As the afterglow of dusk faded, Xu Qing pulled his dharmaskiff into his berth. Before he could even get settled, a voice message came in from the Captain.
“How was your date, little Ah Qing? Why don’t you come over here to that immortal hot spring you got me the discount for? Have a soak and tell me everything that happened. Based on my extensive experience, I can give you a few tips for next time.”
“Later,” Xu Qing replied. He was about to put away the transmission jade slip when the Captain sent another message.
“Ahem. Master’s also here….”
“….” Xu Qing didn’t respond.
Not long thereafter, he arrived at Xu Xiaohui’s immortal hot spring. The Captain and Master Seventh were waiting for him in a small private pool that overlooked the larger pool area below.
Xu Qing looked at them with a strange expression.
Master Seventh cleared his throat and glared at the Captain. “I was in the middle of meditating when you begged me to come over here. What’s going on?”
The Captain blinked a few times.
Master Seventh snorted coldly.
The Captain sighed and cast a rueful expression at Xu Qing. “Little Ah Qing, you were just out with Arch-Immortal Plumdark, right? So how… ahem… how far did things go?”
Master Seventh’s expression didn’t change at all, and in fact, he looked a bit bored.
Xu Qing glanced briefly at his Master, then thought about the question before answering. “Senior Plumdark taught me how to play the flute.”
Master Seventh’s ears twitched.
The Captain immediately followed up with another question. “And then…?”
“And then she paid respects at the grave of an old friend. It was the Master of that old man we met in the Dark Serenity Sect in the Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains.” Not hiding anything, Xu Qing told them about the journey. Truth be told, there wasn’t really anything to hide.
“That’s all?” the Captain said, looking obviously distrustful.
“Yeah. On the way back, she gave me the flute as a gift.”
“What kind of flute?” the Captain asked curiously.
“Let me think,” Xu Qing replied. “Oh, right. It’s called a ‘willow’ flute.”
Master Seventh suddenly inhaled sharply. “A willowmoon spiritcharm flute?”
The name didn’t sound familiar to Xu Qing, so he simply took out the flute.
The moment Master Seventh laid eyes on the flute, he looked stunned. A long moment passed, and then he expressionlessly stood up. Glaring at the Captain he said, “Next time you disturb me when I’m meditating I’ll break your legs!”
The Captain’s eyes went wide, and he looked very hurt. I can’t believe you’re being so unreasonable, old man! You shouldn’t be yelling at me, you should be yelling at Xu Qing!
Master Seventh cleared his throat. “Fine, you were right about what you said before.” As he put his clothes back on, he looked at Xu Qing and said, “Fourth Sib, you’re at the four-flame level now. The time is about right. I have a few more things to take care of, and then I’m taking you somewhere.”
Clasping his hands behind his back, he slowly walked off.
After Master Seventh was gone, the Captain’s facial expression returned to normal, and he didn’t look upset at all. Instead, he smiled knowingly at Xu Qing. “Did you learn something just now, little Junior Brother? That’s how you deal with the old man. When he loses his temper then admits his mistake, he gets soft. Therefore, I occasionally let myself be wronged to get him to compromise.
“That said, this time the old man seemed really embarrassed. Considering how he knew the actual name of that flute, I’d say there’s an eighty to ninety percent chance he gave it as a gift to her years ago.”
Xu Qing blinked a few times as he thought back to what Arch-Immortal Plumdark had told him. She said she didn’t even remember who gave her the flute. Considering how his Master had reacted just now… it seemed likely the Captain was right.
After soaking in the hot spring for a bit, Xu Qing got out and prepared to leave. As he did, the Captain lazed comfortably in the water. “Little Ah Qing, if you have a chance, can you try and get me another jade slip for twenty percent off? Those things are pretty rare, and they give VIP service. I’m sure you can pull it off.”
“What happened to the one I gave you?” Xu Qing asked.
“I gave it to Wu Jianwu.” The Captain looked around furtively, then lowered his voice and continued, “I need Wu Jianwu’s help with something. You’ll understand soon enough. Trust me, it’s going to be incredible. Afterward, though, I’ll have to lie low until the fuss dies down. I’ll also need you to help me smooth things over.”
Xu Qing nodded in response. He wasn’t surprised to hear this. Thanks to his informant, he knew all about the Captain and Wu Jianwu frequenting this place. It wasn’t anything new for the Captain to need to ‘lie low,’ and Xu Qing already had a general idea of what was going to happen.
Odds are he’s after that snake tooth. With a final look at the Captain, Xu Qing left the immortal hot spring. By the time he got back to his berth, it was nighttime. Sitting down cross-legged, he closed his eyes to meditate.
During his time spent with Arch-Immortal Plumdark, he hadn’t had time to focus on meditation. Therefore, he wanted to make up for the time he had lost.
Three days passed.
When night fell on the third day, he opened his eyes, and they shone with anticipation as he sensed certain fluctuations in his bag of holding. The beetles that had fed on the immortal ice were stirring. Taking out the bottle, he opened it. There wasn’t anything inside. Casting his senses about, he couldn’t detect the presence of anything.
.
However, he was picking up on faint fluctuations of hunger. Expression neutral, he used his left index finger to cut his right palm. Blood oozed out for only a moment before the wound healed, but that much blood was enough. The air stirred as a host of invisible beetles landed on the blood in his palm. As Xu Qing watched, the blood slowly shrank and then vanished.
Once the beetles digested the blood, he was finally able to detect them. After eating that immortal ice, they were so good at hiding their presence that they were virtually impossible to notice. That said, they had been raised on Xu Qing’s blood, and were filled with his poisons. Though they hadn’t consumed his blood in a long time, the connection was still there. After feasting on his blood again, that connection grew strong.
“I have a total of 371,” he murmured, feeling very pleased. However, he knew that this was just the beginning. Going forward, he needed to keep feeding them. Given how long it had been since they fed on any poison, they were famished.
The next day Xu Qing left his berth and scoured all the medicine shops in the Eight Sect Coalition, buying all sorts of poisons and poisonous plants. Given his dao child remuneration of 8,000,000 spirit stones per year, he didn’t have to worry so much about finances.
After buying a huge amount of poisonous materials, including many precious and rare items, even pills, Xu Qing felt that he had plenty for his beetles to eat.
He had originally planned to take things slow. However, the beetles were obviously starving. Worried that they might overfeed, he was careful to feed them only a little at a time. But eventually, he just let them free in the poisonous materials he had purchased. They ate ravenously.
Seven days passed. The beetles feasted on countless poisonous plants, and Xu Qing bled spirit stones. However, perhaps because of the immortal ice they had eaten, the poisonous nature of the beetles rapidly grew more intense. If these beetles bit into a Gold Core cultivator with a single heavenly palace, that person would quickly experience an explosively violent death.
Eventually, Xu Qing took out the taboo poison pill to continue working on the project he had started in South Phoenix, that of getting the beetles to be able to survive long term inside the pill. Things didn’t go very well. Although the beetles had mutated into something even more powerful than before, the taboo poison pill was still too terrifying. The beetles could only last for a short time inside.
That said, Xu Qing was still pleased, as he came to find that the beetles were able to consume some of the poison elements of the taboo pill and keep them in their bodies.
They couldn’t keep them inside for very long before needing to vomit them out. Otherwise, they would be liquefied from the inside out, then turn into ashes. And yet… even that was enough to boost Xu Qing’s battle prowess. It meant that he could use the taboo poison pill in a limited way, and not just as a way to end a fight in mutual death.
Excited, Xu Qing went on another shopping spree. This time, he didn’t buy poisonous plants and medicine but rather, living beasts. Back in South Phoenix, he had been able to use prisoners from the Violent Crimes Division as incubators to breed his beetles. But the equivalent division in the Eight Sect Coalition didn’t have cell blocks or prisons. That said, the Eight Sect Coalition had plenty of beasts. Though Xu Qing found that the results weren’t as good as working prisoners, they were acceptable. As time passed, the beastly howls that rang out on his dharmaskiff didn’t pass through the barrier of the ship’s defenses.
A month passed.
Xu Qing had started out with a little over 300 beetles, but now he had over 3,000, split between three little bottles. That was when he got a voice message from Master Seventh.
“I noticed you’ve been buying a lot of poisonous plants and also beasts. I’m guessing you’re concocting poisons. Are things going well? If you have the time, I’d like to take you somewhere to teach you a Gold Core technique. Also, I want to go on a little fishing trip. A lot of people know that you have two life lamps. Whether it’s the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect or others, plenty of people have malicious intentions in that regard. Let’s see if we can lure them out and destroy them. That will make things safer for you going forward.”
Master Seventh had brought this up earlier, so as soon as Xu Qing got the message, he responded that he was ready to leave.
***
In the north of Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, toward the far end of the Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains, there was a tundra of wind and snow filled with bone-chilling coldness. The mountains there were covered with snow year-round, as was the land itself. It was a vile place to live, such that mortals couldn’t survive there. There were a few mortal nations, but they were only on the fringes of the tundra. Deep inside, there were no signs of life.
The only thing there was a massive pillar that stretched from earth to heaven, far in the north. It was pitch black, and neither wind nor snow seemed capable of touching it. Standing below it and looking up, one couldn’t see its end. If you looked at it closely, though, you would see that it was about 3,000 meters wide. Its surface was carved with magical symbols and totems, imparting a grand feeling that was difficult to put into words. Anyone who laid eyes on it would be filled with the desire to drop down in obeisance. The pillar emanated a will of battle, and seemed filled with incomparable savagery that could destroy anything and everything.
This was the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pillar.
From a distance, it was possible to see that the pillar was surrounded by innumerable circular tents that made a unique city. It was no mortal city, but rather, a gathering of cultivators from all parts. They had come here to practice cultivation at the base of the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pillar.
Because of the bizarre nature of the pillar, people who absorbed its fluctuations for long periods of time would gain enlightenment of magical symbols. By using those symbols to hone their willpower, they could strengthen their cultivation base. Beyond that… the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pillar contained countless rewards that anyone had a chance to acquire. The higher one got when climbing the pillar, the more amazing rewards there were. As such, this place was considered the sixth great power in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture.
There was another reason though. This place was… the headquarters of the swordsages.
The Swordsage Court was located at the top of the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pillar, high above the clouds in the dome of heaven, in a magnificent palace. It was a palace that differed from other palaces. It wasn’t made from bricks or jade. Instead, it was made purely of swords. Countless, countless swords, all put together into a sword palace.
When it came to the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pillar and the palace, it seemed like the former held up the latter. Either that, or… the latter suppressed the former.
That wasn’t easy to tell from the lands below. But when you reached the top of the pillar, you could see it trembling. It was almost like someone was calling to it, trying to get it to pull itself out of the lands below. But with that sword palace in place, all it could do was tremble in place.
There was currently a meeting of important people happening in the Swordsage Court.
There were nine cultivators present. They all wore white robes, and it wasn’t possible to see their facial features clearly. However, they all emitted terrifying fluctuations, and it was occasionally possible to see their eyes, which contained paragonic dignity. These were people who could decide the fate of entire sects. 𝘰𝑣𝘭.𝗇𝓔t
They were the nine highest ranking swordsages in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture’s Swordsage Court, the elders. Generally speaking, even an organization as strong as the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society had to listen to their orders and cooperate with their demands. That was because they represented the force of order among all humans. They were part of the Five Greater Celestial Divisions of humankind, and they were assigned to Emperor-Receiving Prefecture.
They represented the ancient imperial dynasty left behind by Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity. Though humans had declined, and only held sway over seven counties instead of ruling all of Revered Ancient, they were still one of the great species.
What was more… there was still a human emperor.
A voice echoed out in the Swordsage Court.
“We have two matters to discuss. The first matter relates to our recruitment event. Sea-Sealing County’s Swordsage Palace has sent down orders. A new age is upon us. Chosen cultivators are appearing among countless species. This is a great danger, but at the same time, a destined opportunity. The Swordsage Courts in all prefectures need to raise the standards for the entry examination. We only want the absolute elite among all chosen to be swordsages.
“The second matter relates to the increase in fluctuations from the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pillar. We received a response to our previous formal request. After extensive analysis, our superiors agree with us. The Ghost Emperor of the Eternal Millennium is starting to awaken. Our prefectural superiors have ordered us to take care of the matter as soon as possible.
“The Ghost Emperor’s three spiritual souls and seven physical souls were transformed into the three spirits of the Dao-Suppressing Mountain and the seven fiends of the South Tor, respectively. Because the Ghost Emperor is now awakening, their cultivation bases are advancing by leaps and bounds.
“Just as we discussed before, awakening the Ghost Emperor will require that all three spiritual souls and all seven physical souls be gathered. Therefore, suppressing a single physical soul won’t help much. We need to suppress one of his spiritual souls and imprison it here.
“By doing so, we can prevent the Ghost Emperor from becoming complete, and thus, prevent him from awakening.”