Chapter 871: Making a Comeback

The Ghost Chariot Wildwood had opened up, revealing hundreds of cultivators using different methods, techniques, and items in their attempts to capture juvenile ghost chariots. These cultivators were all outstanding figures in their generation. Had Xu Qing not shown up, some would have been killed, but others would have succeeded.

But now... Xu Qing had shown up and said one thing that got all of the ghost chariots to fly out into the open. And with the wave of his hand, he had figuratively opened the curtain in a dark room, revealing the positions of all the cultivators. Truth be told, that description was insufficient. He hadn’t just opened the curtain. He had dismantled the room altogether, and the pieces had grown legs and walked away.

The Firemoon cultivators present were all astonished to the core. In an instant, they had gone from hiding in the shadows to being exposed in the light, and it caused all of them to start breathing heavily.

Master Stillwinter was the most stunned of all. After the dramatic situation with the Mountain and Sea Region, which was centered on the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands, he had started to speculate that Xu Qing might be involved. He had even considered the possibility that they might meet again one day in the future. But he could never have guessed that they would encounter each other in circumstances like this. He saw the ghost chariots prostrating as if to their monarch, as well as the three terrifying ghost chariots in the sky. In rare fashion, he started trembling, and a sensation of profound crisis was growing within him.

3,000 meters away from him was Fan Shishuang, who felt similarly. He had been locked in combat with Master Stillwinter, but considering what was happening now, he was shocked to the core.

All it took was a moment for all the cultivators present to be so shaken they just remained in place unmoving.

Outside of the Ghost Chariot Wildwood, Xu Qing didn’t even look at Master Stillwinter. Instead, he turned his attention to the three Smoldering God ghost chariots.

Those three were different from any of the other beasts he had encountered during his travels. They were not howling in anguish, nor were they prostrating. They were just examining him suspiciously.

When the beasts in the Mountain and Sea Region reach Smoldering God, I wonder... if their latent ancestral memories start to return.

That was the only explanation he could come up with for the unusual gazes of the three Smoldering God ghost chariots. The looks in their eyes also revealed the limitations of his Ninedawns aura.

Without the mage state of an antemage, it won’t be possible to control Smoldering God beasts.

Xu Qing shifted his gaze to take in the cultivators who had been revealed in the vegetation, before eventually focusing on Master Stillwinter. They were so far away from each other that with mortal eyes, it wouldn’t have been possible to even see each other. But when the battle prowess and cultivation base of a cultivator reached a certain level, they could see things that were much farther away, thanks to divine sense and other instinctual abilities. And thus, their gazes locked.

When that happened, the sense of crisis within Master Stillwinter grew more intense.

Xu Qing took a step forward. A sound like muffled thunder echoed out as a host of red soul threads sprang out, creating a tempest as he entered a god state. He went directly to the fourth level! It was the Crimson Mother state, which could also be called the Violet Lord state! He was 300 meters tall, with violet feathers of flesh covering him and two huge wings on his back. The sound of chanting drifted out in all directions. A violet moon rose behind him, covered with countless figures prostrated in worship. In front of him was a huge sundial with its gnomon spinning. The power of time caused the surroundings to distort and blur. Underfoot was an enormous lotus throne, each petal of which represented one of Xu Qing’s abilities. They spread out like violet tentacles, making the lotus look like a violet pāramitā lily.

A godly sensation weighed down, causing the souls of all the cultivators to tremble. The ghost chariots all seemed agitated, and the three powerful ones above emanated intense pressure.

Xu Qing didn’t pay attention to that. Within his terrifying god state, he took a second step. As he did, nine lanterns of flesh flew out and began circling around him. They were the Ninedawns skulls, and they roared as they suddenly shot toward Xu Qing and merged with his god state, covering him with a profoundly ancient suit of mage armor.

The Ninedawns skulls appeared on the armor as Xu Qing’s battle prowess was blessed to a heaven-shaking, earth-toppling degree. When the jackal-dragon mask settled onto his face, wild colors flashed in heaven and earth!

This was something that had never before appeared in history. Part god. Part mage. Together on one person. At the same time, an indescribable aura pulsed off Xu Qing.

The ghost chariots below trembled as they groveled, while those up above bowed their heads. The plants and vegetation in the rainforest bent in his direction, all while red lightning crashed in the sky.

The Firemoon cultivators were unable to stand up to the force. Blood sprayed out of their mouths as they staggered in the opposite direction, their faces masks of horror.

Even Fan Shishuang and Master Stillwinter were visibly astonished. There was no need for them to start fighting; they could clearly sense how amazingly strong Xu Qing was.

Sir Heavenink struggled to control his breathing. Just like everyone else, it was his first time seeing Xu Qing in this state, and in his blood he felt the urge to offer worship.

As everyone reeled, Xu Qing took a third step in his combined god and mage state. That put him only 3,000 meters away from Master Stillwinter. The ground trembled. The sky shook. And the wild, killing aura of the jackal-dragon filled the world, causing violet snowflakes to start falling.

Fan Shishuang backed up. Given the look in Xu Qing’s eyes, and the stories Fan Shishuang had heard about how Master Stillwinter tried to kill him, it was obvious what was going on here. Xu Qing was here for Master Stillwinter. It had nothing to do with him.

As he backed up, Master Stillwinter burst into action. His hands blurred in a double-handed incantation gesture, and he shot backward, tapping into all of his great circle Void Returning battle prowess. He was ranked second in the Firemoon Darkheavens’ echelon. Maybe Xu Qing was putting a lot of pressure on him, but he wasn’t the kind of person who just backed down. What was more, he knew full well that since Xu Qing had come here, there would be no avoiding a battle to the death!

A huge rift opened in the sky, and a gigantic finger emerged, dropping down toward Xu Qing. The finger pulsed with heaven-destroying, earth-extinguishing power. It was powered by all of Master Stillwinter’s battle prowess, as well as countless natural and magical laws, not to mention his dao lineaments. The air rippled and distorted as the force bore down on Xu Qing.

Xu Qing’s expression didn’t change as he looked at the descending finger. He lifted his hand and pushed out, causing rumbling booms to echo out as the huge finger stopped in front of him. Then it convulsed, and thunderous cracking sounds rang out. Next, the terrifying finger distorted dramatically in the middle as Xu Qing ripped it in half! Next, a second, third, fourth, and fifth finger descended.

Master Stillwinter had used this same move on Xu Qing before. Back then, Xu Qing had been forced to pay a huge price to use divine abilities to escape it. Even then, he had ended up seriously hurt, and in the end, had been forced to use Fishing the Moon in the Well.

On this day, things were different. He was facing the same divine ability, but his methods of dealing with it were different. He took a fourth step. More cracking sounds could be heard as the four fingers completely failed to stop Xu Qing. He ripped all of them apart.

The sight caused Master Stillwinter’s expression to turn very serious. Backing up again, he performed another incantation gesture, causing the palm connected to the five broken fingers to obscure the sky as it crushed down toward Xu Qing.

He looked up at the huge palm, and gray fog appeared in his eyes.

The fog proliferated, and in the blink of an eye, had surrounded them. Then it shot toward the palm.

When they clashed, the palm was stopped in place. In fact, it was pushed back. Then the gray fog rapidly converged into the shape of a gray nail which pierced the palm and shoved it toward the ground. Everything shook dramatically as the huge nail of gray fog impaled the palm to the ground.

Nothing Master Stillwinter did could free the palm.

Xu Qing looked away from the palm to Master Stillwinter. Without saying a single word, he took a fifth step. That put him only 300 meters in front of Master Stillwinter.

Master Stillwinter struggled to control his breathing. At the same time, he turned red from head to toe as a host of blood clones emerged from him. Circling around him, they became a blood lake. Within the blood lake, blood clones collapsed one after another, causing the lake to expand dramatically and get closer to Xu Qing.

As Master Stillwinter floated higher into the air, his eyes burning with killing intent, he waved both of his hands apart, causing even more blood and blood clones to erupt. In the blink of an eye, he was surrounded by a shocking sea of blood so large that it wasn’t possible to see where it ended. It filled the sky, turning all heaven and earth the color of blood.

Master Stillwinter wasn’t even visible in the middle of the sea of blood as he howled, “Crush!”

He threw his hands down, and the terrifying sea of blood dropped down. Previously, this move had surpassed the limits of Xu Qing’s blood authority, and he had failed to counter it. In the end, he managed to escape, but did so with serious injuries.

Upon seeing it unleashed again, Xu Qing lifted his right hand toward the red sea and closed his hand in a grasping motion. Cultivation base power spread through him, and godsource spread out. The Ninedawns skulls emerged into the open and roared.

Being blessed to the limit, Xu Qing’s blood authority surpassed anything from before. It had reached a much higher level. The sky-obscuring, sun-blocking sea of blood turned into a massive vortex. And the source of the vortex was Xu Qing’s hand!

The roiling sea of blood rushed to his palm, shrinking down rapidly as it did. From a distance, the sight was completely and utterly shocking to all the observing cultivators. In the end, the previously majestic blood sea was sucked into Xu Qing’s palm, where it turned into a spinning red sphere.

The red glow it cast filled the sky and caused observers to feel pain in their souls. Its shocking aura seemed unstable, like it might detonate catastrophically at any moment.

Master Stillwinter’s mind felt like it was being struck by lightning, and he was shaking. He could no longer hide his astonishment. Then Xu Qing flicked his finger, sending the destructive blood sphere shooting through the air. It became a streak of red that shot straight toward Master Stillwinter!