Chapter 856: Seething Killing Intent
It was no exaggeration to say that Master Stillwinter was currently stunned. He had never seen any divine ability or magical technique like this. Nor had he experienced a sensation like this. But he could clearly sense the majesty of the rippling water. A profound sense of deadly crisis rose up within him.
He could sense that he had lost some of his ability to move, and his cultivation base was locked down and totally still. Combined with the pressure from the violet moon and the encircling soul threads, it meant that even if he did have some heaven-overturning, sea-inverting abilities, they couldn’t be used at the moment. All he could do was think.
Because of that, he was reeling at the thought of all his secrets being made visible. He looked down at the water and saw that everything about himself was reflected there, including the entire path he had walked so far in his journey of cultivation. Everything that belonged to him and all his secrets were there, whether they were illusory techniques or material items.
He suddenly came to the conclusion... that if his reflection sustained damage, the same would happen to his true form. That premonition prompted him to struggle to free himself, except that he couldn’t move a muscle.
The version of himself in the water grew clearer. The sensation of death grew more intense.
Meanwhile, Xu Qing’s eyes glittered. By means of the divine ability of Fishing the Moon in the Well, he had learned something very unexpected. And that related to Master Stillwinter’s reserve powers! Clearly, this was why he ranked second in the Firemoon Darkheavens’ echelon.
Ninety-seven god monuments. Totems of ninety-seven perished gods!
The sensation caused Xu Qing’s chest to tighten. However, he knew that now wasn’t the time to speculate or analyze. Therefore, after a brief glance, he unhesitatingly reached out and closed his fingers into a fist.
“This world of heaven and earth can be considered a well...” he said, his voice thrumming as if with ancient time as it echoed over the water.
Every word he spoke contained some of the dao. And the elements combined into a water drop that was the beginning of the mysterious daoist magic.
The water drop hit the surface of the water, and ripples spread out. They distorted the reflection of Master Stillwinter, as well as the ninety-seven souls. The ripples became a huge hand, which then reached down, and grabbed the ninety-seven souls to fish them out!
Xu Qing wanted them all!
Master Stillwinter’s mind spun as a painful tearing sensation swept through him. At the same time, the ninety-seven souls in the water trembled.
As Xu Qing put more force into his effort to fish out the souls, they distorted, slowly bending up toward the surface of the water. It looked as though Xu Qing would fish them out into the open at any moment.
But then, the god monuments that contained the souls flickered with golden light. The totems that depicted the various gods then opened their eyes as if they were alive. The golden pupils all locked onto Xu Qing.
Xu Qing’s heart started racing. Despite being separated by the water, it was no surprise the gazes of ninety-seven gods caused him to immediately show signs of mutation. Fleshy tendrils sprouted all over him, and his soul filled with intense pain.
At the same time, the ninety-seven gods erupted with a force of expulsion, which instantly affected the well, and caused Xu Qing’s fishing effort to fail for the first time ever!
Simultaneously, Master Stillwinter started to struggle against the binding effects.
Xu Qing’s expression was grave as he sent out godsource to maintain his current state. His eyes narrowed. He now had two theories regarding the ninety-seven god monuments.
The first theory was that they were some type of ceremony. And since he couldn’t fish them all out, then maybe he would just try taking one. Perhaps that would interrupt the ceremony.
The second theory was that one of the ninety-seven souls was Master Stillwinter’s life essence soul. If he could extract that one, it could be deadly.
However, the difficulty level would be extreme, and he didn’t have enough time to go slowly and carefully. Eyes glittering with cold light, he scanned the ninety-seven souls, picked one, and then reached out with his right hand and unleashed the full power of Fishing the Moon in the Well.
He focused on that one specific soul. A huge illusory hand appeared on the surface of the water. It dipped down, surrounded that one soul, and then jerked up.
The sound of splashing water was accompanied by the enraged roars of the other ninety-six souls. That alone caused the hand formed by Xu Qing to start falling apart. The soul he’d grabbed was struggling, and the other souls were rejecting his presence. Because of that, despite having grabbed onto that one specific soul, he couldn’t get it out of the water.
Seeing that nothing was working, Xu Qing took a deep breath, lifted his right foot, and then stomped it down onto the surface of the water. Muffled rumbling swept out as the water rushed toward the crumbling hand, entered it, and bolstered it. Because everything was focused on the hand, the entire well started to fade away.
The hand continued crumbling; Xu Qing continued bolstering it. Eventually, just before the hand was about to collapse into nothing, Master Stillwinter’s ninety-seventh soul broke through the surface of the water to appear in front of Xu Qing.
When Xu Qing sensed it, he felt slightly disappointed to discover that it didn’t contain Master Stillwinter’s life essence soul. Yet it was without the slightest hesitation that Xu Qing then turned and fled.
A piercing cry rang out behind him, accompanied by the sound of splashing water.
Fishing the Moon in the Well had disappeared!
A terrifying aura erupted from Master Stillwinter, who was still howling loudly. Being able to move once again, his bloodshot eyes locked onto the fleeing Xu Qing. At the same time, fear lingered within him.
Xu Qing had speculated correctly. The ninety-seven souls did contain one that was Master Stillwinter’s life essence soul. If Xu Qing had fished that one out, Master Stillwinter would have been on his way to death now. It was the first time since he had begun practicing cultivation that Master Stillwinter had felt such an intense level of deadly crisis.
What was more, though Xu Qing hadn’t been able to extract the soul he wanted, it didn’t change the fact that Master Stillwinter was now missing a god monument, which was equally damaging. The tearing sensation that filled him caused his face to distort. The only thing he could think of at the moment was to give chase, get that soul back, and put it back inside to make himself whole again. Though he still felt lingering fear, he also sensed raging killing intent within himself.
“Time to die!” he roared, taking a step forward. That single step took him all the way to Xu Qing, where he viciously shoved his hand out.
Seeing the incoming blow, Xu Qing’s eyes glittered with mysterious light and he waved his left hand. His ancient sun appeared.
This was a trump card that could be considered overwhelmingly powerful. Unleashing it would have terrifying consequences, and Xu Qing wasn’t even sure if he would be able to evade the blast if he detonated it.
That consideration was the main reason that, after arriving here in Firemoon Darkheaven territory, he had only used the power of a Dawning Sun as a threat.
The moment the ancient sun appeared, the pursuing Master Stillwinter directly referenced that very concern.
“A Dawning Sun! Xu Qing, if you dare to detonate a Dawning Sun here, you’ll wipe out the Mountain and Sea Region. You might as well just declare war on the Firemoon Darkheavens! Based on my species’ temperament, we’ll immediately send troops against humankind. After all, you’re human, and the Dawning Suns are humankind’s domain treasures!
“Don’t use the Dawning Sun, and you’re just a dead person. But use it, and you’ll still die, but so will the rest of humankind! Do you really dare to do something like that, Xu Qing?”
Master Stillwinter was enraged, but managed to keep his cool. Having directly stated Xu Qing’s biggest concern, he didn’t hesitate to raise his hand and then drop it in an attack.
Unfortunately, the presence of a Dawning Sun was not something he could just discount. Thus, he held back some of his cultivation base power in case he needed to defend himself. A boom rang out as Xu Qing was sent spinning back, blood spraying out of his mouth.
He did not detonate the ancient sun. However, it wasn’t because of anything Master Stillwinter had said. His entire reason for bringing the sun out to begin with wasn’t to detonate it, but to use it as a threat. It was a message to Master Stillwinter that he had a trump card and was willing to end their fight in mutual destruction. He simply wanted to distract his enemy with misgivings. Those misgivings would limit how much his enemy could do overall.
Xu Qing’s facial expression didn’t change when he saw that his plan was working. He hung the ancient sun at his belt, all while simultaneously backing up and pulling out the soul he had fished out. He squeezed his hand down onto the soul. He had been holding it ever since extracting it, as it was another trump card he could use. As he squeezed down on it, Master Stillwinter shivered, and intense pain swept through him.
Next, Little Shadow and Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior appeared. Along with the violet moon, they attacked Master Stillwinter.
Xu Qing didn’t slow down at all. He just kept fleeing at top speed.
Master Stillwinter was starting to get irritated, and his killing intent was intensifying. With the wave of his hand, he sent the shadow and the patriarch spinning away. Bypassing the violet moon, he continued his pursuit.
However, after only ten breaths of time passed, Xu Qing clenched his right hand tighter onto the soul, which creaked as though it might shatter.
Intense pain erupted from Master Stillwinter’s soul. Howling shrilly, he prepared to make a move. But then Xu Qing’s eyes turned pitch black. Looking over his shoulder, he sent a mist of taboo poison spreading out to cover Master Stillwinter.
At the same time, he took out a command medallion and sent some divine will inside.
“Food’s here, Your Majesty.”
He threw the command medallion out to activate it. But only a moment later, the medallion tumbled right back into Xu Qing’s hands. A fluctuation rolled out of it.
“Corpses of dead gods? No way! I only eat live food!”
Frowning, Xu Qing kept running.
Master Stillwinter closed in again and was about to launch his attack. But then Xu Qing squeezed down harder on the soul in his right hand while simultaneously saying,
“This world of heaven and earth can be considered a well....” Heaven and earth distorted as water ripples appeared.
Master Stillwinter instinctively stopped in place. Except that, an instant later, nothing happened. The water vanished.
Xu Qing couldn’t possibly use Fishing the Moon in the Well twice in such a short period of time. His words had been a bluff. And he took advantage of Master Stillwinter’s hesitation to shoot as far off into the distance as possible. At the same time, he kept crushing the soul in his hand.
Master Stillwinter seemed on the verge of going mad. Blood-red light flared off of him as he once again gave chase.
But then a host of prison cells appeared overhead. It was D-132.
Xu Qing knew how people thought. When people felt a sense of danger, only to find out they had been tricked, they would instinctively start to relax. At the same time, if you inflicted pain on the soul of the enemy, it would distract them and prevent them from thinking clearly. Attacking at a moment like that would bring the best chances of success.
It was why Xu Qing hadn’t just crushed the soul completely from the beginning. One big blast of pain wasn’t as effective as continuous pain. That said, it was something that couldn’t be done repeatedly, as the enemy would quickly acclimate to the pain. Therefore, the best tactic seemed to be to keep up the continuous pain before releasing a huge blast at the end.
Sure enough, when D-132 appeared, it quickly surrounded Master Stillwinter.
At the same time, the fleeing Xu Qing didn’t even look over his shoulder. He just squeezed down with all his might, detonating the soul in his hand. The soul shattered, releasing a huge blast of dangerous force.
The god monument connected to the soul was covered by Xu Qing’s godsource. Then Xu Qing, gritting his teeth against his own injuries, shot at top speed toward the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands.
Just as he disappeared over the horizon, howls of grief rose up from the inmates in D-132. The prison shattered in all directions, and Master Stillwinter appeared, his hair disheveled as he dragged a huge finger behind him. His expression was completely ferocious. The pain from the shattered soul was hard to bear.
The finger, meanwhile, shivered. Then a face appeared on īts surface, and īt was clearly terrified.
“Don’t kill me! I was forced to do all this. I’ll help you! I’ve been wanting to put an end to that fiendish killer for a long time now. Let’s work together! We want the same thing!”
“Shut up!” Master Stillwinter shouted, his killing intent spiking. Looking at Xu Qing disappearing, he gave chase at top speed.