The leaf boat sped across the surface of the black Abyssal Sea. It was moving about ten times as fast as before, making it seem like it was truly fearful of causing any delays for Xu Qing. Whenever it noticed Xu Qing’s facial expression turning dour, it would speed up.

Given the information he’d learned from the Smokewights, Xu Qing had abandoned his previous plan to go to Mount Greenmist. Instead, he would go directly to Mount Daybreak. That said, he was feeling more uncertain than ever. For one thing, he was worried about the war in the north and to the west. What was more, the information from the Smokewights made it impossible for him to forget about what the palace lord had mentioned in the jade slip about a behind-the-scenes traitor.

I can’t do anything to affect the war… The only thing I can do is finish this mission for the palace lord.

Days passed. The net in the dome of heaven seemed to flicker more dramatically than before. To Xu Qing, that seemed to indicate that the war was heating up.

Sighing, he focused on the path ahead.

On the evening of the fourth day, he spotted Mount Daybreak off in the distance. The mountain was very unique. Instead of being black like all the other mountains, it was seven-colored. It almost looked like it was a puzzle put together with many pieces. But in reality, it was whole. It was clearly larger than any of the other mountains Xu Qing had passed along the way. It towered over the Abyssal Sea, reaching high into the sky, roughly about 30,000 meters above water level.

As the moonlight shone down onto the seven-colored Mount Daybreak, it created a dazzling, beautiful halo around it. It was possible to glimpse the mountain stretching down into the black water, making it seem even more majestic.

As Xu Qing neared, he could sense incredible pressure radiating from the mountain, weighing down on the entire area. The sun wind was incredibly strong here, causing whimpering sounds to echo out, and creating innumerable rifts in the air. They would form, close up, then form again, over and over again.

He felt mixed emotions as he looked at the mountain, which ultimately became a blend of apprehension and nervousness. On the one hand, he had to worry about the palace lord’s mission. But also… he was thinking about his parents’ graves. Sitting atop the leaf ship, he looked at distant Mount Daybreak. Eventually, he settled his thoughts, took a deep breath, and flew off the ship toward the mountain.

As for the leaf ship… as soon as Xu Qing was gone, it sank underwater. Apparently, it was worried that it would disturb Xu Qing, so it quietly went down as far as it could go before speeding away. The stone lion and the head watched with expressions of envy….

After the time it takes an incense stick to burn, Xu Qing arrived at Mount Daybreak. He could sense the defensive barrier surrounding the mountain, covering it from top to bottom.

It was the Swordsage Court’s grand spell formation, which would prevent any unauthorized people from entering, even swordsages from other provinces without the proper qualifications. Because this place housed secret locations set up by the Swordsage Palace, even local swordsages were prohibited from going to most places on the mountain. Only people with sufficient battle credits could qualify to access such places.

That said, the barrier might well have not existed as far as Xu Qing was concerned. With the command medallion he had been given, he basically had the same level of authority as Palace Lord Kong. When he arrived, the spell formation didn’t block his path, or even react at all.

First, I’ll start my investigation. Later I’ll look for Mom and Dad’s graves.

Eyes shining with determination, he took out the palace lord’s command medallion and slipped onto Mount Daybreak without any fanfare. 𝙡𝓲𝒓𝙚𝓪𝙙.𝒄𝒐𝙢

The moment he stepped onto the mountain, his heart thumped in his chest as he sensed a faint reaction in his blood. As he inhaled, he realized his heart hurt. He could sense his father and mother. After his cultivation base reached a certain point, he became sensitive to matters relating to bloodline. Reaching up, he put his hand on his chest over his heart.

“Dad… Mom….” His eyes were already bloodshot.

To most people, Xu Qing was a decisive, ruthless killer. He never revealed his emotions. But that was something he had been forced to learn. It wasn’t his inherent nature. As he stepped onto Mount Daybreak, he found himself thinking back to his day to day life in Peerless City.

Xu Qing looked down and took a moment to settle and conceal his aura. Right now, the most important thing was to handle Palace Lord Kong’s mission.

With that, he started climbing the mountain. At the summit, he could see over a hundred palace buildings. They were made from rock quarried from Mount Daybreak, so they were also seven-colored. And they were constructed in a very bold style of architecture, so they seemed incredibly holy in the moonlight. It was a beautiful scene.

The Swordsage Court here was much larger than the one back in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. Normally speaking, there were many, many more swordsages stationed here than back there. But because of the war, ninety-nine percent of the Swordsage Court here had gone to the front lines. As Xu Qing walked along, the place seemed incredibly peaceful and quiet.

Xu Qing didn’t even see thirty swordsages as he studied the place from concealment. Most were on patrol, and their expressions were wary. Obviously, they had heard the rumors about people planning to make a move on the Swordsage Court.

The cultivators left behind were mostly in the Gold Core level, with only a few heavenly palaces. There was only one Nascent Soul swordsage, and his aura was similar to that of Chu Tianqun, pegging him as being in the early Nascent Soul level.

Xu Qing studied the area for a while, then turned his attention to the Swordsage Court’s spell formation. It wouldn’t be a simple thing to break through that formation. It was connected to the great net in the sky, which was a way of ensuring that all of the Swordsage Courts in Sea-Sealing County were safe. After checking the formation, Xu Qing looked away and focused on the interior of the virtually empty Swordsage Court. Making sure to avoid the patrols, he continued toward the summit.

He had one destination in mind: the Swordsage Court’s Archives Pavilion.

The concealment provided to Xu Qing by the palace lord’s command medallion ensured that things went very smoothly. After the time it takes an incense stick to burn, he had arrived. The warding spells protecting the pavilion would prevent even swordsages from casually entering. But the command medallion emitted a soft glow that caused the warding spell to ripple and open up.

Before going inside, he sent a divine will message to his shadow, which quickly spread out and enveloped the stone lion and the head. It was almost as if they had been placed into a bag.

After making sure they were secure, Xu Qing stepped inside and took a moment to get his bearings. After making sure there were no swordsages on duty at the moment, he went inside and started looking for the files he needed.

The pavilion had four floors, and too many files to count. There was no way Xu Qing would be able to look through all of them. Instead, he found files that related to daybreak light. It was on the third floor that he found the files he was looking for. After unlocking the warding spell, he started reading.

Soon enough, he frowned. According to the records, it was exactly as the previous information indicated. Daybreak light was light cast out before a sun perished. And it was intelligent, not dead in any way. Over the years, daybreak light had appeared 752 times. That said, it seemed contradictory. If it formed when a sun perished, then shouldn’t it have all exploded out that one single time? It shouldn’t have appeared over and over again over a period of many years.

The answer came when the Swordsage Palace did further research. Eventually, they came to find that, in some respects, daybreak light was related to a perishing sun. But that wasn’t the only thing that would cause it to form. Apparently, when a sun perished, it would change some of the surrounding magical laws of heaven and earth. And from that point on, that area was essentially alive. And that was why the daybreak light continued to manifest over the years.

It only happened on Mount Daybreak.

According to one story in the file, just before perishing, the sun coughed up a mouthful of blood that scattered around the area. That sun’s blood was seven-colored, which was why the mountain was also seven-colored.

Because this place had the aura of a sun, it met one of the prerequisites required to produce daybreak light.

At the same time, daybreak light could be a huge benefit to one’s cultivation base. It could help a cultivator gain enlightenment of the power of suns, and could also be used in bloodline retroconversion. And when used in equipment forging, it produced astounding results. Furthermore, research done by the Swordsage Palace showed that it was extremely effective in resisting the power of gods. For all of those various reasons, it was extremely rare. In fact, the Swordsage Court had kept accurate records of every single time daybreak light appeared. That included when it appeared and where it ended up.

Xu Qing reviewed the records and didn’t find anything unusual. Every single bit of daybreak light was accounted for, with most having been sent to the Swordsage Palace, and only a few having been traded to other organizations. The Swordsage Court’s records included all the details of the light that had been traded out.

Xu Qing looked around some more, but that was all the relevant information.

Short of tracking down every single place where the daybreak light went, it’s going to be hard to get any clues by going down this path. Xu Qing frowned and looked around at the endless files around him.

***

Deeper in Daybreak Prefecture, in the depths of the Abyssal Sea… was an area filled with boundless mutagen, as well as a terrifying will of death that weighed down on everything around it. Things were blurry there, almost as if it were a place formed by the opening of a god’s eyes.

Any cultivator who came to this place would probably explode or be mutated. It was a forbidden region. The source of it all was some of the remains of a sun, which had seemingly long since vanished.

Standing shivering atop a chunk of flesh fully 3,000 meters in size was Sir Inkwell. Hovering in front of him was a 300-meter long finger that emanated terrifying godly might.

“Oh mighty exalted one,” he said, his voice trembling, “according to what I heard, in the countless years that have passed, many species have come here looking for the remains, but never found them. Yet you found them right away! You truly are a god favored by heaven!

“That being said, this part of the sun’s remains fell here long, long ago. There’s no life left in it. It’s going to be hard to use it for the paint we need. We need some living things to blend into the mix. The more life force, the more potent the paint will be….”

When the god’s finger heard that, it swiveled in a certain direction. Everything around it rippled and distorted, then it vanished.

Seeing the finger speeding off into the distance, Sir Inkwell scowled on the verge of tears.

How do I turn this around…? Once I finish painting, īt’ll kill me. And if I don’t paint it, I’ll still end up dead….

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