Chapter 1100: Fifth Star Ring

A majestic red aurora swelled like a river through the canopy of heaven. Because it ebbed and flowed, it didn’t cast its light evenly, causing the silty ground to shift back and forth between brightness and gloom.

It wasn’t just the ground in the spirit mine that was covered in sludge. The lands surrounding the mine looked the same. Xu Qing knew the explanation for that thanks to the Imperial Sovereign’s servant. This place was in the south of the Fifth Star Ring, and was considered a very remote area. A long time ago, it had been a huge sea. In fact, it had been the Fifth Star Ring’s Primeval Sea.

Later on, the Immortal Paragon had compacted the starry sky in the Fifth Star Ring, as well as the Primeval Sea, which was a place that countless gods had called home. This place had eventually been occupied by cultivators.

Unfortunately, the lands were poor and infertile. The upside was that there was no mutagen. The gods in the Fifth Star Ring had been conquered, and to some extent, it was correct to say that they had been outlawed.

Considering that the aura of the gods, in other words mutagen, was harmful to cultivators, it was only natural that it would be stamped out. In the end, the cultivators started assimilating the gods, turning them into nutrients, extracting their life force to make spirit energy for cultivators to use.

As Xu Qing traveled, he could feel the effects of that. Every single one of his pores felt extremely comfortable as the spirit energy in heaven and earth automatically poured into him. He felt like parched lands that were benefiting from a spring rainfall. There seemed no end to the spirit energy, and though it wasn’t as strong as it had been in the mine, it was still there.

There’s nowhere in the Revered Ancient mainland that comes close to this.

As he instinctively absorbed the spirit energy, he sent his divine will out to assess his surroundings. He could sense the natural and magical laws in this area; that was an ability unique to Smoldering God cultivators. By means of the local natural and magical laws, it was possible to directly sense the world.

His divine will made it possible to see semitransparent threads all around him, connecting to everything. They were natural and magical laws. Once one’s cultivation base reached a certain level, it would be possible to affect and even control them.

As Xu Qing assessed his surroundings with divine will, he was able to find the sources of those threads.... A thoughtful look appeared on his face, and the vigilance in his heart grew stronger. As he sensed the world around him, he had felt its majesty. What was more, in the sources of the natural and magical laws, he had detected boundless wills.

Many of these natural and magical laws have been laid claim to already.

He retracted his divine will and looked up into the sky. He didn’t make direct contact with any of the wills he had sensed. However, he did check to see what would happen if he tried to use some of those natural and magical laws. It was not a violation to do so.

Although the natural and magical laws here seem to be operating in order, the reality is that they are full of a certain type of chaos....

He looked around. Within the feedback from the natural and magical laws, he could sense blood and slaughter.

So this is also a place where the weak are the prey of the strong. In fact, it’s even more intense than back home.

A day later, he was able to confirm his supposition when he witnessed a bloodbath.

A majestic merchant convoy was flying through the sky. There were several thousand people in it, and as beasts of burden they had a host of gigantic creatures that resembled rhinos. They were transporting some items that Xu Qing didn’t recognize. But obviously, they were things that couldn’t be fit into bags of holding. Based on the auras he could sense, the convoy had powerful experts as guards. It looked like an extraordinary convoy. Considering what Xu Qing could see and sense, he doubted anyone would dare to cause trouble for them.

But then the bloodbath occurred. Rumbling sounds echoed out as a troupe of bandits came out of nowhere. There were thousands of them, maybe even more than ten thousand, and they immediately set upon the merchants.

The fighting was fierce, and there were many deaths. Cultivators screamed. Beasts bellowed. The stench of blood spread everywhere. As the fighting played out, it was even possible to see some enslaved godly entities.

Most shocking of all was that the merchants actually unleashed a god. It was a huge eye that was bound like a slave. At one time, the eye had been covered with tentacles. But most of the tentacles had been severed, and the eye was covered in sealing marks. This god was obviously in the Godfire level. Īt served as some sort of trump card, and as the slaughter played out, it was basically nothing more than a weapon.

𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

Xu Qing wasn’t sure how the battle ended. He watched from a distance for a while, but when he noticed streams of divine will from both sides getting close to him, he left. The incident had nothing to do with him, and there was no need to get involved.

His departure didn’t go completely smoothly. The two incoming streams of divine will were both hostile, and seemed unwilling to let him go free. However, as they got close, his eyes flashed coldly, and he sent his own divine will shooting out aggressively.

Sometimes, avoiding trouble requires more than keeping your head down. It can be better to make it clear you’re not to be trifled with. The principle applied in the Fifth Star Ring just as much as it did in Revered Ancient.

The various streams of divine will clashed. Multicolored lightning flashed in the sky. Natural and magical laws were made manifest, and loud rumblings made it clear that the weather was changing for the worse. A blizzard and heavy rain struck at the same time.

And then... the other two streams of divine will backed away. Clearly they were afraid, and didn’t want to pose an obstacle.

Xu Qing went on his way, his face completely expressionless.

Similar incidents occured on three additional occasions over the next few days.

And seeing bloodbath after bloodbath gave Xu Qing a clear picture of how brutal and blood-stained this world was.

Like venomous bugs in a jar. It’s almost like the entire Fifth Star Ring is full of powerful experts who climbed mountains of corpses and swam through seas of blood to get to where they are.

Xu Qing looked down beneath his feet. There was a valley below, and inside, another bloodbath had just played out. Corpses lay everywhere, an incredibly strong aura of death had overtaken the spirit energy.

Next to a large pile of blood-soaked corpses was a young man in a black robe, seated cross-legged. His expression was cold as he performed breathing exercises using the death energy. An instant later, he opened his eyes and looked up at Xu Qing.

“This is my spirit lode,” he said.

After stating his claim to the location, the young man’s eyes flitted to another spot outside the valley. There, ripples were spreading out as a person was forced out of the concealment of invisibility.

It was a pretty young woman. She opened her mouth to speak, but didn’t have time.

A flying sword shot out of the young man’s head, glittering with cold aggression. Moving with blinding speed, it stabbed right into the young woman’s forehead. As her corpse toppled to the ground, the flying sword returned to the young man. Then it shifted to point at Xu Qing.

Xu Qing looked down with narrowed eyes. He had noticed the invisible young woman, of course. Now, sensing the hostility from the young man in black, he chose to continue on his way without saying a word.

After Xu Qing was gone, the young man continued to look up at the sky vigilantly. After confirming that the powerful expert had indeed left, the young man breathed a sigh of relief.

That guy... really felt dangerous.

***

Some distance away, Xu Qing thought back to the young man with the sword.

He’s not an Imperial Sovereign. He’s only a Smoldering God. But he has some sort of authority related to death. What’s more, he doesn’t actually seem alive.

That said, they had no beef with each other. After some thought, Xu Qing realized it just went to show how he should view the cultivators from the Fifth Star Ring.

This place doesn’t have a lot of weaklings. Although the Imperial Sovereign’s servant made it seem like this place is very orderly, after everything I’ve seen, I can tell that the only rules that really count are those put in place by the Immortal Capital.

As long as you don’t break their rules, then you can do whatever you want. And that means this place is dangerous and chaotic.

Considering the level of the servant’s cultivation base, he only knows some of the basics. When it comes to all the finer details, for instance the geographic layout or the specific organizations here, I can’t rely fully on the information I got from his memories.

Being as cautious as he was, Xu Qing wasn’t even going to fully trust the information from the soulsearch. If he did that, but then it turned out the person he had soulsearched was misinformed, then he could pay a price for that incorrect information.

I need to stick to my original plan. I need to find a city where I get some accurate information.

After some thought, he picked a place he had learned about from the servant’s memories, and headed in that direction.

***

In the central part of the southern region was a place the Fifth Star Ring cultivators called the Grand Immortal Mountain.

It was called a mountain, but the reality was that it was an endless mountain range filled with many rising and falling mountains that numbered in the hundreds of thousands at the very least.

The place was filled year-round with white mist, within which moved drifting forms that seemed to be immortal beings. Sometimes the wind would blow, thinning the mist and revealing spectacularly beautiful palaces and temples crafted from the finest jade. It really did seem like an immortal paradise.

The immortal spirit energy here surpassed any other area in the south, as this place was the capital.

In a location in the very middle of Grand Immortal Mountain, in a place surrounded by a ring of mountain peaks... there was an astonishing silver-colored temple. The temple had staircases of more than ten thousand steps leading up to it from all sides. The towering temple itself looked almost like an altar.

The temple was glorious to behold. It was constructed primarily from 16,000 planks of immortal green cedar, had golden-colored roof tiles made from glazed spirit ceramics, featured two golden osmanthus trees shaped like coiling dragons, and was decorated with delicate sculptures carved from immortal jade. It went without saying that every surface was richly ornamented. Below the temple was a plaza crafted from immortal jade slabs, within which were 160 glowing statues organized into two rows.

Within the main hall of this extravagantly amazing temple was a holy throne, atop which sat an old man clad in a silver robe. He almost looked like a mortal, except that his eyes would occasionally flash with something brilliant that made it seem like he was gazing down on the entire world.

There was currently a performance going on including singing and dancing. Sleeves rippled in the wind, bells chimed, and voices undulated melodiously. Some sandalwood incense was burning, the smoke curling through the hall and making everything seem hazy and mysterious.

A middle-aged man entered the hall, clad in a long robe decorated with clouds. When he walked, the clouds looked like they were moving, lending him a very extraordinary aura. Walking through the dancers and the haze of the incense, he reached the seat of honor. Clasping hands, he gave a deep bow of respect.

“Greetings, Immortal. The opening ceremony of the Trial of the Hunt will begin soon in the Immortal Capital. How many disciples of our Grand Immortal Mountain will be joining the hunt this time?”

A moment passed after his voice echoed out. Then the old man on the throne, who was hardly visible through the haze, nodded slightly.

“Thirty percent. I hope one of them turns out to have potential. By the way, Lan Yun, I hope all of you remember to follow the rules, unlike last time. Grand Emperors are

not

to interfere. That’s the rule. The Immortal Capital wants to find chosen who have risen fairly through the carnage. They don’t want greenhouse flowers.” His voice was calm, but it contained a bit of a threat.

“Yes, sir,” Lan Yun replied respectfully.[1]

The old man on the throne regarded Lan Yun for a moment, then coolly continued, “There’s no need for such formality between us, Lan Yun.”

Lan Yun considered his words and then nodded. “You occupy the highest of positions, Immortal. Etiquette must be maintained.”

With that, Lan Yun turned and left.

The old man said nothing further.

The singing and dancing resumed. The smoke from the sandalwood incense continued to burn, swirling about in the hall, slowly obscuring the delicate, beautiful, and lifelike images in the artwork. The octagonal palace lanterns hung about cast their light into the haze... causing the entire hall to become increasingly mysterious.

1. Lan Yun. Lan is not very commonly used as a surname, but it is listed as a surname. It means “mist, mountain forest vapor.” Yun means “cloud.” When I asked Madam Deathblade for her reaction, she actually thought it was a woman’s name, which led to some confusion. It’s conceivable this could be intended to be a daoist name, but there’s not enough evidence to prove it, so I’m treating it like an ordinary surname and given name. ☜