The bronze coffin in the depths of the Heavenfire Sea remained silent. The red moon warding spells glittered, while the red glow of the lava seemed to flow in concert with the warding spells’ fluctuations.

Xu Qing wasn’t actually seated cross-legged outside the coffin. Although his senses were telling him he was seated some distance away, he was really on the edge of the crack leading into the abyss, with his back to the outside world. Right in front of him was an enormous pair of blue eyes, staring at him, as well as a gigantic mouth. Xu Qing was so close that if he got to his feet and took a step forward, he would be inside that mouth.

Xu Qing looked up at the blue eyes and quietly said, “Senior, I really don’t taste good.”

He continued to send poison swirling about him, while maintaining an utterly sincere attitude.

“Interesting. When did you realize it?”

The voice carried with it a noxious wind. That said, the noxious wind did not change Xu Qing’s perception of his surroundings. He sighed. “Senior, when you altered my perceptions, making me think that I was moving away even though I was doing the opposite, well… I sensed that something was off.”

“So,” the voice replied in a tone that was hard to read, “you sat down cross-legged right there, only one pace away from me?”

“One pace closer, Senior,” Xu Qing said calmly, “and you’d be poisoned.”

The voice inside the coffin didn’t respond. Xu Qing didn’t add anything. A long moment passed.

Finally, the voice in the coffin said, “Since you stole the authority of Crimson Mother, boy, does that mean you can do more than just control the warding spells? Can you absorb them, too?”

Xu Qing looked down and rapidly analyzed the situation. He wasn’t sure of the meaning behind the voice’s questions. He got the sense he was being asked to prove his value. But it also felt like it might be some sort of trick, maybe to tempt him into reducing the restrictive power of the warding spells. It was hard to say for sure. And if he made a mistake, he could end up damned by myriad tribulations.

Instead of trying to weigh all the pros and cons, he decided to just respectfully give voice to his concerns. Many times, being direct was the best tactic. However, when you used that tactic, you had to have sound reasoning to back it. After a brief bit of silence from inside the coffin, laughter rang out.

“You’re a lot more interesting than you seemed at first, boy. You’re definitely a lot more cautious than that other person who came to see me. Ah, whatever. Once you’re out, show me what you’re capable of.”

Xu Qing got to his feet. After a moment of consideration, he clasped hands and bowed. Then, without any hesitation, he took a step to the left. That step landed him, not one pace to the left, but one pace backward.

The eyes of the mysterious entity in the coffin glittered faintly.

Just like that, Xu Qing strode out of the crack leading to the abyss. The moment he was outside, his eyes went blank for a brief moment, then went back to normal. Fear still lingered within him, but he suppressed it. He knew full well that he had just been walking the line between life and death. If he hadn’t handled everything perfectly, it would have meant the end of the line. The entity in the coffin spoke only in half-truths. Though it had agreed to let him leave, Xu Qing knew that it was a test to see if he could really pierce the fog of illusion that had surrounded him. Even though he had successfully stepped away, that didn’t mean that the danger was completely past.

Xu Qing reached out and slowly clenched his hand into a fist. As he did, the power of the red moon warding spells swept toward him, gathered in his hand, and created a blinding ball of dazzling red light.

Shortly after, Xu Qing relaxed his grip. The violet moon nascent soul within him then inhaled deeply, and the red light in Xu Qing’s hand became a host of threads that entered the violet moon. The violet moon immediately began to glow even more brightly. Xu Qing could indeed absorb the power of the warding spells. That said, he couldn’t absorb that much.

“That’s as much as I can do, Senior,” he said quietly.

The voice in the coffin laughed. “That’s all you can do? Or is it all you dare to do?”

“It’s all I can do,” Xu Qing said, sounding very serious.

The eyes looked deeply at Xu Qing, and then the entity exhaled. It contained heavenfate-filled energy from the woman in red who had been devoured earlier. As it swirled toward Xu Qing, it turned into a white piece of fruit.

“I need you to do something for me, boy. And this heavenfate is a down payment on that.”

Xu Qing thought for a long moment, then took the heavenfate. “What are your instructions, Senior?”

“I won’t get into the details now. I’ll tell you later.” With these very telling words having been spoken, the blue eyes slowly closed. Everything went back to normal.

Forcing himself to ignore his misgivings, Xu Qing backed up, then sped away. When he was some distance away, he finally breathed a sigh of relief. Inside of him, in D-132, another sigh of relief could be heard. It came from the god’s finger.

“I just got scared half to death!” the god’s finger grumbled. “C-c-can’t you… can’t you just be happy with your lot in life? Do you always have to wake me up with such terrifying entities?”

Xu Qing thought back to everything that had just played out, and could feel fear lingering within him. The whole reason he had been able to detect the change to his perception was that the finger had been stimulated awake, and had screamed for him not to take a step forward. The finger had also been the one to tell him how to make his escape from the crack leading to the abyss.

“Your soul is too weak!” the finger said angrily. “If you don’t do something to strengthen it, then considering your sense of judgement in these suicidal situations, sooner or later you’re going to end up dead!”

Xu Qing nodded and responded, “Many thanks for your help, Senior. Sir, is there any chance you have some ideas for how to improve my soul?”

“If I did, then I wouldn’t be a clone!” the god’s finger snapped angrily. The reality was that it was feeling humiliated from being so scared. “Hungry! I’m so hungry!”

“I know,” Xu Qing said comfortingly. “I’ll find you something to eat.” He wasn’t bothered at all by the finger’s fury. After all, the god’s finger was a prisoner that Xu Qing himself had locked up. Yet the finger had still helped out. It only made sense for the finger to be somewhat emotional after all that.

“I want to eat live food!” the finger raged.

“Alright,” Xu Qing replied.

“And a lot of it!”

“Of course.”

“I want to eat—”

“Okay, okay. I’ll get it for you.”

Seeing how cooperative Xu Qing was being, the finger suddenly came to the realization that Xu Qing must be pulling some sort of scam. Going forward, it would make a lot more sense to just ignore the little punk!

With that, Xu Qing left the area with the coffin. As he sped through the lava, he mentally reviewed everything that had just happened.

He said I’m the second person outside of the Red Moon Cathedral to have come before him. I wonder who the first person was.

For some reason, Xu Qing’s first inclination was to wonder if it was his Eldest Brother in a past life. There was no evidence to point him to that conclusion. It was just a hunch.

The final words spoken by that being…. There was obviously some deep meaning in those words, although Xu Qing wasn’t exactly sure how to unpack it.

Sometime later, he took out the heavenfate he had been gifted, and inspected it carefully. However, even after confirming it was safe, he still didn’t feel at ease, and decided to consult the god’s finger.

The finger ignored him.

Expression the same as ever, Xu Qing coolly said, “Senior, do you mind helping me check to see if something is suspicious about this heavenfate? I’m worried the entity in that coffin might be thinking about you.”

The finger sent out some divine sense. Clearly, īt was very concerned about anything relating to ītself. Shortly after, the finger confirmed that the heavenfate was clean.

Feeling a bit more at ease, Xu Qing absorbed it. A tremor passed through him. The heavenfate was so strong that Xu Qing’s nascent souls all absorbed some, taking them even closer to the great circle of the one-tribulation level. Previously, only his Golden Crow Assimilates Myriad Spirits nascent soul had been at that level. Later, the violet moon nascent soul got very close, while the others were only in the early one-tribulation level. But now, all were making significant progress.

After taking stock of what was happening, Xu Qing took a deep breath and got moving again, all while making sure his violet crystal was doing the best possible to heal his soul.

In that manner, time passed.

***

In the east of the Moonrite Region, some distance away from the Twofold Alliance, a huge heart flew along with the Red Moon Cathedral church temple atop it.

The cultivators on the orbiting asteroids remained still and unmoving. However, it was possible to see a figure emerge from the temple itself, who then came to stand in front of the statue of Crimson Mother. It was a woman wearing a red robe.

She looked up into the sky with a face that seemed full of regret. It was almost as if she hadn’t seen the sky for a very, very long time. Finally, she looked down at the statue, and her expression became zealous and pious. Yet, deep in her eyes was a venomous malice.

If Xu Qing could see that woman, he would be deeply shaken. It was the very same godservant he had shoved into the abyss to be devoured by the terrifying entity therein! She had clearly died, yet here she was right in the open.

Something is wrong with your senses, Crimson Mother. You failed to detect my escape. Granted, I’m only a clone. But normally speaking, you would have noticed…. That boy was very interesting. Very, very interesting. Thanks to him, I was able to devour a godservant and recover some of my strength.

When the woman in red smiled, her eyes glittered with some blue light. That blue light was exactly the same as that seen in the eyes of the figure in the bronze coffin! As it turned out, she was actually that same entity from within the coffin!

That entity had altered the perception of Xu Qing, and had done the same thing to the godherald who came to inspect the area. The godherald had perceived that the godservant took longer than usual because the feeding process went slowly. And the godservant had apparently been enjoying the process of toying with the entity in the coffin. The godherald offered a reprimand, then brought the godservant back with him.

However unusual that was, the change to his perceptions made him think his actions were perfectly reasonable..

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