Seeing that there was nothing more he could do on that front, Xu Qing ignored the finger and walked up to Duanmu Zang. .𝒎

Duanmu Zang instinctively edged away from him a bit before smiling wryly. “Is that… is that you?”

Xu Qing nodded, then surveyed the area.

Holy City was now empty. If there were any survivors, they would succumb to the taboo poison soon enough.

Duanmu Zang was stunned. In the past, he had dreamed of wiping out the Twofold Alliance, but it wasn’t something he could accomplish on his own. But now he had witnessed it actually happening. Duanmu Zang took a deep breath, and his eyes once again began to shine. He was the leader of a small nation of humans, and had experienced many things in life. As such, he knew that one of the most pressing matters was to start figuring out what to do going forward.

He looked at Xu Qing. “Xu Qing, we need this city! Can you help me to clear the place out? After that, I’ll bring my people here.”

Xu Qing nodded. “Sure.” After telling Duanmu Zang where everyone else was, Xu Qing thought for a moment and then asked, “What about the Red Moon Cathedral…?”

Duanmu Zang stood, his eyes flashing. He had now shoved aside all distractions and was starting to analyze the situation. He shook his head.

“The Red Moon Cathedral is so important that the life or death of these two tiny species won’t matter much. All they want are their offerings. Therefore, we need to prepare an offering for them. Only the elites of this species lived in Holy City. There are plenty more on the outside. Probably numbering more than 500,000. Leave it to me. They have no idea what happened here. I’ll go take care of things, and then we’ll have our offering ready!”

As Duanmu Zang checked the status of his cultivation base, Xu Qing took some medicinal pills out of his bag of holding and handed them over.

After accepting the pills, Duanmu Zang grinned and looked around. “There’s no time to lose! I’ll take over for now, Xu Qing!”

Throwing some medicinal pills into his mouth, Duanmu Zang flew off into the sky.

After he was gone, Xu Qing stood in the square quietly for a while.

There was no need for him to oversee Duanmu Zang. Considering the vile surroundings, the fact that Duanmu Zang had set up a place of refuge and also reached a high level of cultivation, went to show he was capable of many things.

After a time, Xu Qing started walking through the city. As he proceeded, he collected all remaining scraps of taboo poison, as well as any lingering bits of mutagen. He occasionally encountered some member of the Twofold Alliance who had not been devoured, but were slowly succumbing to poison. Xu Qing didn’t need to give any orders. Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior immediately appeared and struck them dead.

Two days later, the city’s tribulation was over. It had been cleansed of evil, and was now empty. Xu Qing, who sat on the roof of one of the royal palaces, felt unusually calm.

His cultivation base had risen significantly.

The finger had devoured nearly everything in the city, and thus, Xu Qing didn’t benefit much from that. But in the slaughter before that point, he had unwittingly pushed all of his nascent souls to the point where they could summon the second heavenfate tribulation.

“It won’t be long now,” he murmured.

It was a clear night with no moon. Heaven and earth were both dark. As Xu Qing sat there quietly, he thought back to the gory paste at the bottoms of those cages. And he thought about Panyan. After a while, he took out a violet-colored flute, put it to his lips, and played the song Plumdark had taught him. The whimpering of the flute drifted to and fro in the city.

Time passed. Ten days later, the humans arrived.

As Xu Qing caught sight of the procession of more than 100,000 humans, he saw a flash of white appear in their midst. That flash became a young woman who rushed toward him.

“Big Bro Xu Qing!” Ling’er said. Hurrying up, she wrapped her arms around him.

Xu Qing gently stroked her hair, and a smile broke out onto his previously expressionless face. Behind Ling’er were the shadow, the stone lion, and the head.

Before the head could say anything, Xu Qing threw it and the lion back into D-132. The shadow obediently returned to its spot beneath his feet.

“Come on,” he said softly. “Let’s go receive them.” He led the way toward the incoming procession.

Nothing unusual happened in the following days.

The humans brought new life to the city. Their sorrow remained in their memories, but hope for the future became a seed that would grow in their hearts. Buildings were going back up, and the city wall was being repaired. Gradually, laughter could be heard in the city. The sounds of joy filled the streets.

Duanmu Zang returned a month later.

Somehow, he had acquired over a thousand iron cages, into which had been crammed numerous members of the Twofold Alliance. Because Skyfaces were so large, it wasn’t possible to fit as many of them into the cages. However, overall, it seemed that there were well over the required 500,000 offerings. Their despairing, numb gazes looked exactly like the gazes of the human victims they had treated like nothing more than food.

Xu Qing felt no pity for these people from the Twofold Alliance.

The cages were plopped down outside the city, and there they waited for their doom to be sealed.

Duanmu Zang’s return brought new life to the city and the repair work. Soon, the spell formations were back in working order. When the defensive shield was activated, the 100,000 humans jumped for joy. Ling’er did the same. They had lived desperate lives in the bottom of an abandoned mine, just waiting to become food. Given that, this new set of circumstances felt much safer.

As Xu Qing watched from the city wall, he felt happy. Then he looked at the distant horizon. It was time to leave.

It’s too bad I still don’t have a way to remove that curse.

He turned to the side, where Duanmu Zang had materialized next to him. Handing Xu Qing a jug of alcohol, he sat down, looked at the people below, and sighed.

“Thank you, Xu Qing,” he said softly.

Xu Qing nodded and took a drink. “I just did what I had to do.”

Duanmu Zang looked deeply at Xu Qing, but in the end, decided not to ask any questions about how everything played out. It was all the past now. He knew that everyone had secrets, and that sometimes, it was best not to pry.

Taking a drink, he said, “By the way, I asked around about the Doorites. Most sightings have been in the central district here in the east. That’s where offerings are delivered to the Red Moon Cathedral. After all, this time of year is a busy season for the Doorites. They do a lot of business in times like this.”

Xu Qing nodded. He had previously asked Duanmu Zang about long-range teleportation portals. He needed to get to Mount Heavenly Ox, which was in the south of the Moonrite Region. That was a very, very long way away.

During his entire time near the Heavenfire Sea, Xu Qing hadn’t spotted a single teleportation portal the likes of which were common in Sea-Sealing County. There wasn’t even a teleportation portal in Holy City. It was possible to buy teleportation talismans, but most of them were the entropic variety that teleported you to a random place.

Duanmu Zang had explained to him that, in the Moonrite Region, only the biggest species had teleportation portals.

Normally speaking, anyone else who wanted to teleport somewhere would need to enlist the help of the Doorites. .𝒎

The Doorites were an unusual species who were born with an innate and permanent connection to a specific and unique door. As a species, they did not have any one area that they called home. What was more, when members of their species became adults, they would leave to travel about the region. The species’ innate ability was that they could make a record in their door of any location they had visited. Later on, they could teleport people back to that spot. The range depended on the level of cultivation base involved.

That was how the Doorites earned a living. And whenever the Red Moon Cathedral went somewhere to demand offerings, the Doorites would have plenty of customers to do business with among the species who didn’t control teleportation portals.

“If you want,” Duanmu Zang continued, “you can come with me to the east. I need to leave soon anyway to deliver our offering to the cathedral.”

Xu Qing thought about it. If he didn’t use teleportation portals, it would take far too long to travel to Mount Heavenly Ox. The appointed time to meet up with the Captain had already passed. Given that they had no way to communicate, Xu Qing made his decision quickly. Based on experience, he knew that the Red Moon Cathedral apparently had no way to detect his violet moon. So he nodded.

Thus, three days later at dawn, Xu Qing and Ling’er left along with Duanmu Zang and all the cages. When they left, the 100,000 humans in the city all stepped out at the same time. Looking at Xu Qing, they got to their knees and kowtowed. Their eyes were full of blessings, and they all prayed that Xu Qing would be safe on his journeys.

Xu Qing looked back. Moved, he clasped hands and bowed.

The sky was dark, and a stiff wind blew, reducing visibility. But there was nothing that could mask the hope in the city.

Xu Qing turned and left with the caravan.

Later, as the wind blew, Duanmu Zang spoke in a hoarse voice. “Xu Qing, there’s a legend in the Moonrite Region. Supposedly, because of the curse, the souls of people who die in this region cannot enter the cycle of reincarnation. Instead, they return to the Red Moon Cathedral.

“When Crimson Mother comes to enjoy hēr offerings, those souls become seeds that are reincarnated in the region. It’s an endless cycle, and is why this place is also called the Red Moon Spirit Garden. People from here live and die over and over again, always living lives of bitterness, unable to escape Moonrite.

“The point is… Panyan might be dead. But her soul should still be there at the Red Moon Cathedral.”

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