Xu Qing had heard about the swordsages from the Captain. They were one of the Five Greater Celestial Divisions of humans. Each of the seven counties had a Swordsage Palace, and all of the prefectures had a Swordsage Court.
However, Xu Qing had never seen any swordsages with his own eyes. Upon hearing the Captain’s exclamation, he looked more closely. Both figures flying through the sky had terrifying battle prowess and shocking fluctuations. Either of them could, with a single palm strike, kill Xu Qing without the shadow of a doubt, assuming he didn’t have Master Seventh’s defensive blessing.
“Two heavenly palaces…” Xu Qing murmured. As the two flew through the sky, it became evident that the devilish old man wanted to cross the Everlasting Immortal Profundity River and make his escape into the Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains. But then he looked down and saw the coalition ships on the river, and his eyes grew more ferocious.
Given how wounded he was, he needed to consume energy and blood to recover. Obviously, he didn’t care at all that the people on the ships were from the Eight Sect Coalition. Eyes radiating ferocity, he suddenly blurred, transforming into a few dozen clones. A dark wind kicked up as his clones then shot down toward the ships to devour those on board.
However, as soon as the old devil closed in, the Seven Blood Eyes ships thrummed, and their spell formations activated, releasing astonishing force into defensive shields. As the rumbling sounds echoed out, the clones dropped down, smashing into the shields, causing them to ripple and distort. Inside, the faces of the officers flickered as they all coughed up blood.
What was more, when the officers looked at the red-haired old devil, he seemed like a black vortex that caused their view of the world to spin.
Only Xu Qing and the Captain had cultivation bases strong enough to resist the pressure. As the clones unleashed palm strikes onto the ships, they sprang into action.
Without the slightest hesitation, Xu Qing unleashed some poison catalyst. In recent days, he had taken to lacing the air around all the ships with poison. Without the proper catalyst, it wouldn’t do anything harmful, and in fact, would stimulate the energy and blood of everyone onboard. If the poison was never activated, it would dissipate harmlessly half a month later. Up to this point, Xu Qing had used about 170-180 different types of poison, just in case a dangerous situation like this arose. All it would take was the right catalyst, and those poisons would turn into something extremely deadly.
Without hesitation, Xu Qing launched a fist strike, which also served to unleash the poison catalyst. Thanks to the force of the blow, it would spread that catalyst far and wide. At the same time, he performed an incantation gesture and pointed to the sky. Black clouds appeared, and a withered, immeasurably gruish hand stretched down toward the old devil.
Meanwhile, the Captain also performed an incantation gesture, then waved his hand. An ice spear appeared, which he then threw, causing it to pierce up with unstoppable force toward the old devil.
The withered hand dropped down and the ice spear pierced up. One of the old devil’s clones exploded, transforming into a ball of mist that tumbled off to the side.
The other clones were unable to get through the shields in quick fashion, and quickly fell back unhurt. Only the one closest to Xu Qing and the Captain had been destroyed.
In the blink of an eye, the mist and the other clones merged together, once again forming the old devil. Turning, he looked at Xu Qing and the Captain with roiling killing intent. However, the swordsage was closing in, so he snorted coldly and shot onward toward the Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains.
But then a sudden eruption of frigid energy caused cracking sounds to ring out as a host of ice mirrors appeared, within each of which was the reflection of a grue, howling noiselessly.
The red-haired old devil reacted with surprise. At the same time, his soul itself suddenly blurred, and the heavenly palace above his head fell. That affected his speed, and the swordsage behind him closed in.
“Dammit!” the old devil cursed. The people from the coalition had caused his trouble, but there was nothing he could do about them. Instead, he tried to speed up. That was when his sinister face grew even grimmer.
“Poison?” He coughed up a great glob of black blood, and his face flickered. Although the poison wasn’t strong enough to be fatal to him, it obviously had many negative properties. His energy and blood were now completely unstable, his cultivation base wasn’t responding properly, and he felt itchy and painful all over. That included his throat; he immediately started coughing uncontrollably. He was now moving even more slowly than before.
Then a stream of sword energy arrived, and the old devil couldn’t move quickly enough to dodge it. It stabbed through his chest, provoking a bitter howl as he madly fled toward the Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains.
The swordsage didn’t hesitate to give chase, disappearing into the mountains after the old devil.
A short time later, a stream of sword light shot back out of the mountains. It was none other than the swordsage. He was holding a severed head as he hovered to a stop above the coalition ships. Looking down at Xu Qing and the Captain, he nodded. Then, in a seemingly casual move that could have been intentional or not, he glanced back at the Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains. Then he left.
Back in those mountains, a headless corpse had fallen in the spot where the swordsage and the old devil fought. And the fingers on that corpse were twitching. Unbeknownst to the old devil, there was an eye in his shadow.
At the same time, back on the tributary of the Everlasting Immortal Profundity River, Xu Qing’s eyes narrowed as his shadow conveyed to him the reality that the red-haired old devil had only been feigning death. Given how he had attacked earlier, it was obvious he was a vicious fellow, and if he recovered fully, would be a potential calamity down the road.
Xu Qing looked at the Captain, and the Captain looked back at him. The two of them spoke at exactly the same time.
“He’s a potential calamity.”
“He’s got treasure on him.”
The two stood, then became two beams of light that shot right toward the Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains. As they neared, the Captain’s nose twitched as he smelled the area, looking for traces of the old devil. However, Xu Qing took the lead, as his sense of direction was far more accurate.
The Captain’s eyebrows danced as he followed. Soon enough, the two of them were speeding through the dense jungle in the mountains. Eventually, they spotted a valley. In that valley was a headless corpse that was struggling into a seated position. He was obviously very weak, and was shaking as he performed a double-handed incantation gesture. 𝘦𝘯.𝘰𝘳𝘨
Astonishingly, the flesh on the stump of his neck wriggled as it began to spread out into the shape of a new head. Then an eye popped out of that mass of flesh, which looked in terror toward the two figures entering the valley.
They were none other than Xu Qing and the Captain.
“You could have just run away. Instead, you just had to provoke us. We didn’t attack you. Was there really a need for that?” The Captain grinned, and his eyes shone with a mysterious light. Within his pupils were the image of a face identical to his own, also grinning viciously. At the same time, the fluctuations that pulsed out of him caused the headless old devil to shiver.
Then there was Xu Qing, his face completely expressionless, looking at the old devil as if he were already dead. Xu Qing’s fluctuations were only that of the three-flame level, but the old devil somehow felt weak with his one heavenly palace. That caused him to shiver even more. He was now incomparably weak, and his heavenly palace was on the verge of collapse. Though his gold core still existed, his battle prowess had dropped significantly. His bag of holding and magical devices were gone, taken away with his head by the swordsage.
He thought he had pulled a fast one on that swordsage, but now it seemed the swordsage just hadn’t felt like expending the effort to kill him, and had instead let these two punks come get their revenge. He was about to send out some divine will to communicate with them, but before he could, Xu Qing and the Captain pounced.
The old devil jumped up and tried to flee, only to find a host of ice walls blocking his path. Behind the ice walls was a huge sea with raging waves, like a tsunami heading right toward him. It wasn’t just a single attack, but nine in a row, that slammed into the injured old devil. In addition to the Ninefold Tsunami attack, a hand of ice stretched out and viciously grabbed the old devil. Within that ice hand was the Captain’s face, eyes closed, but mouth voraciously open.
The old devil trembled as he was shoved backward again. The eye that had popped out on his neck looked terrified as he anxiously sent out a message via divine will.
“Young friends, it was my mistake earlier, I—” Before he could finish speaking, Xu Qing lunged forward with shocking speed, his right hand clenched into a fist. It slammed into the old devil, ripping much of the old man to shreds as he was flung backward. Then Xu Qing performed an incantation gesture with his left hand, and black clouds filled the sky as the withered hand again stretched down, this time to land on the bloody flesh of the old devil’s neck.
The old devil screamed via divine will. As his body continued to collapse, a vortex sprang into being behind him, turning into a huge mouth that snapped him up. Crunching sounds rang out as half of the old devil’s body was devoured. Then the huge mouth spat him out. The old devil was in agony. His body was severed at the waist and his divine will was extremely weak, having been half devoured.
Xu Qing looked at the vortex and remembered Master Seventh using the same technique to devour three Gold Core experts. [1]
“Disgusting!” the Captain said as the vortex vanished, and he walked away spitting repeatedly. “Too sour! I prefer a milder flavor. Ai. I was hoping for a good snack. Truly disgusting!” He quickly took out a pear and started devouring it. Apparently, that fruit was the only thing that could sate his desire for a snack.
Ignoring the Captain, Xu Qing walked up to the old devil, who was struggling to breathe. Extending his right hand, he touched the old devil’s forehead and sent balefire exploding out. As the old devil was immolated, soul power converged in Xu Qing, and cracking sounds rang out as his 103rd, 104th, and 105th dharma apertures opened.
It didn’t stop there, though. His 106th and 107th were next. Finally, his 108th dharma aperture opened. Then, the golden crow appeared and began absorbing the trembling old devil. Having lost his divine will, the old devil could do nothing as his fleshly body and blood were consumed. In the end, he became nothing but drifting ash that vanished with the wind.
Having accomplished that, Xu Qing stood. The Captain looked at the spot where the old devil had disappeared, and then he smiled at Xu Qing.
“Little Ah Qing, do you think he?was the old devil, or are we two the old devils? He’s… just completely gone!”
Xu Qing seriously considered the question, and was about to answer it when, all of a sudden… a fog sprang up around them in the jungle!
Sinister winds were pulsing!
1. Master Seventh used this same technique in👈
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