The Fullspirit patriarch’s words came too late.

Qingqin shot out of the sky at top speed. Rumbling sounds echoed out. The ground quaked. 30,000-meter-tall mountains either rocked violently or outright collapsed. A tempest wrought by Qingqin swept out in all directions, filled with the aura of the great circle of third-stage Void Returning.

For 5,000 kilometers in all directions, the Fullspirits who were swept up in that tempest had no way to fight back. They trembled and then exploded, causing blood to spray out everywhere. From a high vantage point, it was possible to see something like a blood-colored tide sweeping about. Then Qingqin inhaled, and vast quantities of blood became three rivers that flowed into the bird’s mouths.

The bird treated it like congee. After sucking it in, he chewed a few times and then swallowed. He looked extremely ghastly.

Blood sprayed from the mouths of the four branch chiefs as the tempest inflicted serious injuries on them. Two of them had it worse off, and were also a bit slower. Suddenly, their vision dimmed as a huge mouth appeared in front of them. A moment later, it devoured them. Screams echoed out, to be replaced with chewing sounds. To Qingqin, they were like popcorn that was even more flavorful than the congee.

The Fullspirits were overwhelmed with terror. As for the two branch chiefs who were luckier than the others, their faces were ashen masks of horror as they fled for their lives.

The Fullspirit patriarch was visibly enraged. Roaring, he lunged toward Qingqin to block his path.

But Qingqin was even more excited now that he had tasted blood. The eyes of all three of his heads were crimson as the scattered feathers on his frame stood upright. As a wild wind swept forth, his three heads all opened their mouths and let loose excited cries.

“CAW! CAW! CAW!!”

Completely ignoring the incoming Fullspirit patriarch, Qingqin dodged to the side, then sent its two massive claws flying out, destroying everything they touched, even mountains. As Qingqin moved, Xu Qing flew off his head and landed on the bird’s back.

The two heads were moving too quickly, almost like a rooster pecking food up from the ground as Qingqin devoured one howling Fullspirit after another. To Qingqin, this really was a feast.

Xu Qing himself felt a bit excited at everything that was happening. “Senior, if there are any heavenly palaces, do you mind saving some for me? Er… if not, that’s fine too.”

Qingqin immediately bristled with fury, his feathers standing on end, as if Xu Qing’s words were making him defensive over his food. But then he thought back to what his Eldest Brother from the continent of South Phoenix had mentioned about not being selfish with food. With a caw, he sent a few gasping one-palace Gold Core Fullspirits flying in Xu Qing’s direction.

The other Gold Core cultivators with lots of palaces, as well as the Nascent Soul experts, Qingqin personally devoured out of fear they might escape if he didn’t.

Meanwhile, Xu Qing used the Gruegloom Daoseizing Art to plunge his hand into a Fullspirit and extract the heavenly palaces from within.

Obviously, Qingqin wasn’t a big fan of sharing….

You usually had to negotiate when dealing with people like that, and forcing them to cooperate wasn’t an option. That said, Xu Qing hadn’t been planning to force anything. So he just sat down cross-legged and let Qingqin devour the Fullspirits.

Before long, the Fullspirit patriarch had caught up and was launching a fist strike at Qingqin.

The patriarch obviously realized how much weaker he was than his opponent. As he attacked, all of the Enlightenment Highlands trembled as numerous beams of light shot into the air and converged to make a 30,000-meter-long hammer. This was the Fullspirits’ taboo treasure, and as soon as it appeared, it smashed down toward Qingqin.

Qingqin’s eyes radiated savagery as he used the top of his right head to meet the hammer attack. A massive boom rang out as the hammer was flung backward. As for Qingqin, his right head swayed a bit as if it were dizzy, but didn’t seem to have taken any damage. If nothing else, the hammer attack seemed to have angered Qingqin even more. His eyes burned with bloodthirsty madness as he let loose a deafening cry, then stretched his right neck out to return the attack on the hammer.

Meanwhile, his left head blurred out toward the attacking patriarch.

Ear-splitting rumbling sounds spread out as the Fullspirit patriarch was struck. Clearly, he couldn’t sustain this blow from Qingqin; blood sprayed out of his mouth as he staggered backward.

The right head was now further enraged as well, and shot after the patriarch, either to head-butt him, bite him, or launch divine ability attacks.

Their attacks caused gale force winds and lightning to spread out, and made the surrounding heaven and earth distort wildly. This was getting very close to a battle of gods. That was what happened when one replaced an external heavenly dao with one’s personal heavenly dao.

The middle head was arrogantly refraining from fighting. Instead, he just repeatedly pecked down at the Fullspirits, devouring them one after another.

Xu Qing simply watched everything play out. He was no saint, and didn’t feel any compassion for the Fullspirits. That said, the brutal slaughter being carried out gave him a very clear indication of what Qingqin was capable of. He could sense Qingqin getting more frenzied the more he devoured, to the point where he seemed to be on the verge of losing his mind.

As the ground shook, and the fluctuations of magical techniques rolled out, a massive pill furnace suddenly appeared, formed from the entire Enlightenment Highlands.

This was another of the Fullspirits’ taboo treasures, which was made from the body of one of their dead Void Returning experts. From a distance, the majestic pill furnace seemed connected to the volcanic flows beneath it, which caused it to heat up dramatically. Because of that, everything within the 50,000-kilometer interior of the pill furnace began to melt.

When Qingqin’s middle head noticed that, its expression became one of disdain. A tremor passed through the head, and a magenta beam of light suddenly shot out.

Being on Qingqin’s back, Xu Qing was able to avoid that beam of light as it shot overhead and spread out rapidly. While Qingqin continued to emit an ear-piercing cry, that beam of magenta light slammed into the surrounding terrain.

A thrumming sound rang out as the violet light melted mountains and rocks. The Fullspirits who were touched by it instantly grew old, as if their life force was being wiped out. As for the giant pill furnace, it started rocking back and forth.

When Qingqin saw that the pill furnace could actually stand up to his life essence godlight, he seemed angrier, and released another volley. The pill furnace couldn’t take it this time. It turned magenta itself, then exploded with a bang. In turn, that caused the hammer to collapse. 𝒍𝒊𝒆𝓪𝙙.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Filled with despair, the Fullspirit patriarch cried, “Only godly birds have life essence godlight! Your ancestral awakening has progressed to the point of forming godlight!”

Qingqin’s eyes filled with ferocity, as if the godlight had once again clouded his thinking ability. In fact, even Xu Qing was starting to feel like he might be in danger. Without another word, he summoned the golden crow from within him. His daybreak light heavenly palace glittered, and the light of dawn covered both Xu Qing and the golden crow before continuing to spread out. Although that light wasn’t on the same level as Qingqin’s godlight, it was similar to it.

As the seven-colored light spread, Qingqin’s middle head looked in Xu Qing’s direction. His eyes seemed to contain joy and even familiarity. As a result, some of its thinking ability returned.

“CAW!” cried Qingqin, and some of the feathers on its back lifted and created a protective barrier around Xu Qing. Then all three of its heads focused their glares on the Fullspirit patriarch. It seemed as if it was done with the appetizers and was ready for the main course.

However, at that exact moment, Qingqin’s three heads shifted to look up in the sky. Meanwhile, the Fullspirit patriarch took advantage of the moment to fly backward, an excited expression on his face as he clasped hands toward the sky.

As he did, rumbling sounds echoed out as a huge rift opened up, and three figures emerged. All of the figures had massive projections behind them. Two were men and one was a woman. They all wore white robes, and were themselves as white as snow, including their eyebrows, hair, and the white wings stretched out behind them. They all looked spectacularly beautiful.

They were, of course, Demi-Immortals. In terms of their auras, they seemed to rival Qingqin’s.

Upon descending from the sky, the one in the middle, the female, looked coldly at Qingqin. “Qingqin, why are you devouring these allies of ours?”

Qingqin’s ferocious gaze took them in, and then he parted the feathers on his back to reveal Xu Qing.

Xu Qing stood there with his face completely expressionless as Qingqin lowered his right head and allowed him to step onto it. At the moment, he was surrounded by Qingqin’s godlight, which protected him from the mighty pressure weighing down from the sky. He instantly became the focus of attention. However, the three Demi-Immortals hardly looked at him, as if he were a bug that wasn’t worthy of their gazes.

Looking at Qingqin’s middle head, the female Demi-Immortal said, “Qingqin, we’re willing to let this slide. Just leave immediately.”

Qingqin’s left and middle heads ignored the woman, and seemed more interested in preening each other’s feathers. It was the right head that rose high with Xu Qing upon it. Overall, Qingqin’s attitude seemed to be ‘you talk it out, this has nothing to do with me.’

That forced the three Demi-Immortals to study Xu Qing. Nothing about him seemed impressive to them.

The woman in the middle took out a jade slip and sent a message using divine will.

“Lieutenant Governor of Sea-Sealing County, your Swordsage Palace has invaded the territory of one of our allied species. This is a violation of our 800-year peace treaty. Therefore, we Demi-Immortals have hereby ceased to comply with the palace lord’s request to stay sequestered. We’ve come out to take care of the situation.

“This is wrongdoing on the part of you humans, and you cannot blame our species. You must immediately offer an explanation, hand over the culprit, and also have the palace lord of your Swordsage Palace give us a detailed explanation of what’s going on!”

As soon as the Demi-Immortal’s message went out, Xu Qing felt his own transmission jade slip vibrating. He ignored it. He had already thought out his plan in detail along the way.

“I can give you the explanation,” he said, “by releasing the god imprisoned in the Corrections Division. Would that explanation be sufficient? Right now, our county capital is protected by the converged taboo treasure power of everything in the county. Dealing with that level of defense wouldn’t be easy. Besides, just about everyone in the capital is a mortal, so that god isn’t going to be interested in devouring them.

“But your Demi-Immortal homeland has as many powerful experts as the sky has clouds. I bet a hungry god would just love to have a feast there. Does that sound like a good explanation?”

Upon hearing Xu Qing’s words, the three Demi-Immortal’s faces darkened. Snorting coldly, the one on the right said, “What incredible gall!”

His words echoed like a thunderclap. Meanwhile, the female Demi-Immortal’s gaze locked onto Xu Qing.

“How amusing. You have such a weak cultivation base, yet you dare to speak like that to us? Do you even understand what you’re saying?”

“Of course I do,” Xu Qing said, his eyes suddenly glittering with a crazy light. “I also know that the two main fronts are running out of supplies, and people are dying constantly. The front lines could collapse at any time. Sea-Sealing County is in grave danger. If supplies aren’t delivered soon, the Holytide army could break through. Therefore, do you really think there’s anything I wouldn’t dare to do?

“If the front lines fall, and the Holytides invade, then humans will either be slaughtered or enslaved like animals. And if that happens, will the Swordsage Palace really have the resources to keep that god sealed? What’s the difference between being wiped out by the Holytides and wiped out by the hand of a god?

“And if the latter happens, and you nonhumans get buried with us, then we can at least save the effort of wiping you out. Therefore, what makes you think I wouldn’t dare to do that?”

He extended his right hand, and within it was the golden light of a command medallion. It was the palace lord’s command medallion. All of the palace lord’s authority in the Swordsage Palace was converged in that medallion. Holding the medallion aloft, Xu Qing looked up at the Demi-Immortals.

“It’s not just a matter of me daring to do that. I have the full authority to do it. And therefore, I ask you… do you dare?”

As the words left his mouth, Qingqin’s two bickering heads suddenly looked up proudly into the sky.

“CAW!”

Updatd from 𝙞𝙧𝙚𝒂𝙙.𝓬𝒐𝒎