Chapter 857: Entering Ninedawns

Xu Qing sped through midair as fast as possible. The Mountain and Sea Region was packed with mutagen. In addition, the sealing marks put in place by the Firemoons’ three gods made it difficult to perform long-range teleportations. And some teleportation items didn’t work at all. However, after all of his successive plans worked out, Xu Qing bought himself some time and put some distance between himself and his enemy.

The price to pay had been significant. Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior was injured. Little Shadow had faded significantly. And Xu Qing himself was hurt. Because of those things, the fight had reached the point where proceeding further wouldn’t have been good.

Then there was D-132.

Xu Qing’s eyes narrowed. He had left D-132 behind, but it wasn’t gone. And as long as it bought him the time he needed, its loss would be worth it. And given enough time later, he would be able to redevelop the D-132 cell block.

As for the authority of misfortune from the god’s finger, he had already mastered it. And the amnesia came from adding destiny aura.

It’s too bad about the finger and the inmates. They’re gone. Now I’ll have to refill the cells.

He felt a bit of regret. But then he thought about how useless the god’s finger usually was, and realized there was no point in worrying about īt.

After confirming he was going in the right direction, he shot forward. The path he picked was going to be very important at a moment like this. A day ago, if he had picked to continue on his way to hillworm territory, he would never have been able to escape like he was now.

Things were different now, though. He was about three or four hours away from the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands, maybe even closer.

Before I pulled out my ancient sun, Master Stillwinter might have been able to catch up to me. But now... he’s not going to risk getting too close. What’s more, he’s going to be worrying about what else I might throw at him....

Around that time, he sensed D-132 collapse. His heart sank.

That quickly? That finger really is useless!

Expression turning cold, Xu Qing bit onto the tip of his tongue to get an added burst of speed.

About two hours passed. Xu Qing was now only about an hour away from the edge of the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands. As he flew through the air, he suddenly dodged to the side.

As he did, a beam of red light stabbed through the spot he had just occupied, then exploded into a flower of blood. More blood flowers appeared, exploding one after another and turning everything bright red.

A figure shot like lightning over the horizon.

Xu Qing scowled as he dodged back and forth amongst the exploding blood flowers. There were so many that he knew eventually there would be one that he didn’t notice or couldn’t avoid. As the flowers exploded, they turned into strands of blood-colored light that swept toward Xu Qing.

He blurred to the side, sending out soul threads to fight against the blood strands. Sadly, the blood strands were extraordinary. Though he destroyed a few, there were still plenty left to wrap around his waist. He had no choice but to lurch to a stop.

As that happened, the pursuing Master Stillwinter shot forward with a burst of speed, piercing through the air to appear in front of Xu Qing.

His expression was malicious, and his eyes burned with killing intent. But instead of launching a blow, he quickly performed an incantation gesture.

The exploding blood flowers all turned into blood-colored strands that whipped through the air to entangle Xu Qing. In the mere blink of an eye, they wrapped him up. Xu Qing’s face was pale and his expression anxious as he saw the blood strands slowly forming a cocoon around him.

“You won’t be getting away this time!” Master Stillwinter, whose soul still ached with pain, saw Xu Qing trapped, and his killing intent grew even stronger. Blurring forward, he entered the interior of the blood cocoon. As he did, he finally spotted Xu Qing’s face.

Strangely, Xu Qing didn’t seem worried at all. Instead, his eyes shone with aggressive light as he lifted his right hand. Astonishingly, floating above his palm was a finger-nail sized, brown-colored flame wisp. The flame wisp flickered dully, occasionally expanding and occasionally contracting. It looked unstable. What was truly shocking about it was how it caused the clouds in the sky to turn black. Thunder boomed and lightning crashed.

Master Stillwinter’s heart seized with a sensation of danger. Every scrap of his flesh and muscles suddenly seemed to be conscious, and screamed at him that this flame was extremely dangerous.

Without the slightest hesitation, he backed up. He was too slow.

Xu Qing gently tossed the brown flame wisp toward Master Stillwinter. As he shot through the air, it rapidly grew larger. At the same time, its unstable nature grew more prominent. Rumbling sounds echoed out as a sheet of brown fire erupted from the flame wisp. Along with it came a terrifying aura. It was a destructive aura that seemed capable of immolating anything and everything. As it spread, the blood cocoon couldn’t stand up to the heat, and burst into flames. Bolts of lightning fell like rain, instantly smashing into the ground.

As thunder crashed, the brown flame expanded explosively. A terrifying flame lightning swept out with heaven-shaking, earth-shattering force, destroying everything it touched. The force was so majestic that it even caused Master Stillwinter’s heart to leap in his chest as a gray whirlwind swept over him.

This fire was the very same mysterious fire that Little Shadow formed after devouring a number of forbidden regions. Its name was... ‘Ruuuuuumble, Ruuuuuumble, Ruuuuuumble!’ [1]

Xu Qing had been prepared for what would happen; as soon as the detonation occurred, he had Little Shadow spread out to cover him. Although Little Shadow issued a soul-piercing cry upon being burned, it still managed to naturally resist the fire. Therefore, though Xu Qing was affected to a small degree, he wasn’t hurt.

He didn’t take time to look back and see the result. Though it was theoretically possible that the fearsome detonation had killed his opponent, Xu Qing had always been a cautious person, and didn’t want to give his enemy room to pull a fast one.

It was a complete unknown, and when dealing with unknown factors, the probability of success or failure was always 50/50. But if he didn’t go to investigate, then the chances of something unusual happening went down to 0. That was why he didn’t hesitate to simply flee.

***

Shortly after he was gone, the power of self-detonation erupted from the spot where Master Stillwinter had been inundated with the brown fire. It spread out for 50 kilometers in all directions, shaking everything. The power of the blast wasn’t on the same level as the brown flame, but it was still incredibly destructive.

Thankfully, Xu Qing was long gone, so he wasn’t within the range of destruction.

A moment later, as the shock waves died down, and the brown flames were wiped out, a huge crater was revealed. Everything within the range of the mysterious fire had been wiped out. And the 50-kilometer area was filled with the aura of self-detonation.

At the same time, a figure could be seen zooming toward the area from over the horizon, looking down from midair, his expression grim. He was, of course, Master Stillwinter.

This Xu Qing is proving to be very hard to kill!

His eyes glittered with cold light. In his caution, he had sent a blood clone of himself out front, while keeping his true form further back. That was how leery he was of Xu Qing’s gruish methods.

It was the self-detonation of the blood clone that released such deadly power. He had been thinking that his tactic would at least result in Xu Qing being injured. But now he could see that this opponent was both more decisive and more gruish than he had anticipated. His own cautious nature was what led to the self-detonation of his blood clone being absolutely meaningless.

“Dammit!”

He looked up in the direction Xu Qing had fled, his expression steely and his heart full of regret. He had previously believed that Xu Qing would be easy to kill. After everything he had done during the chase, he still felt like he had the upper hand. But Xu Qing just had too many tactics to deploy, which made it impossible for Master Stillwinter to be optimally effective.

Should I keep chasing him...?

Master Stillwinter’s soul hurt. He took a deep breath, and his eyes glittered coldly.

You want to go into the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands? In that case... I’ll send you on your way!

As a top chosen in the Firemoon Darkheaven people, it was only natural that Master Stillwinter knew quite a bit about the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands. He was fully aware it was a danger zone.

There were always people in the Great Hunt who considered themselves favored by fortune, and would go into the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands. The reality was that no one could get out of that place once they went in. It was a death trap.

With such thoughts on his mind, Master Stillwinter continued the chase. However, he wasn’t moving as urgently as before, and he suppressed his killing intent.

***

Xu Qing sensed the change almost immediately. For a moment, hesitation flickered in his eyes, but it quickly turned back into determination. Now was not the time to change his mind. He would proceed according to his original plan to enter the ninedawns’ territory.

Having reached this point in his train of thought, Xu Qing rubbed his chest at the spot where the violet crystal was. He pushed down, causing his cultivation base to bubble to life and violet light to fill his body. The stimulation from the violet crystal caused him to regenerate more quickly.

Not slowing down at all, he shot toward the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands. About an hour later, it appeared in front of him, covered with gray fog. The fog seemed filled with anguished faces, and cries echoed out from within it, filled with despair and madness.

Xu Qing took in the sights and sounds, then breathed in deeply and shot forward, disappearing into the fog.

***

After the time it takes an incense stick to burn, Master Stillwinter appeared outside of the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands. Looking at the gray fog, he chuckled coldly.

This Xu Qing has probably heard about the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands. Sadly, he doesn’t know the dangers lurking inside. Only members of the echelon know the truth. If even a bit of that fog touches you, you can never leave the place....

1. Little Shadow formed the fire in

chapter 728

. ☜