Chapter 384: No Staring
Something unusual was happening as far as Xu Qing could tell. Everywhere else he had focused his gaze, even the depths of the forbidden region, he had been completely undetectable. Not even the entity in the forbidden region noticed him. After all, he was currently fused with the taboo treasure. Put precisely, he wasn’t looking at things, rather, the mirror was.
Taboo treasures were reserve powers for great sects, and were terrifyingly powerful. That was why not even grues in forbidden regions could sense them, much less ordinary people. During the time he had spent looking around, he hadn’t encountered any anomalies.
Except for Huang Yan.
Huang Yan was there on the dharmaship, looking up into the sky. He blinked a few times, then cleared his throat and suddenly appeared to be checking out the scenery. Then, behaving just as naturally as before, he continued with Second Elder Sister’s leg massage.
His behavior seemed very suspicious to Xu Qing, so he retracted his gaze. Huang Yan obviously had some big secrets, and Xu Qing wasn’t interested in prying into them. Everyone in the world had their secrets, whether it was Huang Yan, the Captain, or Master Seventh. As long as such secrets weren’t dangerous, there was no reason to try to unearth them.
Calming himself, Xu Qing shifted his gaze again. This time, he looked in the direction of Forbidden by the Zombie. It was a unique place, and it was different from Forbidden by the Phoenix. Both were forbidden grounds. But one was above the surface, the other was beneath it.
As for Forbidden by the Zombie, the water above it was covered with black mist that made it impossible to see if there were islands on the water. Regardless, the mutagen was incomparably strong. Because of Forbidden by the Zombie, the surrounding seawater was often plagued with spirits of the dead and corpses. Gruish phenomena were common there. For the most part, no seagoing vessels would get anywhere close to Forbidden by the Zombie. At the most, they might come to the Seazombie ancestral land.
Xu Qing didn’t look into the depths of Forbidden by the Zombie, but he did scan the borders. Then he looked in the direction of the Revered Ancient mainland. Following the same rules as before, he didn’t focus his gaze on any of the major powers. If he did look at them, and was noticed, it would lead to misgivings and possible catastrophe.
He now realized more than ever why his Master had warned him to be careful in how he used the taboo treasure. If he looked at something he wasn’t supposed to see… he could very well end up dying a violent death. For example, when scanning the Forbidden Sea, he had sensed terrifying fluctuations coming from certain underwater areas. He had kept a tight rein on his curiosity, and refrained from looking up at the sun or the broken face of the god.
Retracting his gaze from the mainland, he thought about the situation.
I wonder what would happen if someone used the taboo treasure to look at me.
Once the thought occurred to him, he decided to do a test.
Shifting his gaze, he saw the Seazombie ancestral lands, and the huge mirror floating there. He also saw himself sitting there cross-legged. Whenever the mirror shifted positions, he would remain exactly in the same spot on its surface.
It was a strange feeling to be looking at himself in this way. It wasn’t like looking in an ordinary mirror. It was more like his soul had flown out of his body and was looking back at itself from above.
With that, he focused closely on his body. At first glance, he saw his own bewitchingly attractive face. Ignoring that, he looked more closely until his fleshly body turned transparent.
He could see his meridians, as well as shimmering dharma apertures. Even his sea of consciousness. He saw his three heavenly palaces in the sea of consciousness, even the two hidden in the life mist. The Ghost Emperor mountain was also there. The violet moon wasn’t visible, but the spot where it rested was obviously occupied. The sea of consciousness beneath it had the very faint outline of a moon. Anyone who looked closely at that spot would probably be able to guess there was something there. Within his third heavenly palace was his taboo poison core, which was currently blurred. It wasn’t possible to see it clearly, but it was possible to see that something was there.
Only his shadow and the violet crystal remained completely undetectable, as if they didn’t exist at all.
Xu Qing thought about it for a moment, then continued his observation.
Also present was the golden crow, swirling around him invisibly. What was more, his sea of consciousness had the incomplete image of a sword in it. That was obviously the portion of the Emperor’s Sword that he had gained enlightenment of.
Having seen all that, Xu Qing mulled the situation over and then tried to use his shadow to cover up some of those things.
He didn’t feel comfortable revealing so much about himself. With the view he had via the bronze mirror, it was the perfect time to make some adjustments. Using the powers of his shadow, he started by covering up the heavenly palaces in the life mist. After concealing them, not even the powers of the bronze mirror enabled him to see them.
Next, he used the shadow to create a screen to cover the Ghost Emperor mountain. A moment later, it vanished from view.
Though the violet moon and the taboo poison core weren’t clearly visible, it was possible to deduce that they existed. After more consideration, he used the shadow to completely cover them.
Having accomplished these things, he checked himself again and confirmed that all of those things were no longer visible. A moment later, the Xu Qing who sat atop the mirror opened his eyes.
“So that’s what a taboo treasure can do,” he murmured.
He could tell that his Master was right. He needed some time to get used to how taboo treasures worked. If he didn’t, or just came to an understanding based on secondhand information, it would be difficult to truly understand what taboo treasures were capable of.
Although I can’t be certain of exactly what the taboo treasure in Sea-Sealing County can do, and whether or not it can see things as clearly as this mirror, I do know that deceiving its divine will would be very difficult.
After pondering the matter further, he closed his eyes and once again tapped into the taboo treasure.
Before long, a month had passed. During that time, Xu Qing spent time every day working with the taboo treasure. On many occasions, he examined himself and made various adjustments until he was completely happy with what he saw.
At this point, he was confident that when he went to the county capital, the divine will of the taboo treasure’s spirit automaton there would not be able to reveal any of his secrets. It would only see what he wanted it to see.
Another benefit was that, given his familiarity with the taboo treasure’s divine will, he could now easily tell if he was being scanned with divine will from a person or a magical treasure. Furthermore, he now realized why taboo treasures would form mutagen. The truth was that taboo treasures were so powerful that they would automatically gather massive amounts of spirit power from their surroundings. Spirit power contained mutagen, and therefore, it was only natural that taboo treasures would accumulate mutagen. It was difficult to extrude, and once it passed a certain limit, the taboo treasure would become a crippled treasure.
That was why the great sects and species wouldn’t use taboo treasures very often, or for sustained periods of time.
That was also why taboo treasures generally had two states. One was the fully powered-up state, and the other was the state designed for general daily use. The first was the most dangerous of the two. In most situations, even just the latter could be used to fend off ordinary enemy invasions or attacks. That said, the weaker of the two states also came with a period of instability on the part of the treasure. Each treasure was different, and one had to be familiar with it to use it properly.
After coming to understand those things, Xu Qing became more familiar with the work of a treasure custodian. He focused his gaze on more and more locations, always making sure to avoid the areas he’d been told to avoid.
Despite his caution, it was impossible to avoid some dangerous situations.
On one occasion when observing the deep sea, he spotted a massive ghost city full of grues. It was almost like a world unto itself. [1]
He once saw a six-legged giant wielding a massive trident on the seafloor, pulsing with shocking godliness. The giant seemed almost like it was on patrol, and caused huge waves to roll out on the surface of the water above.
He saw the sealizard patriarch, and realized how every scale on his massive frame radiated shocking might. The patriarch swam through the water like an enormous dragon, boundlessly mighty. [2]
He also saw eyes growing on the seafloor. Many of them. On most occasions, those eyes were closed, but sometimes they opened. When they did, they created huge whirlpools on the surface, and massive waves.
The Forbidden Sea was a place full of danger and the unknown.
In addition to living entities, Xu Qing also saw incredibly deep chasms. Some existed on the seafloor, others were in the forbidden regions in South Phoenix. Such chasms exuded black mist, and seemed bottomless. What was more, they emanated strange howls like those from the ghast hollow Xu Qing had visited.
Late one night, Xu Qing saw a group of countless souls drifting up from South Phoenix and into the dome of heaven. Leading them was a horned figure holding a whip. The figure used that whip to drive the souls into a huge door up above. After they entered, disgusting chewing sounds rang out. When Xu Qing looked at the door, his mind spun and he felt like he was about to be destroyed in body and soul. His connection with the bronze mirror was instantly severed, and he coughed up a huge mouthful of blood.
After that happened, he needed to rest for nearly a week, and afterward, still felt lingering fear whenever he fused with the mirror.
Despite being more careful than ever, about half a month later he saw a temple complex on a remote, foggy island. It wasn’t a Supreme Vastness daoist temple complex. Instead, it was a temple of worship devoted to some god. Just looking at it, Xu Qing’s eyes started to sting painfully. He looked away.
All of these things gave him a much deeper understanding of the world, and also reinforced the gravity of his Master’s warnings regarding the usage of the taboo treasure. Becoming the treasure custodian of this taboo treasure could be very dangerous if you weren’t extremely careful.
In the following days, Xu Qing avoided looking at any dangerous areas. He spent most of his time researching the behavior and functionality of the taboo treasure itself, and kept his observations to the immediate area. About half a month before it was time to leave for Sea-Sealing County, he was observing things as normal when he noticed something at the border of Forbidden by the Zombie.
Specifically it was Zhao Zhongheng and Ding Xiaohai. [3]
They were very close to Forbidden by the Zombie, atop a dharmaskiff, moving at top speed through the black mists as they tried to make their way to freedom. The mist behind them roiled, and from within a whirlpool on the water stretched countless withered hands. There was also a host of black hair stretching out to entangle them. They were clearly heading right for a major crisis.
1. The undersea ghost cities were previously mentioned in chapters 79 and 246. ☜
2. The sealizard patriarch first appeared in chapter 93 and was also mentioned in chapters 165 and 306. ☜
3. Zhao Zhongheng last mentioned in chapter 301. Although he’s been mentioned a few other times in passing, the last time he was on screen was in chapter 168. ☜