Chapter 984: An Incoming Hurricane!

“Something happened to Xu Qing!”

Black clouds seethed in the sky over the Forbidden Sea. Crimson fire billowed out in all directions, setting everything ablaze. It was a sky of fire now. As the flames dropped down onto the sea, the water itself filled with flames. It became an actual sea of fire.

Flame Phoenix’s aura accompanied the flames as they spread through the dome of heaven and connected to the sea below. He was questioning heaven, questioning the sea, questioning the birds, and questioning the sea beasts in the water.

Where is he??

Countless thoughts began to stream into Flame Phoenix’s consciousness. Gradually, the thoughts began to merge together as if to form a complete picture. Except... a power with no form, no reason, no result, and no will interrupted the thoughts. It came with no sound or voice, rippling and distorting everything, twisting the void, and causing the thoughts to be nothing but chaos.

The flame-wreathed entity that looked like part phoenix and part eagle soared through the sky, letting loose a cry that shook the heavens. A sound that surpassed heavenly thunder exploded out. It was like something that could smash all obstacles, and it caused the interference to instantly shatter.

Next, hundreds of millions of sensations poured into Flame Phoenix’s mind. Every single one... contained Xu Qing’s aura, as well as traces of Flame Phoenix’s feather. Those sensations came... from the fish in the Forbidden Sea, from the countless sea beasts, and even some godly entities. The distribution seemed endless, which obviously wasn’t possible.

Whoever did this didn’t actually erase my karma. It just scattered it all over the place.

Flame Phoenix’s heart sank. He knew full well that only a god or Imperial Sovereign could do something like this. His enormous frame dropped from the sky, smashed into the water, and sank down at a high rate of speed, wreathed in flames the whole time. The mutagen in the water evaporated, causing the water to change color. At the same time, hundreds of millions of sensations continued to flood into him.

An incense stick of time passed.

Countless entities affected by the karma wailed as they burst into phoenix flames and then crumbled into ashes. Backed by the power of the ashes, a low-pitched voice echoed through the Forbidden Sea.

“Turtle Shell the Arousing; Fish Guts the Clinging; Fishtail Offensive the Receptive! Nail the Creative; Halberd the Abysmal; Loom Threads the Gentle Gate! Evening Star the Sun; Malfunctioning Spirit; the Joyous Rises to the Look; Burden the Grass; Using Keeping Still to Seek!”

[1]

The voice echoed loudly through the Forbidden Sea. The seafloor trembled, and huge waves formed on the surface. An ancient will accompanied it, forming terrifying might filled with hundreds of millions of thoughts.

Find Xu Qing!

***

Deep on the seafloor, within the marine trench, was Floating Fiend, who had erased all traces of himself within the darkness. He was currently outside the bubble, which was completely covered by his bloody flesh strands. As they slowly pulled the bubble toward him so he could absorb it, the sphere of flesh shrank down. Suddenly, his eyes snapped open, and the shears above his head vibrated.

Discovered so soon??

Floating Fiend’s face fell, and he quickly performed an incantation gesture. A host of sealing marks flew into the shears, causing the Grand Emperor’s treasure to tremble slightly before going calm. However, only a moment later, it started shaking again. What was more, the rust spots on it started to grow larger. It looked like it might bust apart at any moment.

Seeing that, Floating Fiend quickly bit the tip of his tongue and spat out some precious dao blood, which landed on the shears. Blood-colored light shimmered on the shears, and the vibrating again ceased. Yet clearly, that wasn’t enough. Only moments later, powerful fluctuations erupted from the shears.

Floating Fiend’s eyes then shone with determination as he lifted his right hand and viciously grabbed his left arm. With a violent jerk, he ripped his arm off and sacrificed it to the shears. By means of the left arm, the shears released a massive amount of might.

The authority of erasure in the shears emanated an ancient will, and the trembling ceased. Furthermore, it was locked in that state. However, the price paid, other than Floating Fiend losing an arm, was that a horrendous fissure appeared on the shears. It was something that could not be erased nor repaired.

***

At the same time that the shears ceased trembling, Flame Phoenix looked up, his eyes shining brightly.

This person... has a Grand Emperor treasure! However, despite the fact that he erased all traces of himself, I can tell... where he’s from!

Flame Phoenix looked over his shoulder at the Vivifiend holy land. In the brief moment of contact moments before, he had sensed the aura of that location. There was now no need to suppress the fire in his heart. As it erupted, flames burst out around him, and he shot in the direction of the Vivifiend holy land, immolating the sky and sea alike as he did.

Flames raged everywhere.

***

Back in the marine trench, the bubble in front of Floating Fiend, which was surrounded by his own flesh, had been pulled so close to him that he could suck it into his body. A moment later, a fleshy tumor appeared on his shoulder.

Eyes narrowing, Floating Fiend spoke coldly into the tumor, saying,

“Next, I just need to assimilate it.... It’ll take some time. But now, you can’t escape.”

With that, he stood and looked off into the distance. He was now considering what to do next. He didn’t even consider going back to the Vivifiend holy land. Although the holy land might seem like a safe place, he knew that what he had done couldn’t be kept a secret forever. It just didn’t seem like a good idea to go there. Besides, hiding at home wasn’t a long-term solution.

The patriarch is aware of my dao. There’s no need to explain things to him. He obviously approves. In that case... I suppose I should just go into hiding. On the one hand, I can assimilate this little brat, and at the same time, I can just wait for the Emptystar holy land to get here with that almighty individual.

When Floating Fiend thought about the almighty individual from the Emptystar holy land, he shivered instinctively.

On the day that venerable individual arrives, it marks the beginning of the glory days of the holy lands in Revered Ancient.

Turning, he shot off along the seafloor and vanished in the distance. As he moved along, he kept exerting pressure on the tumor on his shoulder as he assimilated it.

***

A tempest of fire raged across the Forbidden Sea as Flame Phoenix’s wings flapped. Astonishing might weighed down, along with terrifying pressure. And it was all focused on the Vivifiend holy land. The sky was crimson. The Forbidden Sea seemed to be burning endlessly.

Large numbers of nonhumans on islands here and there looked up in the dome of heaven with wonder and astonishment. Beneath the surface of the sea, countless entities trembled.

They were witnessing the rage of the South Phoenix!

Things weren’t limited to that, though. Erniu hadn’t just sent a message to Second Elder Sister and Huang Yan. Because of the deep unease he felt, he had sent messages to lots of people. That included parties in Sea-Sealing County, the imperial capital of humankind, the Moonrite Region, and even to the Firemoon Darkheavens.... The contents of the jade slip were the same as what he sent to Second Elder Sister. Except there was one additional line.

“Something happened to Xu Qing!”

Those words spread through the east of Revered Ancient, creating... a massive hurricane larger than anything kicked up by Flame Phoenix!

1. This passage is a complicated mix of all ten of the Heavenly Stems with all of the Eight Trigrams, plus a few other characters thrown in. Maybe the author had some reason for putting them together the way he did, or maybe he just put them together in a way that sounds cool to him in Chinese. I honestly don’t know, as there is never any explanation or depiction of what it all means. My translation choice involved taking the original oracle bone script meaning of the Heavenly Stems and combining them with the translated meaning of the Eight Trigrams according to Richard Wilhelm, and then also translating the non-stem non-trigram words according to their most basic meaning. If I were you, I wouldn’t try to decipher the meaning based on the English. All of the stems and all of the trigrams have multiple meanings depending on how you interpret them. I think it’s just supposed to sound like a cool divination/search spell. It doesn’t rhyme, incidentally. Probably most notable are that the characters for “search” and “look (for)” are in there, making it clear that the intention of the passage is something relating to searching for Xu Qing. ☜