In the Greenhair Badlands, the wind was like a host of invisible knives slashing at the sand between Xu Qing and the Captain.

Xu Qing was crazed and not even aware of himself. Closing in with incredible speed, he soon reached a position only about thirty meters away from the Captain. But when Xu Qing heard the words ‘little Junior Brother,’ he lurched to a halt. His bloodshot eyes were full of chaos as he stared at the figure in front of him. As he did, struggle appeared in his eyes, and then a bit of lucidity. The struggle between human nature and godly nature intensified, and Xu Qing shivered. He recognized his Eldest Brother, and yet he couldn’t control the hunger within him.

“Eldest Brother…” he said in a hoarse voice. As the words left his mouth, the struggle between human nature and godly nature grew even more intense, threatening to swallow him up. Letting loose a howl of anguish, he turned and fled. He exercised restraint, and didn’t get close to his Eldest Brother!

The sight left the Captain moved. He knew Xu Qing, and he also knew the torment Xu Qing was dealing with at the moment. He was also aware of how difficult it was to exercise restraint in his current state….

It proved how extraordinary Xu Qing was, and also how important the Captain was to him.

The Captain felt warmth in his heart.

“You little dork,” he murmured with a smile, shaking his head. Next, he took a deep breath, and within his pupils, faces appeared. Their eyes opened, and more faces appeared within those pupils as well. It went on and on forever. Blue light flared around the Captain, and then he blurred into motion.

When he reappeared, he was right in front of Xu Qing.

As Xu Qing’s face distorted, the Captain spoke in a soft voice. “If you’re hungry, little Junior Brother, just eat.”

He put his hand out in front of Xu Qing.

Xu Qing shivered as he looked at his Eldest Brother. Deep longing ached inside of him, pulsing out from the vortex formed from the struggle between human nature and godly nature.

Opening his mouth, he bit deeply into the Captain’s hand. Blood sprayed everywhere. He swallowed the flesh. It made Xu Qing feel a bit better. However, pain still existed in his heart. He wanted restraint! He didn’t want things to be like this.

Sadly, the chasm within him made that impossible. Looking ruthless and insane, he opened his mouth and made a sound like a sob. That was his human nature fighting back!

The Captain smiled. “Don’t be afraid, little Ah Qing.”

As the Captain let Xu Qing devour his left hand, he used his right hand to tousle his hair. Then he scooped him up with his right arm.

“Eat. Eat your fill. The old man should have been the one to handle this, but I am the Eldest Brother after all. So I’ll do it. Eat up. Get full. We have something really big to do.”

Xu Qing shivered, and the struggle in his eyes intensified. A terrifying thought had just occurred to him. He wanted… to completely devour this Eldest Brother of his. Every last bit of him. He wanted to swallow him whole.

What was more, as human nature and godly nature mixed within him, he finally experienced a sensation other than hunger. It was a different type of longing. It was a longing for blood. He wanted to drink the Captain’s blood!

The moment the thought occurred to him, his heart filled with immeasurable pain. He didn’t want that!

He suddenly stopped chewing. He stood there moaning for a few breaths of time. Then violet light flared, becoming a mountain-toppling, sea-draining force that shoved the Captain several dozen meters away.

Looking at the stump of the Captain’s hand, Xu Qing seemed to struggle even harder. Shoving his hand into his mouth, he started pulling out the flesh he had consumed. Then he ripped open his belly to drag out the flesh in his stomach, one bit at a time.

Blood sprayed everywhere, soaking the ground. Most gruish of all was that the blood… became like pearls landing on the ground. When they landed, they rolled this way and that. Shockingly, on each pearl was a vicious representation of Xu Qing’s face.

As Xu Qing dragged out the flesh he had consumed, the struggle within him grew even stronger. The clash between human nature and godly nature had reached an unprecedented level.

The Captain stood off in the distance, watching. His expression was one of pain and sorrow, but he didn’t take any action. He knew… that Xu Qing had to reawaken his human nature if he truly wanted to survive this god-glimpsing phase.

Back in the day, I…. The Captain thought back to things from the past that he had long chosen not to think about. Pain flickered in his eyes.

Shortly after, the increasing amounts of blood spraying out of Xu Qing had formed a totem.

Looking down at it from above, it resembled a face. The face’s eyes were closed, and it looked to be in pain. And it seemed to flow with blood. In its general shape, it resembled Crimson Mother. But the facial features were Xu Qing’s!

In the middle of that totem, Xu Qing was still digging flesh out from inside himself. The struggle in his heart continued to grow stronger. The reason for that was that he had discovered he still felt the longing to devour his Eldest Brother.

The sight of his Eldest Brother’s mangled arm filled him with pain. Finally, Xu Qing unleashed a howl that didn’t sound human at all. Turning, he raced off into the distance. He chose to take advantage of a surge of human nature to leave. He knew that he wouldn’t be able to suppress his hunger much longer, and he wanted to be far away before the madness overtook him.

He couldn’t see clearly. The world around him looked twisted and distorted. The apathy of godly nature was telling him that everything around him could be beneficial in his evolution, and that he should devour it. The animal nature within him was a weapon, and the godly nature within him was making sure it was liberated. But his human nature kept reminding him over and over again that there was a bottom line he couldn’t cross.

Some things just couldn’t be done. Some people could not be abandoned. Some ideals had to be preserved even if it meant dying!

Thus, Xu Qing fled.

After he was gone, the totem formed from blood drops rose up into the air and followed him, pulsing with godly might.

The Captain kept his eyes on the fleeing Xu Qing as he followed.

Time passed. Xu Qing fled nonstop. The Captain’s arrival had thrown his heart into chaos. His state of madness thanks to the mixing of human nature and godly nature was even greater than before.

“Who am I…? It’s not important.”

“Yes it is. It’s very important. I’m Xu Qing!”

“My past isn’t important at all.”

“It’s very important!”

“The people you meet in life are nothing but food.”

“That’s not true!”

It was as if two versions of consciousness existed within him, one apathetic, one in pain.

The apathetic consciousness was godly nature, and it was housed in the face of blood behind him. The consciousness full of pain was human nature, housed in Xu Qing’s heart, and not willing to give up.

As the process continued, his nascent souls did not experience any change. However, the violet moon grew in intensity. Unbeknownst to him, his violet moon nascent soul had already reached the great circle of three tribulations. No heavenfate tribulation had appeared, yet the violet moon nascent soul was still growing. Eventually, it reached the four-tribulation level, and then the great circle of that level.

Yet it kept going. Five tribulations! After that, it reached the great circle of five tribulations! Even then, its growth did not stop.

Xu Qing’s violet moon nascent soul eventually reached the dao begetting phase!

Violet light intertwined outside of him, gradually forming a violet secret trove. Put most precisely, it wasn’t a secret trove. It was something that could only be made with the power of a god. It was… a god trove!

When that happened, the dome of heaven seemed to lose its color, and the desert was thrown into chaos. As violet moon power surged, the struggle in Xu Qing began to ebb. His human nature faded, and his hunger began to overtake everything. He once again thirsted for blood.

The face of blood behind him seemed to be smiling apathetically.

īt was winning.

However, that was when something unexpected happened!

Xu Qing stopped in place. As he stood there, he saw something about thirty meters up ahead. He broke out in goosebumps, and then began to tremble. His mind was filled with unprecedented chaos. It was as if the item thirty meters up ahead of him had caused all of his thoughts to focus on it.

It was a metal box. Inside the box was some blood-colored soil. And in that soil…

Was a flower!

It seemed like nothing but an ordinary flower. It had seven sawtooth leaves, and in between each of them was a strange symbol made of gauzy threads. That symbol looked like a face that was crying and laughing at the same time.

When Xu Qing saw that flower, his mind felt like it was being struck by 10,000,000 lightning bolts. He felt like his soul was being ripped to shreds.

Countless images appeared in his mind. Countless memories welled up from the depths of what he had felt was an unimportant part of his heart.

“Lifespan flower, also known as life-extending flame and god-spirit weed, is a mutated variety of a god-type vegetation known as regeneration tree. There are actually seventy-three known mutations, but only the first type can be used in medicines. They grow randomly in forbidden regions, without any specific habitat pattern. They’re extremely rare. They can be used to regrow severed limbs, reinvigorate life force, and treat any injury other than those inflicted by the god above.”

Shivering, Xu Qing walked over and knelt in front of the flower. He reached out and touched it.

“Lifespan flower….”

He had searched for this flower for years, but had never found one…. It was the very same flower he’d hoped to use to extend Sergeant Thunder’s life. The lifespan flower. 1

“Sergeant Thunder….”

Tears welled up in his eyes and then flowed down his face, dropping into the sand below like blotches of ink. Those tears came from human nature. The blood-colored face behind him suddenly collapsed, becoming countless droplets of blood that flowed through Xu Qing’s injuries back into his body.

The Captain stood off in the distance, watching. The tight pain in his heart was finally starting to ease. He smiled.

Someone appeared noiselessly next to him. It was the Heir Apparent.

“Now I believe it,” the Heir Apparent said as he watched Xu Qing. “The two of you have a very unusual Master. He’s either the reincarnation of some powerful expert from my time, or one of the elite descendants of an Ancient Emperor who left this place.”

Once again looking like the picture of flattery, the Captain said, “The old man’s so-so. He definitely can’t compare to you, Senior. If you ever start recruiting apprentices, your humble servant will be the first to sign up.”

The Heir Apparent looked at the Captain. He didn’t trust one word that came out of his mouth. “That said, I’m curious. Did you and Xu Qing seek out your Master? Or did he seek the two of you out?”

1. The lifespan flower was first mentioned by Grandmaster Bai in chapter 18. It was mentioned throughout the first volume, and was brought up most recently in chapter 355. ☜

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