ordinary.
The sky looked normal. The rift was closing just like before. Everything looked ordinary.
Little Shadow had been following Xu Qing for many years, so it naturally knew what to do. It fused with Xu Qing, converging on his eyes, almost like eyeglasses. The combination of godsource power and the shadow’s gruish abilities provided a view that few people could ever witness.
It was blurry, and not very clear. But Xu Qing could still see... that there was a soul drifting toward the closing rift. More precisely, it wasn’t a soul. Instead, it was a fragment of time, almost like a mote of dust.
It was a very unique soul, such that, without the help of the shadow, Xu Qing would never have noticed it. It was the very same fragment of time from Bai Xiaozhuo that the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan had extracted years before.
That final swish of the emperor’s sleeve seemed like it was scattering the ashes. But now it seems something unusual was actually happening!
Xu Qing’s eyes suddenly flashed aggressively. There was no time to sit around contemplating what the emperor’s actions might imply. It wasn’t a moment for hesitation. Xu Qing suddenly dispersed his god state, whereupon 1,300,000 soul threads appeared and shot into the sky.
“Get back here!” he said coldly. The soul threads shot toward the rift, and in the blink of an eye, had surrounded that soul.
Little Shadow didn’t want to be left out, so it shot forth as well. In the past, it wouldn’t have mattered how much the shadow wanted to devour Bai Xiaozhuo, it wouldn’t have dared. But that hunger had turned incredibly intense, causing Little Shadow to constantly be keeping an eye on Bai Xiaozhuo. Now, it clearly realized that this time fragment soul was vastly weaker than the terrifying Bai Xiaozhuo of before. In other words, there was no danger.
To Little Shadow, it seemed even more fragrant than before. It was as if the catastrophe it had just been through purified the soul, and reverted it to its original state.
The reason was just as he had said: heaven and earth as the furnace, all living beings as the fuel. It was a reforging, and a return to the natural state.
That original state could transmigrate as a person. Or... if the conditions and circumstances were right, it could transmigrate into a natural-born god.
That was why Little Shadow seemed to be going crazy.
The sound of salivating could be heard as Xu Qing’s numerous soul threads filled the sky and moved to snatch the time fragment soul. His actions were noticed by the various organizations and people in and out of the university.
All of a sudden, the emperor’s gaze emerged from the fading projection of the imperial palace.
Under Xu Qing’s control, the 1,300,000 soul threads quickly formed together into a cage.
Meanwhile, Little Shadow wasn’t holding anything back. It stretched out, filling the gap in the closing god domain rift, thus blocking any avenues of escape.
With that done, Xu Qing’s eyes gleamed with cold light as he extended his right hand into the air and snapped it closed. The soul thread cage shrank down. In the blink of an eye, it became a fist-sized black sphere that shot toward Xu Qing and landed on his palm. Xu Qing didn’t even look at it, nor did he give it any chance to send out a stream of thought. He crushed his hand down onto it.
A boom rang out as the 1,300,000 soul threads voraciously devoured the time fragment soul.
The anxious Little Shadow rushed over to take some bites. However, it clearly wasn’t capable of devouring things as rapidly as the soul threads. In the blink of an eye, the time fragment soul vanished. It didn’t exist anymore. The power within it turned out to be astonishingly nourishing. Xu Qing could sense his soul threads splitting apart and transforming.
1,400,000. 1,600,000. 1,800,000.... In the shortest of moments, the soul threads reached the astonishing level of 2,000,000.
Xu Qing hovered within the 2,000,000 soul threads, his hair whipping around him and his garments flapping. He looked like a fiendish devil, imbued with a spirit that could conquer mountains and rivers.
Bai Xiaozhuo had been destroyed in body and soul!
The emperor looked at Xu Qing as the projection of the imperial palace disappeared.
Around that time in the Star-Plucking Tower, the imperial perceptor, who had been looking in the direction of the Imperial University, closed his eyes.