Outside of Mount Daybreak, next to the underwater valley, Xu Qing studied the situation, then turned and left. Behind him, agonized shrieks continue to ring out, as well as howls of rage.

Smokewights then began to emerge from the valley, their divine sense out in full force as they scanned the area in both frustration and anger. The interior of the valley was in complete disorder. Before, there had been hundreds of Smokewights inside, but now there were only a few left. Xu Qing’s taboo poison had killed most of them in body and soul. Xu Qing’s poison really was just that ridiculously brutal. Those who were not dead yet were moaning in agony. They were doing everything they could to stop themselves from decomposing, but their bodies of smoke continued to fall apart. One after another, they died.

The work on the magical treasure was now stalled. And as the mutagen in the poison filled it, it became clear it wouldn’t survive for long.

“Who’s there?”

There were seven or eight Smokewight puppets who emitted terrifying Nascent Soul fluctuations. They were now frantically searching for the perpetrator. The puppets were corroding rapidly, exposing their true bodies within and making it clear they couldn’t escape the effects of the attack. Obviously, they were urgently looking for the enemy in the hopes of finding an antidote. Though their plan had involved concealing any evidence of their presence, including energy fluctuations, things had so quickly gone out of control that they were ignoring that directive.

Sadly for them, Xu Qing’s jade slip of concealment had been given to him by Arch-Immortal Plumdark, so there was no way some mere Nascent Soul cultivators would be able to perceive it. What was more, as soon as he unleashed his poison, he took a very quick look at the results and then left. After confirming that his poison was working, he had decided to simply wait until the Smokewights were all dead before going back to investigate the valley.

Normally speaking, they should all be dead in an hour. But I’ll wait six hours just to be safe.

However, even as he sped along, a sudden sense of terror rose in his chest. Expression flickering, he turned to look in the general direction of the valley. He had just sensed a familiar aura.

As soon as it appeared, something changed about the lake bed; mutagen levels began to increase.

What was even more shocking to Xu Qing was that everything in the area began to ripple and distort, to where it became hard to see clearly.

A god!

Xu Qing thought back to what the head said about Sir Inkwell. Given this new aura, his face turned grim and he started fleeing even faster than before. This aura wasn’t coming from inside the valley. It was coming from a slightly different direction.

Probably attracted by the energy fluctuations. The finger of that god must have brought Sir Inkwell to look for the remains of the sun. But would the energy fluctuations really be that much of a draw…? Don’t tell me that valley really does have some of a sun’s remains in it?

Back when the head mentioned these things, Xu Qing hadn’t placed much importance in the information. He and the god’s finger were on completely different levels, so he didn’t intend to go looking for it. His intention was to make use of his concealment abilities to complete the mission and then go check in at the Swordsage Palace. After all, Daybreak Prefecture was such a big place that the chances of randomly running into the god’s finger were extremely small.

For one thing, when that sun perished, it collapsed, meaning that its remains scattered far and wide. Add in the fact that it happened so long ago, it meant that most pieces had already been located.

The proximity to Mount Daybreak made it even less likely that some of the sun’s remains were nearby.

Could it be the head and stone lion drawing the attention of the finger? Xu Qing looked down fiercely at the head and the lion.

Trembling, the stone lion rocked back and forth as if to tell Xu Qing that it had nothing to do with the situation.

“It’s not me, exalted one!” the head wailed. “It really isn’t me. I couldn’t attract the attention of that god even if I wanted to.”

Killing intent glittered in Xu Qing’s eyes, and he made a decision to teach a lesson to the lion and head once he was sure he was safe. Looking away from them, he continued on his way.

He didn’t dare to use the power of his taboo poison, so he kept it inside. Although that power could be used as a cover, as had been proven when he used it on the violet moon, that was in a circumstance in which the red moon wasn’t anywhere close by. Right now, he wasn’t sure if using it would have the same effect or the opposite effect.

He anxiously tapped into every bit of concealment power the jade slip would offer. However, after only ten breaths of time had passed, the fluctuations behind him grew more intense, and the area around him became even more distorted. As the fear in his heart reached explosive levels, a terrifying stream of divine will spread out from the mist behind him. It spread out to cover everything, including Xu Qing.

As everything turned blurry, a 300-meter long finger suddenly appeared in front of Xu Qing.

A tremor of fear passed through him, and every fiber of his being screamed at him that he was in mortal danger. He felt like his body was about to be ripped apart limb from limb.

Without the slightest hesitation, Xu Qing released the power of his taboo poison and the power of the violet moon. As it swept through him, he fled in the opposite direction.

It didn’t do any good.

He was no longer in the Corrections Division. Back there, the finger was in a state of suppression, but out here, īt was free. Though it had been injured during the prison break, even if those injuries were far worse than they were, Xu Qing still wouldn’t have been able to fight back.

As godly authority filled Xu Qing, pushing him to a higher level, his mind spun. The divine will of the god’s finger overtook him and dragged him close.

The power of that god’s finger superseded every asset Xu Qing had at his disposal. Then he was thrown behind the finger onto a pile of despairing nonhumans that īt was dragging along. The stone lion and the head were there too.

The latter shrieked. “Boss! Boss!! It’s me! Me! The head! We’re cell mates….”

The finger ignored the head, whose cries had absolutely no effect whatsoever. Instead, the finger shifted to point in the direction of Mount Daybreak. And īt looked hesitant. In the end, the finger didn’t get any closer to the mountain. Instead, the finger vanished, to appear a great distance away. After another teleportation, the finger arrived in a location with a lot of living beings.

Already, īt had captured over five hundred cultivators, including quite a few Smokewights.

Xu Qing himself hadn’t attracted any special attention. The other cultivators all seemed full of terror and despair. There was something very strange about the way they looked. Most were incomplete. They had been ripped apart. Eyes, noses, ears, organs, and limbs were scattered everywhere. Even the Smokewights were in similar condition, with their smoke bodies having been ripped apart.

Because of the power of the god’s finger, after being piled up, they couldn’t leave. They just lay there in pieces. It was a very grotesque and very inauspicious scene.

Xu Qing looked around with a scowl. However, he didn’t try to leave. Instead, he tapped into the two types of godly authority within him to prevent himself from being ripped apart. That effort kept him whole. Then he struggled to look around. However, all he saw was a blur. Obviously, he was being dragged along at high speed behind the god’s finger.

What’s this finger doing? Xu Qing forced himself to calm down and start thinking of a way out of this situation. Back in the Corrections Division, they suppressed this thing using destiny aura….

Countless thoughts ran through Xu Qing’s mind. Meanwhile, rumbling sounds echoed out as the god’s finger suddenly stopped moving. The sudden lurching motion caused quite a few of the surrounding cultivators to explode. Blood sprayed out of Xu Qing’s mouth. Thankfully he had godsource and an extraordinary fleshly body. Though cracks spread out across him, they didn’t rip him apart.

Again, he struggled to look around. The most noteworthy thing he spotted was a 3,000-meter chunk of rotting flesh.

Standing atop it was an old man with an anxious expression on his face. He was none other than Sir Inkwell of the Paintedfolk.

Before Xu Qing could study the situation any further, the pile of cultivator body parts flew through the air toward the chunk of flesh. As soon as they hit it, the flesh wriggled, and crevices opened up on its surface. It sucked in all of the body parts. Some were sucked all the way into the crevices, others stuck out partly. Then it began absorbing them. The stone lion and the head were among those who got partly stuck inside the flesh.

Screams of agony echoed out. In some cases, the cultivators could cry out loud, in other cases, they sent out streams of divine will.

Xu Qing himself was about half-sucked into the flesh, and as screams echoed out around him, his heart swelled with astonishment.

The reason was that he didn’t feel the pain of being dissolved. Instead, the moment he was sucked into that chunk of flesh, he felt an intense sensation of longing coming from the golden crow on his back.

Is this… part of that sun’s remains??

His eyes widened, and his mind reeled. He turned to look at Sir Inkwell not too far away. Sir Inkwell had already spotted the head and the stone lion, and he had just noticed Xu Qing as well. Their gazes met.

The head, of which only half a face was visible, looked at Sir Inkwell. “Hahaha! A reunion….”

Sir Inkwell ignored the head and focused on Xu Qing. A curious look gleamed in his eyes as he slowly approached.

“Exalted jailer?”

“You’ve really done something amazing,” Xu Qing said.

Sir Inkwell stopped in place, his eyes suddenly glittering mysteriously.

He looked Xu Qing up and down briefly, and quickly noted that the ‘exalted jailer’ didn’t seem the least bit frightened. The calm expression on his face made Sir Inkwell suddenly feel like he was back in D-132. That, in turn, caused the cautious Sir Inkwell to stifle his previous clever thoughts. Something didn’t seem right here. He looked at the head. Before he could say anything else, though, wails of anguish echoed out, and the air vibrated as the god’s finger appeared in front of Sir Inkwell.

Sir Inkwell tried to prevent himself from trembling, and even plastered a fawning smile onto his face.

“Oh great and mighty lord who is favored by heaven, mighty god from the sky who is recovering by means of the sun’s remains, sir, you are surely foreordained to conquer Revered Ancient and reach the most paramount of positions.” 𝑙𝘳𝑎.𝒸ℴ𝓂

The pressure from the god’s finger lessened by a bit, and it released a roar that echoed into the minds of everyone present.

Sir Inkwell couldn’t stop himself from shivering head to toe. However, his facial expression didn’t change. Looking completely pious, he continued to speak in what was almost a chant.

“Oh lord, favored by heaven, only a few days are left until you can recover. The paint needed to restore your fleshly body is half complete. Were this any other vulgar and filthy god, the paint material would be sufficient. But for a god favored by heaven, your humble servant needs to have the perfect ingredients to create the perfect body for you. Sir, you really cannot allow yourself to be profaned.

“Therefore… I need more life force. Once I bring some life back to this flesh, then it will benefit you, oh exalted god favored by heaven.”

The god’s finger thrummed a bit impatiently, causing some of the wounds on its surface to open up again. However, īt didn’t seem to care, and instead rose up and circled around the area a few times. Then, everything in the area blurred and distorted again before īt disappeared.

Xu Qing’s eyes narrowed in response to this development, and his mind was working on overdrive. He knew full well that he was in an extremely dangerous situation, but at the same time, he could tell this was a destined opportunity.

The golden crow tattoo on his back was heating up with longing, but he kept it under tight control. It wasn’t time yet.

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