Chapter 1300 - 1300: You Won’t Die on This Path
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
The eyeball was torn to pieces and scattered toward the starry sky below.
Xu Qing’s voice echoed coldly in this void-like starry sky.
From the start to the end, his expression didn’t fluctuate much. He only calmly looked at the corpse that had lost its eyeball in the distance, the tree branch that was wrapped around Ming Fei’s body, and the large tree that was emitting decay and seemed to be on the verge of death.
“Little friend, what do you mean?”
The ancient voice from Green Wood sounded weak and confused.
What responded was a black spear that was wrapped in a sea of fire. It transformed into a trail of fire in the starry sky and decisively pierced toward the large tree.
A rumbling sound rang out. The battlefield of Green Wood and Ming Fei seemed to overlap, as if… it was a bubble composed of illusions.
Under the penetrative force of the spear, the bubble started shattering.
The intent of decay and the aura of death spread through the starry sky the instant the bubble split open.
At the same time, the starry sky collapsed from Xu Qing’s saber strike, turning into pieces of eyeball fragments that scattered down. At this moment, its form suddenly changed. Black fog spread from the eyeball fragments, and poison and filth permeated the air. Finally, they gathered into a blurry figure.
It stared fixedly at Xu Qing.
“How did you find out?!”
Its gloomy voice was filled with resentment.
Xu Qing was right. This was indeed a trick, and it was also Ming Fei’s desperate move!
It was truly too weak. Born from the resentment of this immortal realm during the divine calamity, it did seize control of this Northern Age realm at a critical moment, attempting to devour Green Wood’s Heavenly Dao in order to gain a place of refuge for itself.
However, what was different from what he told Xu Qing was that its battle with Green Wood had ended countless years ago.
Green Wood had used its trump card of mutual destruction to heavily injure Ming Fei.
As the guardian of the Northern Age, since Green Wood could be appointed by the Immortal Emperor, it naturally had its own extraordinary aspects. Hence, its trump card was truly powerful. Even though Ming Fei didn’t die, it was still heavily injured and sealed.
Its injuries couldn’t be healed and only continued to worsen.
The seal isolated everything, causing Ming Fei to feel as though it was in a cage that it could never escape from.
After that, because the outside world had become the Divine Realm, it was like another cage had been built outside its cage, completely cutting off all hope.
In this lifeless and deathly silent world, where no outsiders came and no replenishment was present, Ming Fei could only weakly wait for death to approach.
However, it was unwilling. It wanted to leave and return to its peak, but after endless years, the weakness had spread throughout its body, and it was the same for its withering.
It was only when its last bit of consciousness was about to dim that Xu Qing arrived.
Xu Qing’s appearance gave it hope. It had taken a fancy to Xu Qing’s body. However, it was already extremely weak and didn’t have the ability to forcefully s.n.a.t.c.h it.
Hence, it created this show.
The instant Xu Qing appeared, it created an illusion, allowing Xu Qing to see the battle scene it wanted him to see. After that, it led him into a decayed world.
Over there, it took on the ident.i.ty of Green Wood to communicate with Xu Qing and told half-truths of the past events.
Its goal was to make Xu Qing believe in this show.
As for the Ming Fei’s Dao Shadow Origin Body that Xu Qing had killed in this illusion, although it was also fake, the poison contained in it was real.
It wanted to let Xu Qing slowly be invaded by its poison as he killed it again and again.
Once it succeeded, it could use poison to possess Xu Qing’s body and escape, leaving this place and obtaining freedom.
However, it never expected that its poison could actually be neutralized to a certain extent by the other party. What shocked it more was that the other party was actually researching it!
He even tried to research its soul.
It was worried that it would be exposed, so it could only risk everything to display the Five Filths of G.o.d in an attempt to possess him. However, it miscalculated again.
The Five Filths of G.o.d were also neutralized.
However, this wasn’t its only trick. It also had an ultimate plan, which was to make Xu Qing think that it had succeeded. This way, it could give out its eyeball to express its grat.i.tude.
As long as Xu Qing absorbed the eyeball, he would be possessed by it.
However… Xu Qing’s clean saber strike cut through everything.
“When did you discover it?!”
Ming Fei’s voice was filled with persistence as it echoed again.
Xu Qing didn’t speak. He lifted his right hand and waved it in front of him. Immediately, the black spear howled and all the flames contained in it erupted, affecting the starry sky.
At the next instant, the bubble-like illusion completely shattered.
It revealed the real scene here.
This place wasn’t the starry sky but the void.
A sphere that was like a star floated in the void. It was astonishingly huge, and was formed from withered and rotting branches that had been dead for countless years.
Countless branches entwined together, forming such a star-like… wooden cage!
And inside this wooden cage was Ming Fei’s true body!
Its body was indeed penetrated by countless tree branches and it was dry and withered like a dried corpse. Even its head was the same.
The armor of corpses on its body had already transformed into countless resentful spirits, traversing inside and outside its body, perpetually gnawing away…
In its entire body, only its eyeball was still intact.
It was staring at Xu Qing in bitterness and despair. There was no spirit in its eyes.
“How did you discover…”
This was already its obsession.
“I never believed you!”
Xu Qing stared at the eyeball and spoke in a deep voice as he walked over.
With a single step, he arrived in front of the wooden cage. Amidst the increasingly intense desire and rumbling sounds from the Poison Restriction divine repository in his body, he lifted his right hand and pressed it toward the eye.
With this motion, the Poison Restriction in his body completely erupted and the spiritual perception in Ming Fei’s eye completely dissipated.
The entire eyeball turned grayish-white and rose from the corpse, transforming into gray fog that fused into the Poison Restriction divine repository.
The divine repository of the Poison Restriction no longer fluctuated. A while later, it emitted the aura of the Heavenly Dao. The second repository’s gate suddenly opened!
A terrifying might erupted from the gate.
One could see a huge eyeball rising from the Poison Restriction inside the gate.
Six ancient seals circulated inside, giving off a mysterious feeling and containing the power of divinity.
This eye was the Heavenly Dao.
The seals were the G.o.d’s Six Filths.
With the loss of the eyeball, Ming Fei’s corpse turned into ashes. The starry wooden cage also collapsed and dissipated into the void, turning into a vortex.
That was the way out of here.
Just like that, Green Wood and Ming Fei met their end and completed their karma. Their bodies and souls were destroyed.
In the void, only the lingering sound of obsession continued to echo.
“How did you discover…”
This obsession landed in Xu Qing’s heart and echoed in his Poison Restriction divine repository. The moment he walked into the vortex, Xu Qing calmly spoke.
“I’ve seen the sacrificial dance.”
Compared to the G.o.d’s Sacrificial Dance that could change one’s cognition, Ming Fei’s illusory art was really nothing.
Xu Qing took a step into the vortex and disappeared.
The seventh path wasn’t a path of death but a path of survival.
The ancestral emperor’s tomb, or the immortal emperor’s tomb, wasn’t particularly complex in structure.
The outer layer was the maze of immortal knowledge, followed by four to five choices of life and death, and finally, the endpoint was the imperial palace.
It was also the resting place of the immortal emperor’s corpse.
The imperial palace was vast and huge, forming a s.p.a.ce of its own, like a vast great world.
There was sky and earth.
What existed in the sky were 108 imprisoned stars!
They formed the starry sky of the Imperial Palace.
Those stars were all eerie. Facing the earth, they perpetually emitted starlight, but on their backside were horrifying gigantic faces.
The sounds of agony and lamentation spread through the sky above the Imperial Palace, resembling a funeral dirge.
Amidst the echoes of this dirge, if one looked closely, they could even see some figures seated upside down within the starlight of those 108 stars.
Flame Mystic, Tuoshi Shan, Tian Mozi, Fan Shishuang… sat cross-legged on different stars. Their eyes were filled with vigilance as they lifted their heads and stared at the Imperial Palace, as though they were waiting for an opportunity to arrive.
Clearly, the families and forces behind them had provided the method of entry with the support of their foundation, allowing them to enter here.
The captain was naturally among them. However, compared to the others, the captain looked a little anxious. He would occasionally look at the uninhabited stars in the surroundings or at the Imperial Palace.
Countless starlight scattered down and gathered, transforming into nine dragons of starlight. They looked lifelike as they moved around.
Other than the 108 stars, there were two even more dazzling stars. They were the sun and moon that were imprisoned here, circulating according to a fixed trajectory.
When the sun came, it emitted the power of the golden sun and was incomparably hot.
When the moon arrived, it emitted silver extreme yin power that was endlessly cold.
Under the sun and moon, upon the earth, there existed a colorful rotating canopy, covering half of the land.
This canopy was adorned with several crystal bells, emitting a tinkling sound as it spun, clear as celestial music. It harmonized with the lamentation of the stars, creating an eerie yet sacred atmosphere.
Surrounding it were numerous banners, chimes, and giant drums.
They were all enormous and floating in mid-air
They were items for sacrificial burial.
The nine celestial dragons roamed around these sacrificial items, seemingly guarding them.
Further down, one could see the ground.
This land wasn’t made of soil but was pieced together from countless pieces of skin. Among them were the skins of humans, nonhumans, and countless races. They were laid out as the land of the Imperial Palace, and had mountains and rivers inside.
The mountain ranges were made of bones, and the rivers were flowing with blood.
There were also rows of armored soldiers that emitted a monstrous fiendish aura!
They seemed to be endless in number.
At the center of this terrifying land, directly under the canopy, there was a towering altar!
On the altar was a purple-gold coffin!
There were carvings on it that depicted mountains and rivers. It was extremely n.o.ble. It was the Immortal Emperor’s coffin.
It was also at this moment that on the 108 stars above the Imperial Palace, a star that originally had no people suddenly fluctuated. At the next instant… a figure seemed to have come from nothingness and instantly became clear.
He was Xu Qing.
The instant he appeared, Xu Qing saw the Imperial Palace and those familiar figures on the surrounding stars. All of this made him realize that he might have arrived too late.
At the same time, many gazes gathered over. Everyone had different expressions.
As for the captain, he also noticed Xu Qing’s appearance immediately. The anxiety on his face immediately disappeared and he beamed with joy as he waved at Xu Qing.
“Junior Brother, you’re finally here. If you hadn’t appeared, I really would have thought that you had died..”