Chapter 977: 500 Kilometers of Hell
Xu Qing's voice swept out across the seafloor. The noise of the sea current echoed in all directions. There was also the sound of fish swimming nearby, and the cry of the sea beasts in the depths.... The heartbeats of Floating Fiend’s son and his nine dao protectors, as well as the sound of the blood pumping through their veins, all mixed together.
Combined with Natural Sounds Welcome the Moon being played by the severed hand, it created an astonishing tune that surged everywhere.
Where it went, it killed in gruish fashion. Terrifying power caused the water to seethe violently. Mountain-toppling, sea-draining force crushed down on everything.
Floating Fiend’s son and his dao protectors were astonished, and immediately tapped into their divine abilities. In an instant, their flesh expanded, and they grew larger. That was their innate ability, in which they could take the flesh and blood of all the other species they had stolen in their lives and unleash it at the same time. It was like something that a freakish monster would do, and indeed, they looked like freakish monsters. That was how they attempted to fight back against the tempest created by Xu Qing’s godly authority of sound.
Intense rumbling could be heard as the power of sound crushed everything in its path. The Vivifiends were sent tumbling as a huge vortex formed. It was a 500-kilometer vortex that sealed and cut off the outside. From a distance, it was like a gigantic orb of sound.
The sound outside of that area was being sucked in, causing the tempest inside to grow more intense.
When Xu Qing chose to kill, it happened, no matter what.
As the astonished Vivifiend cultivators fought back, Xu Qing stood, his face completely expressionless. His eyes were cold, though. Within that 500-kilometer area, the Vivifiend cultivators were being assailed by the sound tempest, and they were completely visible to Xu Qing via his god perception. This was his battleground. He had prepared this to use on the giant, but the giant had not yet arrived, so the Vivifiends got to experience it first.
Xu Qing hadn’t planned to do any killing. But the Vivifiends clearly had malicious intentions, and therefore, according to the principles Xu Qing lived by, they had to die. As the sound authority raged, Xu Qing walked forward. He stepped into the sound, disappeared, and then reappeared... within the sound, right in front of one of the dao protectors.
This individual didn’t look like a human at all. He was several dozen meters tall, with four arms. He was extremely skinny with a very small head. What was really bizarre was that the skin on his chest was wriggling. He looked very monstrous. As he performed an incantation gesture, he pulsed with intense energy and blood, which caused his chest to wriggle even more violently. Unexpectedly, as he backed up, he sucked in the sound around him.
This Vivifiend was extraordinary. Although, to be more precise, it was his heart that was extraordinary, as it could devour sound.
The moment Xu Qing appeared in front of him, he realized it. Looking up, he lunged at Xu Qing with all four of his arms.
The only thing waiting for him was a cold snort. The sound of it exploded in all directions, becoming the power of sound authority. It surrounded the cultivator, making a smaller sound orb within the huge 500-kilometer sound orb. Within it, wild fluctuations erupted as sounds clashed with each other, creating a resonance that caused the Vivifiend’s face to fall.
When the critical moment arrived, he didn’t say a word. Three major worlds appeared around him. At the same time, his chest split open to reveal a pure white heart! The heart was covered with ancient symbols, and as soon as it was in the open, it turned into a vortex that violently sucked in all of the nearby sound. At the same time, a devilish will swept out.
It was an extraordinary heart called the Nine Wills Devil Heart, which came from a very mysterious species that lived out in the starry sky. Members of the species were born as Nascent Soul cultivators, and when they grew up, they reached the peak of Smoldering God. Years ago, this Vivifiend cultivator expended immense effort to get this heart. As a result, he was able to quickly rise to prominence in the Vivifiend holy land. He had started out as a commoner, but now here he was, dao protector to Floating Fiend’s son.
Knowing it was a life-or-death moment, he wasn’t holding anything back, and was tapping into the power of the heart to try to turn things around.
However... despite the heart being extraordinary, he was facing Xu Qing, who was even more extraordinary.
That was especially true considering that this battlefield had been specially prepared by Xu Qing to deal with the giant and the dragon chariot. He had hidden a lot of sound in the area, and now he was using it to terrifying and deadly effect. And more sound was being added into the mix every moment.
The extraordinary heart only lasted an instant before it couldn’t sustain so much sound. After trembling in resonance with the sound orb, it shattered. A scream rang out, the sound of which became a sound that slashed through the Vivifiend cultivator. Blood sprayed as he was killed in body and soul.
Xu Qing, in the form of the golden crow, flew out of the crumbling sound orb. The golden crow shimmered and turned into a black spear, which then shot toward the next Vivifiend cultivator. It was a movement that couldn’t truly be described in terms of ‘speed.’ Wherever sound was, he could appear. Something like that was perfectly suited to slaughter. The spear pierced through the air to appear in front of the second Vivifiend and stab viciously toward him.
Strength of cultivation base was only a foundational requirement to be a dao protector of the son of Floating Fiend. More importantly was potential. These so-called dao protectors were expected to do more than just keep Floating Fiend’s son safe. Their mission was to grow along with him. According to the ranking system in their species, after Floating Fiend became an Imperial Sovereign, his son would become a junior chief. The dao protectors were supposed to accompany him on his path to becoming the actual chief. In other words, he was to eventually be the leader of the whole species.
That was why, though the first dao protector only had three worlds, to Xu Qing, he felt more like someone at the peak of four worlds.
In many respects, their status and position was vastly higher than the two scouts from their species that Xu Qing had killed earlier. The scouts sent to Revered Ancient by the holy lands could vary greatly in strength depending on the holy land they came from.
This dao protector was clearly no simpleton. As the spear approached, his eyes shone brightly. Ignoring the injuries being inflicted to him by the deadly sound around him, he performed a double-handed incantation gesture.
In the blink of an eye, he vanished. He had merged with the surrounding water!
The fleshly body he was using came from a species in the starry sky that lived mostly in the water. He hadn’t merged with the water before because he wanted to keep that ability as a trump card to use in a critical moment. Seeing that Xu Qing was trying to kill him, he didn’t hesitate to use that ability. The sea around him suddenly surged with a tideflow power that knocked the spear down. Then, what remained of the power formed restraints that bound it in place.
Next, he cast his senses out to notify the other dao protectors via divine will.
“Lord of a region? So what!”
At the same time, the other Vivifiend cultivators were taking actions to fight back against the sound and hopefully free themselves. Though their attempts were extraordinary, they were all injured in various ways.
However... the son of Floating Fiend was the child of a quasi-Imperial Sovereign, and thus, his methods were different from all the others. At a critical moment, he unleashed... the Grand Emperor treasure in his right palm that could stitch karma. It turned into a blood-red streak that zipped around him.
It could stitch karma, amend fate, and determine the movement of the sound authority. It could cause magical laws to appear and bring natural laws. At the same time... combined with the signal being sent out by the dao protector who had merged with the sea, it could point right toward Xu Qing!
If sound were likened to ice, then this needle was like lava. Where it went, the sound authority had to retreat.
“Follow the needle to Xu Qing and kill him!”
As his orders echoed out, the needle glowed red and shot toward Xu Qing’s location. The Vivifiends who had previously scattered all sensed it, and followed the path of the needle to also get close to Xu Qing.
However, even as they were following that track, the dao protector who had merged with the water was stunned to find that although his tideflow power had locked down the black spear, that spear... disappeared. Then Xu Qing appeared as if nothing had ever happened.
The tideflow seemed like nothing more than a gentle breeze that stirred his hair a bit. It didn’t do anything to his fleshly body. He was unable to do anything to stop Xu Qing from walking right up to where he was merged with the water. And before he could retreat, Xu Qing’s sound authority erupted.
A boom echoed out as the water in that spot was wiped out of existence. He had fused and would never unfuse. He was dead, interred in the water, and to some extent, that was like a return.
A boom echoed out as Xu Qing moved on.
At that same moment, misfortune... spread into the 500-kilometer area, combining with the sound authority to produce gruish results.
When the other dao protectors sensed what had happened, they were shocked.
The slaughter continued. The death of the second dao protector bolstered the sound authority. A few dozen kilometers away was the third dao protector. Even as he heard what happened, a host of innumerable soul threads appeared to him. They formed into a major world that rumbled right toward him.
Though astonished, he didn’t hesitate to act. A host of bumps appeared all over him, and then started exploding, releasing numerous black beetles. Astonishingly, his body was made of them! All of them scattered and headed in different directions.
Seeing that, Xu Qing’s eyes gleamed quizzically. He was really learning a lot about Vivifiend cultivators thanks to this encounter. They were really a strange species.
Xu Qing’s major world trembled, then collapsed, turning into 50,000,000 soul threads that spread rapidly. Sound authority was the guide. Misfortune was the lock. And the soul threads gave chase to deliver the mortal blow. The result was foreordained, and thus, Xu Qing turned to look in a different direction.
For the most part, the surviving dao protectors had met up with their lord. There was only one who was alone, and Xu Qing was looking in his direction. It seemed like he was on his own intentionally.
Eyes narrowing, Xu Qing took a step forward and vanished. When he reappeared, he could see the lone dao protector.
The dao protector apparently noticed, and turned to face him. As he did so... he transformed. In an instant, he came to look exactly like Xu Qing. It wasn’t just his physical appearance. His aura, his karma, his fate, and everything else about him changed.
“I’ve been waiting for you for a long time now,” the dao protector said coldly. “Your fate and your karma are now connected to me. Going forward, whatever injuries I sustain, you sustain. If I die, you die.”
Xu Qing didn’t say a word in response. He just shook his head. He stepped forward and launched a fist strike that combined the Undying Emperor’s Fist and Within the Nine Springs. A boom rang out.
The dao protector didn’t try to avoid the blow. He let it hit him, and then stumbled backward with blood spraying out of his mouth. His expression was cold as he looked at Xu Qing. This move of his had never failed in all the many years he used it.
And yet, Xu Qing launched a second blow. The water raged.
More blood sprayed dramatically out of the dao protector’s mouth, and he tumbled backward completely out of control. And Xu Qing was striding toward him like a war god, seemingly unfazed in any way. Finally, his face fell. He now realized that this terrifying enemy’s blows were indeed hitting both of them. And yet... although his organs were in great pain, his opponent hardly seemed affected at all.
“You—” Nothing like this had ever happened. The previously supremely confident dao protector now backed up in shock. Sadly for him, it was too late.
Xu Qing appeared in front of him and launched another punch. Then another and another. In a very short period of time, he launched nine fist strikes.
Being struck by the nine blows caused the dao protector’s body to simply explode. With a boom, he was destroyed in body and soul. An instant later, his body formed anew, a result of the years of unleashing karmic links.
But... then the golden crow ate him. Very neat and tidy.
Xu Qing stood there.
“You can’t handle my karma,” he said coolly. Meanwhile, shrill screams echoed out in the sound orb. The screams came from the countless beetles from the third dao protector. They had been unable to evade the innumerable soul threads. The soul threads devoured them. Very neat and tidy.
“Only a few more,” Xu Qing murmured, his eyes cold as he took a step forward.
The violet moon rose within the 500-kilometer sound orb. Violet moonlight carried killing intent as it shone down. Everything started to get colder. Taboo poison spread, forming something like a huge eye. The eye opened. It was Hellfei’s eye, and it was looking out at the hell that was the 500-kilometer area on the seafloor.