Xu Qing was about to launch an attack when a familiar shadowy form suddenly appeared behind the two attacking Mirrorlings. The figure raised both hands and slapped each of the Mirrorlings.

When facing deadly power like this, the Mirrorling cultivators weren’t even able to dodge the blow. They screamed and then exploded, their flesh, blood, and nascent souls converging together just like the last time this old human man had launched an attack. But this time, masks didn’t form. Instead, they turned into two mirrors that the old man took. Then he blurred into motion toward the Gold Core Mirrorlings. They were even less qualified to fight back, and died screaming. The old man collected the resulting mirrors. Having accomplished these things, the old man turned and glared angrily at Xu Qing.

Xu Qing frowned as he looked back, taking note that the man was now wearing a reflective glove so his skin didn’t touch the items.

“Why are you so careless, boy?” he snapped. “If it weren’t for the fact you’re human, I wouldn’t bother wasting time on you! You’re obviously an out-of-region human. Did you come here from the human Imperial Region? Are you royalty or something? You obviously have talent, plus you have a full set of life lamps. So what, you think you can just screw around however you like?

“Let me tell you, this is the Moonrite Region! Around here, humans are a lesser species that count as nothing more than food! The living beings in Moonrite Region all know the fate that ultimately awaits them, so they’re brutal and vicious. It’s an instinct to them. Whether you believe me or not, I can tell you that if you keep acting like this, then within two months you’ll be in Holy City, where the Mirrorlings and Skyfaces will delight in sampling your flesh!”

The old man had certainly unleashed a torrent of reprimands.

In response, Xu Qing simply backed up a few steps. “What are you trying to say?”

“What am I trying to say? You little punk! Why did you throw away the box I gave you? Don’t you know that the Mirrorling royal preceptor has a special ability to see through all sorts of concealments? But I personally modified that box to give it extra layers of screening. I was doing you a favor. But then, not only did you throw it away, but also, you laced it with poison! Now hand over the antidote!”

It took a while, but the old man finally got around to making his point.

Face expressionless, Xu Qing decided not to drag things out any further, so he took out a medicinal pill bottle and threw it over. “My poison is a mix of a lot of different things. Take that medicine for seven days. At dawn, when the sun first rises, take three pills and perform seven full cultivation base cycles. Considering there’s no sun here, you’ll need to calculate the time carefully on your own and double the dosage.” Xu Qing tossed him a second bottle. “Don’t skip any doses. Since the poison has already started to take effect, you can’t afford any delays, otherwise you won’t be able to purge the poison. Don’t blame me if you don’t do everything as I’ve said.”

With that, Xu Qing backed up rapidly and kept his guard up in case the old man launched an attack.

The old man took the pill bottles and was about to say something when something locked onto their location. Glaring at Xu Qing, he turned to leave. However, after a moment of hesitation, he sighed and tossed a box to Xu Qing.

“Your antidote better work. Take this to keep yourself off the geomantic compasses.”

The old man sped off into the distance.

After considering the situation, Xu Qing took the box and left.

As he moved along, he thought about the conversation. Eventually, his eyes shone with determination as he put the heavenfire crystals into the newly acquired box. Then, just to be safe, he sent the box into D-132 to experience the pressure of a god. After, he covered it with taboo poison, and then purified it with his violet moon nascent soul. When that was done, he sped on his way.

Five days passed in a flash.

During that time, Xu Qing encountered some Mirrorlings, but it was obvious that none of them had known his position. Most of them were oblivious to him, and just randomly went on their way.

Wait, was the old man actually telling the truth?

Xu Qing hesitated for a moment. The antidote he’d given the old man was fake. The reality was that there was no antidote for his taboo poison. The only way to dispel it was for Xu Qing to personally extract it. After some thought, Xu Qing was still hesitant and a bit suspicious about the old man. But there wasn’t anything he could do about it, so he found another remote place to melt his third life lamp.

This time it was the hellspirit bloodwing lamp. Specifically, the left wing.

All my other life lamps are singular. It’s only the hellspirit bloodwing lamps that have a left and a right version….

Xu Qing’s gaze sharpened as certain possibilities occurred to him. Then he started the melting process.

Seventeen days later, in the east part of the Heavenfire Sea, another 3,000-meter vortex appeared over the lava. This time, nothing unusual happened. No heavenfire crystals appeared. And because the vortex was in a remote area, nobody noticed it.

Several hours later, the vortex vanished, and Xu Qing was speeding off in another direction. He looked exhausted. He was reaching his limit of endurance with the heavenfire, and knew he would need to leave to rest and recuperate before continuing with the process. Despite the exhaustion on his face, his eyes glittered with excitement.

I have three sundials!

Xu Qing’s third personal life lamp again took the shape of a sundial. Just like before, it provided augmentations to everything from strength to speed. From what he could tell, it added an additional seventy percent to his previous foundation. By now, he could move so fast that ordinary cultivators wouldn’t be able to see him move with their naked eye. They would only be able to catch some fading afterimages.

I wonder what will happen when I have a full set of five.

Anticipation filled Xu Qing at the thought. He could already sense that once he had a full set of sundial life lamps made from his own blood, some mysterious and amazing transformations would occur.

With that thought on his mind, he sped on. A few days later as he continued over the lava, he suddenly stopped in place and looked off into the distance. He could just barely detect some rumbling sounds in that direction, as well as the fluctuations of a magical technique. From what he could tell, someone was refining something in that area.

What was especially noteworthy was that he could sense his taboo poison.

Although the old man he’d met had been poisoned, he obviously hadn’t been hit with a very strong dosage. What was more, he had that special mirror-like glove, which helped reduce the level of the poisoning by reducing the level of contact. But even after the time that had passed, the poison was still there, which was why Xu Qing could sense it.

It’s still pretty strong….

Xu Qing knew how terrifying his poison was, and after some consideration, came to the conclusion that the old man hadn’t tricked him. 𝘦.𝘤𝘰𝑚

“Might as well check it out.”

He shot in the direction where he sensed his poison. His goal was to see how the old man was doing, and possibly extract the poison from him. As he got closer, his expression turned serious. Then, without any hesitation, he sank down into the lava.

He had spotted a group of Mirrorling cultivators. There were dozens of them, including a lot of Gold Core experts, plus eight or nine Nascent Soul cultivators, who ranged from the one-tribulation to the three-tribulation level.

What put Xu Qing on guard even more was the fact that he’d spotted a spell formation. Because of the unique characteristics of the Heavenfire Sea, making spell formations there was very difficult. That had been very frustrating for Xu Qing. And yet, there was actually a spell formation here. It would obviously take someone extraordinarily powerful to set up a spell formation here.

It was a strange formation that resembled a huge mirror. It was about 300 meters across, and as it floated in the air, the surrounding Mirrorling cultivators were powering it.

The mirror was pointed at the lava below, and the reflection of the sea of flames below was thus trapped inside it. Also trapped inside it was a person who had been standing in that same area.

The trapped person was that old man. His entire body was greenish black, and parts of him were decomposing, revealing bones beneath. And thanks to the immense pressure of the spell formation, he was trembling violently. His disguise was being wiped away. Although he still resembled an old man, he wasn’t scrawny anymore. Instead, he was burly, and he looked unusually dignified as he stared at the mirror.

In addition to the sea of flames and the trapped figure, the mirror also contained a bulging face that was coldly eying the trapped figure.

“Duanmu Zang!” the face said in a rumbling voice. “You’re always sneaking around killing chosen cultivators of my species. Now look at the state you’re in! If you get on your knees and surrender, then I’ll consider letting you become a Mirrorling. You can shed your despicable human blood, and I’ll help you once again reach Spirit Trove. Although it’s virtually impossible to avoid death, at least you can be a bit happier in what life you have. And you won’t have to go skulking around all the time. Consider carefully. If I come here in my true form, and you insist on being stubborn, then you won’t have any options to pick from.” 1

The old man laughed harshly. “That’s complete nonsense. Human blood is incomparably noble, you fool! You think you can compare your lowdown species to me? How much history do you Mirrorlings have? We humans have a history that goes back as long as Revered Ancient does. When Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity was in charge, he conquered Revered Ancient. Back then, you Mirrorlings were nothing but farts that hadn’t been farted out yet!”

“So, you refuse to come to your senses,” the voice said coldly from the mirror.

The surrounding Mirrorlings unleashed the power of their cultivation bases. As a result, immense pressure weighed down from the mirror, causing rumbling sounds to echo out from the old man. However, he still held strong.

Unfortunately, his heart was full of despair thanks to the poison in him. It was a terrifying poison that he had initially ignored. But as time went on, it got worse and worse. And now it was too late. Everything about him, including his body and soul, were decaying. It had also dispelled his concealment magics, which was how the Mirrorlings had tracked him down. And now he was trapped.

It’s all that little punk’s fault. That no-good schmuck!

In the very beginning, Duanmu Zang didn’t have good intentions. However, after realizing Xu Qing was human, he’d decided not to kill him, but instead, to mark him and come back later to rob him. But what really ended up happening was that he ended up infected with a terrifying poison.

That antidote was fake!

As Duanmu Zang cursed in his heart, Xu Qing was hiding some distance away in the lava, watching. Because the Mirrorlings were focused on their spell formation, they hadn’t noticed him. Besides, none of them believed that there were people of any species in this area who would dare to provoke them. That was especially true since their royal preceptor had unleashed the power of this formation treasure.

Xu Qing mulled the situation over and came to the conclusion that the box the old man had given him really did turn out to be useful. Therefore, he made his decision.

I’ll save him. This one time!

With that, he unleashed his taboo poison core, causing the poison to spread out. Then he waved his hand to produce the Spike of Misfortune. And finally, he sent his shadow out. Eyes glittering coldly, he shot out from the lava. Thirteen nascent souls erupted with heaven-shaking, earth-shattering force. And the gnomons on his three sundials quivered; at any moment, they could be plucked out to unleash Time Lag.

“Die!”

1. Duanmu Zang: Duanmu is a compound surname that doesn’t have any special meaning. Many dictionaries point out that it’s the surname of Duanmu Ci, one of Confucius’ famous disciples. As I’ve mentioned before, these compound surnames generally give a sense of old-timeyness to the name. Zang means “conceal, hide away, storehouse, treasury.” It’s the same character that makes up the Spirit Trove cultivation level. Madam Deathblade says this name sounds “very royal, old-school, and mysterious.” ?

𝘪𝑎.𝘤𝑜𝑚