The setting sun was no longer visible. It had made its departure for this specific day. The red glow went with it.

And yet, the color of blood radiated off Xu Qing as the night took over. Crimson stained the sky. There was a vortex of fresh blood around Xu Qing, plus his soul threads, all of which emanated a sensation of slaughter. As he stood there, he seemed like a devilish god who represented blood and death, just waiting for a sacrificial offering to arrive. In the silence, the sacrificial offering didn’t fail to live up to the slaughter that had preceded it. It arrived just on time.

A middle-aged cultivator appeared. He wasn’t a Firemoon Darkheaven, but rather… was a Whitemarsh!

As he emerged from the city, his footfalls caused ripples to spread out around him like black lotuses. He pulsed with the fluctuations of fourth-stage Void Returning, and gave off a sensation of power that surpassed that of Crown Prince Brightsouth. Meanwhile, he pulsed with a very strong baleful aura. That baleful aura didn’t seem to come from pure slaughter. Rather, it was left behind after participation in many wars. It was very reminiscent of the veteran cultivators from back in Sea-Sealing County. The third eye on his head was only half-open, and it contained cold apathy and bright self-confidence.

This person was not a chosen cultivator. Instead, he had been recruited. He had been called from the Nightshade battlefield to come here and deal with Xu Qing! And his species had worked hard to make sure he had the qualifications to suddenly join the Great Hunt. This Whitemarsh was the result of the hands that had been manipulating things behind the scenes in recent days.

Normally speaking, a piddling Whitemarsh wouldn’t be enough to cause any sort of scene. But there was more to come. That much became clear when another figure emerged from the city. He was tall and skinny, and obviously wasn’t human considering he had six arms. The natural striations on his forehead, his bright red skin, and the gruish tattoos all over his body made him easy to identify. He was… the very same species that humans were dealing with in their border regions. He was a Saia.

The Saia were one of the top three subsidiary species of the Firemoon Darkheavens. They had profound reserve powers, as well as very close connections to the Firemoons. In fact, they had people directly in the service of all three of the stewards. They were the sacrificial lords. And they were also among the people who had been manipulating things behind the scenes.

Xu Qing looked at the two cultivators without much surprise at all. In fact, based on his speculations, the Whitemarsh and the Saia were obviously just the public face.

The real masterminds were still out there, and were the same ones who had backed the cultivators Xu Qing had just killed. They were probably also the ones manipulating King Brightsouth. That was one reason why Xu Qing had refrained from accepting any challenges earlier.

Eldest Brother said that the Firemoon Darkheaven leadership view the Great Hunt as a way to raise venomous bugs in a jar. They use the most brutal methods to produce the strongest members of the new generation. Our role is simply to provoke the chosen.

That’s why they’re letting all of this happen. However, if someone pushes things too far, it’ll ruin their plan. In that case… if I was a Firemoon leader, I would want the source of the provocation to stick around. It wouldn’t make sense to lose it in the first round. I’d want it to stay until the last round, to bring out the most potential.

Xu Qing remained calm both externally and internally as he looked at the two cultivators.

The Saia cultivator stopped only about three meters out of the city, where he lifted his right hand and started an incantation gesture. The Whitemarsh cultivator with the baleful aura and killing intent accelerated as he closed in on Xu Qing.

Just as they took action, Xu Qing’s third-level god state swept out. Millions of soul threads swirled, and a blood-colored vortex danced. Then it tightened around Xu Qing.

In the blink of an eye, it formed violet feathers, which grew more and more numerous. This was a body that differed visibly from his third-level god state. It was 300 meters tall and covered with the violet feathers of flesh. It had two huge wings behind it, and pulsed with a sound like faint chanting. That was the voice of a god. It was not something that could be looked at directly, and thus, different cultivators throughout the city perceived it in different ways.

At the same time, a violet moon appeared behind Xu Qing’s strange god state, slowly rising. On its surface were innumerable figures, all of them bowing and chanting words of faith.

“The new moon, lord; from the Revered Ancient community; all living beings far and near; as Violet Lord do address thee.

“Souls offered, lord to me; pāramitā an actuality; sing with joy when you see; the return to our world ends happily.”

As the sacrificial chant echoed out, the violet moonlight shone down, full of taboo poison.

The moon currently in the dome of heaven dimmed as it was replaced by Xu Qing’s moon. And the world… filled with violet.

There was an enormous sundial in front of it, the gnomon spinning, and the power of time it exuded causing everything to ripple and distort. Beneath him appeared a lotus throne, each petal of which represented one of his abilities. The golden crow, the Ghost Emperor mountain, and daybreak light were all represented.1

The violet tentacles they formed swayed back and forth, making it seem like Xu Qing was atop a violet pāramitā lily.

This was Xu Qing’s fourth-level god state! It was called Violet Lord! Because of the origin of this god state’s godsource, it was impossible to say if it would lead to future conflict with Li Zihua. But it was a similar situation to when Xu Qing first started his path of cultivation, and had to absorb mutagen.

Now wasn’t the time to worry about the possible danger in the future. Instead, it made more sense to focus on simply staying alive in the moment. Therefore, Xu Qing hadn’t spent much time pondering the situation recently. He chose to simply use the Violet Lord as his fourth-level god state.

The arrival of this state was like the arrival of a god. Wild colors flashed in heaven and earth. Winds screamed everywhere. This was Xu Qing’s most powerful form. Fourth-stage Void Returning fluctuations rolled off him, pushing his battle prowess to the absolute limit.

Every cultivator in Heavenfire City was shaken. Even the Firemoons from the older generation looked on with shining eyes. The older experts weren’t so much interested in Xu Qing’s battle prowess as they were his godly potential. This god body was like a concave lens that could amplify a cultivator’s battle prowess significantly. That was what they found most noteworthy.

Yet Xu Qing still wasn’t completely happy, as he could tell that this new state was still half a step away from being as strong as the great circle of Void Returning. It was due to foundational limitations. He was still missing a secret trove, and it would take time to complete it. Only then could he turn his Violet Lord state into a god trove, which would truly place him at the great circle of five troves.

Normally speaking, the god trove came before the god state. The reason Xu Qing could do it backwards was the Xeno-Immortal School techniques. He was also lacking a heavenly dao, which put limitations on the magical and natural laws of Void Returning. It was only because of his heavenly dao son that he could ignore the natural laws of enemies.

In the end, using god magics should be enough to deal with these two.

Xu Qing extended his hand, performed an incantation gesture, and pointed at the Saia cultivator.

All of a sudden, a projection of D-132 appeared over the Saia’s head, shining brightly as it dropped down.

The Saia’s eyes glittered coldly, and he sneered. He had plenty of back-channel information about Xu Qing, and knew about D-132. As a result, he didn’t get flustered at all, and instead performing an incantation gesture and looked up.

The tattoos on him started shining brightly, and at the same time, flowing as if alive right into his mouth. After he swallowed them up, he spoke the following words.

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“In this area, the air is sealed and everything destroyed!”

The air was suddenly sealed tight, and everything was locked down with destructive power. The words that had been spoken created a binding restriction. D-132 trembled, then stopped forming as if it had been completely sealed in place. Then it started cracking and crumbling.

Down in the city, Grand Prince looked on nervously.

In another part of the city, a cultivator sat on the eaves of a building, sipping alcohol and watching the fight playing out. There were nine other cultivators around him, also watching the fight. When D-132 appeared and the Saia cultivator sealed it, he laughed sarcastically.

“Even I fell for this tactic, and you think you’re going to seal the air? Do you really think Xu Qing has remained at the same level as before? What a joke.

“You know, I even suspect that Xu Qing’s sealing technique actually doesn’t drop down from above. That guy is devious, and I wouldn’t put it past him to intentionally reveal a flaw as part of his plan.”

As the words left his mouth, the air around the Saia cultivator rippled and distorted as a host of prison cells rose up everywhere. Even as the Saia looked around, the crumbling D-132 started forming anew! Where moonlight fell, something could come out of nothing!

The sealing of the air had failed.

Alcohol sprayed out of Tuo Shishan’s mouth. “Well, shoot! I was right!”

Meanwhile, Xu Qing turned to the incoming Whitemarsh cultivator, who was now only about 30 meters away. Xu Qing waved two fingers through the air.

Boundless violet light erupted from him and the violet moon, creating a sea of light that surrounded the Whitemarsh. A tremor passed through the Whitemarsh as his energy and blood seethed. He tried to fight back, but blood sprayed out of his mouth as his blood circulation went out of control. Then, he started to age at an extremely rapid rate. Patches of decay broke out all over him as a result of the taboo poison in the moonlight.

Most terrifying of all was that Xu Qing had closed his eyes. Then he opened his fingers to form a palm, which he gently pushed toward the Whitemarsh. Instantly, multiple versions of the Whitemarsh appeared superimposed over his body.

They were his past and his future, all visible at the same time. They included all of his possible future deaths. Within one of those images was one in which he died and his dao was dispelled. And that specific image began to get very clear as it was drawn out into the open.

The intense sensation of deadly crisis caused the Whitemarsh to shout at the top of his lungs. His cultivation base burned brightly, and his divine abilities raged. An illusory world appeared as well. As he fought back against Xu Qing, his eyes burned with killing intent, and his baleful aura surged. Then a magnificent army with thousands of men and horses surged out of his illusory world toward Xu Qing.

Xu Qing didn’t move in response. Instead, the figures prostrating to him on the violet moon began to pray with increasing fervor.

Very far away, in the vicinity of the Nightspirit Region, Sea-Sealing County, and the Holytide Region, numerous recently constructed temples… suddenly started to vibrate. The Nightshade high priests and all other violet moon believers could sense what was happening, and excitedly prostrated and began to pray.

“The violet moon, lord to me; Revered Ancient’s true trustee; the living hosts suffer; they have a blissful guarantee.”

“Offered freely, lord to me; no bitterness for me; from bitterness I’m free; undecayed for all to see.”

Countless voices offered blessings from the violet moon. They swept around Xu Qing and the Whitemarsh cultivator, turning into a great power that extracted that one image and pulled it out into the open.

The Whitemarsh lurched to a stop in front of Xu Qing. His eyes were wide and filled with both bitterness and confusion. Next… the fleshy wings of Xu Qing’s fourth-level god state spread out and wrapped around the Whitemarsh. They squeezed. Blood oozed out from between the feathers. Two breaths of time passed, and the wings slowly opened to reveal some clumps of mangled flesh that fell to the ground. It was the same as the image. He had died, and his dao had been dispelled.

Everything was very quiet. Xu Qing frowned, feeling a bit regretful as he looked at the city below.

A blurry figure appeared there, which rapidly turned into the dead Whitemarsh cultivator. The moment he appeared, blood sprayed out of his mouth and numerous wounds opened up on his body. His eyes glittered with astonishment.

He couldn’t control the decline of his aura, and as he staggered backward, blood sprayed from his mouth. His illusory major world vanished. His major world was what had died, and his dao had been severed. He would never make further cultivation progress, and in fact, going forward, his cultivation base would just decline. If it weren’t for the rules of the city, he would actually be dead.

Given that, I wonder if… Crown Prince Brightsouth is actually still alive.

Xu Qing thought about it for a moment.

1. As is sort of obvious from the description, a lotus throne is a throne that resembles a lotus flower, most commonly seen in Buddhist and Hindu iconography. Here are a few examples. When I was in China recently, I went to a Buddhist temple that had a really cool lotus flower as part of a roughly 20-foot-tall statue of a Buddha (I believe it was Vairocana). Each petal of the flower (of which there were 1,000), was made of a smaller individual statue of the Buddha. It was really cool. I wanted to take a picture, but there are a billion signs posted prohibiting pictures inside any of the buildings, so I respected that and refrained. But trust me, it was cool. Okay, enough rambling. ☜