Chapter 1108: Abandoning Skin

In the Fifth Star Ring, near the border separating the south and the west, the crimson aurora shone above as sticky rain fell in all directions. A great wind blew, removing even more moisture from the rain, turning it into a glue that had immense sealing power. In fact, in some areas on the fringe, it had turned into a solid gel.

Not even the air could escape the effects. It was as if the space in this entire area was being solidified by the glue. It was astonishingly mighty and terrifyingly deadly.

Xu Qing was right in the middle of it all. He was covered in the sticky rain, which formed fluidic strands connecting him to the land, the air, and everything else in the area. It was completely stuck even to his skin.

Everything was rapidly turning into a thick gel, and the effects were only speeding up. If he couldn’t free himself soon, and the wind dried everything up, he would be like an object encased in amber. Escape would be completely impossible.

But Xu Qing didn’t seem anxious. He had a way to deal with this glue magic. Because of that, he was focused on analyzing, not the fighting, but rather, factors beyond the field of battle, including the inner state of the young man that was his opponent. Although such things might seem like they weren’t relevant to the actual fighting, the reality was that they were key to everything.

Normally speaking, this person shouldn’t be going for broke this early in the Trial of the Hunt. After all, the second round had just started, and fighting like this right now wouldn’t be worth it. If you ended up seriously injured, then you would be in great danger. Later on, there would surely be even more dangerous situations to deal with.

What was more, Xu Qing only had a total of two medallions, which wouldn’t be worth the effort this young man was putting forth. Given this person’s battle prowess, there had to be other targets that would be easier to deal with. Risking one’s life in such a silly way wasn’t something an intelligent person would do.

There’s definitely something fishy going on.

With such thoughts going through his head, Xu Qing looked at the distant horizon. Everything seemed to be confirming his speculations. A feeling of determination grew within him. As the wind blew and the glue hardened, the sealing effects were locking down everything in the area.

I can’t worry too much about the details. Even if I get injured in the process, I need to end this fight quickly.

Eyes flashing with a mysterious light, he exercised a thought, and the blood in his body suddenly started racing much more quickly through him. A tremor passed through him as he shockingly forced all of his blood out through his pores.

It poured out without cease, turning into a blood mist that surrounded him. The blood spread, providing moisture to heaven and earth.

This was a technique he had picked up from the city magistrate he killed earlier. He drew out his own blood, infused it with his will, and sent it out to slow down the hardening effect caused by the wind.

As a result, the moisture the rain had lost was returned. At the same time, the sticky rain turned crimson. What was more, the wind couldn’t blow as freely.

This magic that turned rain into glue was definitely unusual, and shockingly mighty, but it had a weakness. Specifically, the stickiness could only be unleashed when the wind dried it out.

The young man was obviously aware of that weakness, which was why he rarely used this technique in direct attacks. Normally speaking, he would unleash it from a hiding spot to catch someone off guard, and then swoop in to kill them before they recovered. What was more, he wasn’t using it right now in the hopes of killing his opponent. He was just trying to buy time.

When he realized that Xu Qing had already identified the weakness of the technique, the young man scowled. That said, he wasn’t very surprised. He had realized much earlier that this enemy was very intelligent and reacted quickly. He was definitely a formidable opponent. He hadn’t really intended for his glue magic to simply seal this person.

Though he regretted that his opponent reacted so quickly, he didn’t hesitate to fall back and simultaneously performed a double-handed incantation gesture. Without a second thought, he drew deeply on his cultivation base to bolster his wind authority to try to counter what Xu Qing was doing.

One was using the wind to dry things out, the other was adding the moisture back. As long as one could identify the most salient aspect of the situation, it was possible to force a state of balance....

Though the young man hadn’t completely succeeded at sealing the area, he had at least slowed down his opponent and bought some time.

Besides, the glue covering his opponent, though it had been prevented from hardening by the moisture in the blood mist, was still sticky. The limitations it enforced were continuing.

The young man’s reactions went to show how skilled and talented he was. He was really top-notch. After all, it was completely proper to say that his strategy was working exactly as intended.

What was more, his technique also accounted for Xu Qing’s Fishing the Moon in the Well, although he had bypassed that necessity by starting out with his five-colored painting, which drained Xu Qing’s spatial magic. He was fully aware that spatial magics like those used by Xu Qing could most likely be used multiple times in a row. And either way, draining his opponent was the best thing to do. Using his glue on everything in the area, even the space, would also do a lot to prevent his opponent from using his spatial magics.

If he finds another weakness, then I don’t think I can keep fighting. Besides, I already sent the location information to the relevant party. If he takes too long to get here, that’s not my fault.

With such thoughts on his mind, the young man bolstered the wind again, all while sending out his authority of fire. Simultaneously, he backed up and started getting ready with his next move.

Unfortunately... something happened then that was not only incredibly shocking, but also, was something he hadn’t predicted. The countless strands of glue connected to Xu Qing suddenly started whipping back and forth and emanating a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering sword energy.

That sword energy... came from The Emperor’s Sword. The energy wasn’t severing the strands of glue. Thanks to the young man continuously bolstering his own magic, The Emperor’s Sword actually couldn’t do that.

Instead, the might of the sword was building up inside of Xu Qing.

He was severing... his own skin!

In the blink of an eye, the incisive power of The Emperor’s Sword savagely sliced back and forth within his own skin. It was separating his own muscles from his skin!

A blinding sword nimbus erupted around him. In the blink of an eye, Xu Qing’s body was seemingly split into two parts. A gaping wound opened up, starting at the top of his head, slicing down through his face, chest, and the rest of his body....

His skin was being opened like a garment. Astonishingly, a skinless figure made only of bloody flesh shot out into the open. It moved at top speed. Before any of the strands of glue could latch onto it, it took advantage of its freedom to unleash a spatial manipulation magic.

An instant later, Xu Qing had teleported away.

The young man with the birthmark watched this happen, and his pupils constricted rapidly, and his heart started pounding with alarm. He had encountered vicious people before, but never before had he seen this level of ferocity. This person abandoned his own skin to escape!

The young man shot back at top speed, an intense sensation of deadly crisis filling him. He knew that his opponent definitely wasn’t paying this extremely heavy price just to make an escape. Sadly for him, his realization, and his fast retreat, were both too slow.

The moment Xu Qing was free, he unleashed his dao of space. A grid appeared, spreading out in layers and turning into a sealing power that crushed down onto the young man. An ancient sundial also manifested behind Xu Qing, its gnomon spinning as his dao of time appeared. This was the power to freeze time!

He used space to cut off the path of retreat. He used time to subdue the timescape.

As a result, the young man lurched to a halt in midair. His body stopped moving. His soul stopped moving. Space was locked down. Time was frozen.

And then... the sword energy came out.

This was the second of the five streams of sword energy that Grandpa Ninth had given to Xu Qing. When it exploded out, wild colors flashed in heaven and earth. Winds screamed.

Sword energy slashed toward the young man. This young man was an extraordinary opponent. It was a moment of crisis, and despite the fact that both space and time had been locked down, he still was able to react. An aura of self-detonation suddenly built up around him. He was going to use the might of self-detonation to shake space and time, and hopefully free himself.

Xu Qing’s spatial grid trembled. Cracks spread out across it. The sundial behind him shook violently and also started to crack.

It was about to explode.

After all... this opponent was very close to being a mid Imperial Sovereign, and had developed his authorities almost to their limit.

At that critical moment, Xu Qing’s eyes flashed with cold light. Despite the spatial vibrations and the cracks spreading out on the sundial, Xu Qing just focused on unleashing the sword energy. Sword energy swept forth. Light filled heaven and earth, and a thunderous rumbling drifted out.

Then, there was a bang... as the sword energy landed on the young man’s forehead, pierced into his body, and destroyed everything it touched! He was killed in body and soul! All of this takes a bit of time to describe, but actually happened in the time it takes a spark to fly off a piece of flint.

In the blink of an eye, the range of Xu Qing’s permission medallion was increased, reaching a level of 5,000,000.

However, he had no time to study what was within range, as he suddenly coughed up a huge mouthful of blood. His flesh was completely mangled; the injuries he had suffered were not insignificant.

What had been difficult about this fight wasn’t the actual fighting techniques, but rather, ending it quickly. Despite his use of both space and time, his opponent had very nearly slipped free. It was easy to imagine what would have happened if he didn’t have the level of control he did over space and time. Even his sudden use of that sword energy might not have been successful.

And if he had failed, then after his opponent got free, it was entirely possible he would have started fighting again.

Xu Qing took a deep breath. Right now, he didn’t have time to focus on healing up. He quickly took stock of the battlefield, all while suppressing the pain he felt from losing his skin, as well as the backlash from using his space and time abilities. He burst into motion.

This fight shouldn’t have been so desperate.

As he sped along, Xu Qing thought regretfully about how things had played out. If his opponent hadn’t been acting so suspiciously, Xu Qing wouldn’t have been forced to pay this price to win. After all, he had needed to use his second stream of sword energy to gain a quick victory. Now he only had three such streams left.

Grandpa Ninth’s sword energy has limits. It can kill an early Imperial Sovereign. But it won’t work so well against someone in the mid Imperial Sovereign level....

In order to speed up his recovery, Xu Qing focused on stimulating the violet crystal, all while consuming large amounts of medicinal pills. He worked on recovery all while speeding along at top speed and keeping his senses spread out in all directions. At the same time, he thought about everything that had happened so far in the Fifth Star Ring.

The Fifth Star Ring was a unified place! In that respect, it was very different from the Ninth Star Ring, which was where the Revered Ancient mainland was located.

Based on the map Xu Qing had seen in the Devilbird holy land, Xu Qing knew that there were different factions in the Ninth Star Ring, all of them arrayed around the broken face.

In contrast, the Fifth Star Ring was united. The gods there had been conquered and outlawed. All species were able to practice cultivation. Everyone followed the lead of the cultivators. And there were many powerful experts.

Xu Qing was currently in a remote location near the spot where the south met the west. Yet he had already run into multiple Imperial Sovereigns. That alone went to show how impressive the Fifth Star Ring was.

As far as Xu Qing was concerned, this posed both a challenge and a destined opportunity. It offered both extreme danger and good fortune. Since arriving in the Fifth Star Ring, he had experienced multiple fights with very powerful experts. Each of them brought Xu Qing new enlightenment and understanding. It helped him learn more about the Imperial Sovereign level, and also brought him deeper insights into his own daos.

During his fight with Ling Feng, the guardian of the spirit mine, he came to understand the strengths and weaknesses of his own daos. He had learned about the scale of his cultivation base, and also reminded him that his limits were often set by his own imagination. The grandeur of the five elements was variable and boundless.

Next he fought that city magistrate, which further confirmed what he had learned in the previous battle, and also enabled him to realize that his personal daos could be turned into authority.

And then there was his fight today with this young man. Because of this fight, Xu Qing saw what it was possible to do by developing authority to a higher level. The results could be truly majestic. In the hands of this opponent, wind authority alone was enough to shake all of his five elements. What was more, two authorities could be combined and augmented with an outside object to create an effect like that of a third authority.

There was no way Xu Qing couldn’t feel shaken by all that. Normally speaking, he would have been happy for that fight to go on for longer. It would definitely have provided further tempering and insights. Unfortunately... the way his opponent was acting indicated that danger was on the way.

About an hour later, Xu Qing’s intuition was proved correct.

By means of the Immortal Capital permission medallion, he saw a flickering star appear within the range of his senses, some 5,000,000 kilometers away. This particular star was far brighter than any of the others he had seen up to this point. The moment he saw it, his heart filled with an unprecedented sensation of deep crisis.

What was more, this person had obviously locked onto his location, and was speeding toward him rapidly.