Chapter 117

Chapter 117: The Shadow Awakens!

Xu Qing immediately struck out with a punch. However, the pagoda walls were incredibly sturdy themselves. Moreover, a barrier of light appeared that negated the force of Xu Qing’s punch.

But because of Seven Blood Pupils’ sky-sealing array, everything in the merfolk territory was suppressed to the level of Qi Condensation, whether it be cultivators’ cultivation bases or external items like this Foundation Establishment Pagoda. Normally, Xu Qing’s punch might not have done anything, but now, it made the barrier of light ripple violently with a single blow.

Xu Qing’s eyes flashed coldly when he saw this. He didn’t have any time to waste, so he just formed a hand seal and controlled the magic boat to slam directly into the pagoda.

In fact, Xu Qing’s magic boat already had power on par with Foundation Establishment. Except for the fact that it didn’t have a Foundation Establishment-level power supply, it could be said that his magic boat was already at the level of a magic ship.

With the magic boat striking out, the barrier outside the Foundation Establishment Pagoda instantly shattered, and the walls also crumbled as the magic boat impacted them.

Stowing away the magic boat, Xu Qing instantly entered the pagoda through the hole blasted in the walls.

The flames of the Spiritual Breath Lamp flickered, reflecting Xu Qing’s approaching shadow on the walls.

Xu Qing didn’t slow down at all. As soon as he arrived, he reached out to snatch the burning Spiritual Breath Lamp. But just then, the merfolk youth who was in the middle of breaking through suddenly opened his eyes. There was an expression of shock and fury on his face, but when he opened his mouth to speak, he suddenly coughed up a mouthful of blood.

His cultivation base instantly became disorderly, but he still gritted his teeth and pointed at Xu Qing. A merfolk projection appeared behind him and struck out toward Xu Qing.

Xu Qing didn’t waste any time. He immediately punched out, causing the merfolk projection to instantly disappear. The merfolk youth coughed up blood wildly, and his body was sent flying backwards until it crashed into the wall behind him.

After losing the protection of the barrier, the wall had turned into a normal one. The merfolk youth crashed through it and fell out of the pagoda, his life and death unknown.

Xu Qing didn’t have time to pay attention to him. He quickly reached out to the Spiritual Breath Lamp.

But at that moment, his shadow suddenly twisted. It actually moved on its own without Xu Qing’s direction!

When Xu Qing raised his hand, his shadow also raised its hand.

But before Xu Qing himself grabbed the Spiritual Breath Lamp, his shadow suddenly stretched, shooting toward the Spiritual Breath Lamp even faster than Xu Qing. And then, as if it bore resentment toward the flame, it… snuffed it out!

Xu Qing suddenly froze, then he turned his head to look at the wall.

As soon as the flame was extinguished, the ensuing darkness naturally drowned out his shadow.

However, Xu Qing could clearly perceive his shadow, which rapidly snapped back to its normal state.

Xu Qing’s expression turned unsightly. He grabbed the Spiritual Breath Lamp and held it in his hand.

Without its light, there was nothing special about the lamp aside from its unusual shape.

But Xu Qing had already put the Spiritual Breath Lamp out of his mind. He stared at his shadow, his expression becoming more and more gloomy. The sudden move just now reminded him of the words that the mute youth had left in the jade slip.

"It's sleeping."

When he thought of these words, Xu Qing suddenly thought about how, if a sleeping person’s eyes were dazzled by a sudden light, they would instinctively reach out to extinguish it.

A terrifying glow appeared in Xu Qing’s eyes. The spiritual energy in his body suddenly poured into the Spiritual Breath Lamp, reigniting it with a bang.

The light of the fire instantly caused Xu Qing’s shadow to reappear on the wall.

As soon as the light appeared, the shadow on the wall distorted again and quickly stretched out its hand toward the Spiritual Breath Lamp, as if to extinguish it again.

Xu Qing let out a cold snort. Releasing his will, he immediately restrained the shadow with all his strength. The shadow’s hand paused near the Spiritual Breath Lamp, twitching and struggling against his control.

It was as if the shadow wanted to disregard Xu Qing’s will and snuff out the light.

“Are you sleeping, or… are you pretending to be sleeping!” Xu Qing activated the purple crystal, using its suppressive force to ruthlessly smother the struggling shadow.

Xu Qing was very familiar with suppressing the shadow. He would usually suppress it five or six times in a row on a daily basis. But this time, Xu Qing directly struck out with the suppressive force thirteen times in one breath.

The shadow trembled violently and became visibly dimmer.

Xu Qing’s expression didn’t change at all. It was only after striking out more than 20 times, when the shadow was showing signs of breaking apart, that he finally stopped.

But Xu Qing still wasn’t satisfied. Casting an indifferent glance at the shadow, he moved the Spiritual Breath Lamp nearer to it and relinquished his control.

But this time, the shadow didn’t dare to try and snuff out the light. It trembled violently and allowed the light to approach, not even daring to dodge without Xu Qing’s express permission.

Xu Qing’s expression didn’t change as he placed the Spiritual Breath Lamp directly in his shadow. When it met his shadow, the light of the Spiritual Breath Lamp changed, no longer a dim yellow but a dull and eerie green.

The shadow trembled even more, but it still didn’t dare to move.

Xu Qing narrowed his eyes. He was about to speak, but his expression suddenly changed and he looked down at the Spiritual Breath Lamp in his hand.

When he was holding the lamp earlier, whether it was extinguished or lit, everything seemed relatively normal. But now that he placed it in his shadow, a faint fluctuation had appeared.

Moreover, there seemed to be another fluctuation coming from the ground, and the fluctuations seemed to be resonating with each other.

Xu Qing’s eyebrows rose and he immediately took the Spiritual Breath Lamp out of his shadow. As soon as he took it out, the fluctuation disappeared, as if it had never been there in the first place.

Xu Qing stood there and pondered for a while. To the trembling shadow’s dismay, he stuck the lamp back in, and the fluctuations rose once again.

“This…” Xu Qing narrowed his eyes, recalling the rumor in the jade slip that the Spiritual Breath Lamp had clues to the Temple of Mer. He could naturally make some connections with what happened just now.

Xu Qing glanced at the shadow and spoke in a cold voice, not caring whether or not it would understand his words.

“Keep sleeping.”

After that, Xu Qing memorized the exact direction of the fluctuations from the ground before blowing out the Spiritual Breath Lamp, putting it away, and jumping down out of the Foundation Establishment Pagoda.

When he touched ground, he quickly looked around for the merfolk youth who had fallen down earlier.

Back then, the merfolk youth had been interrupted at the critical moment and failed to establish his foundation. Moreover, he had even been hit by Xu Qing, so if he wasn’t dead, he would at least be seriously injured.

Xu Qing’s gaze swept across the area and finally landed on a place not too far away. There was a corpse lying there in a crawling position, that of the merfolk youth.

Obviously, the backlash from failing to enter Foundation Establishment had left him unable to defend himself when he fell to the ground. He had only been able to crawl a short distance before dying.

Nevertheless, Xu Qing didn’t let his guard down. He quickly blasted the corpse with a few spells and even sprinkled poison powders. After that, he waited a bit to make sure the merfolk youth was really dead before approaching and picking up a storage bag from the corpse.

“His status was high, so he must have prepared Foundation Establishment Pills for his breakthrough. I hope they aren’t all gone.” Xu Qing opened the bag and a smile appeared on his face.

But at that moment… applause came from not far away.

Xu Qing whipped his head around and saw a clapping figure walk toward him, biting down on a small apple.

It was the captain!

“Wow, vice captain Xu, you killed everyone here? You must have had a great harvest. The Spiritual Breath Lamp is on you?”

“I was a step too late.” Xu Qing immediately became vigilant, but he spoke calmly without the slightest abnormality.

At the same time, he was also very surprised by how the captain managed to speak with an apple in his mouth.

The captain’s expression didn’t change at all when he saw the look in Xu Qing’s eyes. He took a bite of the apple, making it fall from his mouth and catching it with his right hand. Waggling his eyebrows at Xu Qing, he looked around at the corpses all around, and the sharp iron spikes piercing them.

“This is the aftermath of your magic boat’s attack, right? Zhang San’s wallet must be hurting. Ah, right, when are you going to pay back the two thousand spirit stones you owe me?”

“I’m broke.”

Xu Qing glanced at the small apple in the captain’s hand, then took out a big apple from his pockets and bit into it.

The captain seemed stunned for a moment. He looked at the big apple in Xu Qing’s hand, then at the small apple in his own. He felt like his own apple suddenly didn’t taste so good.

“Ahem. You can’t fool me, kid. Why bother hiding? It’s just a Spiritual Breath Lamp, I wouldn’t take it even if you gave it to me. It’s not like you got a Life Lamp.” The captain’s tone seemed a little sour.

Xu Qing didn’t reply.

“Hey, why don’t you ask me what a Life Lamp is?” The captain raised his eyebrows.

Xu Qing looked at the captain and asked.

“What is a Life Lamp.”

The captain gave a grandiose sigh.

“Ah well, since you’re my team member and owe me two thousand spirit stones, I guess I’ll tell you.”

“That Spiritual Breath Lamp is actually a replica. It’s a fake Life Lamp, and it’s a poor quality one at that.”

“You know about the Profound Brilliance state of Foundation Establishment, right? It’s an explosive state that appears when you ignite the Life Fire in your body. You should know that a cultivator generally can have three balls of Life Fire at most.”

“When the first ball of Life Fire appears, you’re considered in the early stage of Foundation Establishment. The appearance of the second ball of Life Fire marks the middle stage, and the third marks the late stage. At that point, you can theoretically attempt to break through into Core Formation.”

“As for the fourth ball of Life Fire, that will require immense luck and opportunity. Anyway, the Profound Brilliance state is inextricably intertwined with Life Fire. Whether before or after the arrival of the fragmented face of God, it’s always been the same.”

“But in this world, there are special characters, the direct descendants of ancient sovereigns or overlords. The road they walk is completely different from that of ordinary cultivators. Thanks to their sovereign-level cultivation techniques and lofty bloodline, once they reach Foundation Establishment, what they cultivate is not Life Fire but Life Lamps!”

“One Life Lamp is equivalent to the power of two balls of Life Fire!!”

“Life Fire is rootless, but Life Lamps are rooted. It’s like a floating reed compared to a heavy boulder. There’s a clear difference.”

“If you have one Life Lamp, you can fight those a stage above you. If you have two Life Lamps, you can basically be unrivaled in Foundation Establishment and already be qualified to form your core. If you have three Life Lamps, you can be considered the strongest under the Golden Core Realm[1]. Oh, obviously that’s only if your opponent doesn’t have Life Lamps themselves.”

“Nowadays, since the ancient sovereigns and overlords have disappeared long ago, no one can cultivate a Life Lamp by themselves anymore. Only some peerless Chosen on the Ancient Hope Mainland can receive a Life Lamp.”

“And the Life Lamps they obtain are all passed down from the descendants of the ancient sovereigns and overlords. After the person who holds the Life Lamp dies, the Life Lamp will become ownerless, and others can fuse it into their own bodies to become its owner.”

“Of course, you don’t even need to think about getting one. I’m just telling you for your own edification. Life Lamps are legendary items that are incredibly rare. The appearance of even a single one will stir those major sects on Ancient Hope into action.”

“But let’s talk about something else. If you want to establish your foundation, you should find a way to get your hands on some extra Foundation Establishment Pills. You’re in luck, I just happen to know the location of a huge pill treasury in the merfolk race. There should be a lot of Foundation Establishment Pills there. Come with me.”

“In merfolk race territory, all the good stuff is kept underwater. Zhang San should already be there, let’s head over now.” The captain licked his lips and pointed down at the ground.

Xu Qing’s mind buzzed as he listened to the captain talk about Life Lamps. He thought of the resonance from the Spiritual Breath Lamp, and his heart couldn’t help but pound.

"Life Lamp...?"

[1] Golden Core = Core Formation

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