Chapter 1023: Grand Emperor’s Apprentice

In the time of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity, immortal skills were created by a Grand Emperor by combining a host of other ancient arts and magics. That time period was one in which Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity’s war against the countless other species was reaching a critical point. Thanks to the immortal skills being distributed to humans and allied species, Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity ultimately conquered Revered Ancient, performing an amazing service for humankind.

However, the price to pay for the use of immortal skills was enormous. Immortal skills were categorized into levels, and the people who used them suffered ill effects depending on the level of the skill they used. Those who suffered minor injuries might lose some life force. Those who experienced serious injuries might end up with their foundation shattered.

After the war, the immortal skills were gathered into various Immortal Skills Halls, where they were sealed up as forbidden magics. Even later, when the broken face came, and Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity left with the emperors of various species, the immortal skills were taken away and circulated among the holy lands. That said, even in the holy lands, those who mastered them could be considered

as rare as phoenix feathers or qilin horns

.

Especially noteworthy was the fact that some of the immortal skills could only be passed down through a specific bloodline. In those cases, the vicious nature of immortal skills was made manifest, as the previous generation would die violently when the new generation took over.

And that was exactly the type of immortal skill being used by Yue Dong. It was Six Thieves Deceive Life! As her hands flashed in a double-handed incantation gesture, the seven-colored glow coming off her turned into a sea of light. Xu Qing and Erniu, who were both battering the Grand Emperor spell formation, felt fluctuations in their hearts and minds. Those fluctuations came from outside of them, shaking their thoughts and filling their bodies. They were unstoppable and impossible to defend against!

Yue Dong looked up at Xu Qing and Erniu. As the fluctuations rocked them, she lifted her delicate hand and... touched Xu Qing!

“Deprive the six sensory pleasures. Purge the seven emotions!”

Clearly, the pressure from Xu Qing was the most deadly as far as she was concerned.

The moment her fingers touched him, the seven-colored sea of light shot out of the Grand Emperor spell formation, causing the sky to change colors as it spread out through the surrounding ice plains. The entire world now existed within that seven-colored light.

As the light covered Xu Qing, multi-colored threads spread out from him, which were illusory representations of the seven emotions and six sensory pleasures within him. They were being forced out from inside, whereupon they converged upon each other to form Yue Dong’s face. However... although Xu Qing’s mind and heart were shaken, his facial expression was one of curiosity.

As the seven emotions and six sensory pleasures were pulled out, Xu Qing’s aura was getting increasingly stronger! When all of the threads were out, that curious expression on his face disappeared. He now looked extremely cold and apathetic, and his aura had reached a hair-raising level that caused the sky to dim and the surroundings to fill with rumbling sounds.

From the look of it, Yue Dong’s immortal skill wasn’t just failing to achieve the desired result. In contrast, it was providing a blessing to Xu Qing! It wasn’t as if this immortal skill simply wasn’t working at all. It was just that it produced a completely different effect when used on Xu Qing. It deprived him of the six sensory pleasures and purged his seven emotions. And those things were essentially human nature! Because of Xu Qing’s uniqueness, when his human nature was taken away, it meant that his godly nature was put on display.

“How amusing,” Xu Qing said calmly.

This was something he had experienced multiple times in the past. Temporarily losing his human nature wasn’t the least bit unsettling to him. That was why he had simply let Yue Dong do what she wanted to do. When Xu Qing’s godliness was in the forefront, that put him in his most powerful state!

As his human nature left and his godly nature spread, Xu Qing began to pulse with extreme levels of rationality and coldness. His aura was so cold that it seemed like it was at one with the surrounding ice plains. In Xu Qing’s eyes, everything around him, including all living beings, were pale and meaningless.

On the ground, Little Shadow trembled, as there was nothing it feared more than Xu Qing in this state. Even the sageheaven god vine started pulsing with fluctuations of nervousness. In truth, when godliness took over Xu Qing, he became absolutely terrifying to any enemy.

After looking coolly at Yue Dong within the Grand Emperor’s defensive barrier, he pointed his finger up into the sky. Thunderous rumblings echoed out. A majestic pagoda appeared high above.

It was Xu Qing’s Sageheaven Pagoda!

It immediately dropped down at high speed before smashing right into the Grand Emperor defenses. A deafening boom echoed out. The ice plains shattered in layers, sending icy chunks spiraling out in all directions.

Xu Qing strode forward, the incarnation of a burning sun. At the same time, the godly authorities of misfortune, sound, and the violet moon all erupted. Merging together, they smashed into the spell formation. Terrifying godsource power roared forth like a tsunami. Most terrifying of all was that Xu Qing launched himself toward the spell formation, as if he was actually a weapon.

The spell formation trembled, and inside of it, Yue Dong’s face fell. Reeling, she looked at Xu Qing. There was no way she could have predicted things could turn out like this! When it came down to it, she just didn’t understand Xu Qing well enough.

When she saw that her immortal skill caused Xu Qing’s aura to grow colder, how there weren’t any emotional fluctuations in his eyes, and how his attacks were terrifying, it caused her heart to pound madly.

Around that time, mocking laughter rang out from Erniu, and he said, “My little Junior Brother cultivates both the path of immortals and the path of gods. Apparently you were in a hurry to die, because you actually stripped him of his human nature. I mean, good for you! Now his godly nature is in charge.... Believe me, when little Ah Qing gets like this, even I turn tail and run.”

Erniu clicked his tongue.

Looking extremely grim in the face, Yue Dong turned to look at Erniu, and seven-colored light blazed from her eyes.

It immediately swept over Erniu. He didn’t seem anxious at all. In fact, he looked pleased. “Oh yeah, bring it on! I want to see how this works. Will your immortal skill actually take away my seven emotions and six sensory pleasures? If it works, then I’ll owe you some sincere thanks. You see, over all the lives I’ve lived, I’ve never succeeded at doing that.”

Erniu beamed with anticipation as the immortal skill activated, and his seven emotions and six sensory pleasures began to seethe. One by one, they were all being removed. When the process was complete, a curse would form that would be branded on the body, whereupon the threads of emotion would stitch together to form Yue Dong’s face.

When all of this happened to Erniu, the scene that played out was very different from what happened to Xu Qing. With Xu Qing, the seven emotions and six sensory pleasures had been quickly extracted. But with Erniu....

It was as if his seven emotions and six sensory pleasures were neverending. No matter what Yue Dong’s immortal skill did, they couldn’t be pulled all the way out. That was especially true of his greed. It was like... a bottomless pit!

Yue Dong’s face fell again. Xu Qing alone had been a thorny problem to deal with. But Erniu was like some sort of freak. She had never encountered a cultivator with greed like this that, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t extract. There was just too much.

“This is taking too long!” Erniu said, sound displeased. “It’s more like you’re just tickling me! And you’re not putting much strength into it! You’ve got me stuck in a rut now! Alright, fine. I might as well help out.”

With that, he took a deep breath, stretched out his right hand, and struck himself viciously on the chest. From the crazy look in his eyes, it was almost as if he had spotted some amazing treasure. In order to truly stimulate himself, he even took out Feng Lintao’s soul, put it down in front of him, and stared at it, all while visualizing all of the amazing treasures it could lead to. As a result, his greed grew even more intense. Rumbling echoed out as it erupted from him like a volcano.

Unfortunately... the greed was so intense that it surpassed Yue Dong’s ability to extract. Ultimately, she shivered from head to toe, and then blood sprayed out of her mouth as her immortal skill collapsed. She was also hit with a backlash. And because Lan Yao was connected by karma, blood also sprayed out of her mouth. Her body withered, and her aura declined dramatically.

𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

That was when Xu Qing unleashed a devastating attack. The Sageheaven Pagoda was fundamentally extraordinary. Its battering attack caused the Grand Emperor spell formation to tremble. Combined with Xu Qing’s godly authority and godsource, the formation began to crumble rapidly. Then he used his fleshly body like a weapon to smash into it....

At long last, a loud cracking sound rang out from the formation! This Grand Emperor’s spell formation wasn’t complete. Feng Lintao had damaged it early on, and now Yue Dong had been hit with a significant backlash. What was more, Xu Qing was attacking it.... It was obvious that it wouldn’t be long before it shattered.

As crisis loomed, Yue Dong with her disheveled hair looked viciously outside and then quickly performed a double-handed incantation gesture.

“Detonate!” she howled shrilly. Taking advantage of the damage to the spell formation, she took the initiative to blow it up, unleashing mountain-toppling, sea-draining force.

A huge boom rang out from the formation as it shattered. A devastating shock wave rolled out madly in all directions, destroying the ice, and causing supernatural phenomena to appear in the sky.

Taking advantage of that moment, Yue Dong grabbed Lan Yao and fled in the opposite direction. At the same time, she took out a jade slip, crushed it, and threw it up above her. She had hoped to avoid using that jade slip. But now she had no choice.

The moment the jade slip shattered, Xu Qing and Erniu burst through the power of the exploding formation and bore down on Yue Dong.

Xu Qing was like a god, with his every step causing wild colors to flash in heaven and earth. Immense pressure weighed down, along with a very holy sensation. His face was completely expressionless, and his eyes were as cold as ice.

Erniu was exactly the opposite. He shone with the light of boundless greed, and a seven-colored glow surrounded him that caused his surroundings to turn black. Within that black light, Erniu looked like a devil with his hair floating around him. Chuckling darkly, he strode forward.

As of this moment, it looked like a god and a devil were working together!

The sight of it caused Yue Dong to inhale sharply. Then she looked in the direction of the shattered jade slip and screamed,

“Lu Lingzi, why haven’t you shown your face yet?”[1]

The moment the words left her mouth, the shattered pieces of the jade slip suddenly glittered with silver light, along with the fluctuations of teleportation. A huge, spinning vortex appeared, out of which strode a hulking figure that pulsed with an astonishing aura.

All it took was one step for him to emerge next to Yue Dong’s side.

He was a young man with nine major worlds over his shoulders. All of those worlds pulsed with strong life force, which created cultivation base fluctuations that were at the peak of the Smoldering God nine-world level. All heaven and earth was affected, as if they were about to become his own personal world. When he appeared, the first person he looked at wasn’t Yue Dong. Instead, it was the unconscious Lan Yao.

A tender look appeared in his eyes. But then he turned to Xu Qing and Erniu, and that tenderness turned into ferocity.

“Are you two the ones who hurt my nearest and dearest?”[2]

1. Lu Lingzi: Lu is #47 on the list of common Chinese surnames. Ling means “insult, maltreat, intimidate, approach.” Zi is a utility character which essentially carries no meaning here. Madam Deathblade says the name sounds vaguely intimidating. ☜

2. I’m using “nearest and dearest” for a specific reason here. This newcomer actually uses the character for “wife” here. However, Chinese does not have plural nouns. The only way to tell if a noun is plural is by 1) looking at the context, 2) by adding specific numbers to them, or 3) in some other specific ways in certain circumstances. In any case, given the context, we have no way to know if this person is saying “wife” or “wives.” I think most people would probably assume he’s saying “wife,” but there’s no way to say for sure. There is no way to easily and smoothly create such vagueness in English with his question. This becomes relevant in the next chapter, and you’ll see why I went with this translation choice. ☜