Xu Qing looked at Master Shengyun. He knew he was dealing with a strong opponent. In fact, during his entire journey of cultivation, this was the strongest person he had ever fought. And that was even after he had used his shadow to cover a single dharma aperture and reduce his battle prowess by a life flame. Were it not for that, Xu Qing knew he wouldn’t be a match for Master Shengyun.

Even missing one of his life flames, Master Shengyun had too many assets. He had his shocking imperial-class technique, a host of divine abilities, and the defenses of his life lamp, which made Xu Qing’s poisons almost useless.

If I can get his life lamp, then I would have the same defenses. I would have a complete level of protection, both of my soul and my body!

Xu Qing’s eyes narrowed as he studied Master Shengyun’s throat, as well as the life lamp umbrella over his head.

Master Shengyun was looking back and thinking that of all the opponents he had fought in the Emperor-Receiving Prefecture in recent years, Xu Qing definitely ranked in the top three. There was no way Master Shengyun could ever have imagined that he would encounter an opponent like this on the backwater continent of South Phoenix.

Seems the patriarch was right. A great era is upon us. More chosen are appearing than ever before, and freakish hellions are gathering. But when great eras come, so do amazing destined opportunities. For example, this Xu Qing…. If I can take his life lamp and make it my own, then my Foundation Establishment battle prowess will increase by the level of one life flame. But even more relevant than that is how it will affect my heavenly palaces.

Life lamps aren’t just beneficial to Foundation Establishment. They’re actually more important to the heavenly palaces of the Gold Core level! With his life lamp, I’ll have a total of two. And then when I break into the Gold Core level, those life lamps instantly become heavenly palaces. I’ll have two heavenly palaces in the life mist.

One palace is worth six flames. Therefore, once I go through core formation, I’ll start out with at least twelve-flame power. After consolidating my power and fully forming my first ordinary heavenly palace, I’ll have a total of eighteen flames’ worth of power!

That’s not to mention that he has an imperial-class technique. After I kill him today, I’ll devour Golden Crow Assimilates Myriad Spirits, and my ravagemist bird will have a much better chance of reaching its second stage!

From ancient times until now, no one, not even the offspring of the Ancient Emperors and Imperial Sovereigns, was able to push an imperial-class technique to the second stage while in Foundation Establishment. In fact, most people couldn’t even do it in the Gold Core level. Advancing imperial-class techniques is just too difficult. If I succeed, then my imperial-class technique won’t add the battle prowess of a single life flame. Just like a heavenly palace, it will have the power of six flames!

If I succeed, then once I reach Gold Core, I’ll have eighteen flames’ worth of power. And it won’t be long after that before I reach the level of twenty-four. With battle prowess like that, I’ll be the number one chosen in all of Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. Given my status, I’ll be able to join the ranks of the swordsages. After that, I’ll skyrocket to the highest heights in all of Sea-Sealing County.

As Master Shengyun and Xu Qing faced off in midair, they split the sky in half. On Master Shengyun’s side, seven-colored light radiated in heaven and earth. On Xu Qing’s side, black flames cast darkness everywhere.

Rumbling sounds echoed out as the two of them glared at each other with pulsing killing intent.

Then both of them moved. Even from a distance, it was a shocking scene as the two different parts of the sky raced toward each other. The ravagemist bird and the golden crow, both of them divine birds of legend, let loose piercing cries as they tried to devour each other. Two umbrellas shone with divine light. A young sovereign lord and a young ancient emperor were fighting a battle to the death.

The sound of the fighting echoed everywhere, stirring up wild winds and shocking both heaven and earth! They matched each other blow for blow as the fighting became increasingly intense. It seemed like the dome of heaven itself might explode. As Xu Qing and Master Shengyun attacked each other at full strength, both were forced to keep their distance from each other.

Blast! If only I had my six-flame battle prowess!?Master Shengyun’s expression was grim as he sent internal flame toward his 120th dharma aperture in the hopes of ridding it of the dark shadow. 𝘰𝑣𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

However, no matter how he battered it with flame, the shadow relentlessly stayed in place, covering the volcanic power of the dharma aperture. Because of that, there was no way for Master Shengyun to reignite his fourth life flame.

The killing intent in Master Shengyun’s eyes grew more intense as he looked at Xu Qing closing in on him with deadly force. Then determination flickered in Master Shengyun’s eyes. Biting the tip of his tongue, he spat out a mouthful of blood.

“Encompassing Ghost Garment; Seal Body and Soul!”

As his words rang out, the blood expanded. In an instant, it reached a size of 300 meters, becoming a blood-colored garment that swept toward Xu Qing.

Xu Qing’s eyes narrowed. The golden crow behind him erupted with black fire that struck at the garment. And yet, the blood-colored garment ignored the damage and forced its way closer to Xu Qing. As it wrapped around him, sealing power surged out, forcing Xu Qing to a standstill in midair. Xu Qing’s eyes flickered with cold light as the golden crow cried out piercingly. His life lamp burned overhead as it tried to dispel the power of sealing.

At that point, Master Shengyun’s gaze grew even sharper, and he lifted his right hand over his head.

“Darkheaven Bloodfiend Sword!”

His right hand flickered in an incantation gesture, and his entire right arm turned crimson. Energy and blood surged within him, erupting in a golden beam out of the top of his head. As that beam rose into the sky, close examination revealed that it contained a flying sword!

The dome of heaven vibrated as a blood-colored canopy stretched out, turning the entire sky crimson. Within that crimson sky, the tip of a huge sword appeared, fully 300 meters long. And from the tip, more of it became visible, until the entire majestic sword was revealed. It was covered in masses of magical sealing marks, and pulsed with the aura of endless severed arms and legs. As the sword appeared, winds screamed in the sky, and the blood-colored light became a rumbling sea of blood, like a massive, spinning vortex. A terrifying power surged out as the tip of the huge sword, rotated downward to point at Xu Qing! Then it started moving with incredible speed. Xu Qing might have been able to move out of the way, but he was bound by the blood-colored garment. It was currently being burned away, but still had him sealed!

A sense of profound crisis filled Xu Qing as he looked up at the massive sword. Without the slightest hesitation, he utilized the blessing of protection Master Sixth had given him. As the huge sword was just about to stab into his head, Master Sixth’s defensive pendant activated. A deafening boom rang out through the sky.

A massive tremor ran through Xu Qing as the defensive shield was rapidly depleted. At the same time, Xu Qing himself was forced out of the air and onto the ground.

Cold light glittered through Master Shengyun’s eyes as he lifted his right hand again, then waved it straight out in front of him.

“Soul-Sweeping Devil-Crushing Sword!”

A second beam of blood-colored light shot out of the top of his head, forming another flying sword, which coalesced into the shape of a second blood-colored sword!

It was exactly as big as the one which had fallen from the sky, and looked the same in every other aspect. But instead of falling down from above, this one appeared in front of Master Shengyun and then swept horizontally toward Xu Qing! It moved with shocking momentum, destroying all the buildings in its way, and creating huge crevices in the ground from its immense pressure.

The massive force bearing down on Xu Qing caused his face to fall. Before he could do anything, the sword smashed into his defensive barrier.

He already had one huge sword pressing down on him from above. Now the second sword hit him horizontally with terrifying force. Despite the protection keeping him safe, he still coughed up a mouthful of blood.

Yet Master Shengyun’s killing move wasn’t finished yet. At almost the same moment that the Darkheaven Bloodfiend Sword and the Soul-Sweeping Devil-Crushing Sword were unleashed, he threw both hands out and put his palms together. Then, his expression full of vicious killing intent, he shoved his finger in Xu Qing’s direction.

“Northghost Heavenwondering Sword!”

As the words left his mouth, a group of eight ghosts appeared in the blood-colored vortex up above. They were bizarre in appearance; none of them had faces, and they all had swords strapped to their backs. They pulsed with frigid coldness, as well as powerful sword energy. And as they appeared, the spinning vortex descended to surround Xu Qing.

There were eight of them, and their backs were to Xu Qing. But then Master Shengyun let loose a shout, and all eight ghosts moved in unison, drawing the swords from their backs, turning around, and then slashing their blades toward Xu Qing! Sword energy surged forth like the sea, unfolding on a magnificent scale as eight swords slashed toward Xu Qing from eight directions! The swords moved with incredible speed, appearing in a flash right in front of Xu Qing’s defensive shield.

There were now ten swords at play, and Master Sixth’s defensive gift had already been drained significantly during the battle at Seastar Island. It held strong for a short time, but then ran out of power and exploded.

During that time, the power of the ten swords was largely drained, but there was still enough to send sword energy streaming into Xu Qing toward his life flames.

Xu Qing looked grim as he borrowed power from the exploding defenses to finally incinerate the last of the blood garment sealing him. However, the sword energy still surged through him, filling him with pain and causing blood to spray out of his mouth.

As Master Shengyun strode toward him, Xu Qing’s energy teetered unstably. Without any hesitation, he turned and fled, his life flames burning as they resisted the crushing sword energy.

All of this takes a bit of time to describe, but actually happened in the time it takes a spark to fly off of a piece of flint. When Xu Qing backed up, Master Shengyun shot toward him like lightning. In the blink of an eye, he had caught up to Xu Qing.

However, that was when Xu Qing managed to rid himself of sword energy, and he spun in place, a vicious look on his face. Reaching his right hand out toward Master Shengyun, he dropped it forcefully. A roar erupted from behind him as a bluegreen dragon appeared, emanating heaven-shaking, earth-shattering force as it lunged toward Master Shengyun.

Master Shengyun’s expression flickered as he performed a double-handed incantation gesture. Instantly, his ravagemist bird also lunged forward, while at the same time, his life lamp defenses spread out in full effect.

The bluegreen dragon exploded, but it still forced Master Shengyun backward, and ripples spread out over his life lamp defenses. That said, Xu Qing’s counter attack wasn’t finished. Just as the bluegreen dragon was destroyed…

His dharmaskiff appeared.

He didn’t utilize an attack of godliness; an unfocused release of power like that wouldn’t help in the current situation. Instead, Xu Qing sent the dharmaskiff racing directly toward Master Shengyun with ferocious momentum, the power of self-detonation building within it.

Master Shengyun had just obliterated Xu Qing’s bluegreen dragon. Immediately after, he had a dharmaskiff to deal with. There was no time to dodge out of the way, and thus the dharmaskiff slammed into him and then self-detonated. A deafening boom echoed out as the godliness in the dharmaskiff added to the detonation. Terrifying shockwaves blasted out in all directions.

Shaken, Master Shengyun had no choice but to fall back, his life lamp defenses rippling even more dramatically.

Meanwhile, Xu Qing performed a double-handed incantation gesture, causing a violet heavenly saber to form above him. However, he knew that wasn’t enough. Finally, he activated all of the poisons he had laced in the area, sending all of their corroding effects right toward Master Shengyun’s life lamp defenses!

The reason Xu Qing had allowed Master Sixth’s defensive talisman to be destroyed was because he wanted to buy time. He needed to think of a way to get past Master Shengyun’s life lamp defenses! With those defenses in place, it would be very difficult to defeat his opponent. He had wanted more time to lace the area with more poison, and also get the right mixture in place. And then he had waited for just the right moment to activate them!

As the heavenly saber slashed downward, poison exploded!