Chapter 824: A Lamb Like a Devil
The Whitemarshes were a subsidiary species to the Firemoon Darkheavens. They didn’t really have a good reputation, and could hardly compare to the Saia people. There were many, many such species attached to the Firemoon Darkheavens.
“Normally speaking,” the Captain said very loudly, “species like the Whitemarshes have one thing in common. They’re ruthless toward other species, but are more than willing to grovel and scrape to the Firemoons. In fact, when it comes to currying favor, they don’t have a bottom line. Considering they wouldn’t dare try to rob other important participants in the Great Hunt, when they saw you, it’s no wonder they took you to be a fat lamb.”
As the Captain jested, blue light flared, and coldness spread out for 500 kilometers that could freeze even the air. Within that space, winter descended. Mountains and lands alike became covered in ice. Plants and vegetation became ice sculptures, and the clouds became so heavy they fell out of the sky.
There was little need to mention the Whitemarsh cultivators.
“However,” the Captain continued, “there’s a kind of beast from certain forbidden grounds that looks like a lamb, but is called a devil by the locals.”
The Captain lifted his hand and pushed it toward the Whitemarsh cultivators.
These cultivators in first stage Void Returning and the great circle of Spirit Trove were visibly surprised. The former reacted most quickly; given his Void Returning cultivation base, he had his ways of dealing with natural and magical laws. All the threads within him swept together to form a furnace, which raged to life.
The Spirit Trove cultivator next to him had it worse off. No matter how he tapped into his five secret troves, he couldn’t really stop the freezing effect. As the dramatic transformations occurred around him, he lost the ability to move, and fell out of the sky along with the clouds.
The two of them were stunned, and already, their hearts were pounding in their chests. As for the person orchestrating all of this, the Whitemarsh vendor, his face fell and he started backing up at top speed. He sensed a deadly crisis looming. The developments already underway were far, far from what he had previously predicted would happen. There was no time to sit around contemplating the situation. He instantly released the power of the great circle of Spirit Trove. All five of his secret troves erupted with burning flames, and in his anxiety, he even burned some of his own life force.
With that burst of speed, he quickly made it off into the distance. However, he wasn’t fast enough.
At the same time that the Whitemarsh vendor burst into motion, Xu Qing appeared right behind him. It didn’t matter how much of a burst of speed was involved. It didn’t do any good.
There was no way he could shake Xu Qing for even a fraction of a second.
Xu Qing’s daoist robe flapped in the wind, and his hair whipped back and forth. He raised his hand, but there was no explosive burst. Instead, his hand held a black dagger with a shroud wrapped around the hilt, which emanated an intense aura of death. [1]
The aura spread out in all directions, causing the Whitemarsh cultivator’s heart to pound. The sensation of death became like the tide, washing completely over him and making it impossible to move, let alone flee. He wanted to run. But the threat weighing down on him because of this human cultivator was such an intense pressure it felt like his five secret troves might collapse at any moment. He tried to unleash the heavenly daos in the secret troves, but they were in embryonic form and could do nothing but remain in place, trembling. Cultivation base, heavenly daos, and energy alike were all subject to immobilizing pressure.
The Whitemarsh’s heart filled with alarm as Xu Qing viciously slashed the dagger through his throat.
It was just like back when Xu Qing was young. Blood sprayed everywhere. There was no agonized shriek, only a gurgling sound as the head... tumbled away from the torso. As it landed on the ground, soul threads shot out from Xu Qing, stabbed into the head and extracted the Whitemarsh’s soul. In moments the head withered into a husk, while the soul was madly extracted, turning into more soul threads in Xu Qing’s collection. The torso collapsed into ash.
Meanwhile, elsewhere on the battlefield, the Captain laughed ferociously as he suddenly exploded, turning into countless beams of blue light, within each of which was a blue worm. The worms swept out and then closed in on the Void Returning Whitemarsh from all directions.
Struggling and fighting back didn’t do any good. In the blink of an eye, so many blue worms had smacked into the Whitemarsh that he looked like a huge blue ball of flesh. Only when looking closely was it obvious that the ball of flesh was made from worms. To accompany the ghastly sight were horrifying chewing sounds and miserable screams.
Xu Qing looked over and could tell that the Captain’s current battle prowess was stronger than when they had clashed with the Firemoon cultivator recently. Obviously the Captain had made some progress in their recent travels. Smiling, Xu Qing waved his right hand to retract all of his soul threads.
Meanwhile, the screaming faded away to nothing inside the ball of flesh. The flesh then wriggled and changed back into the Captain, who licked his lips as he looked at Xu Qing.
“Whitemarshes still taste delicious, little Ah Qing. By the way, I learned two interesting things from his memories.
“First of all, the one you picked just now was actually considered a chosen among Whitemarshes, and is an expert at concealment. The one I killed seemed stronger, but the reality is that he just stepped into Void Returning and hardly had any success with his heavenly daos. In fact, he was recently beaten in an ambush when fighting with the one you killed. But the most worthless of all of them is this guy.”
The Captain made a grasping gesture, and the final immobilized Whitemarsh flew over to him.
Xu Qing nodded. He could already sense that there was something wrong with the returning soul threads. There seemed to be some missing.
Given what the Captain had said, it seemed the Whitemarsh vendor had some lifesaving techniques, and had faked his own death. There were no fluctuations in the area, such that just about any other person would have been incapable of tracking down the concealed party. But things weren’t that difficult for Xu Qing. His eyes turned pitch black, and taboo poison spread out everywhere, filling the surroundings.
The Captain’s eyes went wide.
“Throwing around more poison? Don’t spoil my meal! It’s delicious!”
The Captain performed an incantation gesture and pointed out, causing blue light to flicker as the last Whitemarsh cultivator collapsed into roughly a hundred green apples.
As they tumbled down, the Captain swished his sleeve to collect them up. Then he turned completely blue and disappeared into thin air.
As Xu Qing’s poison spread, the air rippled, and a fist-sized eyeball appeared, white in color. The eye looked astonished, but at the same time, determined. He had been so close that he didn’t dare to try to teleport away, for fear of the teleportation being noticed. He had previously planned to just wait until Xu Qing left, then stealthily sneak away. How could he have guessed that he would be discovered so quickly? Feeling no reason not to, he quickly resorted to a teleportation. As the teleportation fluctuations built up, the eye began to turn blurry.
Xu Qing’s gaze remained calm as he waved his right hand, sending out a host of soul threads. In the blink of an eye, they formed into the shape of a huge sundial. The gnomon was in motion as natural laws of time descended.
Xu Qing looked at the spot where the eye was about to teleport away, and time reversed there. The blurry eye became very clear. Its expression was again one of astonishment.
When the sundial’s power faded, the eye trembled as it tried to initiate another teleportation. It failed. It tried to go invisible. That also failed. And then Xu Qing was in front of it.
He pulled his hand back and then swatted the eye. The eye turned bloodshot and shrieked, but it didn’t do any good. Resistance meant nothing. A pop could be heard as the eye exploded.
The sundial collapsed into soul threads, which then bored into the eye, causing more soul threads to appear in Xu Qing. From a distance, it was possible to see countless crimson soul threads swirling around Xu Qing, making him look like a devil.
The Captain materialized next to him. Chuckling, he retrieved a green apple and took a bite.
“You don’t look like one of the good guys at all, little Ah Qing.”
Xu Qing looked at the apple in the Captain’s hand. He said nothing.
The Captain took out another apple and tossed it to Xu Qing.
Xu Qing caught it and took a bite. It was very sweet. From a very young age, Xu Qing had always refused to eat human flesh. But he would eat just about anything else.
Xu Qing’s actions caused the Captain to clasp his shoulder happily.
“I got more news. There’s a member of the Firemoon Darkheaven nobility who wanted to commemorate the Great Hunt by opening up his personal forbidden regions. Now they’re available to all cultivators participating in the Great Hunt. This particular noble has five forbidden regions in his territory, one of which has more than twenty forbidden mountains in it. Based on the information I just got, they’ll be opening up very soon. We should hurry over there.
“Since you have Great Hunt qualifications, we can definitely fuck them up! That way, it’ll be much more reasonable for us to enter the god domain later to handle my big job. Besides... who knows, maybe you could end up as a darkheaven general! Little Ah Qing, your Eldest Brother is going all out to help you!”
The Captain emphasized his words by smacking his chest. His eyes glittered. “Just remember, if we ultimately succeed, and you become a darkheaven general, you’ll need to lend me your new outfit for a few years.”
Xu Qing nodded, then waved his hand, causing the forbidden mountain which had previously belonged to the Whitemarsh vendor to fly over to him. Now he had two forbidden mountains orbiting over his head. Occasionally, red lightning bolts would crash between them. Occasionally, the lightning bolts would hit each other, causing showers of sparks to illuminate the surroundings.
Looking up at the two mountains, Xu Qing suddenly said, “Eldest Brother, how many forbidden mountains do you think it would take to earn first place?”
“Oh, I don’t know, a hundred maybe?” the Captain replied casually.
“Alright. A hundred.” Xu Qing’s eyes flared with cold light as he burst into motion.
The Captain blinked a few times, grinned, and then followed. The two of them disappeared over the horizon as they headed toward the Firemoon Darkheaven noble’s forbidden regions.
1. The shroud-hilt dagger was created by Xu Qing inchapter 347 . He used it subsequently inchapters 416 and420 . Its foundation was a dagger the Captain gave to him as a gift inchapter 338 . ☜