Similar fighting was going on in the other three sanctuaries. None of the other three sects had put as much planning into the mission as Seven Blood Eyes, but the Swordsage Court was watching over everything and could step in if things got out of control. None of the other three corpses were sealed. After being suppressed, the godliness and mutagen within them built up to such intense levels that the other corpses dissolved into ashes.
***
The Eight Sect Coalition’s mission was wrapping up. Meanwhile, in another prefecture in Sea-Sealing County, on the main road that led in to the heart of the prefecture, the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan walked along, clad in a black cloak, wearing a mask that resembled the broken face of the god. Beneath the mask, his eyes didn’t contain even a scrap of emotion. He didn’t miss Emperor-Receiving Prefecture in the least bit, not any more than he’d missed the continent of South Phoenix after leaving it.
Walking respectfully behind him was Night Dove. “Lord, of the five subjects who volunteered to join the godification experiment, four were already discovered. One remains in hiding.”
“No surprise there.”
“I kept thorough notes regarding the powers used by the four experimental bodies, as well as their deficiencies. And I already sent that information to the fifth experiment subject. That should help with the next round of godification. Unfortunately… there was an unexpected turn of events.” Night Dove hesitated to continue.
“Go on,” said the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan, his voice just as calm as ever.
“It happened in the Young Arbiter Sect sanctuary. Seven Blood Eyes realized what we’re attempting to accomplish. Analyzing the situation as a whole, it seems that they planned everything to capture the experimental body. The body’s self-destruct function failed and it was sealed. The mastermind behind the plot was that Master Seventh.”
By this point, Night Dove was sweating a bit. He was the one who had made all the arrangements in the four sanctuaries. Although he had not expected the sanctuaries to be discovered so soon, he could accept how things turned out. At first. But for one of the experimental god bodies to have been sealed was not within the realm of what was acceptable.
The Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan stopped walking. A long moment passed, and then he turned around and looked in the direction of Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. Beneath his mask, his eyes were no longer calm. Instead, they glittered.
“My lil’ bro’s Master, huh? He caught my attention last time. And now it seems more than ever… that there’s more to him than meets the eye. Sadly, we’re done with Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. Otherwise I might go have a chat with him.” After another long moment passed, he looked away from Emperor-Receiving Prefecture and continued on his way. “If they got it, they got it. Consider it a gift to him for taking care of my lil’ bro. Besides… godliness isn’t something that mortals can easily study or control.”
Night Dove breathed a sigh of relief as he hurried along after the crown prince.
“Lord, what exactly is godliness?”
“It’s something from a different level of life,” the crown prince replied calmly, “so I can’t explain it. You wouldn’t be able to understand it any more than an ant could understand your thoughts. That’s how vast the difference is between human qualities and godliness.
“Think of it this way. Let’s say a single one of your thoughts contains 3,000 elements. In that case, godly entities seek to reach a state in which one thought contains infinite elements, and each of those elements is so profound that a human like you couldn’t understand them.
“By reaching that level, or at least a certain point along the way, hē would come to see you, not as a single entity, but as countless entities. Everything about you would be plain to see. Both your past and your future would exist in hīs eyes.”
The crown prince waved his hand, and countless images sprang into being around Night Dove. They included his past and his future, and there were so many that they blurred together to create something that would shatter the mind of a mortal who looked at it.
The crown prince waved his hand again, and seven or eight of the images sprang to the forefront. They depicted Night Dove dying at the hands of different people.
“Hē can change anything and everything about you. And hē can change the images of your fate with only one element of thought.” He pinched his fingers together, and the images faded into nothing. Then he looked up at the broken face of the god in the dome of heaven. He sighed. “That’s why, ever since hē appeared, we had no choice. We had to call hīm a living god.”
When the images around Night Dove disappeared, he shivered. Then he joined his lord and master in looking up, and his eyes shone with zeal.
As the sun set, the two of them continued to walk deeper into Sea-Sealing County.
***
Far, far away in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, a massive dreadnaught soared through the sky, carrying everyone from Seven Blood Eyes back toward the coalition. The mission was over. Teleportation fluctuations built up, and then wild colors flashed in heaven and earth as the Seven Blood Eyes force vanished.
They materialized above the headquarters of Seven Blood Eyes. The afterglow of evening spread out over the lands, touching the faces of the returning disciples. Many of those faces still contained traces of lingering fear.
All of them knew that the power of a god was something majestic. It could transform heaven and earth. It could change anything and everything. But those descriptions were vague and relatively meaningless. Few people knew the details of what a god could do. They just knew that the aura of a god could infect living beings, and that the gaze of a god could create forbidden regions. But now, these disciples knew more. And that little bit that they had learned… was absolutely terrifying.
That said, not all of them were fearful. Some of the cultivators, even after experiencing what they had, felt the desire to do battle burning within them.
Xu Qing was one of them. He had looked into the eyes of a god twice in the past, and had experienced more misfortune than most people. He had also experienced more good fortune as well, first, in that he had survived, and second, in that he had seen more than most people had seen.
The first thing Xu Qing did upon returning was go back to Master Sixth’s grave. After putting Master Shengyun’s severed head in front of the grave, he sat down quietly.
As the sky turned dark, he produced a jug of alcohol, took a sip, and then whispered, “It’s not over yet.”
“It’s definitely not over!” came the reply. It was Master Seventh. Walking up, he put his hand on Xu Qing’s shoulder, indicating that there was no need for him to rise and clasp hands in greeting. He looked at the severed head in front of the grave and continued, “Torchlight is trying to accomplish something that no species in the world can tolerate. And they’ve only just begun. I’ve already gathered some clues about Night Dove’s lord. I have an idea who he is, and I also know… that he comes from a god domain. A great era is upon us, and as such, several god domains have already entered the world.”
Xu Qing didn’t say anything in response.
A short time passed, and then Master Seventh patted Xu Qing’s shoulder. “He’s not your brother.”
Xu Qing shivered. With that, Master Seventh turned and left.
Xu Qing looked over his shoulder and watched him go. He hadn’t done anything to hide the truth, yet he hadn’t been eager to talk about it. Regardless, it was obvious that such matters couldn’t be hidden from his Master, who had spent so much effort digging up information about Torchlight recently.
As it grew dark, Xu Qing stood, bowed to Master Sixth’s grave, and then left. He walked down the mountain, out of the headquarters, and into the night. Alone.
It was the tenth month, and the wind that blew off of the sea was cold.
That said, Xu Qing didn’t feel cold. Walking through the crowded, lamp-lit streets, he eventually spotted a vendor stall whose proprietor he recognized. This was the same proprietor whose stall he used to frequent back in South Phoenix. After moving to Revered Ancient, this stall didn’t just serve breakfast. It stayed open all day. Perhaps because of the economic slump in the coalition in recent days, they were closing early today.
However, the proprietor noticed Xu Qing approaching, and recognized him. “Want something to eat?”
Xu Qing nodded. Entering, he sat down. A moment later, the proprietor happily served him a bowl of beef broth along with three eggs. When Xu Qing took his first sip, the familiar flavor brought a smile to his face.
The cold wind blew, but he didn’t care.
The broth was delicious, and he took his time enjoying it. Once the bowl was empty, he peeled the eggs and ate them. He wasn’t a fan of peeling eggs, but it brought a sense of satisfaction, so he took his time doing it right. After finishing the eggs, he handed over a few spirit coins and then clasped hands and bowed to the proprietor. The proprietor saw him out.
Xu Qing headed back to his berth. Life goes on. There’s no need to get anxious. Master Shengyun… was only the first.
He looked up at the bright moon, his eyes shining. Then he entered the cabin of his dharmaship and sat down to meditate.
He had killed Master Shengyun and devoured the other golden crow. As a result, Xu Qing’s golden crow rose to the second stage, giving him battle prowess equivalent to an additional heavenly palace. Because of that, though he only had two palaces which were corporeal, he actually could unleash three-palace battle prowess.
If you included all of his other assets, he would count as totally dominant among three-palace cultivators. And if he used the power of the taboo poison pill, and the defensive abilities of the Supreme-Limitless Crown, then he would be able to hold his own for a good amount of time against a four-palace enemy, probably long enough for the enemy to succumb to the poison.
I still need to work harder, though. I have to turn my third heavenly palace corporeal.
Inspecting himself, he found that after using the Gruegloom Daoseizing Art to take the gold cores of so many enemies, his third heavenly palace was now about halfway to being corporeal.
Although that didn’t seem like very fast progress, compared to other Gold Core cultivators, he was making rapid headway. Obviously, Master Shengyun had also benefited from some destined opportunity that gave him similar rapid progress.
Thankfully, the scraps of will left behind in the gold cores Xu Qing had taken weren’t able to do anything to him, thanks to the image of the Ghost Emperor mountain in his sea of consciousness.
Time slipped by slowly but surely. Eventually, a month had gone by.
During that time, the coalition was finally able to put all the chaos of the catastrophe behind them. They also intensified recruitment efforts to replenish all of the sects.
Seven Blood Eyes’ position grew stronger during that time. The reason was related to Eastnether Isle. It was not that Guru Eastnether had agreed to join the coalition. Rather, she had accepted Sir Bloodsmelter’s invitation for her to accept the title of ‘honorary matriarch’ in Seven Blood Eyes. With her, Seven Blood Eyes was far stronger than before. Add in the blood tree taboo treasure, and it meant that Seven Blood Eyes’ position in the coalition was much higher. [1]
Everything was going well. Xu Qing had pushed his third heavenly palace to the point of being eighty percent corporeal. He had stabilized his emotions as well, having thought through all the matters he had to deal with.
Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior and the shadow were pushing themselves to the limit to reach breakthroughs.
Around this time… something big happened in the coalition! And it happened in the Dark Serenity Sect. Specifically, it was in the pocket dimension where the demon snake was impaled.
It happened early one morning. With no warning whatsoever, a shocking howl rocked the entire coalition as the demon snake’s soul woke up. One reason it woke up was because of pure irritation. The other reason was that one of the teeth in the skeletal snake’s mouth was somehow broken off.
The culprit was caught red-handed, and it was none other than Wu Jianwu from Seven Blood Eyes. Reportedly, at the moment he was arrested, he was right in front of the demon snake, reciting some poetry…. Even though the culprit was apprehended, the stolen item was never recovered….
Xu Qing was having some soup at the vendor stall when he heard the news. Yanyan sat next to him, looking very much like his wife as she peeled an egg for him. [2]
Moments later, Xu Qing put down the soup spoon and looked up to find someone hurrying toward him.
It was the Captain. After sitting down, his gaze darted back and forth guiltily as he scanned the area.
Taking another sip of soup, Xu Qing said, “What’s with the facial expression, Captain? Have you been up to more misdeeds?”
The Captain cleared his throat somberly. “Watch your tongue, little Ah Qing. It’s cold today, so I got a bit of a chill, that’s all. Say, do you happen to remember me mentioning a really big plan I was working on? I’m getting ready to head out of the sect for that very plan. Do you two feel like coming along?”
1. The word patriarch/matriarch in Chinese is actually gender neutral, so this doesn’t imply any sort of romantic relationship or marriage arrangement. It just means she has a very high honorary position in the sect. In Chinese, the word I’m translating as “honorary” has a more complicated meaning. Here are some more detailed dictionary definitions: “a person from one feudal state serving in the court of another” and “person assigned work at a place on a temporary basis or as a guest.” 👈
2. The egg-peeling thing strikes a chord with me. Both Madam Deathblade and I love quail eggs, especially hard-boiled and served in hotpot. However… I don’t love them enough to want to go to the trouble of peeling them at home. So what happens a lot is that MDB will say something like “Do you want some quail eggs?” and my response will be, “Sure, as long as I don’t have to peel them….” That said I don’t mind peeling my own chicken eggs (assuming they’ve been boiled properly and the shells come off easily…. Come to think of it, I feel like I peel the chicken eggs for her and she peels the quail eggs for me. hm…) 👈