Chapter 457: Hellspirit Bloodwing Lamp |
Intense energy of heaven and earth surged like the tide. The sky rippled and distorted as if it were a sea of spirit energy. The ancient heavenly dao inside the rift again began pulling the Ten Entrails Tree and absorbing it.
Xu Qing, the Captain, Qing Qiu, and Ning Yan were all getting closer and closer to the rift.
Xu Qing and the Captain weren’t the only ones to benefit. Thanks to the overflow of energy, Ning Yan and Qing Qiu also felt their cultivation bases stirring.
Meanwhile, Xu Qing just kept experiencing one astonishing situation after another. Right now, his senses were focused on his sixth heavenly palace. It was golden, and stationed within it was a heavenly dao. It was in the form of a huge sea, with the bluegreen dragon swimming within it, pulsing with fluctuations of a dao resonance. It was completely extraordinary.
As the power of heaven and earth rushed toward Xu Qing, his heart raced. Longing filled him as he absorbed that power and used it to work on his seventh heavenly palace. After about a dozen breaths of time passed, he looked up, and his eyes shone with scintillating light. His seventh heavenly palace was more than half complete.
Seventy percent. Eighty percent. Ninety percent....
A moment later, he took a deep breath as his seventh heavenly palace reached a state of ninety-nine percent materialization.
In this heavenly palace will be stationed.... Xu Qing’s mind raced. He briefly considered The Emperor’s Sword, but he still had a lot of work to do on that, so it didn’t seem appropriate. The Supreme Vastness Solitary Saber didn’t qualify either. The Gruegloom Daoseizing Art was very unique. Though it was a technique, it was more like a divine ability, and was different from Golden Crow Assimilates Myriad Spirits. It wasn’t appropriate either.
The black iron skewer and his shadow flashed through his mind before he dismissed them. Although both of them behaved perfectly well when he used them, he still didn’t fully trust either one. There was simply no way he could station either one in a heavenly palace. He had magical treasure fragments in his bag of holding, but it didn’t seem a good idea to station outside items in a heavenly palace.
Without hesitation, he reached out to the Ghost Emperor mountain in his sea of consciousness, grabbed it, and put it in his seventh heavenly palace. The moment it entered, the heavenly palace started shaking violently. As it turned out, the seventh heavenly palace was actually rejecting the Ghost Emperor mountain.
Xu Qing’s gaze sharpened; this was not the first time he had experienced a rejection like this.
Something similar happened with the taboo poison pill. The poison from that pill actually ravaged his body, and took a good amount of time to handle. He’d just needed to find ways to keep himself alive during the process. It was only after a lot of torment and bitterness that he managed to get the taboo poison pill to be part of his heavenly palace.
That said, the violet moon, golden crow, and bluegreen dragon hadn’t experienced rejection.
Xu Qing knew that though the violet moon existed on a very high level, after he had plundered it, it became fully his own. The golden crow and bluegreen dragon were similar, which was why they weren’t rejected.
As for the Ghost Emperor mountain, though he had gained enlightenment of it, when all was said and done, it was an imitation. In many respects, it was an outside item, and not thoroughly his own. Therefore, if he wanted to make it part of his heavenly palace, it was no surprise it got rejected. Eyes glittering coldly, Xu Qing inhaled deeply, bringing in massive amounts of spirit energy into himself. He immediately sent it to the seventh heavenly palace and used it to speed up the fusion with the Ghost Emperor mountain.
The mountain trembled as it slowly superimposed with the seventh heavenly palace.
The process wasn’t quick. But it wasn’t extremely slow like the taboo poison pill had been. That was especially true considering the power of heaven and earth available. It flowed into him without any end in sight.
Time passed. As the Ten Entrails Tree slowly entered the crevice, the Ghost Emperor mountain fusion process continued.
Thirty percent. Fifty percent. Seventy percent....
Xu Qing sat down cross-legged and gripped the tree tightly. Once he was firmly in place, he opened all the pores on his body and absorbed every ounce of spirit energy around him. After about thirty breaths of time passed, the Ghost Emperor mountain was fully fused with the heavenly palace. As rumbling sounds filled Xu Qing, he completed his seventh heavenly palace. The exterior looked less like a palace and more like a temple. Within that temple, the Ghost Emperor sat cross-legged, two sabers at his back, and the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pillar resting on his knees. He emanated a shocking godly resonance, and though his eyes were closed, he resembled Xu Qing in every way!
The moment his seventh heavenly palace was complete, Xu Qing erupted with powerful fluctuations. His aura climbed to a higher level, and Xu Qing could sense himself getting stronger. This version of himself was poles apart from the version that had first arrived at Ten Entrails of the True Immortal.
This good fortune really is amazing! However... things aren’t over yet!
He opened his eyes. He could sense that the power of heaven and earth wouldn’t last much longer, and that the assistance that came from completing the heavenly dao wouldn’t continue forever.
He extended his right hand, and within it appeared a life lamp shaped like a blood-colored wing. He performed an incantation gesture with his left hand, and the surrounding spirit power rushed into him and toward the life lamp. He was going to take advantage of the power of heaven and earth in the area to cleanse the lamp.
Considering it had been given to him by the Holytides, there was no way he could just trust that it was safe to use. If there were some blemishes in the lamp, or some cleverly hidden traps, then using the power of heaven and earth to remove them seemed completely appropriate. In the blink of an eye, spirit energy flooded into the lamp, causing the blood-colored glow to increase in intensity, until it was almost blinding.
Xu Qing cleansed it over and over again. Eyes narrowing, he performed an incantation gesture with his left hand and tapped into his seventh heavenly palace. Then, he used the power of the Ghost Emperor to cleanse it yet again. Next he used the power of the golden crow to do the same, then the violet moon, and then the taboo poison. Finally, the bluegreen dragon exhaled golden light to do the same. Using all of those various methods, he cleansed the life lamp. Only then did he feel safe inserting it into himself.
It vanished from his hand, and then, within the life mist in his sea of consciousness, where his other two life lamp heavenly palaces were... another heavenly palace appeared. The life mist roiled, and his sea of consciousness seethed. Blood-colored light pierced through the mist as his third life lamp turned into a heavenly palace. Instantly, he gained enlightenment of the details of that third lamp.
It was a hellspirit bloodwing lamp. The blessing it provided was different from the other two life lamps. It did not boost defenses, nor did it focus on slaughter. Instead, this life lamp provided increased speed!
Whoever had this life lamp could reach astonishing speeds that were many times faster than what they were previously capable of. It was part of a pair of lamps, and when used as a pair, the results would be even more terrifying, and would provide deadly assault power as well. But Xu Qing was pleased with even just this one wing. The sensation of speed he got made his heart swell.
The gains he had made this time were beyond compare. Whether it was the military credits or the heavenly dao fatherhood, they were enough to make anyone’s eyes completely bloodshot. Beyond that, he had gone from five heavenly palaces to eight.
His eighth palace was made from a life lamp, and that meant that his total palace limit had increased. In the past, his top limit was ten palaces, but now it was eleven.
What was more, as the energy of heaven and earth swirled around him, his ninth heavenly palace reached a state of about half materialization. By that point, their spot on the Ten Entrails Tree was only about 3,000 meters from the rift.
Seeing that, Xu Qing realized it was time to leave. He looked at the Captain. The Captain’s aura was obviously vastly superior to before. And even despite how much Xu Qing had advanced, he still couldn’t assess the Captain. That said, Xu Qing was used to that.
“We should leave, Eldest Brother.”
When Qing Qiu and Ning Yan heard his voice, they opened their eyes.
Ning Yan looked nervous. As for Qing Qiu, she was much more in-the-know than Ning Yan, and had already come to a conclusion about who Xu Qing and the Captain really were. Beneath her mask, her face was filled with mixed emotions.
Licking his lips, the Captain pointed at the heavenly dao above. “Hold on one second.”
Xu Qing followed the Captain’s gaze to the snow-white hand of the heavenly dao. Based on how well he knew the Captain, he had a good idea about what was going to happen next. It was no surprise. Whenever the Captain did something really big, he couldn’t leave without taking a bite out of something.
Noticing Xu Qing’s expression, the Captain blinked a few times.
“Little Junior Brother, this whole thing is going to cause a major stir. In the past, we’ve always had trouble making our getaway. But like I said before, I brought along a treasure this time.
“Once I activate it, I can’t really control it. Regardless of that, it’ll perform a long-range teleportation in one general direction. I’ve already calibrated it to send us back toward Sea-Sealing County.
“Unfortunately, using this treasure requires a massive power source. Therefore, I really have no choice. If we want to get out of here, I have to go say goodbye to my son.”
“Oh.” Xu Qing nodded.
The Captain cleared his throat. “Ahem. If anything goes wrong, little Junior Brother, remember to give me a good kick into the range of the teleportation.”
The Captain’s words caused Qing Qiu to look over at him silently.
Ning Yan’s expression flickered. Upon hearing Sea-Sealing County mentioned, he looked at Xu Qing and the Captain. Earlier, he had been completely ignorant of what was happening. However, he had eventually started to get suspicious about who Xu Qing and the Captain really were. But then events unfolded so quickly, and in such an astonishing fashion, that he had no time for contemplation. Now that things had calmed down, those suspicions were growing deeper. Then, just as he looked over at Xu Qing and the Captain, an absolutely crazy look appeared in the Captain’s eyes.
As the heavenly dao’s hand relaxed and moved to the part of the tree only about three meters away from them, the Captain lunged forward like a hyena.
“I wonder... what a heavenly dao tastes like.”
The Captain’s eyes shone brightly as he shot toward the snow white hand of his ‘son.’ Wrapping his arm around one finger, he leaned his head back, opened his mouth as wide as he could, and then plunged his teeth into the finger.
CRUNCH!
Deathblade's Thoughts
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