The Heir Apparent’s eyes glittered; clearly, he recognized this six-eyed individual. “It’s You Dingmu, the patriarch of the Gloomites!”

He wasn’t the only one. All it took was a single glance for his brothers and sisters to reach the same conclusion.

The Captain’s eyes narrowed, and he grinned slightly. Obviously, he was also aware of the identity of this totem. After all… he had been here in his past life.

Xu Qing’s gaze hardened as he thought about the story the Heir Apparent had told him as they traversed the northern ice plains and encountered the Gloomites. Patriarch Gloomite had been a subordinate of Imperial Sovereign Li Zihua, but had turned traitor and joined Crimson Mother. Later, the Imperial Sovereign slaughtered him in the northern ice plains, and crushed his major world. Xu Qing had acquired a fragment of that very same major world, which had once belonged to the face in this totem. 1

That slaughtered subordinate of an Imperial Sovereign was now visible on the main door of the Moon Palace. Hē was a door god now, obviously having been resurrected somehow by Crimson Mother.

And thus, Eldest Brother went to the ice plains to get a copy of that fingerprint….

Xu Qing looked at the Captain.

The Captain looked back proudly, clearly proud to have his formidable nature recognized. Little Ah Qing has had plenty of chances to show off. Now it’s my turn!

Raising his voice, he said, “Seniors, there’s a process involved in Crimson Mother awakening. And we need to get to her resting place before she’s fully conscious! As for this door god, if you just help me buy some time, I have a way to crush it!”

Xu Qing looked at the Captain; it seemed as if he wanted to say something, but in the end, decided not to.

Meanwhile, the arrival of the Moon Palace caused the lands to shake and rise up, all while the canopy of heaven tilted down, as if they were being pulled by some invisible force. From a distance, it was possible to see the ancient stone Moon Palace covered with complex designs that only emphasized its general feeling of luxury and extravagance. It had vermillion walls and crimson roof tiles. The structures were all richly ornamented, and the decorative eaves featured extremely lifelike depictions of scenery and animals. As it hovered in the blood-colored fog, its silhouette seemed unusually silent and solemn. It was the core of this entire world, and everything around it was drawn toward it, whether that be heaven or earth… or anything else.

The sky rippled and the lands distorted. The entire world trembled loudly. The Moon Palace was the center of all attention, and the blood-colored light it emanated spread out to fill the red moon. In fact, the red moon seemed to be offering worship to it. The shadowy figures that Xu Qing had altered went back to being fully crimson, and they started chanting the old version of the lyrics.

As the crimson light became more prominent, the face in the totem snarled angrily at Xu Qing. īts gaze was somber and desolate, and īts growl was like heavenly thunder that crashed in all directions. Crimson snowflakes spread out in all directions, converging into the shape of armored skeletons that rushed toward Xu Qing and the others.

Seeing all that, the Heir Apparent snorted coldly and took a step forward. As his foot fell, the power of a Smoldering God swept out, becoming a gigantic hand that reached out and closed into a fist.

The air rippled and the armored skeletons shivered and exploded. Yet an instant later, they formed together again, this time into beasts that were nothing more than crimson bones. They were apparently eternal entities; no matter how you destroyed them, they would always come back, and when they did, they were stronger than before.

The Heir Apparent and his siblings obviously weren’t weaklings, especially when they worked together. Therefore, Princess Brightblossom performed an incantation gesture, causing a river of time to spring forth. Eighth Sib let loose a roar that tapped into all of the seven emotions and six sensory pleasures. In fact, that power could give emotions to those who didn’t have emotions. As a result, the beasts immediately began to fidget in fear. Before they could get control of their emotions, the river of time arrived and swept them away.

The Captain wasn’t sitting on his laurels. Taking out a patch of skin from his bag of holding, he shouted at Xu Qing to help him. Each of them grabbed one side of the patch of skin and then stretched it out between them.

In the blink of an eye, the patch of skin was opened up to reveal a huge fingerprint. It was a strange fingerprint, the mere sight of which would induce hair-raising terror. That fingerprint belonged to the Imperial Sovereign, and was left behind when he crushed Patriarch Gloomite.

“Little Ah Qing, send your taboo poison inside!” the Captain called. Then he spat out a mouthful of blood onto the patch of skin. Instantly, the fingerprint started glowing and emitted a terrifying pressure.

Xu Qing’s eye turned pitch black as he sent out the power of his taboo poison into the fingerprint. Off to the side, the Captain kept spitting out one mouthful of blood after another. The pressure emanating from the fingerprint grew stronger.

When Xu Qing saw the Captain spitting up so much blood, he felt like saying something. But considering how excited the Captain was, in the end, he decided it was better to bite his tongue.

The Heir Apparent and his siblings weren’t finished. After dealing with the blood-bone beasts, they rose into the air toward the Moon Palace.

However, the totem guarding the door leading to Crimson Mother wasn’t just going to let them inside. īts six eyes glittered, causing six beams of crimson light to shoot out, which turned into six streams of red muddy clay that shot toward the siblings. It was no ordinary clay. It contained the will of a god. Moving with blinding speed, the clay swept out to cover the five siblings, leaving an extra stream to shoot toward Xu Qing.

However, before that sixth stream could reach him, a black sword appeared in front of him to block its path. Ninth Sib had planted himself in front of Xu Qing, and was thus covered with two streams of muddy clay from Patriarch Gloomite.

“Hurry it up!” Ninth Sib said grimly, his back to Xu Qing and the Captain as the blood-colored clay covered him.

The Captain nodded. “Seven breaths of time at the most!”

More blood sprayed out of his mouth. At the same time, Xu Qing kept his taboo poison rushing forth. As the process continued, the two of them floated up into the air. Thanks to the blood and the poison, the patch of skin rapidly got larger. With the two of them pulling it, it reached a size of 9 meters. Then 30 meters. Then 120 meters….

The fingerprint became clearer and clearer, and the energy it emanated was increasingly terrifying.

The face in the totem saw that, and īts six eyes snapped shut. As that happened, six soul shadows popped into being. Looking at them closely, those six soul shadows actually represented the Heir Apparent and his siblings, with Ninth Sib being represented twice. When they appeared, the blood-colored clay caking the five siblings exploded, spinning off to the side where it clumped back into a group of clay people that looked exactly like the Heir Apparent and his siblings.

They had broad, gruish smiles, and their cultivation bases pulsed with the power of Smoldering Gods. Without any hesitation, they launched themselves toward the siblings.

Meanwhile, the totem’s forehead split open, revealing a seventh eye that focused on Xu Qing, the Captain, and the patch of skin with the fingerprint. The seventh eye narrowed, and the totem rippled, peeling off of the door to appear in the world as a gigantic face of clay. īt took the form of a conglomeration of blood-colored clay, which rushed toward Xu Qing and the Captain with īts mouth opened wider and wider.

However, just when the face of blood-colored clay appeared, and before īt had a chance to devour Xu Qing and the Captain, a stream of black light appeared. The black light had been very craftily hidden, and it chose just the right moment to sneakily appear. It was as if īt had been waiting all along for the face to remove itself from the door.

īt closed in, pulsing with uncontrollable greed and hunger. īt was surrounded by the water of the Yellow Springs, which was actually… Emperor Ancient Spirit’s saliva. That black light was the cloak form of the Ancient Spirit. In the blink of an eye, the cloak shot toward the gaping maw of the totem’s face.

Filled with countless years of hunger, Emperor Ancient Spirit ravenously started gobbling up the face.

Miserable screams erupted from the face of blood-colored clay. īts eyes filled with terror as īt abandoned all thoughts of devouring Xu Qing. Instead, īt tried to flee back to the door. Sadly for īt, Emperor Ancient Spirit had been waiting in hiding this entire time all for the purpose of having a meal. Therefore, there was no way some delectable food was going to be allowed to flee. Bite after bite was followed by horrendous chewing sounds. Saliva flowed, becoming a river accompanied by the muffled rumbling caused by intense hunger.

Stunned, the Captain checked on his own incredible counter measure, then looked at the face of blood-colored clay. He seemed depressed.

Xu Qing blinked a few times. He wasn’t very surprised at all about what was happening. Given what he knew about Emperor Ancient Spirit, it would have been strange if things didn’t play out in this way. Truth be told, he had been thinking of reminding the Captain. However, he knew how difficult it could be to dissuade the Captain when his mind was set on something. Besides, saying something out loud could have resulted in Emperor Ancient Spirit’s ambush being ineffective.

As the Captain wallowed in sadness, Patriarch Gloomite screamed miserably. Finally, hē exploded, sending chunks of blood-red clay in all directions. It quickly flew back together. Unfortunately… the blood-colored clay was only about forty percent of its original volume. The other sixty percent were now a host of eyes that pulsed with avarice.

Those eyes belonged to Emperor Ancient Spirit now.

The terrified Patriarch Gloomite tried to rush back to the Moon Palace with the forty percent of himself that remained. However, the Captain was there to take advantage of the moment.

Releasing the patch of skin, he shouted, “Be sealed!”

Xu Qing also released his grip. The fingerprint on the patch of skin erupted as if with natural and magical laws. Heaven-shaking, earth-shattering fluctuations rolled out as the fingerprint shot directly toward Patriarch Gloomite. If that fingerprint had belonged to anyone else, it might not have been very effective. But the owner of that fingerprint had previously crushed Patriarch Gloomite to death. As a result, it contained a lot of karma, and therefore, Patriarch Gloomite started shaking violently.

Then the patch of skin arrived, wrapping up the patriarch. It rolled itself up like a scroll painting and shot back to the Captain.

1. Xu Qing learned the story of the Gloomites in chapter 569.1. ☜