Xu Qing and the Captain had no idea what was inside the sphere.

As Xu Qing stood guard, the Captain closed in on the sphere with Ning Yan’s vine. Eventually, he found a spot where he could attach the vine to the damaged exterior. However, he was worried that the connection might not be stable enough, so he continued wrapping the vine through several other spots as well. Eventually, he tied it into a huge knot. Then he bit his finger and used blood to draw a magical symbol, fusing the vine onto the sphere itself.

Having done that, the Captain patted the sphere, then settled down cross-legged and flashed a hand signal to Xu Qing.

A casual observer would have no idea what that signal meant. But Xu Qing knew. Feeling a bit awkward, he took out an image-recording jade slip, protected it with violet moon power, and then recorded an image of the Captain in the jade slip.

With that accomplished, the Captain raced over to check the image. Looking pleased, he winked and flashed another hand signal.

Xu Qing shook his head to refuse the Captain’s invitation to return the favor and record a wonderful image of Xu Qing.

The two of them then followed the vine back up out of the river. Everything went smoothly. A few hours later, they were back on the shore. The moment they came out of the water, the Captain grabbed the vine.

“Get to work, people! Big Jianjian, just now I actually saw some inscriptions on that thing which were penned by Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity himself. Sadly, it was too dark to make them out clearly….”

Wu Jianwu had been lying on the sand resting, but when he heard the Captain’s words, he jumped up, his eyes wide. Grabbing Ning Yan’s vine, he shouted excitedly at his children, who all followed his example. The parrot was no exception. Ning Yan was starting to get nervous again, but he sat up just like before and grabbed the vine. Li Youfei was an astute person, so he grabbed the vine and started pulling, his face flushed from the effort.

As everyone pulled, the water started churning. At the other end of the vine, the huge metal sphere started rocking back and forth, and then it rose up a bit.

Inside of it sat the Heir Apparent. When he sensed the sphere moving, an odd expression appeared on his face, and he looked outside. It seemed like he wanted to say something, but in the end, chose not to….

As time passed, the metal sphere slowly rose out of the mud and started moving across the bottom of the river toward the shore. With every slight movement, the water seethed, and waves rolled out on the surface. It was creating quite a disturbance, but the Captain had prepared well, so it didn’t attract any attention, at least temporarily. If the effects went on for too long, though, that could change. That was one reason why he was in such a hurry.

Unfortunately, there were a lot of rocks on the riverbed, and as the metal sphere hit them, it bumped up and down. And those effects reached the Heir Apparent.

The Heir Apparent no longer had an odd expression on his face. He was calm as he sat there, doing nothing to stop the Captain and the others from pulling on the sphere within which he was recovering from his injuries.

Three days passed in a flash.

Everyone was working so hard that, before long, the huge sphere became visible. After countless years of remaining unseen, it was now visible in the outside world. It was covered with rust, and seemed profoundly ancient. It even caused ripples to spread out in the sky.

“It’s out! Everybody pull harder!”

The Captain excitedly tapped into all of the power in his cultivation base and pulled as hard as he could.

The huge sphere was fully 30,000 meters in size, making it even larger than the rings in the door frame. It moved very slowly, and even that required a huge amount of effort. On two occasions, the vine seemed like it might snap. Thankfully, the vine was being bolstered by both the Captain and Xu Qing’s violet moon power, so it held strong.

With the goal right in front of them, everyone went all out. Xu Qing even grew his body larger, to a size of 15 meters, making him seem like a small giant.

Finally, as all of them gasped for breath, the sphere broke the surface. Then, a few hours after that, they managed to drag it onto the shore.

It was now out of the Yin Sacrifice River. As it lay there, red water dripped down its pocked surface, almost like a waterfall. The ancient feeling of the thing was even more intense now, and it radiated the effects of time, causing everything around it to pulsate.

Li Youfei was rocked to the core. Ning Yan inhaled sharply. Wu Jianwu’s eyes shone brightly as he approached, looking for the inscriptions the Captain had mentioned.

The Captain, meanwhile, was sprawled out, hardly able to catch his breath. Looking at the gigantic sphere, he laughed proudly.

“What do you think, little Junior Brother? Is your Eldest Brother awesome, or is he awesome? Hahaha! Three suns! All sitting right here. Add in Little Roundy, and that means I have four. Let me tell you, although the other five Moonrite Region suns are in the hands of other species, I left back doors in all of them. When the critical moment arrives, all it will take is a thought on my part, and all nine suns will come to me. Of course, I’ll need a bit of help from you to deal with these three! Little Junior Brother, the big day we came here for is about to arrive!”

Xu Qing looked at the three massive items, his heart pounding. All of a sudden, he thought back to what the parrot had told him earlier, and a question occurred to him.

“Eldest Brother, when you mentioned lighting a fire, were you talking about these three suns?”

The Captain crawled to his feet, his eyebrows dancing up and down. “Exactly! Come on. The big sphere needs more time to dry off. Let’s start by lighting the other two.”

The Captain dragged Xu Qing over to the huge stone door frame. Reaching out, he put his hand on the door frame, his eyes shining with anticipation.

Xu Qing looked up at the thing, still trying to wrap his mind around how something like this could turn into a sun.

“Little Junior Brother, have you ever heard of eternal power?” The Captain pointed at the door frame. “This is eternal power. And it’s also how it can be turned into an artificial sun.”

The Captain waved his hand, and Little Roundy appeared. As Little Roundy’s light focused on the door frame, the magical symbols on the bronze-colored stone began to glow.

They almost seemed to be powering up. Little Roundy continued to shine, until the magical symbols were all shining brightly. At the same time, loud rumbling sounds echoed out. Eventually, the door frame was shining radiantly, attracting the attention of everyone else present.

When the light was so bright it felt blinding, the Captain said, “Little Junior Brother, your amazing golden crow is the best fire to light all things. Use your golden crow power to breathe a bit of fire and light this thing up!”

The golden crow within Xu Qing erupted, manifesting as a majestic figure outside of him. To Li Youfei’s astonishment, the huge golden crow swirled around a few times, then faced the doorframe and breathed a blast of heavenfire. A boundless sea of flames swept over the door frame, and was then sucked in by the magical symbols. Then powerful fluctuations pulsed out and gathered in the huge spring. The spring vibrated.

“Again!” The Captain spat out some blood and added it to the effort, transforming Xu Qing’s golden crow power.

The flames transformed, and the door frame started rumbling. As it shone brightly, countless fluctuations entered the spring, which started vibrating with even more intensity, until finally… it sank down with great force!

The largest ring, which was in the middle of the spring, slammed down. A huge boom rang out, and the land quaked. Countless boulders shattered, and everyone present staggered. Then the spring shot back up and slammed into the top of the door frame.

Next, it slammed down again.

The cycle continued, resulting in constant rumbling booms. It seemed like it would keep moving like this for all eternity. Eventually, a sea of flames developed, sweeping out to cover the door frame and turning into a huge ball of fire.

Xu Qing looked on, his heart pounding. Everyone else reacted even more dramatically. Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu were both staring, dumbfounded. Li Youfei was utterly and thoroughly stupefied.

As for the Captain, he laughed heartily and waved his hand. As a result, the sun in the doorframe shrank down until it became a beam of light that entered his hand.

After putting it away, the Captain pointed at the large ring that he and Xu Qing had pushed over earlier.

“On to number two, little Ah Qing!” the Captain said, and he pulled out a headless corpse. A mere glance revealed that the corpse was obviously from the Captain’s present life. He must have decapitated himself recently….

He threw the corpse toward the ring, and as it tumbled through the air, it grew larger and larger. Eventually, it was the same size as the person-shaped gap. When it landed in place, its hands connected with the hands of the statues on either side. The inner ring was now complete! .

“Give me some fire, little Ah Qing!” the Captain shouted.

Without any hesitation, Xu Qing had the golden crow breathe out some more heavenfire, which swept over the ring, and then shot toward the Captain’s corpse. The corpse ignited, and then the fire spread to the statues on either side of it. One by one, the statues lit up. As they did, their eyes opened, and they began chanting a spell. At the same time, they began moving in unison like a gear. Intense rumbling sounds spread out as the fire grew more intense. A moment later, the ‘gear’ was spinning rapidly, and the huge flaming ring turned into a sun.

The Captain flew over, reached out, and grabbed it. Just like the door frame, the new sun shrank down, and the Captain put it away.

“Hahaha! That couldn’t have gone more smoothly. In fact, it went so well it felt weird!”

Xu Qing suddenly went on guard. As far as he could remember, whenever the Captain did something big, unexpected things always happened. If the Captain hadn’t said what he just said, Xu Qing might not have been worried about anything. But now he felt uneasy.

When the Captain saw Xu Qing’s expression, he looked displeased.

“Now now, little Ah Qing, don’t you trust me? Like I said, this wasn’t a big job. It was a small job! I’ve been planning it for a very, very long time, so there’s absolutely no chance anything unexpected could happen. You were watching just now. Everything went incredibly smoothly, right? Come, come. Let’s light the last one. After, we’ll depart for the Bitter Life Mountains!”

Licking his lips, the Captain looked at the metal sphere. There wasn’t as much water draining off it now. What was more, there were some things that resembled evil spirits that were coming out of the inside and looking around malevolently.

“We can light it now,” he said. “Just send the fire over. When those evil spirits get burned up, they’ll be an offering for the sun.”

Xu Qing hesitated briefly. It was true that he didn’t see any signs that something unexpected would happen, and therefore, he decided to trust the Captain. With the wave of his hand, he sent the golden crow flying up into the air, where it breathed out a sea of flames toward the metal sphere.

Boundless fire enveloped it. The fire had been lit.

The Captain then prepared to take out some items he had prepared for this moment to make sure the sphere was completely ignited. However, before he could, the huge sphere vibrated and rose up into the air of its own accord.

The fire went wild, making it seem like the heat was about to go completely out of control. It was the same inside the sphere. In the blink of an eye, the thing looked like a giant soldering iron. If that was all there was to it, it might not have been a big deal. But then it started emanating terrifying fluctuations that made it seem like… it was about to self-detonate!

𝘳𝑎.𝒸ℴ