Outside of the emperor’s tomb on the imperial planet in the god domain, something dramatic was playing out.

The moment Xu Qing shattered the statue with the God Decapitation Altar, all of the other statues in the area shivered and opened their eyes. As black light flooded out from their eyes, they began to transform from stone to flesh, starting with their heads. All of them were waking up.

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A terrifying aura rose up, stirring the winds and clouds. It turned into a huge vortex with the emperor’s tomb in the middle as it swept out violently in all directions. Black lightning crashed within it, making it look like something painted by a god to represent all the killing and death in the world.

Meanwhile, outside of the planet, the withered trees growing on the spiderwebs started swaying back and forth. The faces on their surfaces opened their eyes, which were crimson, and screams erupted from their mouths. It was a sound like metal scraping against rock, filled with shocking power and a boundless rancorous energy. If the doors of the Yellow Springs were opened, and a sound drifted out from hell itself, it would be like this, something that could make both ghosts and gods wail.

Their voices merged, caused wild colors to flash as the surrounding tempest slowed down and stopped.

At the same time, the vortex that had just formed split open like a massive eye. It was almost as if the planet itself was waking up and was intent on destroying anything and everything around it.

Xu Qing and the Captain were both stunned by the development. Without a word, they fell back. However, they couldn’t avoid the violent fluctuations caused by the awakening of the planet. Xu Qing’s god state collapsed, his defenses shattered, and his organs vibrated painfully. The Captain was in similar trouble as the violent fluctuations nearly ripped him to shreds. A sensation of death hung over them, as though they might be wiped out of existence at any moment. Thankfully, they were close to the mouth of the passageway, and as the fluctuations built in intensity, they were able to pass to the other side of the shield of light.

Once inside, Xu Qing coughed up a massive mouthful of blood. Every part of him, from head to toe to soul, screamed with intense pain. Dropping to a cross-legged position, he focused on healing.

The Captain couldn’t last any longer. His body collapsed into a mass of blue worms. Moments later, though, the worms formed his body again, and he stood there with his face ashen.

After some time passed and the two were recovering, they exchanged a glance. fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓

The Captain cleared his throat. “Little Junior Brother, what you did just now was utterly crazy. Granted, that’s how I also do things, except… next time could you give me a little heads up beforehand…?”

The Captain was feeling odd for a few reasons. For one thing, he had expected something to happen to the statues, but it hadn’t occurred to him at all that their actions could wake up the entire planet and unleash the power to destroy everything. What was more, he was the one that usually went and did something suicidal, all while dragging Xu Qing along with him. But this time it went the other way around.

Meanwhile, Xu Qing looked back at the Captain quizzically. “Eldest Brother, you never give me a heads up!”

The Captain smiled wryly. “That’s because, as your Eldest Brother, I always worry you might chicken out.”

Xu Qing nodded. “I was worried about the same thing happening with you.”

The Captain’s eyebrows shot up. Little Ah Qing has picked up some bad habits. This won’t do! I think I need to show him what it really means to be unafraid! What it really means to not fear death! What it really means to do something crazy!

Looking very solemn, he said, “I have to offer you some constructive criticism, little Junior Brother. The things out there are scraps, nothing more. I’m taking you to a place where acting crazy will earn you big rewards. Now, let’s get moving!”

The Captain shot to his feet and charged forward with unstoppable momentum and astonishing courage.

Seeing that, Xu Qing sighed. It looked to him more like the Captain wanted to compete with him in acting suicidal. He slowly followed. As he went along, he looked over his shoulder at the shattered statue out in the storm. He hated to give up like this, but also knew that he couldn’t continue to hunt statues. Looking back, he continued after the Captain.

They were walking through an artificial tunnel that had been carved through the rock. The walls were covered with unusual designs that occasionally pulsed with light. There were a lot of twists and turns in the tunnel, as well as numerous side tunnels, which made their path seem meandering. It was almost like they were traversing a maze.

However, the Captain continued leading the way heroically, as if he knew exactly where he was going. He never slowed down an iota.

Considering that, Xu Qing didn’t pay attention to the path they were taking. He just followed along, all while keeping his focus on his sea of consciousness.

Astonishingly, there were five huge ‘trove gates’ hovering above his sea of consciousness! Each door was 30,000 meters tall, outstandingly majestic, and pulsed with a matchlessly ancient aura. They were configured to face in five different directions.

The first gate was wide open. On the other side was a majestic world, inside of which swirled a bluegreen dragon that occasionally roared loudly. That was Xu Qing’s first god trove!

The second gate was closed, but it pulsed with a sensation of taboo poison, unease, and fear.

The third gate was also closed. Within it was a violet moon power, like a burning furnace.

The fourth gate was different. Though it was closed, it pulsed with an imperial will, something majestic, like a monarch ready to slaughter everything in his path.

The fifth gate, which was for the mage trove, was halfway open. It was just barely possible to see that, on the other side, there was a hulking figure lurking in a dark abyss, propping up heaven and earth, all while surrounded by howls of anguish. Those howls came from Master Stillwinter.

The five trove gates were like gods hanging in a paramount position over his sea of consciousness. They were the trove gates of the Spirit Trove level, although in the case of Xu Qing, they were for his god troves, imperial trove, and mage trove.

The Spirit Trove level involved forming trove gates in the sea of consciousness for every secret trove. If a trove had a heavenly dao, the trove gate would open. But without a spirit inside, it would remain closed.

Of Xu Qing’s five trove gates, one was open, one was half-open, and the other three were closed.

But right now, Xu Qing’s third trove gate, which was connected to his third god trove, was experiencing something dramatic as moonlight seeped into it.

It was like light from the ancestor of all moons, and contained the yin dao of the moon. It made the violet moon power in the god trove even more ancient, and caused a heaven-rending, earth-crushing sound to fill the trove.

The rumbling from the third trove gate filled Xu Qing’s sea of consciousness, surpassing anything and everything until… the third trove gate opened by a crack. It was a very small crack, but even that small progress on the track from nothing to something was tremendous!

On the other side of the opening, in the violet dusk of the god trove, a faint white sphere appeared. The sphere seemed profoundly ancient, as if it was the embodiment of that word.

It was surrounded by a frigid energy that seemed capable of freezing space and time. In fact, this moonlight seemed like it could freeze great daos. It was the embryonic form of the third god trove’s heavenly dao!

It was a form of the supreme yin, which in ancient times was known as the netherglimmer. 1

The moment it appeared, thanks to the third trove gate opening, a volcanic eruption of force occurred. A mountain-toppling, sea-draining aura spread out over Xu Qing’s sea of consciousness, filling his entire body as it cleansed and blessed him. As Xu Qing made his way through the maze-like tunnels of the tomb, a tremor passed through him, and he suddenly erupted with cultivation base power that surpassed anything from before. He quickly concealed it, leaving behind only a fierce and extraordinary light gleaming in his eyes.

Up ahead, the Captain stopped in place and turned around to look at Xu Qing. Then he took a step forward and vanished into the wall ahead of him.

Expression serious, Xu Qing unhesitatingly walked through the wall as well, almost as if it wasn’t even there. On the other side was a vast cave.

Unlike the maze, this cave seemed to have been formed naturally. It was dark, and also empty, save for nine spinning vortexes of starlight up above. They looked like nine openings leading to nine different worlds.

As Xu Qing studied them, the Captain said, “Outside of the emperor’s tomb is a primal-chaos labyrinth. Without knowing the correct path to take, not even a Smoldering God could get through it easily. But to me, it’s as easy as walking home. We’re in the middle of the labyrinth now. Those nine vortexes up there are nine paths. Five of them lead to life, and four to death. They change randomly, which makes it very hard to survive an encounter with them.”

The Captain clasped his hands behind his back as he hovered in midair. Looking proudly at the nine vortexes, he continued, “However, based on all the research and preparations in my past lives, I’m confident that no matter which vortex I pick, it won’t lead to death. No, any path I pick will automatically become a path of life!”

With his chin stuck up, the Captain flicked his sleeve. Wow, even I’m impressed by what I just said. It was nothing short of amazing. Considering how quick-witted little Ah Qing is, he’ll soon give voice to his astonishment and admiration.

He waited for a while. When he realized that no one was speaking, he looked down in surprise.

Xu Qing wasn’t even looking at him. Instead, Xu Qing was looking at the seventh vortex, and his eyes were glittering thoughtfully.

The Captain cleared his throat and said, “That’s a path to death! In fact, none of the paths are more deadly than that one. Don’t even look at it.”

Xu Qing ignored the Captain. His eyes were burning with increased curiosity as he realized that, even though he had no idea what was inside that seventh vortex, one thing was certain. And that was… as soon as he’d arrived in this location, his second god trove, that of taboo poison, started emitting the same kind of fluctuations that his third god trove had released in the presence of those statues.

Those fluctuations contained intense longing!

The Captain’s eyebrows shot up and he was about to say something when, all of a sudden, a figure emerged from another one of the tunnels. This figure pulsed with a terrifying and domineering aura, and was clad in a voluminous daoist robe.

The strong wind pressed the robe tightly against the body of the newcomer, revealing some very pronounced and attractive curves. The dramatic rise and fall of the curvature, coupled with the daoist robe, would cause any onlooker to feel a very mysterious sensation.

This person was none other than Sir Firedark.

Upon stepping out, she looked at Xu Qing and then the Captain. First, she looked surprised, but then her eyes blazed like heavenly bodies as shocking killing intent rose up within her.

Xu Qing’s pupils constricted.

The Captain’s jaw nearly dropped, and then he inhaled sharply. “Holy **, what are you doing here?” 2

The Captain turned to run. At the same time, Sir Firedark’s killing intent blazed to the highest heights, and an aura as terrifying as a Smoldering God’s spread out, filling the cave. Sir Firedark took a step forward, instantly arrived next to the nine vortexes, and launched a fist strike at the Captain.

“Die!”

1. 1) The common word for sun in Chinese is literally “supreme yang.” Less common, but at the same time sort of obvious, you have “supreme yin,” which refers to the moon. 2) What I’m translating as “netherglimmer” is a word for a type of creature that I can’t find in any of my C>E dictionaries. Even on the Chinese internet there is very little information on it. From what I can tell based on that online search, it’s a divine beast related to the moon. As those of you who read my footnotes probably know, I dislike using transliterations unless absolutely necessary, so I’m coining netherglimmer to describe this creature. ☜

2. In reality, this line was censored in Chinese, so it’s impossible to know 100% for sure what the Captain said. I checked the Chinese comments, and as you can imagine there were a lot of suggestions for what it might be. There were two comments that got dozens of times as many upvotes as any of the other comments, so I used those to make an educated guess. If the hundreds of Chinese readers were correct, then there was a clever bit of profanity disguised in internet lingo. Chinese netizens are always coming up with new ways of disguising prohibited language, but of course, the authorities are always figuring out the new slang terms and banning them. If the author self-censors by using euphemisms, then I select corresponding English euphemisms such as freaking, heck, shoot, crap, etc. If the author uses “approved” profanity, then I use similar English profanity. In this case, I feel that the author intended for there to be real, non-euphemistic profanity, but got thwarted by the censors, and therefore, I’m un-thwarting the censors by having the English translation conform to his original intent. ☜