Chapter 836: Thank You
The finger pointing east commanded life! Therefore, to Xu Qing’s east, the finger of starlight pulsed with an intense sensation of life force power. Furthermore, all things can be pushed beyond their limit, and bring about a sensation of nefariousness rather than righteousness. In this case, the life from the finger was pushed to the brink, making it seem demonic.
The finger pointing south commanded growth! It was similar here: fire rose high into the air, like the weapon of a god of fire that used flame to seal and destroy heaven and earth.
The finger pointing west commanded withering! There was no difference here, the sensation was that of defeat and error. It also contained the passage of time. And thus, it made it seem possible to see vicissitudes of time itself.
Finally, the finger pointing north commanded death! It was as if death had come from the netherworld itself.
As the four fingers pointed, they unleashed life, death, withering, and growth. When Grand Prince saw that from a distance, his face fell, and his heart filled with anxiety. That was because he... had already been defeated by the star displacement combat technique of Dao of the Nine Stars Killing Suppression. Put precisely, his bloodline had enabled him to make an opening in the star displacement combat technique. However, he had been defeated by the hidden killing move within it.
In other words, Crown Prince Brightsouth is hiding a killing move on the inside....
Grand Prince wanted to offer a warning, but he couldn’t. Both his mouth and his divine will had been sealed tightly by Crown Prince Brightsouth, making that impossible. All he could do was watch as the four fingers descended.
In contrast, the Captain just stood waiting. He had faith that Xu Qing wouldn’t be killed so easily.
He was right. Just when the four fingers were about to hit, Xu Qing, whose body was immobilized, actually opened his eyes. Instantly, they turned pitch black!
Back in the Moonrite Region, he had gained enlightenment of how to put taboo poison into his gaze. Now, that ability was coming into play at a critical moment. Taboo poison... swept through his gaze like water gushing through a tunnel. He looked at the finger to the east, and the power of taboo poison erupted. The massive finger shivered... and a dark spot appeared on its surface, almost like a ringworm infection, which then rapidly spread over its surface. The finger abounded with life force, yet it was like an ice cube, with the taboo poison being boiling oil. The life force melted very quickly.
Things weren’t over yet. Xu Qing’s gaze shifted to the northern finger that represented death. Taboo poison also represented death. In the blink of an eye, the northern finger shivered, and taboo poison swept through with the ease of a fish swimming through water.
With two fingers having been infected, Xu Qing’s soul threads twitched and then broke through their fetters into freedom.
Without any hesitation, he lifted his right hand and pointed into the sky.
The Withering Flame Demon Magic True Self Dao rumbled into life. Three enormous mountains appeared overhead and dropped toward the finger representing withering. Then, by exercising a mere thought, he caused the black spear to swivel, then shoot toward the southern finger representing growth.
All of this takes a bit of time to describe, but it actually occurred in the time it takes a spark to fly off a piece of flint.
All at once, the taboo poison, the demon mountains, and the spear rumbled into action, creating a heaven-rending, earth-crushing rumbling sound that resembled heaven and earth howling into the void.
The eastern finger collapsed. The southern finger was shredded to bits. The western finger shattered. The northern finger crumbled into ash. The nine stars overhead dimmed. No longer were they prominent, and in fact, their light began to fade away amidst the light of all the other stars.
Xu Qing emerged from the rubble of the four fingers and shot directly toward Crown Prince Brightsouth.
However... though the divine ability had been destroyed, Crown Prince Brightsouth actually didn’t seem surprised. Chuckling scornfully, he said, “Did you note that?”
His question wasn’t directed at Xu Qing. And the response came from everywhere. The sky, the land, the air, the clouds. Countless voices all spoke at the same time.
“Noted.”
The countless voices combined. They were voices of men and women, of the old and the young. Some were deep, some were piercing. There was crying and laughter, along with shouting and murmuring.... All of the voices said the same thing.
Ultimately, the nine fading stars in the sky shifted, creating a circle. As the starlight connected, it formed something like a black hole, out of which spread terrifying power. It was not cultivator power. Instead, it was rife with the aura of a god. It contained boundless mutagen, the likes of which surpassed any forbidden region or even forbidden ground....
It locked onto Xu Qing. He stopped in place. He suddenly sensed that he couldn’t continue forward, prompting him to look up at the black hole of nine stars. He had sensed an aura like this before.
It was... a god domain!
At the same moment that Xu Qing realized that, something emerged from the black hole of nine stars.
It was a piece of yellow paper. It was money for the dead. The yellow paper drifted down, growing larger as it did. It seemed to move slowly, but in reality, was descending with incredible speed. Even more gruish, there was a face taking shape on the yellow paper.
That face... was none other than the face of Xu Qing.
When Grand Prince saw this happening, he got even more anxious. This was the point at which he had been defeated. Only later did he come to realize that the yellow paper was a gift to Crown Prince Brightsouth from his father. It wasn’t from Revered Ancient, but instead, was from a god domain rife with gruishness and death.
The star displacement combat technique of Dao of the Nine Stars Killing Suppression was only a facade. The deadly aspects of the technique actually weren’t the point. The real objective was to use those killing aspects to make a copy of the enemy’s god soul. It was all made possible by the combination of the yellow paper and the gruish voices. It would enable the god domain to remember Xu Qing’s appearance. And then... his soul could be sealed and immolated.
He wanted to force himself into lucidity, but couldn’t. As the yellow paper descended, it started burning. In just the way that living people will make sacrifices to the souls of the deceased, the paper burned like an offering.
At the same time, an intense force emerged from the black hole, wrapped around Xu Qing, and latched onto his god soul. Xu Qing lost all sensation of his fleshly body. At the same time, his god soul emerged, like an afterimage, and began to float upward. Numerous illusory chains dropped down from the black hole, which encircled his god soul, further trapping it. His god soul struggled, but more chains just kept appearing, until there were hundreds of them, all pulling his god soul out of his fleshly body.
“That’s all,” said Crown Prince Brightsouth as he hovered in midair. “This fight has taught me something important. And that is... don’t give your opponent any chances to make a comeback. Therefore, despite the fact that your god soul has no way of turning things around, I’m not going to even give you a chance to try. By the way... you’re not the only one with taboo weapons!”
Crown Prince Brightsouth’s eyes gleamed with bizarre light as he inhaled deeply, bit the tip of his tongue, and spat out a mouthful of blood. Then his right hand shot into the haze of blood and performed an incantation gesture.
The blood mist expanded as images appeared within them. They were almost like a sea of blood, filled with thirty-six huge vortexes. Upon looking closely, it was possible to see thirty-six weapons within those thirty-six vortexes. Every single one emanated the same type of taboo aura as the black spear. These were the taboo weapons that were sealed inside of the Thirty-Six Immortal Constellations imperial-class technique!
Thanks to the incantation gesture performed by Crown Prince Brightsouth, three of the thirty-six taboo weapons rose up and emerged from their sealed state. One of them was a trident that emanated a raging godly might. The next was a black saber with a cold, killing glow that would shock any onlookers. The third was a blood-red battle-ax, around which circled countless horrendous souls of the deceased.
In order to kill Xu Qing, Crown Prince Brightsouth was willing to push any divine ability to its limit. And these three taboo weapons were no exception. He yanked his right hand back, and the three taboo weapons emerged from the illusory image. As they flew out, they materialized, causing taboo power to spread out everywhere.
Normally speaking, the heavenly daos would have interfered. Unfortunately... this was Firemoon Darkheaven territory, and the Firemoons had the ability to suppress heavenly daos.
The distant sound of rumbling thunder could be heard, but no lightning fell.
As killing intent surged in the eyes of Crown Prince Brightsouth, the three terrifying taboo weapons swiveled to Xu Qing, whose god soul was half emerged from his fleshly body. The weapons then shot toward him. There was nothing to block their path or resist them. There was only a seven-colored light that flickered briefly a few times inside Xu Qing.
Then the trident stabbed into his god soul, the black saber slashed into his neck, and the blood-red battle-ax chopped into his chest. His god soul shattered into motes of light that fell to the ground. His head flew off and tumbled down into the lava. His fleshly body shattered into countless chunks of gore that rained down.
Off in the distance, Grand Prince’s facial expression was warped with grief. His eyes were completely bloodshot, and he was trembling from head to toe.
The Captain stood there with his eyes wide.
Up in the air, Crown Prince Brightsouth breathed a sigh of relief, though he was actually not completely pleased.
“It’s honestly a surprise that, other than those handful of people, nobody in my generation can stand up to this move of mine. So boring.”
He waved his hand, and nine stars faded away. Everything went back to normal. Reaching out with his right hand, he made a grasping gesture toward the spot where Xu Qing had fallen.
But then, his expression flickered as he suddenly sensed an astonishing time power erupting from Xu Qing’s mangled flesh and shattered god soul. Before the crown prince could figure out what was happening, a huge sundial appeared overhead, rumbling loudly as its gnomon spun.
Time... was reversing! The chunks of fallen flesh and the remnants of the god soul all swept together. They came from the land, from the lava, from the air, and they converged in the blink of an eye.
What formed was Xu Qing’s god state fleshly body and his god soul. Red soul threads waved back and forth. Crystal bones glittered. The vicious body complete with its beautiful good looks. Xu Qing stood there looking like a divine likeness. Glittering light shone everywhere. He was completely unharmed.
Off in the distance, Grand Prince stared in shock.
The Captain’s expression was the same as ever as he smiled.
Crown Prince Brightsouth backed up a few steps. Glaring at Xu Qing, he said, “Natural laws of time!”
Xu Qing’s eyes opened and they erupted with seven-colored light. Looking calmly at Crown Prince Brightsouth, he said, “This hasn’t been easy, but I should definitely say thank you.”
Xu Qing reached out and closed his right hand into a fist. What instantly appeared was a shocking black saber, a terrifying trident, a blood-red ax filled with a sensation of slaughter, and a black spear that could conquer every obstacle.... Four taboo weapons all appeared around Xu Qing!