Chapter 290: It’s Been a Few Years, Little Demon Snake; If You Hadn’t Bitten Me, You Might Be Awake!

When Master Shengyun ignited all five of his life flames, it shook heaven and earth. It was like he had an entire starry sky inside of him in the form of a sea of flames, shocking and ghastly, providing him with immense battle prowess.

Surrounding him were eight Nascent Soul cultivators from the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect. It was with their help that Master Shengyun had suppressed the poison within him, and it had been extremely draining on them. The poison was too unique, and as a result, all of them were extremely leery of it.

Even Patriarch Soaring Cloud looked tired. He had expended immense effort inserting the president’s golden crow into his grandson. However, now that his grandson had finally recovered, he looked very pleased.

“Yun’er, what are you planning to do now? Step directly into Gold Core?”

As Master Shengyun hovered in midair, he calmly replied, “Grandfather, I want to go challenge Xu Qing to a duel. I want to take back what I lost to him! With the president’s golden crow, I don’t need to fear his poisons. Furthermore, it provides me with terrifying life force, taking my battle prowess to an even higher level. And how could the president ever bear to see me die....”

Patriarch Soaring Cloud thought about it briefly, then sighed. “Yun’er, there really isn’t a point to doing that.”

“Given my current state, there’s no harm. Also, Grandfather, could you please seal my dharma apertures so they can’t be extinguished? Without his special poisons, Xu Qing only has three life flames and two life lamps. There’s nothing else special about him. I can definitely kill him! All of the pain I endured... will be revisited many times over on him!!”

Moments later, a written duel challenge shot out of the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect toward Seven Blood Eyes!

“Master Shengyun hereby challenges Xu Qing to a duel to the death!”

The duel challenge shook Seven Blood Eyes, and in fact, all of the Eight Sect Coalition.

***

Xu Qing was currently in the Dark Serenity Sect’s pocket realm, so he had no idea what was happening. His eyes were fixed on Wu Jianwu, whose poetry recitation was causing everything around them to start shaking.

Xu Qing’s mind spun. At the same time the Captain gasped; not even he had really been convinced that their plan would work.

The soul of the ancient snake was actually starting to wake up. Though it was only partially awake, it caused wild colors to flash in heaven and earth, and screaming winds to whip left and right. In the blink of an eye, the boundless soul power in the area increased exponentially.

The other cultivators present opened their eyes and looked around with visible shock. They immediately saw Wu Jianwu with the haughty look on his face, and they sensed the dramatic change to the soul power. Though they were taken aback, none of them did anything to interfere, and in fact, they all quickly started working on breathing exercises.

Xu Qing did the same thing. Not daring to get any deeper into the pocket realm, he sat down cross-legged and started absorbing soul power. The Captain joined him, and as he settled down, he shouted, “Mine emperor beeth mighty! Mine emperor ruleth all!”

Wu Jianwu seemed fully immersed in his act, and upon hearing the Captain’s words, somehow seemed even loftier as he hovered in midair. Clasping his hands behind his back and sticking his chest out, he glared disdainfully at the demon snake’s skull and said, “I do as I please both far and near; this silly snake is worth only a sneer!”

As Wu Jianwu’s words echoed about, the howling from before suddenly became vastly more intense. The surrounding mountains were now shaking violently!

“I crushed you here for millennia on end; you deserve no pity for being condemned!”

Wu Jianwu emphasized his ringing words with a flick of his sleeve, making him seem more impressive than he ever had in his entire life. In fact, the snake’s skull started wriggling, and the soul power surged to many dozens of times beyond anything from before.

Xu Qing was actually starting to get worried that the demon snake’s soul would fully wake up, and then swallow Wu Jianwu up in a single bite.

The Captain was also taken aback. And it wasn’t lost on him that, if the demon snake really did awake, it would definitely take out Wu Jianwu first. But beyond that, he wasn’t prepared yet to extract that tooth. Therefore, he quickly said, “Okay, Little Jianjian, that’s good enough. You can stop reading.”

Hearing that, Wu Jianwu frowned and glared coldly at the Captain. “How dare rabblerousers interrupt in this way, and vie with the emperor for glory today!”

Wu Jianwu’s gaze was currently thirty percent disdain, fifty percent haughtiness, and twenty percent domineering. He really had completely slipped into the role of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity. All in all, this was his life’s dream, and he was working hard to fulfill it. His words shook the entire pocket realm even more dramatically than before. Right now, Wu Jianwu’s words were causing unprecedented stimulation to the sleeping soul of the demon snake.

The Captain realized how immersed Wu Jianwu was in the act, and he sighed. Looking at Xu Qing, he said, “Can you handle this, Xu Qing? I’m worried this idiot is going to push things too far and get himself killed.”

Xu Qing looked up at Wu Jianwu, his eyes cold. He wasn’t under the impression that Wu Jianwu had just slipped too deeply into his act. Xu Qing was convinced he was doing all of this on purpose. In fact, as Xu Qing looked at him, Wu Jianwu seemed about to open his mouth and say something. That was when Xu Qing quickly took out a jade slip with some images recorded on it.

When Wu Jianwu saw that jade slip, he suddenly shivered, and his expression became very fawning. His previous demeanor was gone, and he even dropped down out of the air.

“Hahaha! If you have something to say, Elder Brother Xu, we can just talk things over! No problem!”

Xu Qing slowly put the jade slip away. At that point, Wu Jianwu breathed a sigh of relief. He had no need to examine the jade slip to know what was recorded in it. It was almost certainly images of him rubbing a bear’s belly in a cave. Thinking back to his moment of glory shortly before, he couldn’t help but say, “Well, that was fun!!”

Now that Wu Jianwu wasn’t pretending to be Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity, the demon snake’s soul was starting to calm down. However, its previous struggle to awaken had brought immensely strong soul power into the area, and therefore, Xu Qing ignored Wu Jianwu and started working on breathing exercises.

𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

As the soul power rushed into him, his dharma apertures trembled, and almost immediately, his 111th opened.

Xu Qing’s spirits lifted. Rising, he used the medallion from Arch-Immortal Plumdark to move toward the center of the pocket realm. Upon reaching the blood lake, he found that the soul power was even stronger. He sat down cross-legged and started absorbing it without hesitation.

Time slipped by. Xu Qing didn’t pause for a moment in his cultivation, and focused everything on his dharma apertures. Meanwhile, the Captain had no way to get to the center of the pocket realm, so he focused on breathing exercises. However, given the look in his eyes, he still hadn’t given up on getting that golden drop of blood from that tooth.

That thing is amazing. Completely and utterly amazing! The Captain swallowed hard as he absorbed soul power but kept his eyes fixed on that tooth.

Later on I need to think of a way to break off that tooth. It’s connected to me by destiny! With that thing, I’ll be able to get my hands on any item I take a fancy to.

As the Captain’s eyes gleamed with longing, Xu Qing managed to open his 114th dharma aperture.

And he kept going. It was only after he opened his 116th aperture that the soul power in the area started waning. At that point he opened his eyes and looked at Wu Jianwu some distance away.

Wu Jianwu had been waiting for this exact moment. There was no need for an exchange of words. Wu Jianwu simply floated up into the air, gazed disdainfully at the bones of the demon serpent, then clasped his hands behind his back.

“It’s been a few years, little demon snake; if you hadn’t bitten me, you might be awake!

“This place is where you eat, sleep and nap; that also means your skull is covered in crap!”

The demon snake’s soul, which had only just settled down, suddenly erupted with another howl. This time, it was many times more intense than before, and it was almost possible to hear the sound of grinding teeth along with it.

“Dark Serenity!!”

Some of the snake’s body that formed the outer mountains shifted, causing boulders to tumble down them. The earth quaked, with the soil rolling like waves.

Inhaling sharply, Xu Qing barked, “Enough!”

Wu Jianwu’s lips snapped shut, though he was clearly ready to keep talking. Truth be told, even he was stunned by the reaction he’d provoked. And yet, it was so exciting that he had already become slightly addicted to the process. What was more, he now had a slight suspicion deep in his heart that perhaps he was the reincarnation of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity. Otherwise, how could he be doing what he was doing?

Off to the side, the Captain was looking at Wu Jianwu as if he were a divine being. When he and Xu Qing had come up with this idea, they’d originally decided to just try it out briefly to see if it would work.

Never could the Captain have guessed that it would go so well. In fact, he got the feeling that if Wu Jianwu kept reading the poem all the way to the end, the demon snake probably would wake up all the way.

It works this well?? Next time maybe I’ll actually try waking it up!

As the soul power in the area increased dramatically, Xu Qing absorbed it nonstop. Actually, it was so strong that he had no choice in the matter; he was absorbing it automatically through his very pores.

Thus, after only an hour passed, his 117th dharma aperture opened. Xu Qing’s eyes shone with immeasurable anticipation. He inhaled deeply, and soul power rushed into him. After reaching a certain watershed point, it became a majestic force that smashed into his 118th dharma aperture. Instantly, that aperture opened!

“Only two more to go!” he murmured. Without the slightest hesitation, he continued.

More time passed. Two hours later, rumbling sounds filled him as his 119th dharma aperture opened!

“The last one!”

His mind trembled with matchless anticipation. However, he needed an incredible amount of soul power for that last dharma aperture. Seeing no reason not to, he tapped into his balefire as well. Black flames covered him, becoming a fiery vortex that rumbled loudly as it dragged all the surrounding soul power toward it.

Despite how strong the soul power was, the force dragging it toward Xu Qing was so immense that no one else in the area could tap into the soul power. All they could do was watch in astonishment as it madly rushed toward Xu Qing.

Xu Qing inhaled deeply as the boundless soul power converged within him. Gradually, it coalesced into the vague image of a serpentine dragon, which then smashed unstoppably toward his 120th dharma aperture.

Instantly, cracking sounds rang out loudly inside Xu Qing’s mind as his 120th aperture smoothly opened!

That said, no one present had any idea it was happening! That was because, in the instant it started to open, Xu Qing had his shadow cover the dharma aperture, cutting it off from outside view! He had no desire to reveal to everyone his true level of strength. Meanwhile, his fourth life flame was also covered by the shadow, preventing anyone from seeing it. Only Xu Qing himself could sense the intense convergence within him that led to the fourth life flame! With his eyes closed, he could feel something like a massive world burning inside of him.

At the same time, two umbrellas appeared overhead. One was black, incomparably gruish, with waterfalls of flame pouring down the sides that could scorch the dome of heaven. The other was seven-colored, so radiant it created a sea of light that illuminated all the lands.

Behind him, the golden crow’s wings stretched as it looked around with brutal eyes, ready to assimilate the entire world. As its flames covered Xu Qing, they resembled imperial robes, making him look like a youthful Ancient Emperor, ready to lead his army to the ends of the earth. A moment later, all of that vanished, and in its place, a look of regret appeared on Xu Qing’s face.

“Almost got there, but not quite,” he murmured loudly.

When the other disciples heard his words, they came to the conclusion that Xu Qing had come close to succeeding in his breakthrough, but had ultimately failed.

Wu Jianwu sighed. If he had personally witnessed Xu Qing ignite a fourth life flame, he probably wouldn’t have been very happy. But to see him fail left him feeling a bit better.

Only the Captain reacted differently. Shifting his gaze from the snake tooth to Xu Qing, he blinked a few times. Something’s off here. The deceptive little punk is hiding something!!

With such thoughts on his mind, the Captain decided that he needed to consider opening another one of his seals.

Having a Junior Brother like this really puts me under a lot of pressure!