The hall was silent. No one spoke as the echoes of Fifth Prince’s words died away. There were no negative reactions to Fifth Prince’s actions. After all, he had spoken in a very clear and direct manner as opposed to speaking placidly but with hidden malice. In an open and honest way, he had directly extended an invitation to fight.

What was more, his wording was sound. He had stated clearly that Seventh Prince made mistakes and deserved his fate. But he also pointed out that as Seventh Prince’s older blood brother, he had to take some sort of action, lest he develop internal hindrances. And considering how he’d argued that familial love was what made everyone human, his points couldn’t easily be refuted.

As a result, the emperor chose not to say anything, thus overtly giving Xu Qing the power to decide how things would turn out.

Xu Qing looked down at Fifth Prince. When their gazes met, it was as if black flames surged in Fifth Prince’s eyes, filled with an inauspicious sensation of death. That said, he clearly kept the effect under control as he looked at Xu Qing.

“This fight has nothing to do with your status and identity,” Fifth Prince continued. “It’s simply an older brother acting on behalf of his younger brother! When we were young, I was always the one to step in and handle matters when he was bullied by other princes.

“Xu Qing, my brother made mistakes and deserved to die. But since you killed him, I have to fight you!” The desire to do battle surged within him as he waited for Xu Qing’s answer.

A few breaths of time passed.

Inside, Xu Qing’s heart was pounding as he thought back to his own childhood, and the times when he believed himself to have an older brother like this….

Closing his eyes, he calmly said, “Okay.”

Instantly, Fifth Prince ceased to suppress the battle spirit in his eyes, and it erupted. Black fire spread out around him, creating a sea of flames. At the same time, the entire imperial palace transformed. As if by astral redirection, it… disappeared.

The only things visible were Xu Qing seated above and Fifth Prince standing below. Apparently, they now occupied a standalone dimension of unlimited size.

As a result, the black fire from Fifth Prince continued to spread without cease, creating an infinite sea of black flames. The temperature soared as the flames continuously climbed higher. Fifth Prince himself also grew larger, and his aura skyrocketed as he unleashed all of his cultivation base power and started walking toward Xu Qing. His black suit of armor also burst into flames, making him like a human torch that could devour mountains and rivers. Every step he took caused the dimension to tremble violently. And with every step, he accelerated, until he was like a shooting star closing in on Xu Qing.

Meanwhile, soul threads streamed out of Xu Qing, weaving together in the blink of an eye to form his third-level god state. He had bones of crystal, and flesh of soul threads, with a blood-red cape, plus a violet moon hovering overhead. Mutagen spread out, blurring the surroundings and filling the area with the will of a god. The third-level god state was an independent entity, separate from Xu Qing, which allowed him to stride forward and meet Fifth Prince’s attack. They clashed, and an intense rumbling sound shook heaven and earth.

Fifth Prince staggered backward in shock.

At the same time, Xu Qing’s third-level god state fell back.

Fifth Prince was in third-stage Void Returning! That was the same level of battle prowess as Xu Qing’s third-level god state, and as a result, in a simple clash between the two of them, neither one would clinch a victory.

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About 300 meters away, Fifth Prince stopped moving and looked up. Both of his hands flashed in a double-handed incantation gesture, whereupon one of the long hairs on his head turned gray as the black color drained from it and turned into a mist in front of him. Seething, the mist became a black oil lamp with a flame burning atop it. The flame was golden!

The shape of the lamp was simple and utilitarian. Something about it imparted the sensation of the underworld, as if this lamp wasn’t intended for use by the living. It was something normally enshrined to the dead. As for the flame, it was turbid and ancient, and also contained a godly sensation. Astonishingly, this oil lamp had obviously been crafted from the corpse of a god!

Fifth Prince inhaled deeply, and then exhaled onto the wick of the lamp. Instantly, the fire jumped higher, then spread out in all directions, provoking a reaction from the surrounding sea of flames.

The sea of flames began to pour into the oil lamp.

Ultimately, the fire converged into a shadowy figure. The shadowy figure constantly changed forms. It shifted between being a human, an animal, a grue, or sometimes just an incorporeal form. Regardless, the aura it emanated was shocking and ghastly. The godly aura became like oil thrown onto the fire as Fifth Prince used his divine ability, sending the shadowy figure accelerating rapidly toward Xu Qing’s god state.

As the figure neared, a tremor passed through Xu Qing’s god state, and then it erupted. Countless soul threads danced as the first-level god state and the second-level god state formed and merged with the other god state. With its energy surging, it raised its right hand and pointed at the shadowy figure.

The two clashed and blurred. Afterward, Xu Qing’s god state returned to normal, while the shadowy figure disappeared.

A popping sound rang out from the oil lamp in Fifth Prince’s hand. Seven cracks appeared on its surface, out of which blood flowed. However, the battle spirit in Fifth Prince’s eyes only grew stronger. After falling back, Fifth Prince shouted and crushed the oil lamp between his two palms, then shoved his hands toward the ground.

“Flame to sacrifice; earth altar rises; seal divine will; suppress heavenly heart!”

As his words rang out, the shattered bits of the lamp landed on the ground and exploded, adding a significant blessing to the surrounding sea of flames.

Rumbling sounds echoed out and flames raged. At the same time, its form changed as it became churning lava which swept out in all directions.

Then a white altar slowly rose up from the middle of the lava. There was something on top of the altar. It was a black funerary urn! It was sealed with a corroded sealing strip, and it emanated a very gruish sensation. At the same time, it seemed profoundly inauspicious.1

A brutal and tyrannical will pulsed from the urn, which locked onto Xu Qing’s god state.

Meanwhile, the expanding lava rapidly filled the dimension.

Xu Qing had never seen any divine ability like this before. It seemed like a magical technique, but at the same time, incorporated a magical treasure.

Is this the dao of King Firecrusher?

As the thought occurred to Xu Qing, he sent his external god state shooting up into the air. There, it looked down and extended its right hand toward the altar. Intense rumbling sounds echoed out, causing the dimension’s dome of heaven to blur as three mountains appeared. One was made of burning flames. One was made of frosty ice. One was made of crimson blood.

As the three mountains appeared, the sea of lava below was whipped into a frenzy.

This was the very same Withering Flame Demon Magic True Self Dao that Xu Qing had learned from the little butterfly.

As the god state’s hand dropped, the three mountains descended, bringing with them terrifying pressure and impressive grandeur as they dropped down toward the sea of lava.

Fifth Prince’s eyes glittered with cold light as he shot forward, both of his hands waving out in front of him as he prepared to use the lava to create a defensive barrier. Before he could accomplish that, the god state performed an incantation gesture and pointed out. In response, a spiderweb of cracks spread out to cover the three mountains, and then they exploded.

A rain of rubble turned into meteors that shot down toward the sea of lava.

Fifth Prince had led with an aggressive onslaught, yet he had still underestimated what Xu Qing’s god state was capable of. The god state quickly performed another incantation gesture, and then three new mountains appeared in the dome of heaven. After that came another three. All of them exploded and created a mass of rubble. After that came yet another three. Xu Qing’s god state ultimately used the magic ten times!

No matter how Fifth Prince tried to put up a defense, it didn’t work. The lava exploded, and the flames went dark. Countless bits of rubble smashed down onto Fifth Prince. Ultimately, the sea of lava and the altar were completely buried. But then a furious howl erupted from underneath the uneven surface of the rubble. An instant later, the rubble exploded upward.

However, Xu Qing’s god state then slammed down onto the field of rubble. The god state’s right hand shoved down violently, causing a mass of innumerable soul threads to spread out everywhere. Wherever it passed, the rubble was cleared, until… everywhere was flat and level.

The soul threads then continued to expand, forming a magical sealing symbol.

That was when it occurred to Xu Qing that things were too simple. The power of the funerary urn hadn’t yet been fully revealed. Until now.

“You were careless, Xu Qing,” Fifth Prince said, his voice calm.

As the words echoed out, the sealing mark on the ground vibrated. Then, over a hundred locations on its surface collapsed as the ashes from the urn turned into bone chains that shot up from the soil. 2

Most of the chains swept out over the lands to suppress the soul threads and lock them in place. The remaining bone chains shot toward Xu Qing’s seated true form. They moved with incredible speed, quickly surrounding him and turning into a vortex. freēwēbηovel.c૦m

“Xu Qing, as a region lord, you’re very important to humankind, so I won’t kill you. However… I will extract your god soul. I will also take one spiritual soul from among your three spiritual souls and seven physical souls, to burn in my god corpse lamp. Whenever you feel capable of defeating me in combat, you can come take it back!”

As Fifth Prince’s words echoed out, he appeared in midair. However, there wasn’t just one of him. There were eight of him, and each of them was holding one of the bone chains that surrounded Xu Qing. All of them yanked forcefully on the chains. A mysterious and profound power emanated from the bone chains, and in some unknown manner, they borrowed power from Xu Qing’s soul threads to start extracting his god soul from within him. All Fifth Prince had to do was maintain balance and control.

Instantly, afterimages of Xu Qing sprang up around him as his god soul prepared to emerge from within him. Except… his expression remained completely calm as he opened his eyes and looked at Fifth Prince.

“That’s a nice magical technique. Since you want to extract my soul, I might as well do a little test.”

Xu Qing extended his hand from within the bone chain vortex. Pushing out gently, he spoke in a voice that might as well have been a simple exhalation.

“This world of heaven and earth can be considered a well….”

1. Chinese funerary urns don’t really look much different than funerary urns from the West. That said, the sealing strip aspect interested me, so after quite a few minutes of image searching to find an example of what it would look like, I found a good picture. I don’t think the urn in the picture is actually a funerary urn, but close enough. You can at least see how the sealing strip would probably be applied. It’s not all that different from the picture of sealing strips I included in a footnote a few hundred chapters ago. ☜

2. It’s notable that the word for ‘funerary urn’ in Chinese has the character for ‘bone’ in it. It’s literally a “bone ash urn.” So when the “ashes” from it turn into “bone chains,” it makes a lot of sense visually and linguistically. ☜