“Young Sir Xu,” the big boss said respectfully, “we’re honored by your presence. If you’re displeased with any aspect of our service, please don’t hesitate to notify me. If you have the time, do you mind coming with me, young sir? A Senior member of our sect asked me to bring you in for an audience.”

With that, she looked expectantly at Xu Qing.

Surprise was visible in the eyes of everyone present. They all knew about Xu Qing’s background, which was why they had ‘toasted’ him, but not done anything too outrageous. Nor had they done anything openly humiliating. After all, there was no need to do anything like that just because of Ling Yao.

However, their intelligence reports didn’t mention anything about Xu Qing having connections to the Red Dust Emotional Suppression Pavilion. That was especially noteworthy considering that though it was one of the human superpower sects, it was actually backed by one of the gods of the Firemoon Darkheaven people. As for how deep the sect was connected to that god, it was hard to say. Regardless, even the emperor himself had no choice but to tacitly approve of the sect.

Therefore, the fact that this sect was treating Xu Qing so respectfully was nothing short of a shock. And it immediately led to speculation about which Senior member of the sect the old woman was referring to.

Junior Emperor Peng’s eyes narrowed, and his pupils constricted. He had originally thought of Xu Qing the way people from all the other organizations did. He didn’t want to offend him, but also wasn’t interested in getting close to him. As a result, though it had been quite a shock to see Ling Yao go sit next to Xu Qing, he hadn’t done anything dramatic. His own status, plus the circumstances in the Red Dust Pavilion in general, prevented him from doing that.

However, he had lost some face, which was why he had allowed his friends to ‘toast’ Xu Qing. At a certain point, he didn’t want things to get pushed too far, which was why he had been preparing to leave. But then the big boss showed up, and that changed what he thought about Xu Qing on many levels.

Meng Yunbai and Huang Kun looked at Xu Qing in surprise.

Xu Qing sighed inwardly. He was already fairly certain he knew what was going on. Back when Meng Yunbai introduced the Red Dust Pavilion and mentioned the associated god, Xu Qing had understood the situation. That said, they were in the imperial capital of humankind. There was a difference between worshiping a god, and a god actually coming. Based on his experience dealing with Crimson Mother, he knew that all too well.

After the events in Moonrite, Xu Qing was confident that High God Starfire wasn’t an enemy, at least for the time being. And that meant dealing with this situation shouldn’t be too difficult. In fact, all of that had played into his decision to come along. But his presence had been noticed, so after thinking the matter over, he clasped hands to the big boss and agreed to go with her.

And thus, as everyone watched, she escorted him away. Ling Yao also disappeared.

After he was gone, the guests left, all of them thinking different things. News of what happened was going to spread quickly in their respective organizations, and it was easy to imagine how quickly everyone else in the capital would learn of it, and how that would affect their perspective on Xu Qing.

Junior Emperor Peng looked thoughtfully at the teleportation portal Xu Qing had just disappeared into.

Meng Yunbai blinked a few times. He’d previously believed that he knew Xu Qing well thanks to the intelligence reports he’d read. But now he realized that everything he knew was just surface-level. Xu Qing’s true strength lay underneath.

“Very interesting….” Meng Yunbai murmured as he left with everyone else.

Meanwhile, after Xu Qing followed the big boss into the teleportation portal, he was whisked away from the immortal hotspring and the otherworldly paradise. When he materialized, he was in front of a shrine hall.

The big boss respectfully bowed, then backed up a few steps all while indicating that Xu Qing should enter.

He looked at the door and took a deep breath. Then he pushed the door, and it slowly swung open, allowing pink light to spread out from inside. As it surrounded Xu Qing, he saw a shrine inside, within which was a clay fox.

Looking at the clay fox, he clasped hands and bowed. “Well met, High God.”

Coquettish laughter echoed in the shrine hall. “You were so aloof back in Moonrite, you naughty little boy. Back then, I never could have imagined I would see you here. I know full well what kind of place this is, you know. Thankfully, I woke up in time, otherwise you might have been swallowed whole by those slutty wenches.”

Xu Qing didn’t say anything.

“Are you happy to see me, naughty boy? Are you surprised?”

Xu Qing shook his head. “Not surprised. High God, you were right next to me just now, weren’t you?”

Glittering with bright light, the clay fox’s eyes opened and locked onto Xu Qing. “You’ve got sharp eyes, naughty boy. You actually sensed my slip of divine sense on Ling Yao. What did you think of Ling Yao, by the way? She’s my god daughter that I personally selected. I have another god daughter in the lands of the Firemoon Darkheaven people, later on I’ll have her find you to spend some time together. If you’d like, I could permit you to split a drop of your primal yang between them.”

Xu Qing was used to the clay fox’s teasing, so he didn’t react. Instead, he politely said, “High God, I’m sure there’s an important reason you summoned me.”

The clay fox’s eye twitched slightly as a slightly displeased expression appeared. “Your facial expression…. If it weren’t for you humans’ Grand Emperor Swordsage keeping this city locked down, I wouldn’t have been so badly injured by his sword when I came here in my true form. And then I wouldn’t need your primal yang, you naughty little boy. Ah, whatever. Time is of the essence. If I stay awake too long, your Grand Emperor Swordsage will sense me sooner or later. You see, I called you here because I wanted to warn you about something.

“Your human emperor… is doing something that no human emperor has ever done from ancient times until now!”

Xu Qing’s eyes narrowed.

The clay fox smiled, and instead of going into more detail, looked off into the distance. “Also, you need to be careful of the imperial preceptor here…. He’s dangerous. Very, very dangerous.” The clay fox’s voice was very serious. “You know, you’re very similar to him….”

Xu Qing looked up and was about to speak when a terrifying wave of divine will swept out from the statue of Grand Emperor Swordsage.

The clay fox snorted coldly and a bit defiantly. But then the fox’s eyes closed and it reverted into an ordinary statue. At the same time, a surge of gentle force pushed Xu Qing out of the shrine hall. After that, the divine will dispersed.

The big boss gave Xu Qing a meaningful look. As the servant of a High God, she knew that there were statues of the same god in all of the Red Dust Pavilions. But they were just statues. Very rarely did any of them wake up like this. And it was even rarer for one of them to wake up for a single person. On the other hand, she also knew that there were many things in which not understanding was a lot better than understanding clearly. Bowing her head slightly, she led Xu Qing out of the Red Dust Pavilion.

Once outside, Xu Qing looked back briefly before heading out into the night. It was getting close to midnight, and the capital city was wreathed in darkness. There were no stars in the sky, as there was a thick cloud cover, within which could be heard the muffled sound of thunder.

The city was lit by lantern light, although that wasn’t the case on every single street. There weren’t a lot of pedestrians out this late, and most were on their way home. Some walked alone, some in groups of up to five people.

Perhaps because of the thunder, and the sense of moisture building up, most people hurried on their way. The whimpering wind had picked up. It was cold as it scraped across the ground and the eaves. When it touched Xu Qing’s face, the chill made him realize that the seasons were changing. 𝒻𝘦𝘸𝑜𝓿𝘦.𝑐𝑜

Autumn is here.

Walking alone down the street, he contemplated the two things the clay fox had told him.

What big thing is the emperor up to?

After he had been walking for some time, he heard the pitter-patter of raindrops striking the ground. Then lightning crashed, and it started raining harder.

A shimmering light could be seen surrounding Xu Qing, which kept the rain away, so he didn’t stop walking. Nor were his thoughts interrupted. At the moment, he was completely absorbed in the clay fox’s final words.

“Be careful of the imperial preceptor…. You’re very similar to him….”

Xu Qing had never seen the imperial preceptor. But it didn’t comfort him to know that he was similar to him.

I doubt High God Starfire meant that we’re similar to each other in being dangerous. There’s no way shē thinks of me as being dangerous. So maybe the similarities shē’s talking about… are aura and physical appearance.

As the rain fell and the wind blew, he stopped walking, and a grim expression appeared on his face. Eyes shining coldly, he looked down the street. It was a long street with buildings lining it both tall and short. None were lit up. As the rain pinged onto the rooftops, it dripped off the eaves, forming little rivulets that flowed into the street. The occasional bolt of lightning illuminated the area.

The wind wasn’t normally visible. But this heavy rainstorm was able to give shape to the wind. Within the coldness and the moisture, there was something very sharp, which soon turned into a host of knives slashing toward him.

In the blink of an eye, something that looked like a fiendish club flew out of Xu Qing’s bag of holding. Of the three heads on it, the one that resembled Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior had its eyes opened, and he howled with rage as he shot into the wind. He moved faster than the wind or rain could, and a moment later, a sound like weapons clashing echoed out. Then, a host of blades formed from water were sent spinning off to the side.

As the iron skewer circled back around to Xu Qing, the rain started falling harder, and the little rivulets merged to create something like a lake.

The natural laws in this area had been transformed by someone. The heavy rain blurred the surroundings, and the only light came from occasional bolts of lightning. The ‘lake’ beneath Xu Qing’s feet was rising dramatically. It seemed like it might cover everything soon.

Even more astonishing, within that rippling water appeared something like a hand that shot out and toward Xu Qing. Some distance away, it was possible to see shadowy figures lurking in the water. Their features weren’t clear, but they looked like life forms made from water itself. And they were rushing toward Xu Qing, each and every one of them pulsing with killing intent.

Then the dark buildings on either side of the street transformed, becoming like cross-legged statues, pitch-black and bald, with eyes open as they spoke in gruish voices.

“Hear the edict of the ghostly spirits; thine lonely soul mourns; monsters of the eight divisions; four lives filled with rancor; those with heads die; those without heads live; the wind fills with deadly blades; water rises to take lives; treat injustice as kindness; treat unjust death as goodness; the young man who lives; kneel before mine altar; eight trigrams lose light!”