Chapter 3

Chapter 3: May you… rest in peace

"This thing…"

A strong light shone in Xu Qing's eyes, and the appearance of the corpse before he had taken away the purple crystal appeared in his mind.

"It can keep a corpse intact, and it can quickly heal the wounds of the living?"

Xu Qing clenched the purple crystal in his hand and quickly looked around, heart beating rapidly.

Although he knew that there should be no other living people here, he was instinctively vigilant after obtaining a treasure.

He no longer hesitated, sprinting at full speed straight to his cave.

On the way, he faintly discovered that not only were his injuries healing quickly, but even his stamina had greatly improved.

If it was just a while ago, he would have to slow down after just an hour. Now, an hour had long passed and he still felt warm and full of energy.

On his way back, he even caught a bird.

He didn’t kill it but stunned it, since living creatures lasted longer.

Even after doing this, the time he spent returning to the cave was shortened a lot. There was still some time before night would arrive when he saw his cave in the distance.

Xu Qing's mood was better than ever, but he didn’t let his guard down.

Because he knew that when night fell, besides the mutated beasts waking up… It might be because God’s eyes had opened and a forbidden area was forming, but there were also eerie existences that would appear.

He had heard people talk about it in the slums. There were places in the world where there were many deaths, and in those places, these kinds of eerie existences would form.

For example, the laughter from outside at night came from this kind of existence.

And these eerie existences were things that should not be seen, should not be touched, and should not be met.

Although previous experience told him that those beings usually only appeared at night, Xu Qing wasn’t certain whether they might occasionally appear during the day.

Therefore, his speed did not decrease at all, and he quickly approached the underground cave. After squeezing himself in, he blocked the cracks in the entrance.

Then he sat down cross-legged and opened his clenched palm.

The purple light spread from his palm and reflected the small, dark cave. Under that light, Xu Qing's face and eyes were also purple.

He stared at the purple crystal in his palm with a steady gaze.

The crystal was rectangular and about the size of his finger. It seemed that there were some flakes inside it, and those flakes were what emitted the purple light.

"It heals wounds..." Xu Qing looked at it for a long time. He unbuttoned his shirt and looked at the wound on his chest. It was already around 90% healed.

It seemed that the wound would be completely healed before long, and even the scar surrounding the wound was fading.

Remembering how he felt much less tired than before on the way back, Xu Qing had already made a preliminary judgment on the purple crystal in his heart.

The function of this thing was obviously recovery.

Recover injuries, recover stamina, and recover vitality!

"I don't know if there are other effects." Xu Qing muttered. His eyes revealed thoughtfulness.

He didn't know if the purple crystal was related to God’s eyes opening, but that was probably the case.

But in any case, this was a treasure. At the very least, Xu Qing had never heard of anything with such an amazing power of recovery.

Keeping such an object close to him would essentially provide him with a second life.

But Xu Qing was very clear that he could only own this thing because there was no other living person in this city except himself.

And once the blood rain ended, after he went out... he may not be able to protect such a treasure.

So the only way was to hide the purple crystal...

Xu Qing pondered for a while, then glanced at the unconscious bird that he had captured and raised his hand to grab it.

After pinching its beak so that it couldn't make a sound, he pulled out the dagger on his calf and directly made a cut on the bird’s body.

While the bird was struggling, Xu Qing stuffed the purple crystal into the wound.

Then he paid close attention without blinking.

At first, the bird struggled weakly, but soon the air filled with undercurrents. Spiritual energy rushed into the bird’s body, and it even seemed to be much greater than when Xu Qing himself cultivated.

The struggling bird instantly became much stronger than before. Xu Qing felt like he could barely keep his grasp on it.

This scene made Xu Qing's eyes shine brightly.

In the past, he could have crushed the bird’s neck in a single try, but now he had to squeeze several times before breaking it.

Xu Qing quickly took the purple crystal from the fresh carcass and wiped it off. He closed his eyes and began to think.

"The bird didn't die. There was an influx of spiritual energy, and the bird's strength suddenly became extremely great... It should be fine."

After a while, Xu Qing opened his eyes. With a decisive gaze, he directly stuffed the purple crystal into the wound on his chest that was about to heal completely.

The process of inserting it was a little painful, but Xu Qing gritted his teeth and endured it.

There was no safer hiding spot in his own body.

Moreover, his experiment just now told him that this thing even seemed to function better when inside the body.

As the purple crystal was inserted into his body, the wound on his chest immediately healed completely. Before Xu Qing could examine it carefully, a rumbling sound came from his body.

Spiritual energy suddenly surged into the cave, even more than what the bird had attracted. It drilled through the soil from all directions and entered Xu Qing’s body.

This spiritual energy was so great that Xu Qing's body instantly turned light blue and an indescribable icy cold filled his body.

This was caused by too much heterogeneity in the spiritual energy.

But Xu Qing had prepared himself long ago. At the critical moment, he unhesitatingly circulated the Sea and Mountain Art.

With the circulation of his cultivation technique, a large amount of heterogeneity split off from the spiritual energy flooding into his body.

The remaining pure spiritual energy flowed along the meridians of his whole body, causing thumping sounds to echo from Xu Qing's entire body.

It was as if there were blockages in his body being opened, and his flesh and blood were continuously nourished.

The Imp totem he was visualizing also seemed to come alive, independently posing in different ways.

Although the Sea and Mountain Art was a cultivation technique, it was not a proper cultivation technique. Instead, it was more of a body refining method.

It was divided into ten levels that corresponded to the ten levels of the Qi Condensation Realm.

The bamboo slip described it clearly. Each level gave the power of one tiger, five tigers were an Imp, and two Imps were a Chief.

According to the slip, an Imp can move a mountain, and a Chief can move the sea, hence the name Sea and Mountain Art.

The purple crystal buried in Xu Qing’s chest was like a vortex that constantly attracted surging spiritual energy. As it entered his body, the spiritual energy was like rain falling on a dry field.

Xu Qing's cultivation speed increased sharply.

After an unknown period of time, the rumbling sounds in his body grew more intense, and a large amount of impurities flowed out along the sweat pores of his whole body.

A foul smell permeated the cave.

With the impurities gone, Xu Qing's body became crystal clear, and the face covered by dirt became more and more beautiful.

After a while, Xu Qing's eyes suddenly opened as the sounds in his body and the influx of spiritual energy gradually receded.

His eyes flashed with a purple light.

Soon, Xu Qing returned to normal, and his expression froze.

His eyes could now clearly see everything in the formerly dark cave, and as he looked down at himself, an expression of disbelief crept onto his face.

"This…"

With a hint of excitement, Xu Qing stood up and punched out, kicking up a sharp wind with his blow.

Because the cave was too small, he couldn’t run around, but the feeling of raising his legs and punching let him realize that he had improved by an incredible degree in all aspects compared to before.

Then he immediately rolled up the sleeve of his left arm.

When he saw that a black dot the size of a fingernail had appeared on his forearm, Xu Qing took a deep breath and suppressed the excitement in his heart.

"So, this is Qi Condensation!”

According to the description on the bamboo slip, this black dot was a mutation point. The mutation points of the Sea and Mountain Art were located on the left arm, and each level added another one.

Touching the mutation point on his arm, Xu Qing was excited about his apparent newfound strength. He looked up at the entrance of the cave, waiting for dawn to arrive so he could test out his speed.

But soon, a surprised expression appeared on Xu Qing’s face. He approached the cave entrance and listened carefully.

The outside world was still pitch black, but there were no abnormal sounds at all.

This was something he had never encountered in the days he had been here.

In the past, even after dawn, although there were no mutated beasts or eerie existences, the sound of rain still remained.

But now the sound of rain was gone.

"Could it be..."

Xu Qing was shocked as a certain guess appeared in his heart.

He waited silently until a dazzling ray light came from the entrance of the burrow. Reflecting into Xu Qing’s dark eyes, it seemed to light up his whole world.

The moment he saw the light, Xu Qing's body trembled noticeably.

He raised his hand and slowly approached the ray of sunshine. Placing his hand in its light, he held the sunshine in the palm of his hand, and a long-lost warmth slowly awakened in his soul.

"Sunlight……"

After a long while, Xu Qing revealed a bright gaze. He pushed aside the debris blocking the entrance, and as more sunbeams continued to appear, he slowly left the cave.

The moment he stepped out, he raised his head to the sky. What he saw was no longer a sky full of dark, dense clouds, but a bright and brilliant sun.

It was as if the old man of the dawn had regained his vigor after being seriously ill for many days, kicking off the funeral shroud and bringing freshness to the world again.

"The rain has stopped."

Xu Qing took a deep breath of the air that contained sunlight, and silently looked at the city under the light of the morning sun.

Under this dazzling sun, everything in the city seemed to have some new sort of brilliance.

The bright red morning glow on the horizon shone down from the crevices between the clouds, like countless whales spewing golden waterfalls, washing away the dark haze all over the city little by little and revealing mottled scars.

The collapsed houses, the blue-black corpses, and the shocking blood-colored puddles all seemed to remind Xu Qing of the catastrophe that had happened here.

Xu Qing's eyes showed a complex look. He had lived in a slum outside the city for six years, and he had also looked at this city for six years.

Although he didn't come here many times, this was the place where he wanted to live the most in the past six years.

"I got the power of cultivation here.”

"I got the purple crystal here.”

"I... survived here." Xu Qing muttered before falling silent.

After a long time, he sighed softly and walked over to a blue-black corpse. He looked at it for a long time before carrying it on his back and walked forward.

Xu Qing carried it all the way to a nearby square before putting it down. Then he turned around, went back, and carried the second body, then the third, the fourth…

Some of the corpses lay scattered on the streets, and some were buried under the rubble.

He carried all the corpses in the nearby area to the square. Piled up like a mountain, some of the corpses were complete while others were missing parts.

Xu Qing stood there and set the mountain on fire. Maybe it was because of the heterogeneity, but the flames burned hotter and brighter, and thick smoke billowed out...

Xu Qing watched the thick smoke for a long time. Then, he walked away silently and went to a second area. Soon, thick smoke rose again...

Just like that, on the first day when the sun shone down on the ruined city, in addition to the sunlight, there was thick black smoke rising int o the sky from the cremation of the corpses.

The pillars of black smoke rose up one after another, covering the sun. The morning light seemed full of powerlessness, turning a dim red, as if hiding a deep sigh.

It was as if the smoke had become the sky’s tears. And the reflections on the ground were tear stains left on the earth...

The last tear stain was where Xu Qing had discovered the purple light.

There, Xu Qing put down the corpse of the old man in the pharmacy, and as the corpse burned, he stood silently on the side. The heat waves hit his face, and the dancing flames were reflected in his dark pupils.

His long, disheveled hair was distorted by the heat. After a while, Xu Qing's body bent in a bow.

"May you… rest in peace."

The flames burned violently and became more and more intense, emitting countless dandelion-like wisps that scattered with the wind.

But the thick smoke that billowed up into the sky still carried the unwillingness and regret of the deceased. This regret couldn’t be dissolved or blown away by the wind.

The smoke rose higher and higher, like scars in the sky.

But in comparison to the vast sky, these scars were insignificant.

...

After a long time, chaotic footsteps appeared behind the boy, accompanied by a voice with a strange tone.

"I was wondering why I didn’t see any corpses after walking all this way. It turned out that there was a stupid kid who expended his own strength to move these corpses for cremation.

"Well, since you’re so attached to them, I’ll help you out and throw you in to accompany them."

Xu Qing suddenly turned around.

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