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Chapter 483: Lonely One Step, Fiendish the Next (part 1)
The leaf boat sped across the surface of the black Abyssal Sea. It was moving about ten times as fast as before, making it seem like it was truly fearful of causing any delays for Xu Qing. Whenever it noticed Xu Qing’s facial expression turning dour, it would speed up.
Given the information he’d learned from the Smokewights, Xu Qing had abandoned his previous plan to go to Mount Greenmist. Instead, he would go directly to Mount Daybreak. That said, he was feeling more uncertain than ever. For one thing, he was worried about the war in the north and to the west. What was more, the information from the Smokewights made it impossible for him to forget about what the palace lord had mentioned in the jade slip about a behind-the-scenes traitor.
I can’t do anything to affect the war... The only thing I can do is finish this mission for the palace lord.
Days passed. The net in the dome of heaven seemed to flicker more dramatically than before. To Xu Qing, that seemed to indicate that the war was heating up.
Sighing, he focused on the path ahead.
On the evening of the fourth day, he spotted Mount Daybreak off in the distance. The mountain was very unique. Instead of being black like all the other mountains, it was seven-colored. It almost looked like it was a puzzle put together with many pieces. But in reality, it was whole. It was clearly larger than any of the other mountains Xu Qing had passed along the way. It towered over the Abyssal Sea, reaching high into the sky, roughly about 30,000 meters above water level.
As the moonlight shone down onto the seven-colored Mount Daybreak, it created a dazzling, beautiful halo around it. It was possible to glimpse the mountain stretching down into the black water, making it seem even more majestic.
As Xu Qing neared, he could sense incredible pressure radiating from the mountain, weighing down on the entire area. The sun wind was incredibly strong here, causing whimpering sounds to echo out, and creating innumerable rifts in the air. They would form, close up, then form again, over and over again.
He felt mixed emotions as he looked at the mountain, which ultimately became a blend of apprehension and nervousness. On the one hand, he had to worry about the palace lord’s mission. But also... he was thinking about his parents’ graves. Sitting atop the leaf ship, he looked at distant Mount Daybreak. Eventually, he settled his thoughts, took a deep breath, and flew off the ship toward the mountain.
As for the leaf ship... as soon as Xu Qing was gone, it sank underwater. Apparently, it was worried that it would disturb Xu Qing, so it quietly went down as far as it could go before speeding away. The stone lion and the head watched with expressions of envy....
After the time it takes an incense stick to burn, Xu Qing arrived at Mount Daybreak. He could sense the defensive barrier surrounding the mountain, covering it from top to bottom.
It was the Swordsage Court’s grand spell formation, which would prevent any unauthorized people from entering, even swordsages from other provinces without the proper qualifications. Because this place housed secret locations set up by the Swordsage Palace, even local swordsages were prohibited from going to most places on the mountain. Only people with sufficient battle credits could qualify to access such places.
That said, the barrier might well have not existed as far as Xu Qing was concerned. With the command medallion he had been given, he basically had the same level of authority as Palace Lord Kong. When he arrived, the spell formation didn’t block his path, or even react at all.
First, I’ll start my investigation. Later I’ll look for Mom and Dad’s graves.
It only happened on Mount Daybreak.
According to one story in the file, just before perishing, the sun coughed up a mouthful of blood that scattered around the area. That sun’s blood was seven-colored, which was why the mountain was also seven-colored.
Because this place had the aura of a sun, it met one of the prerequisites required to produce daybreak light.
At the same time, daybreak light could be a huge benefit to one’s cultivation base. It could help a cultivator gain enlightenment of the power of suns, and could also be used in bloodline retroconversion. And when used in equipment forging, it produced astounding results. Furthermore, research done by the Swordsage Palace showed that it was extremely effective in resisting the power of gods. For all of those various reasons, it was extremely rare. In fact, the Swordsage Court had kept accurate records of every single time daybreak light appeared. That included when it appeared and where it ended up.
Xu Qing reviewed the records and didn’t find anything unusual. Every single bit of daybreak light was accounted for, with most having been sent to the Swordsage Palace, and only a few having been traded to other organizations. The Swordsage Court’s records included all the details of the light that had been traded out.
Xu Qing looked around some more, but that was all the relevant information.
Short of tracking down every single place where the daybreak light went, it’s going to be hard to get any clues by going down this path. Xu Qing frowned and looked around at the endless files around him.
***
Deeper in Daybreak Prefecture, in the depths of the Abyssal Sea... was an area filled with boundless mutagen, as well as a terrifying will of death that weighed down on everything around it. Things were blurry there, almost as if it were a place formed by the opening of a god’s eyes.
Any cultivator who came to this place would probably explode or be mutated. It was a forbidden region. The source of it all was some of the remains of a sun, which had seemingly long since vanished.
Standing shivering atop a chunk of flesh fully 3,000 meters in size was Sir Inkwell. Hovering in front of him was a 300-meter long finger that emanated terrifying godly might.
“Oh mighty exalted one,” he said, his voice trembling, “according to what I heard, in the countless years that have passed, many species have come here looking for the remains, but never found them. Yet you found them right away! You truly are a god favored by heaven!
“That being said, this part of the sun’s remains fell here long, long ago. There’s no life left in it. It’s going to be hard to use it for the paint we need. We need some living things to blend into the mix. The more life force, the more potent the paint will be....”
When the god’s finger heard that, it swiveled in a certain direction. Everything around it rippled and distorted, then it vanished.
Seeing the finger speeding off into the distance, Sir Inkwell scowled on the verge of tears.
How do I turn this around...? Once I finish painting, īt’ll kill me. And if I don’t paint it, I’ll still end up dead....