Xu Qing had already begun picking up on the clues back in that memory world of the Heavenmakers. After a lot of testing and probing, he had ultimately decided to absorb some of the water in the pool. However, he had come to the conclusion that the good fortune was likely a case of someone randomly putting a game piece on the board in the hopes of using it later. And right now, he was scowling deeply.

It wasn’t a case of randomly playing a game piece. It was a case of someone setting me up! And they were doing it for a specific reason....

Xu Qing didn’t need to put a lot of thought into it. He now realized that, given what happened before, Grand Emperor Netherflame’s first objective was Devilbird. And the entire purpose of his secluded meditation facilities was to lure Devilbird inside at the right time. But then Xu Qing also came... which forced Netherflame to change his plan.

The only question is whether I’ve become Plan A or Plan B. After all, there’s some major karma at play because of me having a body made from Eminent Desolation’s flesh and blood. Will he be willing to ignore that future karma just to seize this body?

As Xu Qing’s mind raced, the howls of agony continued to echo out from the surrounding tumors.

The woman in palace attire, the teenager, the scholar, and the old man, and even the fifth Imperial Sovereign were all trembling as they slowly withered up. Their life force, cultivation base, and even their essence, was all being sucked away. They had no way to stop it from becoming liquid that poured into the tumor with Xu Qing.

By now, it had gone past his ankles and up to his knees. The liquid seemed to have a will of its own as it rushed madly inside Xu Qing, swirling through his fleshly body. Not only was it nourishing his fleshly body, but also, it was causing certain transformations. The pain was intense and all-encompassing. Xu Qing fought against it instinctively.

The will within the liquid, upon sensing Xu Qing fighting back, became even more aggressive, and began trying to wipe out Xu Qing’s soul.

Xu Qing was beginning to lose consciousness as the union between his soul and fleshly body began to break down. There was nothing he could do to reverse the situation. All he could do was use his carving knife of fate to protect his soul. He felt like a rowboat in a tempest, struggling to hold on. At the same time, he was trying various methods of breaking free. But nothing worked.

“In that case...” he murmured. Eyes glittering with cold light and heart filling with determination, he settled down cross-legged. And with that, he stopped preventing his fleshly body from absorbing the liquid. Because of that, the will of the liquid stopped working so hard to wipe out his soul. His body trembled as massive amounts of quintessence poured into his body, nourishing it and making it stronger.

Erniu could sense that something wasn’t quite right. He took a deep breath and prepared to help, but realized how unbelievably powerful the liquid was. He blinked a few times. That was when he realized Xu Qing was working hard to absorb it.

Eyes glittering, he loudly said, “Let me help you, little Junior Brother!”

With that, he suddenly sat down cross-legged, settling himself as if to help Xu Qing out by doing his own deep breathing. Unfortunately, an action like that wouldn’t be permitted. The moment he started breathing, an incredible force of expulsion erupted within the tumor. Rumbling sounds filled the tumor as the force of expulsion ejected Erniu from inside.

Xu Qing’s eyes snapped open and he burst into motion. As he did, a gravitational force appeared, wrapping around him and dragging him back so he couldn’t leave.

In that manner, Erniu became the third person after the empress and Grand Emperor Devilbird who escaped one of the tumors. After the expulsion came a wave of killing intent.

It rumbled loudly as it swept over Erniu from head to toe. Cracking sounds rang out, accompanied by Erniu’s howls of pain. All of the bones in his body were shattered, his flesh was crushed, and he began to fall apart. Masses of shredded flesh began to fall down into the transparent sea below. They sank down to the bottom.

Xu Qing heard Erniu screaming and saw his body collapsing. Unfortunately, he had no attention to spare. Besides, Xu Qing was confident that killing Erniu wouldn’t be an easy task for anyone.

What was more, Xu Qing knew that he was currently facing the most deadly crisis he had faced in his entire life. It was a situation in which it was going to be difficult to find help from any external source. If he wanted to break free, he would have to rely on himself.

Xu Qing gritted his teeth, and his eyes flashed with cold light. Even as he continued to focus on absorbing the surrounding liquid, the liquid continued to build up around him.

𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

The life force liquid from the Imperial Sovereigns had currently gone past his chest and was up to his neck. And the level was still rising. Before long, it went past his head. He was fully immersed.

Things weren’t over yet. The Imperial Sovereigns howled as they grew weaker and weaker, all while the tumor Xu Qing was in reached the point of being more than eighty percent full. The astonishing amount of life force quintessence that was nourishing Xu Qing’s fleshly body had reached an unfathomable level.

His body was made from the broken face’s flesh and blood, and though it seemed like a unified whole, it actually wasn’t. Over the past few years, Xu Qing had been working hard to fuse all the pieces together, and even more importantly, improve the level of his soul. He needed to achieve a state of balance to be in the safest position. Whether it was the immortal mercury from the very beginning or the dao lineament of authority, his ultimate goal had always been the same. Unfortunately, progress had been very slow.

Eventually, he came to Netherflame’s secluded meditation facilities, where he found the pool in the Heavenmaker world. And now he was absorbing the life force, cultivation bases, souls, and quintessence liquid of numerous Imperial Sovereigns. As a result, his fleshly body was being pushed toward a state of completion. His aura was climbing higher, pushing against the shackles of the Smoldering God and climbing toward the level of an Imperial Sovereign.

The ideal outcome would be for his soul to follow along to a similar result. Unfortunately, his soul was not growing. Only his fleshly body was being catalyzed. And that made him like a child donning a thousand-pound suit of armor. In the end, either his soul would be crushed, or the fleshly body would be rejected. If he tried to stop the process, the will of the liquid would explosively crush his soul. If he didn’t stop it, then the stronger his fleshly body got, the harder it would be for his soul to stay inside. It was a lose-lose situation.

Xu Qing’s decision was to just keep focusing on absorbing the liquid. His soul filled with pain, and felt like it might be forcefully ejected from his body, but he didn’t hesitate. He just kept absorbing the liquid, his eyes glinting coldly the entire time.

He was waiting. He was waiting for the force of rejection against his soul to reach the highest level possible.

And thus, time slipped by.

The howls from the Imperial Sovereigns grew weaker. The chunks of Erniu’s flesh sank deeper into the transparent sea.

And then another dramatic event unfolded. A heaven-shaking, earth-shattering rumbling sound emerged from the tumor where the empress and Grand Emperor Devilbird had disappeared. Then the tumor began to expand rapidly, getting bigger and bigger. The fighting inside seemed to have reached a climax. Ultimately, the tumor couldn’t hold itself together. It exploded violently. Massive amounts of flesh and blood rained down onto the transparent sea.

The empress and Grand Emperor Devilbird flew out and hovered in midair. Their eyes were both grim as they looked at the flesh and blood raining down. They also took note of what had been playing out while they were gone. They saw the Imperial Sovereigns withering up, and they saw Xu Qing’s aura rising explosively.

The empress frowned. Grand Emperor Devilbird looked at the tumor that contained Xu Qing, and his eyes narrowed.

At the same time, now that the tumor had exploded, allowing the empress and Grand Emperor Devilbird to emerge, Grand Emperor Netherflame finally appeared. A meaningful smile played out on his face as he looked at the empress.

“You didn’t come here just for my soul. You probably want my sealed grotto-heaven, don’t you? Let me guess, you want to resurrect someone.”[1]

The empress’ expression was the same as ever as shē coldly replied, “You’re not a complete version of Netherflame.”

Netherflame smiled but didn’t respond. Turning, he looked down into the transparent sea. The entire sea then turned into a vortex. Loud rumbling sounds echoed out, and a terrifying aura spread out. Sky-obscuring, sun-blocking winds sprang up.

Then a gruish figure rose out of the vortex. The left side had a humanoid shape, and had clearly been reborn. But the right side had not been fully reborn. It had no skin, only a network of blood vessels. It looked shocking and ghastly. The sense of incompleteness in it was clear.

Seeing this emerging figure caused Grand Emperor Devilbird to breathe heavily, all while his pupils constricted. Along with the gruish figure came a host of dancing lightning bolts. The dome of heaven trembled, the sea water seethed, and an aura that was immeasurably close to a Summer Immortal erupted out.

“So, it’s an omniscient god,” the figure growled as it looked at the empress with a gaze that seemed to contain magical laws. “You’re right. He’s an incomplete version of me. Put precisely, he’s one of my two clones. And he has some karma connecting him to those two human chosen of yours. That’s because, before changing appearances, he had a different identity in the Devilbird holy land. He was the grand immortal adept of the eastern Devilbirds.

“In order to welcome you, I didn’t just prepare that immortal puppet in the crypt, I also sent this clone out to die under the pretense of seeking the legacy of the Six Thieves Deceive Life. And now, as a show of respect, I’ve come out with my true form.”

The half-complete half-blood-vessel-filled Netherflame smiled. “And therefore, this ceremony is now ready to be completed. Devilbird, have you thought about what I said to you?”

Netherflame looked at Devilbird. Devilbird’s expression darkened. Turning to look at Xu Qing in the tumor, his eyes filled with a decisive look. Spinning in place, he shot toward the empress. At the same time, the clone of Netherflame that they had been fighting erupted with killing intent and also flew toward the empress. The three of them started fighting.

Heaven and earth rocked back and forth. The air crumbled. The entire world began to break apart like a shattering mirror.

Only Netherflame’s true form didn’t seem affected. He simply began to walk toward a shard of the world that contained Xu Qing in the tumor. At the same time, he said, “Devilbird, I swear a dao oath that, after this is over, your fate-soul will be returned to you unharmed, and forever after, you and I will have no conflict. Clone, I promise that, after this is over, you can have the freedom you so desire. As for you, empress... after this is over, you can have the grotto-heaven. Go ahead and resurrect the person you want to resurrect. All I want is for the lot of you to leave me alone while I’m reborn.”

As Netherflame spoke, his eyes locked onto Xu Qing with the same greed and admiration one would expect of someone staring at a precious treasure.

His original plan had been to possess Devilbird. Using the body of a Grand Emperor as the second half of his reborn self would help him rise to the level of a Summer Immortal. Although there would be side-effects, he was confident that, over time, he would be able to recover from them.

But then he had seen Xu Qing! It had stunned him deeply, and as a result, he had changed his plan. He had abandoned any thoughts of possessing Devilbird, and had instead secretly reached out to communicate with him. And then he had manipulated things perfectly to reach this current situation.

Netherflame strode up to the tumor with Xu Qing in it. Looking inside, he licked his lips.

A fleshly body like that is simply unimaginable. So what if I have to devour some of its karma....

At this point, his greed had reached the level where he couldn’t control it.

“That body of yours... is mine.”

With that, he extended his right hand, pushing it into the tumor to rest on the top of Xu Qing’s head.

1. The term “grotto-heaven” came up previously in chapter 1064. This is a term from real-life Daoism, referring to a sacred site that’s usually a cave or some subterranean location. Here is a wiki article with more information about how it’s used in real life. ☜