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“Over there...” he murmured, vigilance rising within him.

He had been very seriously injured, so the past few days had been spent solely on recovery. He was now mostly better, so he took out a transmission jade slip and sent a message to find out what had gone on recently, especially as it related to the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society.

The person he asked was none other than Sir Bloodsmelter. Xu Qing knew that simply thanking the patriarch would be meaningless. The patriarch had been the first to react when Xu Qing started falling from the 9,000-meter spot on the pillar. Xu Qing wasn’t going to forget that. Nor would he forget all of the medicinal pills the patriarch had given him to aid in his recovery. When people treated him well, even a little bit, Xu Qing committed that to memory. Of course, it was the same with people who treated him poorly.

Xu Qing received an answer within moments. The patriarch explained everything that happened with the totem, including the story about the suns and moons perishing. He also told Xu Qing the secret about there being more gods than just the broken face in the sky.

After hearing all that, Xu Qing was shocked, to say the least. The information was outright sensational, but even more astonishing was that the details perfectly conformed to what he had experienced.

He suddenly thought back to Golden Crow Assimilates Myriad Spirits, and the images in the dragon chariot pulled by the giant. He had always thought it strange that, carved on the chariot was the story of the sun perishing, and yet, there was still a sun in the sky. [1]

Now he had his answer. The young man who’d once sat in that dragon chariot was one of the fallen suns.

The patriarch said that the totem on the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pillar depicts one of the surviving twelve moons of the Revered Ancient. It lies in the extreme west of the mainland, incomparably far from here. What’s more, most species believe that the suns and moons have gods sleeping within them. I could sense breathing from the moon that appeared in my sea of consciousness.... And then there are the words spoken by that young man’s soul....

The answer was right there.

A god. I used a mutagen invasion to steal that violet moon. Is it actually part of that god’s power?

Xu Qing cast his senses to the violet moon within his sea of consciousness. The violet moon seemed to represent only 1/1,000,000th of the red moon, yet it was still incredibly terrifying. In fact, just observing it, Xu Qing felt his hair standing on end. It was the same sensation he would get when looking at the closed eyes of the broken face of the god in the sky.

That said, though he felt shaken, he didn’t sense any imminent danger. The violet moon was now deeply connected to him, and he had a measure of control over it. That control was very, very minimal. At the moment, doing anything with it would be incredibly difficult. At most, he could cause some of its aura to seep out.

The mutagen came from me. Therefore, whatever the mutagen invades becomes part of me.

Feeling absolutely certain of that assessment, he looked up into the sky.

Does that mean that when the god above sends mutagen down, whatever it infects is within his control? After pondering the matter for a time, his eyes flickered as he suddenly thought about the Captain.

The Captain got the same thing I did. Except his belly exploded. That must mean he tried to eat it. Definitely not the same as me. Taking out a jade slip, he sent a message to the Captain and told him about the conclusions he’d reached.

“Captain, if you absorbed some of that energy, it could be really dangerous.”

“Nah, don’t worry about it. I ate too much, that’s all. If it was true that a god could take control of me that way, then there would already be a bunch of gods all fighting over who I belong to. Little Ah Qing, there’s no need to get jealous. Girls fight over you, and it’s the same in my case, except with gods.” The Captain laughed heartily. “Besides, it’s also possible that what’s sealed inside of me isn’t just a grue. You never know. Maybe I have a god sealed inside me. So maybe you should actually help me! Give me your portion as well. I’ll help you deal with the pain!”

“No thanks, Captain.”

Xu Qing turned off the jade slip. Based on what he knew about his Eldest Brother, the fact that he’d said such things just meant that he was able to deal with the situation. As for all the talk of him having a god sealed inside him, Xu Qing didn’t believe it.

After taking some time to settle his thoughts, he started analyzing the sensation of fear he’d experienced that came from the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society.

The Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society’s dao child fell from the 9,000-meter spot, and was nearly killed in body and soul. Whatever went wrong, it happened because he was the third person to climb 9,000 meters.

Having reached this point in his train of thought, certain possibilities occurred to him.

Is it possible that when the Captain and I stole some of that god’s energy, it woke up? And then, when it saw Zhang Siyun...?

Xu Qing’s eyes widened as he came to the conclusion that this possibility was very likely. That would explain why Zhang Siyun nearly died.

But that doesn't make sense. If that god really woke up, there’s no way that Zhang Siyun, a mere Gold Core cultivator, could have survived. He’d be dead beyond the shadow of a doubt.

The more he thought about it, the more trepidatious he felt.

Given that Zhang Siyun survived, why am I sensing fear and danger?

After more thought, his heart began to pound as a terrifying possibility occurred to him.

Zhang Siyun’s near-death experience was related to that red moon. And the fact that he didn’t die also relates to that moon....

His guard went up even more than before. He couldn’t be absolutely sure that his assessment was correct, but staying completely on guard still seemed like the best thing to do.

Seven days passed, and it was nearly time for the true fighting to begin for the swordsage recruitment qualifications.

Quite a few notable things happened in those seven days.

For example, the inspection of the pillar didn’t end, which meant that no one was allowed to climb it. Xu Qing was a bit disappointed about that.

The Ghost Emperor mountain in his sea of consciousness was growing increasingly true and real, and the face was now about ninety percent similar to his own. As for the staff that was taking shape in the Ghost Emperor mountain’s hands, it was no longer mostly transparent. Instead, it was becoming very clear.

A decision had been made about the final rankings. Xu Qing, Chen Erniu, and Zhang Siyun all reached 9,000 meters, and thus they tied for first place. All of them would have one chance to gain enlightenment of that imperial-class technique.

However, that chance wouldn’t come immediately. It would happen after the recruitment event was over.

The patriarch had already sent the pillar rewards to Xu Qing. Unfortunately, because they all came at once, it wasn’t possible to tell which reward belonged to who. So the patriarch made the decision that, based on Xu Qing’s performance, he would get seventy percent of the reward items, while Chen Erniu would get thirty.

The Captain was very happy about that. As for Xu Qing, he didn’t feel like bickering.

One of the rewards was a legacy technique. It was called the Goldslaughter Secret, and cultivating it provided a measure of control over golden, metallic energy. It could even be turned into a deadly weapon. After cultivating it, Xu Qing gave it to the Captain. The Captain knew about Xu Qing trying to collect septenary goldmetal energy, so he gave all of that energy from his rewards to Xu Qing in exchange for energy that he needed. Xu Qing was originally planning to sell everything else. However, the Captain pointed out that after they went to the capital city of Sea-Sealing County, they could be useful. Given that, Xu Qing put everything away for later use.

The Captain and Xu Qing talked about whether the Swordsage Court would ask them questions about them taking the energy from the totem.

The Captain suggested that it was a good opportunity for them to come clean, and that they should just return the energy to the swordsages. Xu Qing had to admit what the Captain said made sense. Unfortunately, Xu Qing couldn’t actually do that. The energy he had wasn’t from that red moon, but instead, a violet moon.

The Captain produced his stream of energy anyway, and handed it to Xu Qing.

Xu Qing was obviously surprised by the Captain’s generosity.

“It’s because I have something much bigger in the works. Heh heh. It’s currently in the planning stages. When the time comes, I’ll need your help. This time, I’m planning to eat something really satisfying.”

Xu Qing thought about it for a moment.

As of now, he had enough of the septenary goldmetal energy to completely transform the iron skewer into a spirit weapon. When the process was done, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior would be able to enter it again. It only took a moment. The black iron skewer instantly grew mightier. Then, when combined with the red tribulation lightning from the patriarch, it had the killing power of three heavenly palaces.

Xu Qing hefted it and looked very pleased.

The shadow didn’t look happy to be playing second fiddle, yet didn’t have any options at hand. All it could do was send Xu Qing emotional fluctuations via divine will, emphasizing that it would be obedient. It also expressed that it was both terrified and hopeful regarding the violet moon.

Xu Qing felt a bit sorry for the shadow, so he let it get closer to the moon. The shadow cautiously approached, and then bowed down in obeisance, like a wolf bowing to the moon. Then it carefully began doing cultivation exercises. It was an odd sight to Xu Qing, but it also gave him a deeper understanding of the violet moon.

Maybe the violet moon can become the core for my fifth heavenly palace.

He had finished his third heavenly palace, and had already planned things out for his fourth. The core would be his bluegreen dragon, and it would become his life essence palace.

Normally speaking, his life essence heavenly palace, which would come from the enlightenment he had gained in Qi Condensation from his Forbidden Sea dragonwhale, would have been his first heavenly palace. However, Xu Qing’s path of cultivation was different from most other people. His two life lamps became heavenly palaces, and then he made another with the taboo poison pill. Therefore, it meant that his life essence palace had to be the fourth.

When he took Li Ziliang’s four gold cores from his crystalline heavenly palaces, they became a part of Xu Qing’s fourth palace. Based on what he could tell, it wouldn’t be very long before that fourth heavenly palace was complete.

During the seven days that passed, the swordsages came looking for Xu Qing and the Captain. They explained that they knew about the god domain totem and its energy, and explained that if he returned the energy to them, he would be given military credits. To a certain extent, military credits were required for promotions among the swordsages. And even if he didn’t become a swordsage, military credits could be exchanged for unique cultivation items that only the Swordsage Court had.

Xu Qing and the Captain talked it over. After putting on a show of hesitating, they finally returned one energy stream.

At the end of the seven days, the event that all of the cultivators had been waiting for was finally about to start. It was the recruitment qualification competition. There would be thousands of people who participated, but only the top ten would pass! Only those ten people would qualify to participate in the true assessment. Only they could become real swordsages!

1. The story of the sun perishing was revealed in chapter 82. The story was recounted in chapter 173, and Xu Qing made some speculations in that chapter. The engravings in the chariot are most fully described in chapter 171. In chapter 175, Xu Qing gets on the chariot and gets a closer look. Although 175 doesn’t go into detail about what he saw, it does mention rows of scribbled text written by someone about to die, presumably the dying words (and legacy) of that sun. ☜