Chapter 848: A Red Sky
The lead slaver that Grand Prince was talking to was also a Firemoon Darkheaven. He wore expensive clothes and had a profound cultivation base, as well as a derisive sneer. He looked at Xu Qing standing some distance away, and then back at Grand Prince.
“It’s not that I can’t sell them to you. But I have to ask, are you human or Firemoon Darkheaven? In a place like this, there’s a big difference between the two. If you’re human, then you don’t qualify to buy slave cultivators. But if you’re a Firemoon, I can do a bit of business with you.”
The lead slaver grabbed the nearest human slave, a prisoner of war, and forced his mouth open.
“See? Nice teeth, right? Definitely a good value.”
The human prisoner of war’s expression went from being numb to humiliated. Finally, he just closed his eyes. That is, until the lead slaver jostled him so hard he had to open them.
The lead slaver laughed, then looked over at Xu Qing in a taunting manner. Considering that this slaver had brought human prisoners from the Nightshade Region here to sell as slaves, it was obvious that he had a spectacular background. As a result, he didn’t care at all what the human Grand Prince thought. After all, everyone knew that Grand Prince had been forsaken by his mother’s clan. What the slaver did care about was Xu Qing, the human who had taken first place in round one of the Great Hunt and become the champion.
Grand Prince’s expression was one of grim fury. Unfortunately, he was dealing with a Firemoon Darkheaven, so he didn’t have many options at hand. Taking a deep breath, he took out a jade slip and sent a message. He was prepared to use his own methods to buy the human slaves’ freedom.
Things played out as expected. Grand Prince had friends in these lands, and they might not be able to do anything incredibly dramatic for him, but in the trivial matter of buying some human slaves, they proved useful. Before long, some Firemoon Darkheaven cultivators strode up and bought the human prisoners.
Xu Qing watched the event play out. In the end, he slowly turned around and walked away with the lead slaver looking on with a taunting scowl. He made sure to walk very slowly.
The setting sun cast a red glow into the sky. As the light shone down onto the path he walked, everything looked like the color of blood.
Within that red glow, two voices spoke inside of Xu Qing’s heart.
One voice was telling him that he didn’t have some sort of deep connection to humankind. When he was young, he even saw humans eat other humans. The world was an evil place, and in most cases, people were evil toward members of their own species. The imperial capital wasn’t his home. His home was Sea-Sealing County. Family and friends would always be a soft spot. In this time and place, the most important thing was to make sure those you loved stayed alive.
But there was another voice speaking so softly that he couldn’t hear all the words. Of those he made out clearly, there were two names: Palace Lord Kong and Grand Emperor Swordsage.
Xu Qing walked back beneath that red glow. It was around the time the color left the sky that he arrived back at his residence.
There were a host of jade slips piled up outside the door. They were fighting challenges from Firemoon Darkheaven cultivators, as well as cultivators from subsidiary species. During the half month that passed, Xu Qing hadn’t accepted any challenges, and thus, now people didn’t just stop him on the street, they also sent jade slips to his residence. There were actually fewer today than usual.
Upon seeing the jade slips, Xu Qing stopped in place. He thought back to everything he had seen in this holy Firemoon city. The glares. The hostility. Master Gravesparrow’s loneliness. The taunting of the slaver. He thought of the numb looks he had seen on the faces of the humans, or how the slaver forced the prisoner’s mouth open to assess his teeth.
He closed his eyes.
From a young age, he had always unleashed slaughter because of killing intent. When someone threatened him, he would kill them to save his own life. That was why he hadn’t been paying much attention in this place. He didn’t want to complicate matters.
Before he had clinched the spot of round one champion, he’d had a clear goal, and had killed his way to this spot. And now that he was here, he just wanted to rest until the second round started. He didn’t want any complications during that time.
Although some of the challenges were surely sent by individuals, it was also clear that many of them came with more complicated strings attached. There were obviously people who wanted him out of the city. Because this place was a holy city, fighting wasn’t allowed. To accept a challenge to a fight, one needed to leave the city.
It doesn’t matter. I just need to bide my time.
Xu Qing looked away from the pile of jade slips and continued on his way into the residence. However, he walked very slowly and quietly.
Inside, the Captain sensed him and was about to rise to his feet to go and see what was going on.
Except, that was when the sound of footsteps could be heard behind Xu Qing. Along with the footsteps appeared five or six Firemoon Darkheaven youths who had stopped him on the street in recent days to issue challenges.
They were all in Spirit Trove, and all of them had issued multiple challenges. As a result, they had earned a bit of a reputation among Firemoon Darkheavens of their generation. And they had come here together as a group to continue that trend by issuing challenges formally by jade slip.
Upon catching sight of Xu Qing, one of them laughed coldly and threw a jade slip that clattered onto the ground. Then he opened his mouth to speak. Before he could, Xu Qing stopped, glanced at the jade slip, and then looked over his shoulder at the youth who had thrown it. The young man shivered from head to toe. And then, Xu Qing’s gaze caused him to swallow the words he had been about to speak. Xu Qing’s gaze was filled with something very cold that swept over him and filled him with an explosive sense of deadly crisis. Every scrap of muscle and flesh on his body trembled with a sense of danger, resulting in the young man taking a few steps back as he struggled to breathe.
His companions, who had also thrown out jade slips of challenge, also shivered as Xu Qing looked at them one by one. All of them suddenly felt profoundly uneasy. It was as if everything around them had turned into winter.
Blood-red snowflakes manifested, drifting down to pick up all the jade slips and bring them to Xu Qing. He reached out and grabbed them.
Around that time, the door opened and the Captain appeared. Looking at Xu Qing standing there, he opened his mouth to speak, then seemed to change what he had been about to say.
“Do whatever strikes your fancy, little Junior Brother. Thinking clearly is the key.”
Xu Qing’s hand clamped down hard, causing all of the jade slips to shatter, which officially established the terms of the fight.
Then Xu Qing spoke in a voice so cold the surrounding temperature dropped.
“I accept.”
As the words left his mouth, Xu Qing started to blur into nothing. The Firemoon cultivators who had issued the challenges also vanished.
Heavenfire City itself would take note of fighting challenges that had been accepted, and would teleport people out according to the details of the challenge.
After Xu Qing vanished from his residence, he materialized in the air above the city.
The dozens of Firemoon cultivators who had issued him challenges in recent days also materialized there. They were all breathing unsteadily. Some looked regretful, some astonished, and some alarmed. Some even tried to turn and run.
Most of them had issued their challenges to boost their own reputation. It didn’t make sense at all that Xu Qing would accept the challenges, or at the very least, it hadn’t occurred to any of them that he would accept. For the past half month, he had been completely ignoring any fighting challenges. However, today... something unexpected happened.
As their hearts raced, some of them opened their mouths to speak.
An instant later, the coldness in Xu Qing’s eyes erupted, and he stepped forward, appearing right in front of the youth who had thrown his jade slip out last.
The difference in battle prowess between the two of them was like an impassable ravine. Before the young man could even react, Xu Qing’s left hand stabbed into his throat. The young man’s fleshly body withered into a husk as Xu Qing absorbed it. His soul flickered weakly before Xu Qing devoured it.
The young man deflated like a popped balloon. In only a short single breath of time, his life ended. An agonized shriek drifted out into heaven and earth.
Everyone looking on was stunned. In their eyes, Xu Qing was no longer some random human who anyone could challenge. He had turned into a fiendish devil.
In their astonishment, they immediately tried to flee. But it was too late.
Xu Qing vanished and reappeared behind another cultivator. A dagger sliced through the cultivator’s neck. Everything seemed to get even colder as the head flew through the air in a geyser of blood.
From his perspective, the world was flipping end over end.
A boom rang out as the body collapsed and the head splattered onto the ground.
“Die!”
All of the inner frustration that had been building in Xu Qing was erupting. He took another step forward and appeared in front of a third Firemoon cultivator. Xu Qing didn’t bother even looking at him. He walked past, whereupon an anguished shriek rang out and all the blood exploded out of the Firemoon’s body.
That blood had been taken control of by another. It became a blood-colored flower that spun in the air as it descended toward Xu Qing and started rotating around him.
From a distance, it looked both monstrous and beautiful at the same time.
At the moment, Xu Qing wasn’t doing any thinking or analysis. And the two voices that had been speaking in his heart had combined to say one thing.
“Die!”
Flowers of blood bloomed outside the city, accompanied by screams of terror. Blood from the cultivators flowed through the air and converged around Xu Qing. He didn’t stop moving, and wherever he passed, death came.
Fleshly bodies exploded. Heads flew.
In that moment, the purpose of their lives was to be sacrificed to the blade. The dagger had a cloth made from a shroud, and it was now slick with blood. Its flashing edge became the last light in their lives.[1]
In the space of only about ten breaths of time, every single one of that group of dozens of cultivators... died!
And Xu Qing’s slaughter was the fastidious type, so he didn’t leave any corpses in the air above the city. As the blood swirled down, the crimson color in the dome of heaven shone down, making things even more red.
Xu Qing looked out at the city without saying a word. His actions. His gaze. His imposing manner. They said it all.
Anybody want to challenge me? I’m waiting for you.... Let’s fight!
1. Xu Qing made the dagger with the shroud inchapter 347 . ☜