Time passed.

Xu Qing wasn’t feeling anxious. He killed Hellfei quickly the first time, but the roughly dozen times after that… he took his time dissecting and studying it. The reason he needed a dozen times was partly because his careful study often led to Hellfei’s death in the name of research. But more often than not, Hellfei would spit out some poison that infected the area, including Xu Qing’s godliness. And that caused an obstacle for his research.

In the end, it didn’t matter. Whenever Hellfei died, it only took a few dozen breaths of time before it was back. That provided Xu Qing plenty of opportunities to lure the poison out of it using his soul threads. That was the best way he could come up with at the moment to deal with Hellfei’s poison. After all, the poison targeted godliness, and the source of Xu Qing’s godliness was his soul threads.

At the same time, he also continued to use his own poison to vie with Hellfei’s poison. The result was that the ruins he occupied were filled with more and more soul threads.

Even still, Xu Qing continued with his study. The biggest downside… was that even after Hellfei had died dozens of times, its battle prowess continued to climb with each death. At a certain point, it came back to life with second-stage Void Returning battle prowess.

Its roar was like a god, and his poison was even more capable of spreading pestilence….

That didn’t change how things worked, though. Even with Hellfei’s increased battle prowess, Xu Qing just reached out, grabbed it like before, and dragged it in front of him. As before, he dismembered, dissected, and studied.

Xu Qing had always been an earnest devotee of study and research. It was very similar to the way he experimented on prisoners in the Violent Crimes Division back in Seven Blood Eyes. Those experiments were one of the main reasons for his amazing achievements in the dao of poison. When all was said and done, Xu Qing really valued knowledge.

Xu Qing summoned his black spear and put an end to Hellfei before it could self-detonate.

Hellfei… has a very unusual body structure. That said, I now understand a bit about how it forms that poison….

Xu Qing’s eyes were narrowed in thought as he used soul threads to draw out Hellfei’s poison from within him. Then he looked back at the spot where Hellfei had just died, and prepared for another round of research. Next, he wanted to study Hellfei’s soul.

As the mist in the world churned like a great, wild sea, Hellfei returned again. This time, the aura of third-stage Void Returning swept out, shoving the mist aside as it bore down furiously on Xu Qing.

Xu Qing’s gaze hardened as he hurled his spear at Hellfei’s head. But Hellfei, who had already been killed by that spear many times, blurred, dodging to the side to avoid the spear. Then it appeared right in front of Xu Qing, where it spat out some poison mist.

But then, a heavenly saber fell. It was only one slash. But Hellfei was chopped in half, whereupon the pieces collapsed into nothing.

As it died, Xu Qing’s golden crow emerged from his back, faced the spot where Hellfei had just died, and inhaled deeply.

The gory remains of Hellfei did nothing. The golden crow looked confused.

Xu Qing frowned.

He could sense that the golden crow hadn’t managed to absorb even a scrap of a soul. What was more, this action seemed to have touched on some sort of taboo, as the mist in the world went absolutely wild. Overhead, the massive vortex suddenly emitted deafening rumbling sounds. Lightning bolts snapped back and forth, the sky rippled, and the lands shook. At the same time, Hellfei’s howl echoed out as it stepped from the illusory to the corporeal.

Next, the vortex above surged as a version of Hellfei emerged that was some 3,000 meters long. Whether in body or aura, this Hellfei surpassed the previous versions by every metric. And its roar was a heaven-rending, earth-crushing sound that spread out in all directions.

Before Xu Qing could even launch an attack, it opened its mouth and inhaled deeply.

The mist in the world swept into Hellfei’s mouth. In fact, in the blink of an eye, it absorbed every scrap of mist there was. It was a dramatic and majestic sight. Hellfei didn’t just absorb the mist. It also sucked in all of its body parts that were laying around.

Its 3,000-meter-long body began to shrivel down, while at the same time, its single eye grew brighter and brighter until it was the most eye-catching thing in the world. And it was staring at Xu Qing.

He looked at it curiously.

It doesn’t want me to study its soul….

Around then, wild colors flashed in heaven and earth, and everything shook. The ancient voice of the Greenwood reached Xu Qing, and it sounded anxious.

“Young friend, your assistance has already been something of a miracle. But be careful. Pushing that evil spirit into a corner will force it to send more power into that form. Then it will unleash its life essence divine ability to crush it. It’s called… Five Filths of the Gods!

“Young friend, can you buy a bit more time? Drain Hellfei some more? This battle in the starry sky is reaching a critical point.”

Almost as if to emphasize that point, wild shockwaves swept down from the starry sky beyond the dome of heaven. The entire world shook so violently it seemed like it might collapse. The ground split open, causing irregularly sized chunks of earth to rise up into the air. At the same time, ripples rolled across the sky. The world really did seem like it was heading into a doomsday.

Yet again, Xu Qing rose to his feet on the listing tower. The moment he did, Hellfei’s vertical pupil went wide! An incomparably evil and ancient power began to build up. At the same time, five mysterious dao chants filled his mind.

“First filth: godfire’s smoke rises; godfire is inherently smokeless; gather smoke and converge impurities; create uncleanness.

“Second filth: god soul’s desire builds; the god soul is inherently desireless; gather desire and converge mortality; shed omniscience.

“Third filth: god body decaying; the god body is inherently undecayed; gather decay and build rot; never eternal.

“Fourth filth: god shrine covered in dust; the god shrine is inherently without dust; gather dust and lose brilliance; sever joss flame.

“Fifth filth: godly nature is filth; godly nature is inherently without filth; gather filth and lose wisdom; decline personhood.”

These were the Five Filths of the Gods.

Each of the five dao chants caused a tremor to pass through Xu Qing. He had no godfire, yet the signs of the first filth still presented. Hissing black smoke appeared, filled with impurities. It created a profoundly unclean sensation. Then, his soul trembled as his seven emotions and six sensory pleasures went out of control. They were like a rising tide that overwhelmed all of his senses.

However, there was more. His body began to decay, and his life force faded. Rot began to fill him. Next, the soul threads within him, which had godsource as their foundation, filled the role of the god shrine that was mentioned. Dust began to cover them, causing them to lose their brilliance. Finally was his godly nature. As it burned brightly, he lost control of his human nature and animal nature, which caused his personhood to decline.

Even Xu Qing was taken aback by these developments. He could sense that this… was a poison specifically designed to target gods!

Based on what he was experiencing, Xu Qing now understood why Hellfei would be a very suitable heavenly dao for his taboo poison. The Five Filths of the Gods was a perfect match for his god curse. In fact, his curse would make a great sixth filth.

God’s life fully cursed; a god’s life is inherently curseless; gather the curse to sever life; eradicate godsource.

As Xu Qing thought those things over the course of just a few breaths of time, the ferocious Five Filths of the Gods exploded in intensity.

A mysterious light flickered in Xu Qing’s eyes, and then the projection of a huge sundial appeared behind him. The gnomon spun, and it was as if a river of ancient time had been unleashed. And the waves rolling across its surface were from five breaths of time in the past. Time… was moving backward in accordance with the spinning of the gnomon!

The smoke of impurity from the first filth rapidly vanished. The seven emotions and six sensory pleasures that had cropped up in his soul went completely calm. His senses became clear again. The decay to his body was reversed, and the rot went away.

His soul threads no longer had dust on them, and instead were brilliant. His godly nature, human nature, and animal nature all returned to a state of balance.

It looked like time had been reversed and Xu Qing was back at the point before the five filths had been unleashed. But after the sundial faded away, he frowned. He had just realized that though the sundial had indeed caused time to reverse, resulting in his body recovering, that time reversal didn’t actually change the Five Filths of the Gods.

The poisonous origin of the five filths was still around.

However, that power didn’t do anything. It seemed to be converging. Building up. It was easy to imagine what would happen shortly when it was fully powered up. It would be completely unleashed on Xu Qing.

Xu Qing had lots of experience working with poison. Sometimes he had Little Shadow devour it. Sometimes he sent it into the god’s finger. Sometimes he opened a portal to Emperor Ancient Spirit and sent it there. Those were all possibilities right now. He could even use his own godly curse in combination with his sundial to try to build up an immunity to this new poison.

But he didn’t do any of those things. Instead, he lifted his right hand and used a technique he hadn’t used in a long time. His entire hand turned as semitransparent as a Gruegloom.

Then, with complete decisiveness, he reached his hand into his chest, and shoved it all the way into his sea of consciousness to the second trove gate there. Clenching his hand into a fist he punched the gate with full force. Though there was no heavenly dao behind that gate, the force Xu Qing had unleashed was enough to crack it open slightly.

The moment that happened, a gravitational force erupted, latching onto the origin of the poison and dragging it toward the trove gate.

Only a moment later, the trove gate slammed shut again. However, the poison’s origin had already been sealed inside.

Having accomplished that, Xu Qing looked up. Hellfei, whose filth poison had suddenly just disappeared, looked surprised as Xu Qing then hefted his black spear and summoned his heavenly saber. Saber and spear were unleashed simultaneously, bringing attacks from both heaven and earth.

The mighty Hellfei shivered before exploding. The crumbling world also exploded like a mirror that had been shattered. The starry sky was revealed.

The enormous Hellfei’s true body howled in grief. It became incredibly weak as it looked venomously at Xu Qing. It wanted to fight back, but had no strength left. The ancient Greenwood tree sent branches wrapping around it viciously, ensuring that all of its struggles were useless.

Eventually, the branches pierced into Hellfei’s body, causing blood to rain down. Then branches popped out from its skin in various locations. It was a brutal sight as it went completely still.

The starry sky trembled as the source of the resentment disappeared, and everything turned bright and clear. However, the enormous tree had gone all out, and was now like a lamp without much oil left.

“Many thanks. I now have no regrets.” As branches wrapped around the face of Hellfei’s corpse, the head exploded. Only the solitary eye remained. A branch wrapped around it and threw it to Xu Qing. “As promised, young friend, here is your reward.”

From beginning to end, Xu Qing had remained calm and silent. But as the eye flew toward him, he lifted his right hand. A heavenly saber appeared there, and without any hesitation, he slashed it down. The eye was slashed to pieces!

“Done with the act?” Xu Qing asked quietly.