Chapter 76

Chapter 76: Droughtdemon[1] Burns All Living Things

The morning wind blew lightly through the port area, causing the sails of the boats to flutter wildly.

However, there would always be a few strands of wind that weren’t satisfied with only blowing on the sails and tried to lift the sea, causing blue waves to undulate lightly. Unfortunately, the great sea was too deep, and the wind couldn’t move it. In fact, if it wasn’t careful, the wind would itself be swallowed by the rolling waves.

Like a fish that overestimated itself and provoked an enemy that shouldn’t be provoked.

The light of the morning sun was much calmer than the wind, peacefully scattering down on the numerous boats and also lightly falling on Xu Qing, who was calmly returning to his berth.

Whether it was killing a person or killing a fish, to Xu Qing, the result was foreordained once the other party showed killing intent.

He wanted to survive, so anyone that threatened his life had already crossed his bottom line.

He knew that not all lives were considered equal.

The teacher in the slums had once talked about this inequality while mocking himself. He told Xu Qing and the other children that in prosperous times, those in power would try to cover up this inequality. However, in this chaotic era, everyone understood this fact deeply.

But as Xu Qing walked though life, he came to understand that to a certain extent, the world was also fair.

This was because after dying, everything faded away. All living things ended up at the same destination.

There was no difference between dying in an unknown alley and dying in a wine pool filled with precious jewels.

“The Second Highness was right. That fish really did stink.” Xu Qing retracted his gaze from the sunrise and entered the cabin of his magic boat. After washing his body and removing the fishy smell, he laid down.

He was off duty today, so he didn’t need to report in at the Homicide Department. At that moment, he was relishing in the comfortable feeling of having erased a hidden danger and felt that he could have a good night’s sleep.

But before going to bed, Xu Qing sat down cross-legged and took out the bamboo slip. He picked up the black skewer and crossed out the words ‘merfolk youth’ on it before looking at the words ‘Vajra Sect ancestor’. Killing intent rose in the depths of his eyes.

“Soon…”

Muttering, Xu Qing took out the storage bag that the merfolk youth didn’t get a chance to open.

He was very curious as to what could be inside.

After picking it up, Xu Qing narrowed his eyes and pondered for a moment. The spiritual energy in his body instantly erupted and flooded into the storage bag. Unexpectedly, he didn’t run into any difficulties; after its owner died, the mark on the storage bag had actually already dissipated.

This allowed Xu Qing’s spiritual energy to smoothly enter the bag and check the items inside.

After a while, Xu Qing subconsciously took a deep breath.

“So rich?” Xu Qing muttered. Although the storage bag only contained just over a hundred spirit stones, there were also twelve spirit tickets inside that were marked with the Sixth Peak’s imprint.

Each spirit ticket was worth 100 spirit stones.

Such a windfall made Xu Qing’s heart beat rapidly. After all, he had never been in possession of this amount of wealth before.

But he understood that it would be safest for him not to exchange these spirit tickets for the time being.

So after calming himself down, Xu Qing checked the other items. Besides the spirit stones, there were a few heavy treasures in the storage bag, and with a wave of his hand, two talisman treasures appeared in front of him as well.

One was yellow, and the other was blue.

These two talismans gave off shocking fluctuations. By the looks of the runes on them, they were still mostly new and clearly hadn’t been used more than a few times.

After a while, Xu Qing confirmed that the blue talisman could be used for defense and the yellow for offense.

“If that fish managed to open his storage bag…” Xu Qing narrowed his eyes. If such a situation had really occurred, although he would still be able to kill the merfolk youth, he would also have to pay a huge price to end the battle quickly.

“So, the shadow can be used in so many different ways.” Xu Qing lowered his head and glanced at his shadow, a faint light flashing through his eyes. He recalled the scene when the merfolk youth was entangled by the shadow; for a moment, the shadow seemed to have come alive.

“Was it just me?” Xu Qing narrowed his eyes and gave the shadow a deep look before touching the place on his chest where the purple crystal was buried. A cold light flashed through his eyes. He knew that the purple crystal had the power to restrain and suppress the shadow.

Regardless whether or not the shadow was alive, Xu Qing thought that he should just try suppressing it first.

Thus, he tried pouring spiritual energy into the purple crystal. The process didn’t exactly go smoothly, but Xu Qing was able to succeed after several tries. At the moment that that he succeeded, a purple light shone from his entire body, forming a suppressive force that rumbled toward the shadow on the ground.

The shadow instantly distorted and seemed to fade a little.

Xu Qing looked at it carefully before feeling satisfied.

He didn’t want to bother guessing whether or not the shadow was alive. Even if his guess was wrong and it was impossible for the shadow to come alive, suppressing it like this would only waste a little spiritual energy. Thus, he repeated his actions and suppressed it several more times before stopping.

Finally, he retracted his gaze and lifted his head indifferently before putting away the two talisman treasures in front of him.

After that, he looked through the storage bag again and took out two items. The first was a sea chart, and it was extremely detailed. It was much more comprehensive than the standard sea chart that most Seventh Peak disciples had.

It even marked the location of Merfolk Island. After looking it over, Xu Qing felt that this sea chart probably wasn’t any less valuable than a talisman treasure.

After all, for disciples who cultivated at sea, the more comprehensive the sea chart, the fewer the risks they had to face and the greater the gains they could obtain.

In many cases, information was even more valuable than spirit stones.

As for the second item, Xu Qing paid even more attention to it than the talisman treasures. This was because… he had seen this item before, and he even had one himself.

It was a metal block the size of a palm. It was like a box, but wasn’t a box.

Looking at the metal block in front of him, Xu Qing opened his own storage back and took out another metal block.

He had obtained this metal block from Horse Four at the scavenger camp. Later, Fat Mountain had become greedy for the item and deliberately gave Xu Qing an opportunity to act. Unfortunately, Fat Mountain had died with hatred.

After placing these two metal blocks side by side, Xu Qing observed them carefully and discovered that no matter how he looked at them, they were exactly the same.

“What exactly are they?” Xu Qing was very curious, and his eyes slowly narrowed.

Over the past while, he had been to most of the shops in the port area, but he hadn’t seen anything like the metal blocks. However, whether it was Fat Mountain’s greed back then or the fact that it was in the merfolk youth’s storage bag now, both showed that these metal blocks weren’t as ordinary as they looked.

“I have to find an opportunity to find out what they’re used for.” Xu Qing pondered for a moment before putting everything away and looking at the sky outside. Lying down on the bed, he closed his eyes to rest.

He didn’t rest for too long. Four hours later, noon arrived, and Xu Qing opened his eyes and stretched his body. He was in high spirits and his body was in peak condition.

Most importantly, after last night’s battle and his rest just now, he had a strong feeling that his Sea and Mountain Art… was very close to a breakthrough.

“I’m already at the peak of the seventh level. What will happen once I reach the eighth level… I wonder if I’ll be able to kill the Vajra Sect ancestor at that point.” Xu Qing’s eyes revealed a strong anticipation. He felt that his Sea and Mountain Art had been stuck in the seventh level for a long time already.

It was as if some great transformation was brewing within the Sea and Mountain Art. Only today did Xu Qing finally sense the aura of a breakthrough.

Xu Qing sat down cross-legged and activated the magic boat’s Spirit Gathering Array. After replacing the spirit stone, he closed his eyes and began to cultivate.

Time passed quickly, and he soon had spent the entire afternoon immersed in cultivation. When night fell, the meditating Xu Qing suddenly felt his body tremble. At that moment, all the flesh and blood in his body suddenly tensed up.

Creaking sounds of growing bones reverberated from his body, and blood vessels instantly bulged out like fierce pythons slithering around. It was a shocking sight, but at the same time, a boundless vigor rose up within his body, increasing more and more with every heartbeat.

Every time his heart beat, the power of his qi and blood increased. As it grew stronger and stronger, the Chief Shadow manifested above Xu Qing’s head, letting out a silent roar to the heavens. Its expression was distorted, as though it were undergoing harsh tempering. It seemed like it was about to transform!

When an ordinary person cultivated the Sea and Mountain Art to the peak of body refinement, they would have a fully matured Chief Shadow. However, Xu Qing’s Chief Shadow had reached the peak in advance, when he was only at the seventh level of the Sea and Mountain Art. After that, he continued to cultivate the Sea and Mountain Art normally, but not even he knew what would happen once he broke through to the eighth level.

However, he could sense that during this period of time in the Seven Blood Pupils, as he cultivated the Sea and Mountain Art, his physical strength continued to increase. He looked forward to what would happen once it reached the extreme.

After all, body refinement was all about the accumulation of strength, speed, and recovery.

In reality, even the creator of the Sea and Mountain Art probably never imagined that there would be someone like Xu Qing who reached the peak in advance. Thus, it was likely that even the creator of this technique wouldn’t know what was about to happen.

After all, the Sea and Mountain Art was a low-level cultivation technique that was used by people with a lot of heterogeneity in their bodies. No one had ever cultivated the Sea and Mountain Art with a completely pure and heterogeneity-free body like Xu Qing.

Time passed, and more and more veins bulged out on Xu Qing’s body. Inch by inch, his skin seemed to begin cracking apart, and a large amount of blood flowed out from the cracks. The qi and blood within his body grew more and more intense, as if about to burst out of his body!

It was as if Xu Qing’s body had become a ceramic jar at that moment. The qi and blood inside of him continued to erupt, and the jar was about to shatter.

But just then, a purple light bloomed in Xu Qing’s body, taking the initiative for the first time. It spread out from his chest and instantly flooded his entire body. As it rapidly repaired his body, it also seemed to compress his flesh and blood.

Xu Qing’s body became even more refined. At the same time, and intense pain that couldn’t be described in words seared Xu Qing’s mind and body.

His bones shattered, his flesh and blood crumbled, and his entire body seemed like it couldn’t hold on. However, the light of the purple crystal unceasingly healed his body.

As this cycle repeated again and again, his qi and blood grew stronger and stronger. Even the cabin’s array formation couldn’t conceal it, causing his qi and blood to spread into the surroundings. Looking from a distance, Xu Qing’s magic boat seemed to have been dyed the color of blood.

As the rich qi and blood continued to spread in all directions, it quickly attracted the attention of the other disciples in Dock 79. As they all looked on with shock, Xu Qing in the magic boat abruptly opened his bloodshot eyes.

As soon as he opened his eyes, a heaven-shaking rumble exploded in his mind like thunder, carrying the sound of a singular word. This earth-shattering sound caused Xu Qing’s entire body to tremble violently. At that moment, the Chief Shadow above his head let out an even louder roar, and its illusory figure directly split apart, revealing… a new body!

This tall body was completely blue and exuded a sense of violence, as well as an incomparably bizarre aura. All of its visible skin was dry and cracked, looking like an extremely arid piece of land that was filled with crevices. Withered hair draped over its shoulders in a disheveled manner, and its crimson eyes contained deep madness.

Its mouth was filled with fangs, and on top of its head was a black horn. Lightning intermittently zapped around its horn, and its form seemed to exude deep ferocity and savagery. It raised its head and let out a roar, as it wanted to rip apart the sky that covered all living things.

It seemed that the dual extremes had switched around; what appeared around its body was no longer water vapor but instead a black flame that spread in all directions, seeming as if it could burn down the entire world.

To be precise, it wasn’t a flame. After the absorption of water vapor reached an extreme, it would turn around and reach a state where all things would dry up!

“Droughtdemon!” Xu Qing’s eyes gleamed as he mumbled. This was the word that reverberated in his mind earlier. It was also the qi and blood shadow that appeared after the Sea and Mountain Art broke through its original limits!

It was beyond the Chief!

The Imp could move mountains, the Chief could overturn the seas, and the Droughtdemon could burn all living things.

At the moment that Xu Qing opened his mouth, a vigor that was far greater than before erupted inside him and spread through his whole body.

Xu Qing raised his head and abruptly stood. The newly refined physical strength contained in his body broke through his original limits and reached a level that surpassed the Qi Condensation Realm!

The magic boat’s barrier couldn’t hold on any longer and suddenly shattered. Even the cabin was in a similar state and almost broke apart entirely.

As a result, the expressions of the Dock 79 disciples who were paying attention to the commotion all changed drastically. Their eyes widened, their hearts pounded, and thunder rumbled in their minds as they simultaneously turned their gazes to Xu Qing.

Xu Qing fell silent. He hadn’t expected that his breakthrough this time would cause such a commotion. Moreover… he could sense that as the Sea and Mountain Art burst forth, the Sea Transforming Scripture also began to circulate inside him. It seemed that he was due for another breakthrough very soon.

“Congratulations, Senior Brother Xu Qing!”

“Congratulations, Senior Brother!”

Xu Qing was silent, but the surrounding disciples on their magic boats cupped their fists toward Xu Qing and called out in respect.

This respect was due to his strength, and the title of Senior Brother was the same.

After causing such a commotion while cultivating and even causing the barrier of a Level Six magic boat to collapse, Xu Qing’s power was very evident to the crowd. Moreover, at that moment, he emitted an intense pressure that caused the surrounding disciples’ bodies and minds to tremble intensely!

This was a pressure that only came from an expert!

[1] 魃 (Ba) is a mythical monster that causes droughts. The character 魃 is similar to the character for Chief/Kui (魁) and Imp/Xiao (魈), but since I’m actually not sure if that’s particularly relevant.

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