Chapter 829: A Gate to Death
Xu Qing’s cold voice echoed out into the forbidden region, bringing with it a wind of death and the glow of an underworld lamp that could attract the souls of the living. A mountain-toppling, sea-draining force built up on him as he sat on the ninth mountain, countless crimson soul threads spreading out behind him. The seven ghost faces emerged from within him and began to orbit around him in a very gruish fashion. That, combined with his unusually handsome features and long hair, made him look absolutely incomparable. He seemed imbued with a spirit that could conquer mountains and rivers, and it caused the sky to flicker with bright colors, and galeforce winds to whip around him.
Sir Heavenhark saw him and reeled inwardly. His mind filled with thunderous rumblings, and his expression flickered. All of a sudden, a sensation of deadly crisis rose up within him like the waters of the tide. It swept through his mind like a landslide, filling every inch of his flesh and every particle of his bones. Even his soul started screaming.
Danger. Danger! Danger!!
All of his senses were telling him that this was a deadly crisis. The smoke from the incense burner was starting to ripple and distort. The sensation caused Sir Heavenhark to start breathing heavily. He suddenly stopped in place and then prepared to fall back in the face of this gruish human. He was too slow.
Looking at Sir Heavenhark coldly, Xu Qing dropped his hand, causing all of the taboo poison mist on the ninth mountain to rush together and form a huge vortex. The black tempest of taboo poison was destructive and terrifying as it blotted out the sun, eventually turning into the face of a vicious devil. Mouth gaping, it lunged toward the incense burner above Sir Heavenhark’s head. The incense burner trembled as smoke tumbled out of it like a rippling waterfall.
Things weren’t over yet, though. The invasion of poison mist intensified, sweeping around to cut off Sir Heavenhark’s path of retreat.
Meanwhile, as Xu Qing’s seven glittering lamps shone onto Sir Heavenhark, Xu Qing... extinguished the first of them.
When that happened, Sir Heavenhark’s pupils constricted and his heart filled with waves of astonishment. Pain erupted in his five yin organs and six yang organs, as if they were being stabbed with a sharp dagger.
A scream escaped his lips. Even after coughing up seven or eight mouthfuls of blood, he couldn’t negate the effects. He staggered backward, his aura in shambles. He no longer looked grand and majestic. Instead, his clothing was filthy as he collapsed onto the ground like an insect. Then he started to show signs of aging, as the flame of his life force began to grow dim.
“Y-You...” he stammered, his heart pounding. Xu Qing then extinguished the second lamp.
That caused another scream of anguish to erupt from Sir Heavenhark’s mouth. Cracks started spreading out all over him, and the sensation was like that of being sliced apart by thousands of blades. Blood flowed out of the cracks, covering his scales and soaking his garments. His hair withered, and then the same thing happened to his scales, which began to fall off and collapse into dust. It was as if his cultivation base was being stripped away, causing his aura to diminish constantly.
The sensation of death began to grow more intense within him. Thankfully, he still had his incense burner to provide some defenses, otherwise he would already have descended into ultimate despair.
That said, he was still flustered if not terrified. He felt like a little rowboat being tossed about by raging waves, and was trying as hard as he could to just get away. He even burned his own life force in his attempt to flee the ninth mountain.
Xu Qing didn’t try to stop him, because... it wasn’t necessary. He looked coldly at the Whitemarsh chosen, especially the teetering incense burner above his head. Without any hesitation, he took the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth lamps... and extinguished them.
With every lamp that was extinguished, the retreating Sir Heavenhark screamed again. His fleshly body and his soul were both extremely withered at this point. In the shortest of moments, six of the seven lamps had been extinguished.
What was more, 1,000,000 soul threads swept out from behind Xu Qing toward the incense burner. A loud cracking sound rang out as the incense burner split down the side. Taboo poison, the Seven Lamps Underworld Fire Curse, and the soul threads were making it difficult for the treasure to hold strong.
The rings of smoke surrounding it stopped moving, and then one of them disappeared. Taboo poison spread into it.
Sir Heavenhark shivered from head to toe, and then fell out of the sky to slam into the ground. He was now at the foot of the ninth mountain. He lay there sweating profusely, his sweat itself filled with rot that melted away at his body. Not only was his body and soul injured by the extinguishing of the lamp; the power of the taboo poison was eating away at his flesh and blood, delivering a devastating blow to his mind.
Indescribable pain filled him, such that he was unable to even scream. The feeling of death filled him, along with an incredibly noxious odor. His mind was already overwhelmed with indecision, anxiety, and fear. It was as if there was nothing left in heaven and earth to keep him alive. The flame of his life force was now just a tiny spark.
In the past, he had thought about dying. But in his imagination, it would be after he reached the Smoldering God level. And he was certain he would die in battle, representing the Whitemarshes in war against other species. His death would leave a huge impression on fellow members of his species, and later generations would all talk about how once in the past, there had been an extremely powerful expert called Sir Heavenhark.
As a result of that, what was happening now seemed completely inconceivable. In his defiance and madness, the spark of his life force suddenly flickered as if to reverse the situation.
Xu Qing extinguished any such hope as he extinguished the seventh lamp and then closed his eyes.
The moment the lamp went out, a wind blew and extinguished the spark of Sir Heavenhark’s life force. All of his defiance became background noise. Every bit of his madness faded into calm.
Extinguish the lamp, and thus extinguish the enemy.
There was now only a corpse at the foot of the mountain. As the soul threads pierced into it, it collapsed into ashes that drifted on the wind to the other mountains. Everything was completely silent. However, this silence was different than before. It was... a stifling and deathly silence.
Looks of dazed astonishment could be seen everywhere. The onlookers couldn’t even move. They had been watching the ninth mountain the entire time, and Xu Qing had remained seated the entire time.
Then, everyone started talking.
“Sir Heavenhark... is dead?”
“A Whitemarsh chosen....”
“Just who exactly is that guy? When did a chosen like this show up among humans?”
“That divine ability he used seems like something I remember reading about in one of the ancient records....”
“That was the magic of an Imperial Sovereign! You have to have Imperial Sovereign blood to use it!”
“It’s called the Seven Lamps... Underworld Fire Curse!”
“Back during the heyday of humankind, there was an Imperial Sovereign named Li Zihua. It comes from him!”
As one of the superpower species of Revered Ancient, the Firemoon Darkheaven people were generally better informed than other species. As a result, the ancient magic Xu Qing had used in the end was quickly identified.
Master Gravesparrow was unable to stop from gasping in shock. As he looked at Xu Qing, he was now fully convinced it was the right decision to acknowledge allegiance to him. He had no idea what other things this human was capable of, or exactly how strong he really was. The things that had played out left him with the sensation... that this person was a mysterious black hole that could devour anything and everything.
Even the Captain was a bit surprised, and looked a bit more closely at Xu Qing. This was the first time he had seen Xu Qing use the Seven Lamps Underworld Fire Curse.
The little punk has really mastered the art of being deceptive. No. No way! I have to work harder!
The Firemoon noble in the golden palace was looking down thoughtfully at Xu Qing. Even he was moved.
Something big happened with Li Zihua’s statue in the Moonrite Region recently. There were a handful of humans who slaughtered a god there....
As everyone watched in astonishment, a host of miniaturized forbidden mountains floated over to Xu Qing. Combined with the 27 forbidden mountains from before, he now had a total of 139. As they linked together via lightning, they became a unified body that emanated boundless pressure in all directions.
The sight of so many forbidden mountains shocked everyone present. All of them knew that Xu Qing was strong, but the sight of more than a hundred such mountains was almost too much of a temptation. The cultivators who had mountains set aside for them were feeling particularly greedy. However, all of them chose to remain in concealment and wait until later to make a move.
It was at that exact same moment that the ten-day time period for the forbidden region expired. It was as if a huge cage had been lifted. The aura of the outside world flooded in, and the lands quaked as all twenty-seven mountains were severed from the ground below.
A voice rang out from the golden palace.
“You may now begin moving the mountains.”
Those words were like a bugle call to slaughter and robbery. No one paid any attention to Xu Qing; though they were still filled with greed, they all felt it would be better to deal with the other mountains first.
And yet, even as their cultivation bases flared, and killing intent filled their eyes... Xu Qing’s eyes opened. The time had come. He lifted his right hand and waved it through the air. The sky went dark, and clouds converged, sending out an aura and pressure that caused the entire forbidden region to tremble.
Everyone in the forbidden region looked around in surprise. A massive black cell block appeared overhead, filling the sky over the forbidden region. Countless lightning bolts danced here and there, accompanied by faint howls of grief.
Everyone felt a sensation of majesty, gloom, blood, and pressure. As soon as it appeared, it dropped down toward the ground with immense force. The ground quaked as the cell block passed through the mountains and landed. All 27 of the forbidden mountains were now within its bounds, and they were all locked up inside.
Vicious laughter rang out from the cell block. It was possible to see the actual cells inside, where the stone lion danced. The head rolled back and forth, crying and laughing at the same time. The millstone turned, squeezing out endless quantities of blood. The scarecrow howled in grief, all while weaving pieces of straw together into tiny figures. The crazed Sir Inkwell swept his brush back and forth as he composed a painting of all the cultivators in the forbidden mountains dying. There was also... a huge finger that took up multiple cells. īt pulsed with the explosive aura of a god. This was the complete D-132.
Next, Xu Qing’s voice echoed out. “In three breaths of time, every living person here will be dead.”
The main gate of D-132 opened.
It was... a gate to death.