The voice seemed simultaneously proud, restrained, rushed, and slow. The combination made the voice extremely gruish. Clearly, the shadow was inherently a grue! The moment it spoke, the sky shifted colors, rumbling sounds echoed out, and all the plants and vegetation outside the forbidden region were ripped to shreds.

Because of the forbidden region in this area, there weren’t many people who lived nearby. But there were animals and even bugs. The animals and bugs who lived nearby were changed by the presence of the forbidden region. Mutagen would build up within them, and they would eventually mutate, becoming much stronger. And now, as the chanting spread out, they devolved into madness. From a distance, it was possible to see countless bugs and animals burrowing out of the ground, surrounding Xu Qing and letting loose shocking and ghastly cries.

Xu Qing’s facial expression didn’t change. After looking around at the bugs and animals, he realized that the shadow was controlling them. The shadow’s powers of control now had a much greater range, and could affect a larger number of targets. Most importantly, it didn’t require the shadow to possess the target. Instead, its chanting provided the control.

“You can devour forbidden regions and use sound to exercise control….” Xu Qing’s eyes narrowed as he looked at the gray lands in front of him, and the writhing shadow.

As time passed, the shadow’s writhing slowed down, and it eventually became calm again. Its form was now stable, and it looked like a head. And despite being pitch-black, the head clearly had a totem on its forehead. Its shape was exactly the same as the forbidden region that had just been devoured.

Wait, it’s not a totem. It’s….

As Xu Qing studied the shadow’s forehead, he was shaken to realize that it wasn’t a totem there, but rather, the actual forbidden region. The forbidden region that the shadow had devoured became a part of it.

This realization was so shocking that Xu Qing’s pupils constricted. What was more, in the very middle of that tiny, shrunken forbidden region, there was a tree that looked different from all the other trees. It was the very first form the shadow had assumed, that of a huge, shadowy tree. There was a coffin hanging from the tree, which was the shadow’s second form. The coffin rocked back and forth almost like a huge bell, and from within it came two sounds: that of claws scraping against wood, and more chanting.

“I, Dark Nethervoid spirit accumulation body perfection soul missing god birthing starry light descending destruction living beings follow orders!”

As the last words echoed out, a boundless spirit power swept out of the coffin and headed right toward… Xu Qing!

Xu Qing did react visibly. He stood there looking coldly at the shadow, his eyes turning pitch-black as taboo poison built up. In response to his gaze, the boundless spirit power lurched to a halt only a few meters in front of him. It twitched as if struggling between a rising malicious intent and the refusal to take further action.

Xu Qing snorted coldly.

The terrifying spirit power then shot up into the sky, where it caused the clouds to form into a short message.

Milord is a good person.

Then, the shadow sent fawning fluctuations to Xu Qing.

“Milord… obedient… me….”

Xu Qing looked at the shadow and realized that it could chant fluently, but when it tried to speak normally, it had trouble. Apparently, its speaking ability didn’t improve automatically with its general level.

Xu Qing wasn’t interested in teaching a lesson to the shadow right now. What he was mostly interested in was the godfire it had mentioned.

“What about the godfire?” he asked calmly.

A mouth cracked open on the shadow, and it howled, “Sacrifice!”

As the word echoed out, the countless bugs and animals controlled by the shadow shivered. And then, they viciously lunged at each other and started ripping each other apart. Agonized shrieks and howls of anguish rang out. This was a case of ‘self devouring self,’ and it was completely brutal. The process continued without pause as they ripped each other apart. After about a dozen breaths of time, all of the bugs and animals around Xu Qing were dead. They had sacrificed themselves!

Xu Qing looked on with a serious expression as brown motes of life emerged from the corpses and rushed toward the shadow.

Based on what Xu Qing could sense, those motes of light were similar to the power provided by the living beings of the Moonrite Region, just different substructurally. However, the differences weren’t necessarily visible to the naked eye. It was a cultivation base reaction, and wasn’t easy to notice. But Xu Qing’s gaze was full of taboo poison, so he saw the differences.

The brown motes of light merged, becoming a ball of light roughly the size of a fingernail. Glittering brightly, it expanded and then contracted rapidly, as if it were unstable. But what was really shocking was that it affected the canopy of heaven. The clouds turned dark, thunder rumbled, and lightning bolts snaked back and forth.

The fluctuations from the shadow grew more submissive. Then it breathed in the direction of the ball of light, causing it to move toward Xu Qing until it floated in front of him. Thunder crashed overhead, and it seemed locked onto the movement of the ball.

Xu Qing frowned slightly. He wasn’t sure exactly what was happening, but he could sense danger. In fact, it was as if every inch of his flesh and blood had independent thought, and was screaming at him that he was in danger.

Xu Qing looked at the shadow.

The shadow summoned the tail again, and even created a black tongue to loll out of its mouth. It really did look like a puppy. Looking at Xu Qing, it nodded repeatedly.

“Milord… sacrifice… milord… good… godfire.”

Xu Qing didn’t trust the shadow at all, and the sense of danger was causing him to look suspiciously at the brown ball of light. Taking a few steps back, he prepared to lift his hand. But even then, he didn’t feel safe enough, so he backed up another few hundred meters. Finally, he lifted his right hand and pushed it gently toward the ball of light.

The brown ball of light floated off into the distance. Finally, the thunder overhead seemed to reach a peak level of fury. In the blink of an eye, a host of lightning bolts shot down like rain, slamming the ball of light into the ground.

The already-unstable ball of light exploded. Terrifying lightning flames erupted in all directions, along with a sensation of godliness. It quickly turned into a tempest that raged in all directions, destroying everything it touched.

The level of power was incredibly majestic. Even with Xu Qing’s current cultivation base, he felt shaken, and kept backing up as quickly as possible. That said, he was a bit too late to act. Despite how cautious he was, and despite how far away he was, when the brown ball of light burst with surpassingly ferocious energy, he was caught up in the effects.

Glittering light surrounded him as he entered the first-level god state, and raced back a few hundred more meters.

As the brown light dissipated, the roughly 30,000 meters in front of him became visible, and there was a huge crater there.

Fear still lingered in Xu Qing’s heart. Meanwhile, the shadow had used some sort of concealment ability to avoid being hurt. Now it appeared again on the ground, unharmed. At the same time, the fawning fluctuations it sent to Xu Qing contained a big dose of pride.

“Fierce… I’m… badass!”

Xu Qing’s expression became grimmer. “That’s the godfire?”

The shadow immediately nodded. Sensing that Xu Qing wasn’t very pleased, it then switched to shaking its head, as if it wasn’t completely sure. It started to get more anxious. And then, it had no other choice….

“Ruuuuuumble! Ruuuuuumble! Ruuuum—”

“Enough rumbling!” Xu Qing said coldly.

The shadow looked slightly confused, as if it wasn’t sure what it had done to provoke Xu Qing. Finally, it looked embarrassed.

Seeing that reaction caused Xu Qing to sigh. I really do miss Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior.

As of this point, he realized why the shadow had mentioned the ‘ruuuuumble’ when describing godfire. When the brown ball of light exploded… it made a big rumbling sound, right?

Xu Qing looked at the shadow and decided not to try to get more answers. Instead, he went in the direction of the spot where the brown ball of light had exploded.

The moment it exploded, the ball of light emitted some godliness….

He floated into the center of the crater, then reached down to touch the soil underfoot. A thoughtful expression appeared on his face. Then he looked at the clouds dissipating overhead, and a new idea occurred to him.

It’s a sort of taboo material that’s inherently unstable. It can provoke lightning, but even if the lightning didn’t come, it would eventually collapse even under the force of the wind. A piece the size of a fingernail unleashes terrifying power…. Could it be possible that it… is actually fuel that can ignite godfire?

The moment the thought took hold in Xu Qing, his eyes started shining, and he thought back to the way the shadow had acquired the fuel.

Sacrifice. All of the gods I know about require some sort of sacrifice…. Don’t tell me that I’ve discovered the reason why gods like sacrifices?

Xu Qing had no way to confirm his theory, but was nonetheless shaken by the fact that the shadow’s latest breakthrough gave it the ability to proactively create a sacrifice.

First comes control. After that is the forced sacrifice….

Xu Qing looked at the shadow.

The shadow emitted pleased fluctuations. “I… am… useful!”

Xu Qing couldn’t think of a counter argument. This transformation for the shadow was a big one, whether it was the ability to devour forbidden regions, or the ability to control things with its voice, or the final ability of sacrifice. All of them were extraordinary. They were godly abilities.

So what exactly is the shadow? Xu Qing thought, his eyes narrowing. After a time, he stopped worrying about that question.

“Get the hell back here,” he said coolly.

The shadow looked very happy as it flew back toward Xu Qing’s feet, where it turned back into an ordinary shadow. Without another word, Xu Qing flew up into the sky and then headed back in the direction of Sea-Sealing County.

Due to the bright sunlight, as Xu Qing flew in the sky, his shadow flitted across on the ground beneath him. As he flew up, it grew larger and larger, until it was several thousand meters wide. The forbidden region on its forehead was blurry. It had two rows of blood-red eyes, and when its mouth split open, it cackled. It was like a devilish god. Anyone who saw it would be shocked to the core. After all, Xu Qing was the one raising this devilish god.

***

Sometimes results come only as time passes. Sea-Sealing County was preparing for war thanks to the actions of Seventh Prince and King Heaventide. Those two were like sharp blades hanging above the heads of the local cultivators.

Xu Qing had previously wanted to make an announcement about the situation to calm down the populace. But both Master Seventh and Marquis Yao had tactfully prevented him. They… were in the middle of a huge game of Go. Although they didn’t go into details about the game and the game board, after everything Xu Qing had experienced, he had an idea of what they were doing.

Master Seventh and Marquis Yao were on a fishing expedition. And on this day, they hooked the first fish.

News came from the Nightshade front lines that the five waves of Sea-Sealing County cultivators who had been sent to war, though having experienced many deadly war missions, were not wiped out.

There were about 10,000 survivors.

Of 5,000,000 Sea-Sealing cultivators, only 10,000 remained. After their deadly experiences, and all the pain and suffering they went through, they were ultimately cast aside. Kong Xianglong and a number of swordsages were among them. Eventually, they managed to escape from the danger, and instead of returning to King Heaventide’s war camp, they decided to go back to Sea-Sealing County.

It was strange and illogical. In fact, it seemed completely unexplainable. It was as if a pair of shadowy hands were guiding them from behind, ensuring that the survivors had a way forward. Regardless, news reached Sea-Sealing County, and there were even recording jade slips that showed their exhausted forms on the move.

They were being chased by King Heaventide’s personal guard. They had been accused of serious crimes, and had just barely made it out in time. But now they were surrounded and had no choice but to wait to die.

Sea-Sealing County had a choice to make. Save the survivors? Or don’t save them? How should the situation be handled? And how should the news be presented publicly?

Saving them was obviously the right thing to do, but would involve taking a concrete stand on certain issues. What was more, it would completely erode the morale in the county to just stand by and watch them be executed.

***

Therefore, Zheng Kaiyi and Yao Tianyan… what choice will you make?

In Seventh Prince’s imperial capital, former Eight Sect Coalition president Sir Dust-Sun sat in front of a blank Go board. He put a piece down.

Based on what I know of your style and how you make decisions, I think you’ll choose to save them. But considering they’re in such a remote location, you won’t be able to rescue them with ordinary methods. The person who actually goes to their aid… needs to be a powerful expert. And one won’t be enough.

Therefore, who will you send? Will Plumdark be with them, perhaps? If so, then you’ll be falling into a trap of your own making. Things will be very simple.

Sir Dust-Sun chuckled. The reality was that he didn’t care at all about what happened with the trapped Sea-Sealing forces. It would be ideal if Plumdark showed up. And if she didn’t, then he would have to lure the tiger from its domain in the mountains.

In all of Sea-Sealing County, the only two people who I couldn’t defeat in combat are Zheng Kaiyi and Marquis Yao. One of them will probably come along, otherwise the rescue effort will be doomed to fail. And then there’s those two puppets…. I should plan how to deal with them as well.

Eyes gleaming with anticipation, Sir Dust-Sun looked in the direction of Sea-Sealing County. There was no way he would recklessly go to Sea-Sealing County himself. That said, Seventh Prince’s mission had to be accomplished.

Surround the enemy.

Pull them into a trap of their own making.

Lure the tiger off the mountain.

Those three tactics formed an overall strategy that he could use to accommodate any potential developments. In the end, he would be in complete control.

***

Back in the county capital, Xu Qing stood with Master Seventh and Marquis Yao, looking in the direction of Seventh Prince’s imperial capital, which had once been the Kingdom of Heavengale.

“What do you think, Xu Qing?” Master Seventh said coolly.

“Master, I think we’ve already hooked the first fish,” Xu Qing replied softly.

Master Seventh laughed heartily, his eyes overflowing with praise.

Marquis Yao looked at Master Seventh. “So… do you go? Or do I?”

“You do it,” Master Seventh replied. “I want to see what our opponent’s second move will be. After all, if we both go, he’ll suspect things are going too smoothly. Remember to bring those puppets. And don’t get careless.”

Marquis Yao nodded. As one of the old guard in Sea-Sealing County, he always acted with caution. Taking a step forward, he vanished. Before long, the Administration Palace and the Swordsage Palace, along with their respective palace lords, were making their way over the horizon with Marquis Yao.

A few days later, Master Seventh received news about the second move they’d been waiting for.

More sects in Sea-Sealing County had turned traitor. They were scattered throughout different prefectures, yet they acted in unison. Rumors spread like mad. The sparks of a great fire were now burning. There was more. Quite a few nonhumans on the Forbidden Sea had mobilized their forces, and were making landfall in coastal regions. That included Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. In addition to that, lots of Forbidden Sea nonhumans were gathering outside Seven Blood Eyes’ port in the continent of South Phoenix. There were even Void Returning experts among them. The people of Sea-Sealing County trembled with fear at the prospect of more war breaking out.

Because of the crisis, swordsages were deployed, personally led by Master Seventh. Because he left right after Marquis Yao, the county capital seemed uncharacteristically empty.

***

“Things are going too smoothly…” said Sir Dust-Sun, putting down a second game piece. After mulling it over, he put down a third game piece.