Chapter 292: Things Have Changed

From the perspective of an outsider, this was a fight between three life flames and five. The former also had two life lamps, and as a result, shocking energy. The latter was in the extremely rare great circle of five flames, and was thus imbued with a spirit that could conquer mountains and rivers. Both had imperial-class techniques and, as result, battle prowess that was roughly equivalent to each other.

The difference was that Xu Qing’s two life lamps complemented each other. After his fight with Sima Ru, quite a few cultivators had come to speculate about that aspect, and had done research on it. Though it seemed that Xu Qing had a slight edge, it was a given that Master Shengyun had taken that into consideration before challenging him. Everyone present was watching closely to see how it would play out.

In the blink of an eye, Xu Qing and Master Shengyun clashed atop Mount Dark Dao. It was like a shocking fight between a tiger and a dragon, with flames towering into heaven as they exchanged rapid blows. Both had immense battle prowess and shocking speed, resulting in booms like metal striking stone. In the shortest of moments, they exchanged over a hundred blows. Neither of them dodged or evaded. Mount Dark Dao shook as thunderous booms rang out and streaks of silver lightning crashed left and right.

Xu Qing utilized Within the Nine Springs, but only unleashed eight fists. He would only do that if the perfect opportunity arose.

After a short time, Master Shengyun backed up unharmed.

Xu Qing hovered in midair, his hair whipping around him and his eyes narrowed. He was still deceptively hiding his additional life flame. After all, the key to this whole thing wasn’t just to crush and kill Master Shengyun. Rather, it was to make sure that whoever stepped into the fight at that point couldn’t save his opponent. At the very least, he hoped to buy enough time to devour Master Shengyun’s ravagemist bird. To do that, he needed to catch Master Shengyun completely off guard. There was no way he would be able to do that at the very beginning of the fight. Almost certainly, someone would step in to save Master Shengyun as well as the ravagemist bird.

Therefore, Xu Qing planned to keep a close eye on Master Shengyun and whatever secret weapons he ultimately brought out. He also was observing the surrounding areas in case any rescuers showed up. He had no idea what secret weapons Master Shengyun would reveal. But he could sense the aura of a golden crow on him, and had taken note of his pitch-black right eye.

Xu Qing’s shadow was out, and his poisons were ready. What was more, in their interchanges so far, Xu Qing had come to the realization that Master Shengyun was a lot faster than before.

However, there was no time to think about the matter at the moment. Master Shengyun suddenly stopped in place and then burst back in Xu Qing’s direction with incredible speed. The green body and red tail of the ravagemist bird appeared behind him, howling. Master Shengyun used all of the battle prowess he could muster as he closed in.

Xu Qing’s expression turned grim as the golden crow appeared behind him. As the two forces clashed, Xu Qing’s umbrellas appeared overhead, providing a defensive augmentation. As a result, every blow Master Shengyun landed provoked an astonishing backlash attack.

And to Master Shengyun, those weren’t just backlash attacks, they were utter torment. After all, this was what people had usually experienced when fighting him in the past. Now Xu Qing had his life lamp, and it caused Master Shengyun’s eyes to become completely bloodshot.

Spitting out a mouthful of blood, he howled, “Encompassing Ghost Garment; Seal Body and Soul; Convert the Heart to a Sword; Exterminate the Cosmos!”

The blood transformed into a crimson garment, which was the same technique he had used against Xu Qing in their previous fight. However, this time, it had transformed, and instead of wrapping around Xu Qing, it exploded into countless fragments. Each of those fragments was a blood-colored flying sword, which became a dense wind of blood that shot toward Xu Qing. 1

Being the previous owner of the seven-colored wind-chanting lamp, Master Shengyun was very familiar with its weaknesses. That was why he attacked it en masse. Ripples and distortions spread across the defensive barrier created by the lamp. He had never revealed this weak aspect to anyone, and had never imagined that he would be the one to take advantage of it.

Booms rang out as the flying swords were blocked. However, there were so many of them that, slowly but surely, some managed to get through.

Xu Qing’s eyes narrowed as he evaded the swords. Clenching his right hand into a fist, he launched a punch filled with killing intent. While still keeping the full extent of Within the Nine Springs a secret, he kept a sliver of attention focused on the surroundings. When he noticed fluctuations coming from beyond Mount Dark Dao, he unhesitatingly released the power of Within the Nine Springs.

In turn, Master Shengyun relied on his shocking speed to evade the blow.

Meanwhile, Sir Bloodsmelter’s face suddenly appeared in the dome of heaven. Looking into a different direction in the sky, he snorted coldly. In the spot where he looked, Patriarch Soaring Cloud appeared. Neither of them seemed very pleased.

“Rules are rules,” Sir Bloodsmelter said. “Anyone who breaks them will be punished.”

Patriarch Soaring Cloud didn’t reply.

Xu Qing saw what was happening and was pleased to know that his speculations had been correct.

As for Master Shengyun, he backed up, sneered, and then waved his right hand, causing three beams of sword light to shoot out. One of them flew into the sky, becoming the Darkheaven Bloodfiend Sword, which dropped from above toward the top of Xu Qing’s head.

Xu Qing looked up with eyes flashing. He had seen this move before, but again, it was different than last time. At the same time, he had new magical techniques as well. Hands flashing in an incantation gesture, he shoved his arms out. The water vapor around him suddenly grew much stronger, making it hard to see anything clearly. A massive, blue sea appeared around him so immense that it rivaled Mount Dark Dao itself in size. And compared to it, he and Master Shengyun seemed like ants. It was the Ninefold Tsunami! The majestic sea had white-capped waves on it, which converged into one enormous tsunami wave that rushed forth to meet the Darkheaven Bloodfiend Sword. The wave smashed into the sword, devastating it.

Things weren’t over yet, though. There was a second beam of sword light. It swept horizontally as it turned into the Soul-Sweeping Devil-Crushing Sword, chopping toward Xu Qing like a stiff autumn breeze.

Xu Qing’s hands blurred as another enormous wave formed, crushing the Soul-Sweeping Devil-Crushing sword, and causing intense rumbling sounds to echo into the sky.

Only a moment later, Master Shengyun’s third sword attack appeared. Eight ghostly figures with swords on their backs rushed toward Xu Qing. This was none other than the Northghost Heavenasking Sword.

Xu Qing shoved one hand in front of him and one hand behind him, then spun in place, almost as if practicing Tai Chi. Instantly, the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth tsunami waves surged forth. There were four waves, and each contained terrifying force as they smashed into the eight sword-wielding ghosts. Booms rang out as the sword ghosts collapsed.

Xu Qing’s facial expression remained the same, his eyes cold as he looked at the grim, retreating Master Shengyun. Xu Qing’s arms continued to move, seemingly slow, but in reality, gracefully quick. He took five steps forward. With each step, another tsunami wave rose up. After the five steps were taken, the five waves surged forth successively with shocking force, smashing toward Master Shengyun. From a distance, it looked like Mount Dark Dao was covered with water.

Master Shengyun struggled to control his breathing. This battle felt completely different than the previous one. Before, Xu Qing’s magical techniques had been weak. Now, he had made up for that weakness, and was fighting with extraordinary strength. However, Master Shengyun wasn’t ready to give up yet. As the five tsunami waves closed in, he howled in rage and produced a special item. It was a withered finger!

It was impossible to tell its origin, but it had a bizarre, gruish aura, and seemed to be filled with countless magical symbols of a very vile nature.

It was… a curse!

Specifically, it was the curse laid upon him by his younger brother. During the process of getting rid of Xu Qing’s poison, Master Shengyun had also used the power of the golden crow to extrude the curse and imbue it into this finger to use as a weapon.

At this stage of the fight, he didn’t hesitate to throw it out with full force. When the finger hit the water, the finger collapsed, turning into a black liquid that rapidly spread out and turned all of the water black. A noxious odor filled the area as the previously blue water became like a rotting sludge. Then, countless ghost faces appeared inside of it, as well as a host of arms. The entire sea immediately shivered like it might collapse. In fact, the spray of the waves swirled back to unleash a backlash attack.

However, it was obvious that Master Shengyun had primarily been concerned about the way Xu Qing extinguished his dharma aperture in the previous fight. Because of that, he had mostly prepared to deal with that move, as well as Xu Qing’s poisons. What was more, his grandfather’s help had been focused on those areas as well. As a result, he really had no idea what Xu Qing’s shadow was truly capable of.

That was the benefit of being as deceptive as Xu Qing.

Just as the grues in the water were about to start fighting, Xu Qing looked at them coldly and they shivered. Then they let loose piercing shrieks as they started stumbling over each other to get out of the sea water.

Even as they succeeded, Xu Qing snorted coldly and waved his right hand. Instantly, a heavenly saber appeared, its violet blade fully corporeal. Then another appeared, and another. Given the level of Xu Qing’s cultivation base, it was no surprise that seven sabers appeared. Though he had only gained enlightenment of two moves from the Supreme Vastness Solitary Saber, which limited the power he could unleash, he was still able to form multiple sabers. This was the same thing he had done in the fight against Sima Ru. 2

When the heavenly sabers appeared, he dropped his hand, and they shot toward Master Shengyun. Rumbling booms rang out, the clouds swirled in the sky, and baleful energy pulsed as the swords hit their target. Master Shengyun couldn’t jump out of the way in time. He was sent spinning off to the side as one saber after another smashed into him, slashing open gaping wounds that revealed bone. One of them was so deep it nearly cut him in half at the waist.

But then, something very gruish happened. The image of a golden crow emerged from Master Shengyun’s pitch-black right eye. As it cried out, an astonishing life force erupted, filling Master Shengyun, and causing his wounds to heal rapidly. That included the wound at his waist.

Seeing this, everyone in the crowd was shocked to the core. This fight almost didn’t look like a fight between two Foundation Establishment cultivators, but rather, two Gold Core experts.

After backing away a short distance, Master Shengyun stopped in place. He looked completely unharmed at this point. Grinning viciously at Xu Qing, he said, “I have to thank you, Xu Qing. You’re the only reason I have this indestructible body. I’ll make sure to pay you back for the favor!”

Eyes narrowing, Xu Qing spoke. “You’re still long-winded. Won’t you ever shut up?”

It was the first thing he had said during the entire fight. Truth be told, Xu Qing wasn’t very surprised at how things were playing out. Some things had happened that were slightly unusual, but nothing that didn’t fall into the realm of what he had expected. Obviously, the golden crow was one of Master Shengyun’s secret weapons.

Meanwhile, many of the onlookers were now focused on Xu Qing. Thanks to this fight, they were now coming to understand his personality a lot better. He had hardly said anything during the entire fight. As a result, everyone could sense how ruthless he was..

***

At the summit of the Dark Serenity Sect sat Arch-Immortal Plumdark, who was sipping some cloudsnow lotus seed soup. When she heard Xu Qing’s words, she laughed softly.

Given his baleful aura, he can’t be someone with light in his heart. He’s not the person I seek. But all in all, he’s a very interesting young man. And most importantly, he’s good-looking. Not like Master Shengyun, that freak. When he was young, he devoured his own twin. Just looking at him makes me sick.

1. The previous fight in which the crimson garment appeared was in chapter 255. ☜

2. The fight with Sima Ru was in chapter 272. ☜