In the beginning, cultivating the Daofate Heavenfiend Art was similar to cultivating the Gruegloom Daoseizing Art. The latter had required the actual heart of a Gruegloom to function as the foundation. With the former, the requirement was a nascent soul from another cultivator, one that had passed a heavenly tribulation and already had some heavenfate.

That was the foundation of the Daofate Heavenfiend Art.

And thus came the three pill bottles.

The first bottle contained the headless corpse of a Gruegloom Nascent Soul cultivator. Master Seventh had spent a lot of time tracking that down for Xu Qing. After all, the Grueglooms were a rare species. It would function to augment Xu Qing’s Gruegloom abilities, and would enable him to extract the nascent souls from his enemies.

The second bottle contained a blood-red vortex that pulsed with clear holiness. That was the marrow Master Seventh had extracted from the fish bone of the god. Because the god in Forbidden by the Immortal was now dead, it was masterless, and easy to work with. There was a unique way to use it. It had to be fused with Xu Qing’s heavenly dao nascent soul. And then, with the power of the heavenly dao, Xu Qing could wrest the heavenfate out of his enemy’s nascent souls.

The third bottle contained 100,000 evil souls from Cruelmurk.

Bai Xiaozhuo had used the three fish bones to lock onto the position of Cruelmurk and open a pathway to it. That had allowed masses of evil souls to enter the world. It didn’t last for long before Xu Qing whisked him away to the Ancient Spirit world. But some of those souls had remained behind.

The souls were incredibly ferocious. What was more, their minds were in chaos. Memories from before life and after death had driven them into states of madness.

Later, Master Seventh tracked them down and started purifying them in the bottle. After cleansing their chaotic minds, he turned them into seeds that would later become heavenfiend clones. Although killing large numbers of Cruelmurk souls would result in being marked by Cruelmurk, thanks to Xu Qing’s special body, as long as he didn’t go overboard, he would be fine.

Xu Qing looked at the bottles and sighed. This technique truly was tailor-made for him. The Daofate Heavenfiend Art essentially took his capabilities, evolved them, adjusted them, and then turned them into something uniquely perfect for him.

Everything’s ready. Now I just need to finalize my nascent soul tribulation. Through his thirteenth nascent soul, Xu Qing could sense that the tribulation would come in the next few days.

Also, I need to consider the purification of the memories of the Cruelmurk souls.

Taking a look at the bottle with the Cruelmurk souls, he came to the conclusion that the purification speed was subpar.

It’s going to take months…. Eyes shining, he considered another option.

However, even as he pondered that, his transmission jade slip vibrated. Taking it out, he saw that he had received a message request from Marquis Yao.

He used divine sense to respectfully say, “Greetings, Governor.”

Marquis Yao’s voice echoed in his mind in response. “Xu Qing. I got in touch with Mu Ye.”

Xu Qing’s eyes narrowed.

“At the moment, everything is going fine. Per my request, Mu Ye is pushing for the Heavengale dynasty to hand over one of its counties to us. There are some issues. That county isn’t on the border, and in fact, is a long way from Sea-Sealing. However, we can deal with that.”

After saying a few more things about Mu Ye, the marquis went on to discuss some matters relating to Sea-Sealing County as a whole, including the situation with some of the allied nonhumans, as well as how things were going with Seventh Prince in the three prefectures that had yet to be returned to the county.

The marquis was using his own methods to help Xu Qing get a handle on the big picture. They didn’t talk about the Violet Lands. Xu Qing didn’t ask about it, and kept his tone very respectful.

His attitude pleased Marquis Yao very much. It wasn’t lost on the marquis that, even after Xu Qing’s status changed so dramatically, his behavior and attitude remained the same.

It’s rare for people to stay so true to themselves. 𝘪𝘳.𝒸𝘰𝑚

Eventually, the discussion ended, and Xu Qing put down the jade slip. He looked in the direction of Yao Mansion.

Although Xu Qing wasn’t completely convinced regarding all of Marquis Yao’s methods, having such a perceptive and discerning individual in charge of Sea-Sealing County would leave the people feeling very safe. As long as you trusted him.

Xu Qing looked away from Yao Mansion. With Master Seventh around, he didn’t feel the need to worry about such things. Although Xu Qing had a high position in the eyes of the people, the reality was that he was nothing but a mere pseudo-Nascent Soul cultivator. When you simply accept public opinion as fact, you would lose the quality of having an inquiring mind.

Xu Qing hated people like that, and had no desire to become what he hated. Therefore, he would act the way he had always acted. He would be respectful, but vigilant. And he wouldn’t think of himself as being some amazing, important person. At the same time, he would keep his eyes and ears open. He would learn as much as possible, including about the big picture, to make himself a more complete person.

Putting the jade slip away, he settled down and focused on cultivation.

In that manner, time passed.

Three days later, a vortex of tribulation clouds appeared in the dome of heaven above the Swordsage Palace. Rumbling sounds built in intensity until a bolt of heavenly lightning shot toward Xu Qing in the Secretariat Division.

Xu Qing’s thirteenth nascent soul floated up into the air to meet the heavenly lightning.

Rumbling echoed out as the lightning surrounded the nascent soul. Sparks flew everywhere. Then a second bolt of heavenly lightning fell, even more violent than the first. A killing will raged out of the nascent soul, whose eyes shone with ferocity as it looked up and faced the tribulation.

The intensity of the sounds attracted the attention of people throughout the county capital. That was especially true in the Swordsage Palace. Everyone knew that Xu Qing was going through nascent soul ‘heavenfate tribulation.’ For this tribulation, there would be three bolts of lightning.

Although it seemed unlikely anything would go wrong, both Master Seventh and Plumdark were both in different areas looking at the Swordsage Palace, ready to intervene if necessary.

When the third bolt of heavenly lightning fell, it surrounded the nascent soul. The nascent soul let loose a piercing shriek. Then the tribulation was complete. The clouds parted, and as the sun shone down, a heavenfate aura rushed into the thirteenth nascent soul. The heavenfate aura was nothing compared to the aura that had appeared on the day of the Lieutenant Governor’s Coup. After all, this was a tribulation of a single nascent soul, whereas the previous one had been for twelve at the same time.

That wasn’t relevant, though. With his Daofate Heavenfiend Art, Xu Qing would have plenty of chances to build up more heavenfate. What was most important was that he no longer counted as a pseudo-Nascent Soul cultivator.

As his thirteenth nascent soul returned to him, Xu Qing’s eyes opened, and they glowed with violet light.

“Nascent Soul!”

His thirteenth heavenly palace was complete, and had turned into a nascent soul. He had completely experienced the first tribulation.

Now there’s only one more step before I can start cultivating the Daofate Heavenfiend Art!

Xu Qing took out one of the bottles from Master Seventh. It was essentially a holding item, as within it were the Cruelmurk souls, in the middle of being purified. After examining the souls thoughtfully for a time, Xu Qing’s eyes shone with determination. After much analysis over the past few days, he had come to the conclusion that his idea for accelerating the process was valid.

Standing, he left the Secretariat Division and went in the direction of the Supreme Void Demonization Sect. Although the Supreme Void Demonization Sect had suffered during the war, it was a superpower sect, and thus, recovering afterward hadn’t been too challenging.

When Xu Qing arrived, there were lots of disciples about.

His goal wasn’t to make a big scene. Rather, he intended to visit the Supreme Void World. From inside the sect, he teleported out of Sea-Sealing County and into the same void as before. Inside the body of that huge fish, he traveled to the familiar Supreme Void World. Before long, he saw the huge statue with the hole in its chest, whereupon the fish spat him out in a bubble.

A moment later, Xu Qing was in the Supreme Void World.

The brain trees, which had been floating around casually, caught sight of him. Sensing his aura, they shivered and fled in the opposite direction. They also sent out warnings to the other brain trees, letting them know that the great robber had come again!

As a result, the area around Xu Qing became empty almost immediately.

Ling’er stuck her head out and looked around curiously. “What is this place, Big Bro Xu Qing? And why are those things running away? It looks like they’re scared of you.”

“This is the Supreme Void World,” he explained. “It’s a special place. They’re not running away. It’s their special way of offering greetings.”

Xu Qing took a step forward, and a pair of blood-red wings appeared behind him. The wings flapped, and he shot forward at incredible speed toward the nearest brain tree.

The brain tree screamed. “Don’t eat me, don’t eat me, don’t eat me!”

Xu Qing ignored the cries of the brain tree. Grabbing it, he took out the bottle with the Cruelmurk souls, and then used the bottle’s function as a holding device to suck the brain inside.

This was Xu Qing’s idea. The brains in the Supreme Void World liked to eat memories. In their malicious avarice, they would swindle people they encountered, and then make them forget the terms of the deal they made. That, in turn, let them make even more deals, which could lead to their victims losing all of their memories.

Xu Qing got the feeling that these brain trees would be perfect for purifying the Cruelmurk souls. After all, what they suffered from was chaotic memories.

At first, the brain tree had been screaming. But once it was inside the bottle, and noticed all of the Cruelmurk souls, it started trembling in excitement. It flew to the nearest soul, and then the surface of the brain seemed to flicker with electricity, as if it had absorbed something. After that, the soul didn’t seem cruel anymore, but rather, dazed.

It works! Thrilled, Xu Qing flew onward to get more brain trees. That said, he knew he had to keep himself in check. After capturing about thirty of the brain trees he stopped.

Although he only had thirty, they were going to significantly speed up the process of purifying the souls. In fact, it would probably be only five days until the souls could be used in his cultivation. Pleased, Xu Qing left. Back in the Swordsage Palace, he went into seclusion to start working on his Daofate Heavenfiend Art.

Half a month flew by.

During that time, he worked constantly on cultivation. One day, he got a message from Master Seventh.

“Fourth Sib, an emissary from Seventh Prince arrived with a letter of invitation. You’re invited to the spot where the Ten Entrails Tree used to be in Holytide territory, to participate in the Holytide’s ceremony of return. Seventh Prince and the Holytides have finalized the initial agreement. After the emperor certifies it, he’ll issue an imperial edict, and the Holytides will return to humankind.

“You’re not just invited to the ceremony. You’re also invited to a private dinner with him to talk about returning the three provinces to Sea-Sealing County. Based on my information, the people invited to this event are the children of various nobles and aristocrats, the apprentices of almighty cultivators, and other famous heroes from the imperial capital.

“So, will you go?”

***

Even as Xu Qing was listening to his Master’s message, the banquet was starting in Holytide territory near where the Ten Entrails Tree had once stood. With the huge tree gone, that area had changed a lot. There was now a huge crater in the earth there.

Later, Seventh Prince arrived and set up a garrison headquarters. The area surrounding the crater was an endless army camp.

The surviving tiny city-states had all been swallowed up by the huge army camp. One of the smaller city-states, the name of which was Modelrule, had a dark blue palace that Seventh Prince took a liking to. Therefore, he took it over and used it as his operations palace.

In a banquet hall in that palace, laughter could be heard from a group of well-dressed young men and women. All of them had the air of nobility, and all were from the imperial capital.

Seventh Prince sat at the head of the table, smiling. Unbeknownst to everyone present, though, his eyes contained deep contempt for the other people at the table. That contempt only vanished when he looked at the young woman sitting next to him.

“Sister, I have to admit I’m surprised that you honored me with your presence.”

The girl looked to be in her twenties. She had fair skin and clear, cold eyes that seemed capable of seeing through anything and everything. The fingers that held her drinking vessel were like white snow dusted with pink frost. She wore an outfit of blue, embroidered with peach flowers, cut in a very elegant style. Her hair was bound high with a beautiful hairpin, and she wore all sorts of jade jewelry. Everything about her seemed icily arrogant.

In response to Seventh Prince, she said, “What does that mean, Seventh Brother? Are you prying for information about why I came?”

Seventh Prince smiled and looked down into the alcohol in his own drinking vessel. “I wouldn’t dare.”

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