Sadly, the Skyface’s clever plan didn’t amount to much. Xu Qing didn’t need to think anything over, and immediately launched his own attack. As far as Xu Qing was concerned, this Skyface’s offer wasn’t even worth thinking about. It was obvious what the Skyface was really up to.

A moment later, a massive boom rang out, and the Skyface shot backward, eyes shining.

“Thirteen nascent souls? And five life lamps?? No wonder something seemed strange. You’re not from the Moonrite Region!” The Skyface cultivator excitedly licked his lips. “Life lamps are precious treasures. I can’t believe you have five of them! You must be some human chosen from a neighboring region…. I wonder what you’ll taste like when I eat you?”

The Skyface cultivator’s hands flashed in a double-handed incantation gesture, and his seven nascent soul masks all opened their eyes, stared at Xu Qing, and let loose piercing cries. The sound pierced through the air, creating a rippling with astonishing force behind it.

Xu Qing, meanwhile, shot backward just as the Skyface had done. Secretly releasing his shadow, he pulled out the Spike of Misfortune, and his eyes shone with killing intent. He knew that he had to finish this fight quickly, otherwise more enemies would show up, and then getting away would become a lot harder. Two wings suddenly appeared behind him, and he raced with incredible speed toward the Skyface.

The Skyface laughed mockingly and similarly advanced. 𝘪𝑎.𝘤𝑜𝘮

However, before they could reach each other, Xu Qing’s pupils constricted as he realized a shadowy figure had appeared behind the Skyface cultivator. It happened without any warning or obvious indication, and the Skyface clearly didn’t realize it. The shadowy figure extended its left hand, lifted its index finger, and put that finger to its lips, signaling for Xu Qing to be quiet.

Then it reached out and put its right hand on the Skyface’s head. A cultivation base power very close to Spirit Trove flared. The Skyface couldn’t resist, and before he could even react to what was happening, the images on his mask stopped moving for all eternity.

A thump rang out as the Skyface’s huge body exploded. His seven nascent souls collapsed, and everything about him crumbled with the exception of his mask. Chunks of flesh and blood, along with fragments of spirit flesh from the nascent souls, rushed toward the mask, turning it the color of blood. Then, the figure that had smashed the Skyface out of existence reached out and took the mask.

“I got lucky,” the figure said in a raspy voice. “This Skyface punk really was nobility. Thanks to him, I get another heaveneye.”

Meanwhile, Xu Qing backed up as surely as if he were facing a deadly enemy.

At that point, the figure began to turn clear. It was an old man who was so scrawny he almost looked skeletal. His eyes were cold and sinister, and he pulsed with a malicious will. However, based on his physical appearance, he was human.

He looked Xu Qing up and down. “Out-of-region human?”

Xu Qing continued to keep his guard up as he backed away. He kept the power of his taboo poison swirling, and made sure the Spike of Misfortune was ready to use. His shadow remained hidden in the firelight.

Xu Qing felt massive pressure weighing down from this old man.

His cultivation base seemed like it was in Spirit Trove, but at the same time, seemed like it wasn’t. He was keeping the truth hidden. At the very least, he was in the Nascent Soul level with five tribulations under his belt, putting him in the great circle. Based on what he had said so far, Xu Qing had no way to know if he had good intentions or not, so he decided not to answer. He refused to believe that this person would just sit around randomly after killing that Skyface.

Xu Qing was right. The old man scanned the area, then looked back at Xu Qing. He didn’t seem troubled by Xu Qing’s silence. He then performed an incantation gesture with his right hand, causing the fluctuations unique to human blood to pulse out of both of them. Seeing that, the old man’s expression softened.

“Alright boy, since you’re human, I’ll give a little bit of advice. You need to take those heavenfire crystals in your bag of holding and put them in a secure box. Otherwise, people will never stop chasing you down to get them.”

The man produced a black box made of jade, which he tossed out. It landed on the lava. It was obviously made in a very special way, as the lava didn’t affect it at all.

Glaring, the man said, “The charge for that box, plus the information I just gave you, is 10,000 spirit stones!”

Meanwhile, powerful auras were approaching in the distance.

Without saying a word, Xu Qing threw out a bag of holding, turned, and vanished.

“You don’t want the box?” the old man called out. But then, the box suddenly disappeared from its spot on the lava. The old man’s eyebrows shot up. He’s got some skills.

The old man turned and shot off into the distance, leaving no trace of himself behind.

It was very rare for people to be charitable in this world, so the fact that the man wanted spirit stones in exchange for his help was actually a relief to Xu Qing. That said, he wasn’t going to let his guard down. After leaving, he masked his aura and fluctuations, then looked around to make sure he wasn’t being followed. Then he laced the area with poison.

He’d had his shadow take the box. Now, the shadow was sending out emotional fluctuations to indicate that there was nothing hidden inside. It was just a unique box designed to store things securely. Xu Qing took it, inspected it to be safe, then scattered poison on it. Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief. After sinking down into the lava, he took out the more than thirty red crystals he’d collected and put them into the box.

Based on my previous speculations, coupled with what that Skyface cultivator said, I guess these must be heavenfire crystals. And they must be produced when you use the fire from here to melt a life lamp. I suppose this box will mask their presence. I need to confirm that.

With that, he flew out of the lava. If the Skyfaces could see him in the lava, then hiding there seemed pointless. Eyes glittering, he flew off into the distance.

Four days passed.

During that time, it was perhaps because of the box that, whenever Xu Qing ran into other cultivators, they ignored him. Occasionally someone would block his path, and he would kill them. That was how he managed to eventually get one of the geomantic compasses, as well as a few more of the black boxes.

They seemed to be common items that most cultivators here possessed. The majority were either empty or contained white crystals.

At one point when he was alone, he did some tests with the boxes and the geomantic compass. Sure enough, the geomantic compass would reveal the location of the red crystals, but not when they were in the box.

“It does work!”

Seeing that, Xu Qing decided to discard the box the old man had given him. Although he couldn’t find anything to indicate there was anything suspicious about it, he also couldn’t guarantee that there was just something built into the box that he couldn’t detect.

Before discarding it, he put some poison in it. After switching the red crystals into one of the boxes he’d taken as plunder, he continued moving.

***

The next day, the mysterious old man from earlier showed up at the spot where Xu Qing had discarded the box. The moment he picked up the box, his face fell, and he threw the box away, took out some antidote pills and consumed them.

What the hell? I had no idea those out-of-region kids are so treacherous! Not only do they throw their trash around, but they also lace it with poison! So unethical!

The old man turned to leave, but then looked down and realized his hand was slowly decomposing. His antidote pills didn’t seem to be doing anything. He inhaled sharply.

What damn poison is this?

The old man’s heart started pounding.

***

Xu Qing was currently hovering over the Heavenfire Sea, looking at a trembling Mirrorling cultivator. Previously, the Mirrorling had three companions, who had locked down the area and were forcing passersby to submit to searches. Upon seeing him, they had quickly surrounded him and demanded he let them look through his bag of holding.

Xu Qing had encountered similar situations over the past few days. They weren’t just searching the bags of humans. They were searching the bags of all species other than Skyfaces. Xu Qing had attacked, killing everyone but leaving this one alive to have a friendly conversation with.

“What are high-grade heavenfire crystals good for?” the Mirrorling said in a trembling voice. “They can be given as offerings to the Red Moon Cathedral…. The Red Moon Cathedral comes here to the Heavenfire Sea every hundred years or so. They wait at the big rift in the middle of the sea, and all the surrounding species come and give offerings. Heavenfire crystals are just one thing that can be given. They’ll also state other requirements that have to be met. They’re different every time.” .

This Mirrorling was covered with wounds, and the mirror on his forehead had a dozen or more cracks in it. The Spike of Misfortune currently hovered right in front of his forehead.

Xu Qing’s eyes hardened. This was the fourth Mirrorling he had interrogated so far, and they all gave the same answer. They had also all mentioned the pending arrival of their royal preceptor. The royal preceptor was in the Spirit Trove level. Apparently, the Mirrorling species only had three Spirit Trove experts, although no one he had interrogated knew how many secret troves any of them had. He got the feeling the Skyfaces were similar.

No Void Returning experts? Xu Qing thought, surprised. He refused to believe that. Regardless, even Spirit Trove experts could be very dangerous to him.

Therefore, he kept his guard up and looked at the Spike of Misfortune. Inside the Spike of Misfortune, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior got the message. He sent the fish bone spike flying forward and into the mirror, which let loose a loud cracking sound. The Mirrorling was thus destroyed in body and soul.

Xu Qing had already extracted the Mirrorling’s nascent souls.

With that, Xu Qing turned to leave. Surrounding him were roughly a dozen heavenfiend clones. They looked like specters that emanated sinister coldness and surrounded Xu Qing with a nefarious will.

Regardless, I need to get out of here.

He began flying at top speed over the lava.

The reality was that he couldn’t stay in the Heavenfire Sea for long periods of time. The heat was never-ending, and the exploding lava bubbles would release even greater blasts of heat. Xu Qing could sense that he was reaching his limit. His plan was to go back on the shore for a time, recuperate, then go back in to melt another life lamp.

Right now, there were simply too many cultivators from the Twofold Alliance present. What was more, he wanted to find a safe place where he could study his sundial life lamp, and hopefully find out what it was capable of. Although he had done a bit of study, the situation was too dangerous to allow him to concentrate fully on that.

I wonder who that old man was.

Xu Qing had asked the Mirrorling cultivators about that as well. However, none of them recognized the old man based on his description. That led him to wonder if he was even an old man at all, or if that was a disguise. All of it made Xu Qing feel more than ever that he needed to stay vigilant.

Days passed as Xu Qing cautiously made his way out of the Heavenfire Sea.

Eventually, he found a barren mountain where he dug out a mansion grotto, set up some spell formations, and prepared to spend some time holed up. After making sure the area was safe, he settled down cross-legged and took a deep breath. Forcing himself to accept the situation as relatively safe, he unhesitatingly focused his attention on the sundial life lamp. By using its connection with his blood he began to study it closely.

Seven days passed in a flash.

At a certain point, Xu Qing’s eyes opened within the darkness of his makeshift mansion grotto. An excited look appeared on his face.

“So that’s how it is.”

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