Chapter 982: A Slight Time Advantage
Sounds of nature drifted about the seafloor.
The aura of death neared. Ahead. Behind. It was the same.
But Xu Qing in golden crow form had eyes that flashed with determination. Gripping the severed hand, he followed the rhythm of the natural sounds as he sped forward. As he did, his eyes glittered, and golden crow fire flared around him. He was like a flower made of flames as he moved along the seafloor. As a result, the seafloor shone with dazzling, eye-catching light.
As he raced inexorably closer to the dragon chariot, his heart felt empty. He kept his thoughts externalized. He was completely focused on his golden crow form, and the music of the severed hand. He was almost like an actual golden crow as he got closer and closer to the bronze dragon chariot.
Seafloor sludge was pushed to the side while the black seawater churned. Xu Qing, surrounded by fire, was the most eye-catching thing as Floating Fiend’s gaze lowered onto him.
The moment the gaze landed on him, Xu Qing in golden crow form shuddered. He could again sense the power of an Imperial Sovereign’s gaze. Or perhaps it was most accurate to say that he felt the weight of the authority coming from those two eyes.
The power of erasure caused more cracks to appear. The gaze caused the black fire on him to start dying down. He shook from head to toe as more cracks spread out. Blood sprayed out of his mouth.
It was at that exact same moment that Xu Qing in golden crow form saw something incredibly terrifying some distance away in the water. It was a majestic giant. It was enormous and covered with countless tentacles that swayed and writhed. Draped over one shoulder was a massive chain that stretched behind it.
At the end of the chain was a bronze dragon chariot. The chariot was very rundown, covered with rust and other traces of extreme age. However, the body of the chariot had beautiful carvings that still emanated an imperial air.
The giant was dragging the bronze chariot behind it as it strode across the seafloor. Each step caused waves of silt to rise up, and sent waves rolling out on the surface. Along with it came the sound of terrifying teeth crunching together.
The moment Xu Qing heard it, lingering fear rose within him. Despite having a much different cultivation base than the last time he encountered the chariot and giant, the pressure he felt still caused him to tremble instinctively. However, he didn’t slow down. In fact, he sped up. An instant later, he pierced through the currents, passed through the silt, and appeared right in front of the massive giant and chariot.
In comparison, Xu Qing in golden crow form was incredibly tiny. However, the golden crow aura plus the music of the severed hand... formed a special karma that couldn’t be severed by the shears. Suddenly, the giant stopped in place and looked up, allowing the golden-crow-form Xu Qing to pass by its head. That caused the giant’s massive form to form an obstacle to Floating Fiend.
Xu Qing had gambled correctly. However... just as Xu Qing neared the giant and chariot, Floating Fiend looked away from him.
“Your dazzling body made it easy for me to lock my vision onto you,” Floating Fiend said coolly. “You sought to use this giant and chariot to block my path. If my gaze of killing intent touched the giant, then it would meet some unknown conditions and result in certain complications?
“My son had the treasured needle of a Grand Emperor, and now you have it, right? You can’t connect to my karma, unfortunately. You’re clever, I’ll give you that. But not clever enough.”
With that, he stepped to the side to avoid the chariot. It wasn’t anything difficult as far as he was concerned.
After all, no matter how shocking the chariot and dragon were in years past, the giant was now just a corpse. It didn’t matter that it could still move around on instinct. Without causing it to do something, it was basically useless.
That said, though Xu Qing’s enemy immediately realized what he was trying to do, considering how much of a crisis moment it was, how could his plan possibly be as simplistic as that which Floating Fiend had just given voice to?
As Xu Qing shot past the giant’s massive head, the eye of the severed hand he held turned bright red. Countless ghosts appeared. Then, the music that had, moments ago, been lovely sounds of nature, changed into the howling of ghosts.
It was the same tune, but the sound was piercing and mournful. It had turned into the sound of countless ghosts haunting the night. What was more, the rotting moon that the severed hand had previously used on Xu Qing appeared again.
Instantly, the seafloor was thrown into chaos. A rotting moon rose up in front of the giant, right by Floating Fiend. The vicious face of the young woman was there, eyes opened and looking directly at Floating Fiend! A godwarding like an ancestral curse spread out in shocking fashion. Godly might abounded. The giant shivered, lowered its head, and then fixed its turbid gaze on Floating Fiend.
Floating Fiend frowned and stopped in place, his eyes glittering.
Meanwhile, Xu Qing put everything on the line by burning more soul threads to flee with Light Evasion. In the blink of an eye, he disappeared from his position behind the giant.
When he reappeared he was 5,000 kilometers away on the surface of the water. Blood sprayed out of his mouth, and more immortal mercury seeped out of the cracks in the surface of his body. Together, the blood and mercury dropped into the sea below. He was currently staggering and hardly able to stand up straight. An aura of death spread from his distorted and rotting soul.
It was the curse power of the rotting moon. Though the curse spreading from the moon projection hadn’t been targeting him, it was still so dangerous that it had affected him. Thankfully, he knew how to negate the curse.
Therefore, the moment he appeared, he had the severed hand convert to playing the true Natural Sounds Welcome the Moon . As the song entered his soul, it caused the will of rot to fade away. Next, he quickly sent a voice message, except that a moment later... his face turned extremely grim.
I’m still within his range!
Without any hesitation, he gritted his teeth and used Light Evasion again. He vanished.
Time passed.
Waves rolled out over the Forbidden Sea. The sea was black and seemed to have no end. It looked no different from usual. The species on the islands, the boats on the surface of the water, and the countless living beings all went on like normal. Cultivators cultivated. Hunters hunted. The bustling sound of activity could be heard on many islands as evening fell.
The afterglow of nightfall spread out across the black waves. The sky gradually turned forbidding. Night was on the way.
No one could detect or sense that a fierce chase was going on in the Forbidden Sea. All traces of it were erased. Floating Fiend’s authority of erasure ensured that cultivators who didn’t have the same cultivation base as him couldn’t detect what was happening.
As for the shears left behind by the Vivifiend Grand Emperor who had once followed Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity.... It was an ancestral device belonging to the Vivifiend holy land, and its powers bordered on authority. It had been given to Floating Fiend by the species’ patriarch, where it had floated above his head for the past hundred years, repeatedly severing the misfortunes of failed breakthroughs. But there was something more significant about it. It was how Floating Fiend’s breakthrough to Imperial Sovereign allowed him to get the authority of erasure.
The moment Floating Fiend had succeeded, the blessing of the treasured shears enabled his powers of erasure to reach an incredibly high level. Though Grand Emperor senses couldn’t be easily severed, it was possible for the shears to temporarily erase them. And it increased the range dramatically.
Before, Xu Qing had definitely appeared in front of people, only for them to not be able to detect him, as if he was in a different aspect of space-time. It was the same right now. From the beginning until now, the chase had been like this: quiet and undetectable.
As evening was buried by night, Xu Qing’s soul thread count had dropped so low he only had a bit more than 3,000,000. He was reaching the end of what he was capable of. And even now, his sound powers weren’t working.
It was as if all heaven and earth were within Floating Fiend’s range. Of course, that couldn’t actually be possible. But as night fell, it seemed to extinguish all hope.
I only have one Light Evasion left....
Night had fallen by the time Xu Qing reached a location not far from the Lobsterfolk. His face was pale, and both his fleshly body and soul had reached their limit.
That said, he was still completely calm at heart. An Imperial Sovereign was chasing him down to kill him. It was a moment of deadly crisis. But he had experienced many potentially fatal situations like this. This was probably more dangerous of a situation than any of the others, but that didn’t mean he would let himself give in to negativity.
Taking a deep breath, he took the human nature he had been intentionally wiping away during the chase, and completely dimmed it. Coldly rational godliness then filled him from head to toe. His eyes suddenly became vastly more profound as he turned to look behind him.
He began to analyze things rationally. He knew that the giant and the dragon chariot could influence an Imperial Sovereign, but most likely, it wouldn’t last for long. After all, no matter how amazing the chariot, the giant, and the rotting moon were, they were all dead things.
I bet this guy has a reason for letting me run away. From the look of it, my actions are furthering the erasure effect. He’s basically halfway to success already.
Xu Qing looked down at a sea beast swimming through the water beneath him. Normally speaking, if this beast even sensed his aura from a great distance, it would flee trembling. But now it didn’t even notice him.
He must be afraid of my karma, so he doesn’t want to just directly kill me. Seems to me that continuing to run is pointless.
Xu Qing wasn’t sure of all the details of this person’s authority, and it was difficult to narrow down its scope and principles via analysis. All he could do was use the clues he had to make a plan of action. After a few breaths of time passed, Xu Qing looked down at the seafloor.
He needs time to erase me. And I also need time for the outside world to realize what’s going on. But theoretically speaking, he needs a lot less time. Therefore, what I need to do is slow him down. And at the same time, give myself more time.... That means there’s one place that’s perfectly suitable.
After coldly assessing his remaining soul threads, he unhesitatingly started burning them, almost as if they weren’t his own.
Using one last Light Evasion, he vanished. When he reappeared, he was in the depths of the sea at a marine trench. At the same time, the severity of his wounds passed a major threshold. His physical body began to crumble. Countless bits of flesh and blood spread out. Thankfully, the immortal mercury and the sealing marks managed to hold everything together.
Even still, at the moment, Xu Qing hardly looked human. His soul was also crumbling. Despite his godliness bolstering his mind and thoughts, he still lapsed into unconsciousness. However, just before passing out, he calmly sent an order to the god vine.
As he passed out, the god vine wrapped him up and shot into the marine trench, entered the bubble, and sped toward the dilapidated pagoda. After enough time passed for half an incense stick to burn, Floating Fiend appeared outside of the trench, his eyes gleaming.
So, the brat came here for his last stand? Floating Fiend took a step forward and appeared outside the bubble. As he tried to enter, the bubble’s force of expulsion erupted, shoving at Floating Fiend with mountain-toppling, sea-draining force. After taking more than ten steps, Floating Fiend stopped. Looking at the dilapidated pagoda only a few dozen paces away, he frowned.
Then he continued onward.