They were only six words spoken among a cacophony of other voices. But Xu Qing’s name was deeply meaningful! In Sea-Sealing County, and especially to the swordsages there, his name carried profound significance! He was a fellow veteran who had fought life-or-death battles by their side! He had experienced the cruel baptism of war with them! He was a hero to all of Sea-Sealing County, and was also its future governor. It was the same with the mortals. No one could possibly forget his name for a moment. In an instant, the swordsages who had been furious and ready to die fighting were all shaken to the core. The person they had all been thinking about was now out of seclusion!

Excited expressions appeared everywhere as people looked around for the figure that they all remembered clearly. It wasn’t just the swordsages who reacted in that way. The cultivators from the other two palaces were just as stunned, and the elite cultivators from sects throughout Sea-Sealing County were all shaken. There were plenty of people who had never seen Xu Qing, but knew his name well.

If that was the reaction from the crowd in general, it was easy to imagine the shock visible on the faces of the three palace lords, Marquis Yao, and everyone else hovering in midair.

That one name struck astonishment into the hearts of countless citizens of Sea-Sealing County. Meanwhile, an even more majestic vortex appeared overhead, so large it filled almost the entire dome of heaven. Intense rumblings were accompanied by the crash of thunder. Winds screamed everywhere, connecting land and sky in a huge tempest.

To the shock of everyone present, a massive ship emerged from the vortex! It was pitch black and pulsed with terrifying pressure. Innumerable streams of black mist surrounded it, like tentacles that formed together into a pair of massive wings.

The prow was carved to look like a dragon in motion, with a vicious, domineering expression. The dragon had six-clawed hands, making it profoundly noble. It was the type of dragon that would strike fear and shock into the hearts of anyone who saw it. 1

Someone had written two characters on the ship’s sail.

Jicang!

Few people could possibly understand what those characters meant. But the calligraphy was mighty and domineering. The truth was that this ship had been given to Xu Qing as a gift by the Heir Apparent, who had personally written those characters onto the sail. They were his name! 2

The moment the ship appeared, heaven and earth seemed to shatter, and thunder crashed. Everyone in Seventh Prince’s army was shocked. The high commander seated on the white elephant put down his book and looked up, bewildered.

In the lead position was Patriarch Soaring Cloud, who was completely stunned. However, before the patriarch could even react, the gigantic ship shot directly toward him with heaven-subduing, earth-startling force.

There was no way to avoid it and no way to block it! The ship had been created by the Heir Apparent, who had stupefying personhood. As a result, it was capable of unimaginable speed. It appeared on the scene so suddenly that it could only be described in the following way: although it took quite a while to describe, in reality, it happened in the time it takes a spark to fly off a piece of flint!

In the blink of an eye, the stunning ship became like an actual dragon, raging with fury and murder as it bore down on Patriarch Soaring Cloud. The air shattered because of the violent pressure weighing down. At one moment, the ship was high in the sky. The next moment, it was right in front of Patriarch Soaring Cloud, about to crush him.

Patriarch Soaring Cloud was a first-stage Void Returning expert, yet his face still fell from the sense of deadly crisis that filled him. He screamed and tried to defend himself, unleashing the wild power of his cultivation base, causing the falling stars in his eyes to shoot out into the open in the form of a thousand dao lineaments. But those dao lineaments collapsed, as did everything around them.

The traitors behind him didn’t have cultivation bases near the patriarch’s, so they didn’t stand a chance of fighting back. Screams rang out everywhere as the air around them collapsed, and they were destroyed in body and soul. A cloud of gore floated through the air in the opposite direction. Then, an even greater mightiness swept toward the white elephant and the troops surrounding it.

Patriarch Soaring Cloud’s face was as pale as death. Then it turned red, and blue veins bulged out everywhere. Finally, blood sprayed out of his mouth along with an agonized shriek as he was sent tumbling down toward the ground. As he fell, his body cracked and split. His chest caved in. Blood sprayed constantly out of his mouth. And his cultivation base deflated permanently. At the same time, he was being pulled at by the ship, so though he tried to fall back, he had a hard time doing so.

Things weren’t over yet. After the ship seriously injured Patriarch Soaring Cloud, a figure emerged from it. Shining with scintillating blue light, he shot toward the patriarch like a blue meteor.

A proud voice echoed out.

“Swordsage Chen Erniu, reporting for duty!”

As the blue meteor closed in on the patriarch, the Captain’s face became visible. There were faces in his eyes, the eyes of which also had faces, and that pattern continued. Tentacles appeared, made of blue bugs, which converged into the shape of a right fist.

The Captain used that fist to punch Patriarch Soaring Cloud. More blood sprayed out of the patriarch’s mouth. He wanted to fight back. To defend himself. But in the blink of an eye, a second figure emerged from the ship. At first, he was the same size as an ordinary person. But then flesh split apart as he turned into a majestic giant.

He was none other than Xu Qing in his first-level god state! He had the body of the Ghost Emperor, incomparably grand, with an imperial crown on his head. He looked as dignified as an emperor. Blinding golden light shone off him, causing everything around him to gleam with seven colors. A heavenly dao furnace burned in his heart, its every beat sounding out like heavenly thunder. And intense flames surrounded him from head to toe.

He had a long, black spear surrounded by lightning, which he threw straight toward Patriarch Soaring Cloud. A thrumming sound echoed out as the spear pierced through the air, crushing everything in its path, and bringing destruction with it as it stabbed into the patriarch’s chest and came out the other side.

A shrill scream escaped the lips of Patriarch Soaring Cloud as a massive hole appeared in his chest and his dao lineaments were scattered. Indescribable pain filled him as his eyes turned crimson. The sensation of deadly crisis grew so intense his mind went blank. All he could think to do was flee for his life. However, before he could tap into whatever remained of his cultivation base, the Captain stepped in.

After the spear shot through the patriarch, the Captain transformed into a heavenly dog that shimmered with blue light. His jaws clamped down onto the patriarch.

Patriarch Soaring Cloud shivered from head to toe as he rapidly transformed into an ice sculpture. Life force poured out of him, entering the Captain. The patriarch began to go mad. However, it did him no good.

Xu Qing closed in and launched a full-force blow onto the ice sculpture.

The sculpture exploded with a pop. Blood sprayed out of Patriarch Soaring Cloud as his hair became completely disheveled. Never before had the patriarch been in a position as bad as this.

The Captain went in for another attack. He and Xu Qing worked together perfectly, attacking one after the other. In a very short time, they had unleashed mountain-toppling, sea-draining force on Patriarch Soaring Cloud.

The high commander and his forces were about to interfere, but then Master Seventh and everyone else surged with energy.

Patriarch Soaring Cloud let loose a deafening howl as he went all-out with everything he had left. However, it wasn’t an attack. Instead, he tried to escape. From that it could be seen how shocking the attacks of Xu Qing and the Captain were. But he actually had no opportunity to escape.

The Captain shivered, and as blue light flared around him, he turned into countless blue worms, forming a vast sea. The worms converged, becoming a huge blue hand that swept toward Patriarch Soaring Cloud.

Next to him, Xu Qing erupted with black energy that quickly surrounded him, turning into a black suit of armor. His eyes burned with fire of the underworld as his energy rose to an even more shocking level.

This wasn’t the complete version of the second-level god state, only a partial version. It wasn’t worth it to waste another chunk of Crimson Mother’s flesh to unleash the full version of the second-level god state, if the purpose was only to kill Patriarch Soaring Cloud.

In the blink of an eye, the two of them erupted with power, causing heaven and earth to shake and filling the sky with the sound of heavenly thunder. Closing in on the patriarch, Xu Qing lifted his right hand, causing black energy to swirl around the long spear, transforming it into a heavenly saber.

The saber then slashed through Patriarch Soaring Cloud’s neck, severing his head. Taboo poison raged, causing the patriarch’s body to rapidly decay. Soaring Cloud moaned in agony as even his dao lineaments began to decompose.

Simultaneously, the Captain’s gigantic blue hand grabbed the patriarch’s severed head and crushed it into a bloody paste. Then the Captain’s face appeared in the hand and he opened his mouth to devour what was left of the head. But then he realized it was full of poison and decided not to.

The blue light faded away, and the Captain’s true form appeared, glowering at Xu Qing.

Xu Qing rapidly transformed as well. He went from the second-level god state to the first level. Then he hovered there, pulsing with a baleful aura as he stared at the army.

Everything was very quiet. Countless eyes were now focused on Xu Qing and the Captain.

The sudden, ferocious development left everyone shaken. Spirit Trove had vanquished Void Returning. This… was something that should have been impossible. Yet everyone present saw it with their own eyes!

The 10,000 cultivators with the high commander all shivered. And the high commander himself looked out with a grave and somber expression.

Meanwhile, Master Seventh chuckled, and his eyes shone with approval. He looked thoughtfully in the direction of the Moonrite Region, then glanced up at the sky. He said nothing.

Sir Bloodsmelter stroked his beard, his expression one of great pride. In some ways, he looked very much like the Captain often did.

Marquis Yao looked surprised, especially by the name written on the ship’s sail!

Everyone had different facial expressions. The three palace lords, the honor guards, and the experts from the various sects were all paying rapt attention to the events. Down below, Yao Yunhui’s heart was in chaos. In recent times, she often found herself thinking good thoughts about Xu Qing, to the point where it was a permanent aspect of her. Right now, she had a blank look on her face.

Meanwhile, the slim, graceful Plumdark wasn’t looking at the ship or the people in the area. She was looking at one person who was everything to her.

As long as he’s back, that’s all that matters.

Her face, which was beautiful enough to move entire nations, gradually ceased to be anxious. Somehow, she seemed even more beautiful than before. Her smiling eyes seemed to contain blossoming flowers and a spring-like breeze.

1. Considering that the number of claws on the various dragons has been important in the story before, I figured it’s worth noting that this dragon has six claws. Historically speaking, the emperor would normally have a five-clawed dragon, so it seems unusual that this one has six claws. Out of curiosity I checked the comments, and sure enough there was some discussion among Chinese readers about this. Some people were confused. Some people pointed out that six claws surpasses the normal five claws of the emperor. Some made other humorous or incorrect comments. In any case, there is no extra information to explain it in the chapter, so you can draw your own conclusions. ☜

2. Li Jicang: Although it’s not spelled out here, given that we know the Heir Apparent’s father’s name is Li Zihua, it follows logically that the HA’s surname is also Li. That would make his name Li Jicang. Li is the #2 most common Chinese surname on the list of 100 surnames. It also means “plum” (not the same as the character from Plumdark. Plumdark’s name, as I explained in the very beginning, actually contains the character ‘violet’). Ji means “continue, follow after, succeed” and Cang means “dark blue, deep green.” By implication, Cang can generally imply the sky or heaven. Cang is common, especially in the writing of Er Gen, as it is often combined with other characters to form words you’re definitely familiar with. For example, the term I usually render as “dome of heaven” has this character in it. Azure dragons are “cang” dragons. And in ISSTH, we have “Vast Expanse” which is “cang mang.” So, if you combine the two characters, it creates a fairly obvious meaning that Madam Deathblade summarized in this way: “He’s the successor of heaven? That’s freaking royal! He’s an alpha male. An alpha alpha male.” I think at this point we all agree that the Heir Apparent is a pretty cool character, so it’s nice to know that he has a pretty badass name. ☜