When Princess Brightblossom extended her finger, causing the sound of time to ripple through the area, the Heir Apparent released his own authority.

His was different from Brightblossom’s, as it could alter perceptions. But it wasn’t limited to the perceptions of living things. He could alter the fundamental attributes of natural and magical laws, and even tamper with the thinking of living beings. By transforming living things, influencing magical laws, and creating a grand illusion, he could ensure that even heavenly daos would overlook what was happening. Not even gods would pay attention.

No one had any idea what was actually happening in this part of the Moonrite Region. That included the Red Moon Cathedral.

It was a terrifying type of authority. The only downside was that, despite being a Smoldering God, the Heir Apparent could only use it for ten breaths of time. After that, it would cease to work. For most people, ten breaths of time wouldn’t be sufficient.

But it was more than enough time for Brightblossom. The river of time swirled out from her fingers, enveloping the village. It was possible to see children within it, as well as adults and the elderly. They packed the village, looking almost like a painting as they spread out. The nursery rhyme filled the air. To the senses, the moment seemed to stretch out. Although it seemed like ten breaths of time had already passed, in reality, only three had gone by.

It was like a person taking a message and compressing it down to be delivered in only three breaths of time. It created a terrifying sensation of collapse. If someone else was standing in the same spot as Xu Qing, and didn’t have a god body or the sufficient cultivation base, their soul would shatter.

Years ago, before the ninth of the Imperial Sovereign’s children was born, Princess Brightblossom had always been the most spectacular, to the point where she earned praise from Ancient Emperors.

Xu Qing was deeply moved by what he was seeing.

Time… he thought, his eyes shining. The chanting of all the souls became a cacophony. The nursery rhyme echoed out everywhere, causing an illusory image to form.

It was the image of a young woman, her back to the crowd, her head bowed as if she were weeping. There appeared to be countless deceased souls latched onto her, gnawing away at her, mangling her flesh. There were also crimson iron chains binding her. She looked blurry, as did the chains, making it seem like she didn’t exist in this world. She only existed in the nursery rhyme. Though she was visible, her image twisted and distorted so dramatically it looked like she wouldn’t stay around for very long.

“Xu Qing,” said Princess Brightblossom.

Without the slightest hesitation, Xu Qing released the violet moon power within him, causing his red moon authority to skyrocket.

Blood-colored light erupted from him, like countless streams of blood rising into the air. Princess Brightblossom waved her hand, and the blood shot toward the image formed from the nursery rhyme. In the blink of an eye, the blood-red color had spread out to cover everything. And the crying figure was now transforming from illusory to corporeal.

In fact, right now, it seemed like the illusory and corporeal were overlapping. That caused fluctuations to spread out, shaking the surrounding image. The red chains started swaying back and forth violently, until cracking sounds rang out and they started to break.

Finally, Princess Brightblossom stepped forward, entered the illusory image, and wrapped her arms around the crying figure.

“Don’t cry, Fifth Sister. Your big sister’s here to take you home.”

Fifth Sister wept even more, trembling as she did. Then the crumbling chains exploded. All of the deceased souls howled in rage as they were wiped out of existence.

Ten breaths of time had passed. The Heir Apparent vanished. Xu Qing disappeared. The image that had formed went away. It was as if the river of time hadn’t existed to begin with. The souls it brought with it were nowhere to be seen. Everything was back to normal. The citizens in the village looked around in confusion. However, their expression quickly became numb again.

The only difference now was that the nursery rhyme being chanted by the children had changed.

“Little cloth dolly, little cloth dolly; big ol’ eyes and hair like ebony; can you please just come along home with me?

“Little cloth dolly, little cloth dolly; don’t be scared of the lightning you see; just laugh and smile for all eternity.”

***

The Doorites were a very unique species in the Moonrite Region. They didn’t have an ancestral land for their species. Whether or not a Doorite became an adult depended on whether or not they could find a personalized door in the Door Graveyard. If they did find one, then they would spend the rest of their life wandering the Moonrite Region with that door. They could do so until they went to every area possible in the region. That was their tradition. It was also their manner of living, and their method of cultivation.

No one knew why the Doorites were like this. In fact, not even the Doorites understood it. They just acted on instinct.

There was another unique thing about the Doorites. And that was… whenever Crimson Mother and the red moon came, they would be destroyed, but their doors would survive. When Crimson Mother came, their species reacted a lot more calmly than most other species. They would all return from their wanderings and gather in a specific location, where they would part ways with their doors.

The location where they met was the Door Graveyard.

It was a large valley in the east of the Moonrite Region. Most outsiders called the place the Great Abyss. The reason was that the valley was shockingly wide, and so deep that no one really knew how far down the bottom was.

Countless doors filled that valley. There were large ones and small ones, made from every type of material, in every style imaginable. The entire place was filled with a sensation of rot that would never be dispelled.

Cultivators avoided the place, the reason being that the valley and everything around it were filled with too many mysteries. A lot of people had gone missing there throughout the years.

Just now, four figures had appeared on the cliff overlooking the valley. There were two grandmas and one grandpa. The fourth… was Xu Qing.

It had been four days since they left Mount Eternal Centipede.

The additional grandma in the group was much skinnier than Princess Brightblossom. She wore a black robe, had prominent cheekbones, and didn’t look kindly at all. Instead, she looked harsh and even mean. She also pulsed with a strong, forbidding aura. Whenever she looked at the Heir Apparent, she seemed even dourer. It was only when she looked at Princess Brightblossom that a trace of warmth could be found in her eyes. She was less surly with Xu Qing as well, and instead seemed like a member of the Senior generation, amiably looking at someone from the Junior generation.

Xu Qing could sense that this black-robed grandma wasn’t used to kindly facial expressions, and that she was working hard to be nice to him.

“Eighth Sib is sealed here,” the Heir Apparent said. “He was trapped in a very ancient door, which subsequently shattered into countless smaller pieces. That’s where the Doorites came from. The Doorites themselves don’t have an ancestral land. But the doors do.

“Put precisely, the Doorites actually aren’t the cultivators. They’re these doors. And this is the ancestral land of those doors. Every single door is a part of our eighth brother. And every time someone uses one of those doors to teleport somewhere, Eighth Sib’s soul is drained a little bit more.

“That drainage creates an invisible karma that causes endless torment for eighth brother….”

Princess Brightblossom looked down into the valley. Next to her, Fifth Sister snorted coldly and completely ignored the Heir Apparent.

Clearly the two of them had a long-standing conflict. Xu Qing wasn’t sure about the details, but he’d noticed that the Heir Apparent seemed to feel bad about it. Hearing the Heir Apparent’s explanation made Xu Qing think back to the time when he came very close to paying for a Doorite teleportation. Now that he thought about it, he realized… that it was the Heir Apparent who had stopped him from doing that at the very last moment. 1

“Therefore, if we want to unseal Eighth Sib, we won’t just need to rely on me and Third Sister. That alone wouldn’t be enough to do it right.” Looking tenderly at Fifth Sister, he continued in a soft voice, “Baby sister, we need the power of your authority….”

The black-robed grandma glared coldly at the Heir Apparent. She didn’t say anything. Princess Brightblossom sighed inwardly. Reaching out, she took hold of Fifth Sister’s hand. The black-robed grandma stood there quietly for a long moment before finally nodding.

The Heir Apparent breathed an inward sigh of relief, and at the same time, his eyes lit up. Just like before, he would be responsible for masking all traces of their presence while Princess Brightblossom went into the valley to collect all the door fragments of her sealed eighth brother.

“I need a drop of that violet moon blood, sweetie,” Princess Brightblossom said, looking at Xu Qing.

Without a moment of hesitation, Xu Qing used violet moon power to create a sea of blood. That would give her more than enough. His attitude made Princess Brightblossom smile. The black-robed grandma secretly nodded in approval, and the kindliness she favored him with grew more sincere.

With Xu Qing’s violet moon blood, Princess Brightblossom went straight into the valley. The moment she was gone, the atmosphere on the cliff grew a lot colder.

The black-robed grandma didn’t say a word. Not quite sure what to do or say, the Heir Apparent looked at Xu Qing.

“You’ve been idle a lot recently, boy,” he said. “Go back to the road. Don’t use any of your violet moon power. You have to do it all on your own.”

“Like hell he will!” the black-robed grandma snapped coldly.

The Heir Apparent smiled wryly and looked at his fifth sister. “Baby sist—”

“Shut up!”

The Heir Apparent’s eyebrows shot up in anger. But then he sensed how weak his younger sister was. Sighing, he turned his angry glare onto Xu Qing.

Xu Qing blinked a few times and edged closer to the black-robed grandma. Around that time, intense rumbling sounds echoed out from the valley, causing the surroundings to shake. The Heir Apparent gathered his thoughts, then waved his hand, covering over everything so that all signs of activity in the valley were masked.

Meanwhile, the sound from the valley grew more intense. It almost sounded like countless howls of grief. Terrifying fluctuations built up, and the shaking grew more violent. Cracks appeared in the cliff face, causing rubble to rain down.

Xu Qing was so surprised he felt a sense of crisis rising in him. He could only imagine what terrifying entities existed in that valley.

That said, they didn’t seem to count for much to Princess Brightblossom.

A moment later, the fluctuations ceased. Princess Brightblossom appeared out of nowhere in front of them. She looked weak. In her hand was a palm-sized chunk of wood. She waved her hand, and it floated out into the air.

“The ancient door sealing Eighth Sib was completely shattered, which makes it hard to put back together. I found this piece after scouring through the rubble down there and using my river of time. This was all I could do.”

The fragment of wood emanated a sense of profound ancientness.

Sensing it, Xu Qing looked over at the black-robed grandma. He was very interested in seeing what her authority was like.

The black-robed grandma stared at the chunk of wood for a time. Then she reached out with a finger so wrinkled it seemed like it might never recover, she touched it. Instantly, she seemed to grow even older. However, the chunk of wood trembled and then started transforming. It grew longer, wider, and bigger. In a short five breaths of time, it transformed into an ancient door, standing tall in the world.

The door frame was black, while the door itself was white. It was covered with complex designs. And the design on the door itself formed a gray morning-glory flower. It was a bewitching-looking flower that seemed capable of shaking the soul. Pulses of ancient time flowed out, shattering the air and creating intense pressure. The moment the wooden door appeared, a loud knocking sound rang out.

Thunk-thunk. Thunk-thunk!

It rang out like heavenly thunder.

Looking at Xu Qing, the black-robed grandma said, “My authority is not cultivated. It comes naturally. It can revive all living things, at a price. That I pay.”

1. The Heir Apparent stopped Xu Qing from going through with the Doorite teleportation in chapter 567.2. ☜

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