Chapter 625: Yesterday’s Youth, A Thing of the Past

Chapter 625: Yesterday’s Youth, A Thing of the Past

“Fell down again, huh?” the Heir Apparent said coolly from the side of the pit.

Xu Qing didn’t reply. Looking around, he saw that he was in an empty mansion grotto. The place had long since been abandoned. There were mansion grottoes like this throughout the Bitter Life Mountains. Most were places that cultivators had hewn out over the years as places of refuge. Looking at the mountains from a distance, you would never notice them. But because Xu Qing was so heavy, it was easy for him to break through the ceilings of such places.

“There are a lot of caves like this in these mountains. It looks like you’re going to be doing plenty of climbing on this journey.”

When the Heir Apparent looked at Xu Qing, he seemed very relaxed. It was almost as if seeing Xu Qing in this bedraggled state was somehow comforting to him. The truth was that it reminded him of his own childhood, when his father would have him walk around with a sun tied at his waist.

He just needs that hat.

The only difference was that when he was a kid, he would have the sun at his waist and a special hat to add weight to his soul. Seeing Xu Qing without such a hat left him sighing inside.

Xu Qing looked up at the Heir Apparent for a moment, then used his violet moon power and the strength of his other nascent souls to bear the weight of the sun. Bit by bit, he climbed back out into the open. Xu Qing felt like he was expending every bit of effort possible to ascend skyward. But because of the power of the sun, the weight he bore was so incredible that he could barely stand up straight. Xu Qing was not unfamiliar with situations like that.

Back when he was in the Corrections Division in Sea-Sealing County, he had experienced something similar. The only difference was that he had been dealing with the pressure of a minor world. [1]

One might think that something called a ‘minor world’ would actually weigh more than the little metal sphere. But Xu Qing was now personally coming to realize that it was the exact opposite.

It made him think about what the Captain had told him about the history of this sun. It was the first artificial sun created in the Moonrite Region, in the era when the Imperial Sovereign ruled the place. Countless years had passed since then, and there were no records indicating who created it originally.

The Heir Apparent watched as Xu Qing finally dragged himself out of the ground, then said, “Take advantage of the pressure of that thing. It was a toy given to me by an Ancient Emperor of the time.”

Xu Qing glanced down at the metal sphere at his waist. “Senior, other than weight and pressure, what else can it do?”

The Heir Apparent stood and started walking away. “Back then, when it was just a heavenly body, it had other powers. It could tap into the power of the immortal net that covered the Revered Ancient mainland, and use it to unleash heaven-destroying, earth-extinguishing power. But nowadays...? After the Ancient Emperors left, the immortal net collapsed, and it became a lot weaker.”

His voice thrummed with reminiscence and ancient time. Xu Qing started following, one booming step after another. The wind blew as they walked off into the distance, carrying their voices and surrounding them.

“Senior, someone told me that the places the Ancient Emperors went off to are called holy lands?”

“Do the hiding spots of cowards deserve to be called holy? The Ancient Emperors... got old. And when you get old, you cling to life.”

“Oh. In that case, where did the cowards go?” Read latest chapters at novelhall.com Only

“Hahaha! Every year on the twelfth day of the sixth month of the human calendar, look into the sky toward the north. You’ll notice an unusual star there. That’s where you’ll find one of the coward lands, the one closest to Revered Ancient.”

“How many coward lands are there?”

“In the year they departed, there were as many of them as there were Ancient Emperors and Imperial Sovereigns who left. Including the ones from all of the countless species that existed, there were probably over a hundred. The Ancient Emperors even offered one to my father, but he refused to accept it.”

Those countless blades then turned on the dao begetting old man and the middle-aged Spirit Trove cultivator. The two of them looked around with numb terror. Both of them attempted to flee.

Unfortunately, there was a massive difference between dao begetting and Spirit Trove. The Spirit Trove cultivator summoned his secret trove, which expanded outward. His heavenly dao roared, altering the magical laws around him. Then he tried to break free.

Deafening booms rang out as the Spirit Trove cultivator managed to smash through the blades.

The dao begetting old man was too slow. In the blink of an eye, he was surrounded. He fought viciously, and summoned his illusory secret trove. But it did no good. The sea of blood around him became a rapidly spinning vortex that sucked him inside. Terrified, the old man performed incantation gesture after incantation gesture, and even used magical devices. Nothing worked! The boundless and unfathomable blood sea swept over him. Then the blood burrowed into him, provoking a miserable scream to erupt from his mouth. From a distance, it was an appalling sight!

A moment later, the sea of blood vanished, having completely burrowed into the old man. He shivered, and his eyes shone with despair. Apparently, his body couldn’t contain all of that, as he exploded a moment later.

The blood rushed back out into the open, turning into the apathetic face of Xu Qing. The face turned to look at the Spirit Trove cultivator.

This is probably going to be a tough fight. I wonder how I match up to a cultivator with a full secret trove. I guess I’m going to find out!

Xu Qing’s mind and heart thrummed with the desire to do battle. As the sea of blood spread out and his god trove pulsed with destructive power, he raced toward the Spirit Trove enemy.

***

Inside the joytravel tree, two pairs of eyes were looking outside. They were currently in a massive cave temple. Numerous roots spread out into the cave, where they clumped together in midair to form a cocoon. Dazzling light shone out through the many cracks on the surface of the cocoon, painting the entire area in bright color.

The Heir Apparent stood next to the shining cocoon. Smiling, he said, “Third Sister, you saw a lot of chosen throughout the years. What do you think about this quasi-apprentice of mine?”

“He’s your apprentice?” a cold voice replied from within the cocoon. “Did he agree to actually address you as Master? Given how old you are, why are you still going around trying to steal other people’s apprentices? Are you that shameless?”

There were very few people who qualified to speak to the Heir Apparent like that, but one of them was his third sister. The Heir Apparent wasn’t taken aback by her words. She was his big sister, so she was supposed to be cold on the outside but warm on the inside.

“Well, I’ve taught him a thing or two already. And I helped him a lot. In order to help improve his cultivation base, I even gave him a little gift.” The Heir Apparent continued to smile approvingly as he watched Xu Qing fighting.

“You call that a gift?” the cold voice said. A moment later, the shining cocoon exploded, and a figure emerged. That figure immediately left the mountain, appearing in midair just in front of the Spirit Trove cultivator Xu Qing was pursuing.

The Spirit Trove cultivator didn’t even have time to react when a delicate and beautiful finger suddenly appeared and touched his forehead. Rumbling sounds rang out and a tremor passed through the Spirit Trove cultivator. Then he transformed into a tree, which rapidly grew taller until it produced a fruit.

Xu Qing in his sea-of-blood form stopped. Then he formed back into his normal shape, and he looked hesitantly at the woman in front of him.

She had a face so beautiful it could topple kingdoms, but within that graceful elegance was a radiant, heroic spirit. Her cheeks were as rosy as the sunset, and her hair was bound into a simple bun adorned with a few glistening pearls. Those pearls, despite their beauty, couldn’t compare to her sparkling eyes. They glimmered like stars, were as azure blue as the sky, and seemed capable of captivating generation after generation of admirers. It was no exaggeration to say that her physical appearance was like that of flowers blooming in spring, while her spirit was like the autumn frost on the leaves of a tree.

She reached out her fair hand to pluck the fruit off the Spirit Trove tree. With a glance at the Heir Apparent, who had followed her out, she handed the fruit to Xu Qing.

“Now this is a gift,” she said. “I was in a bit of a rush last time, sweetie, so I didn’t have anything ready. This time, allow me to give you this gift to mark our meeting.”

1. Xu Qing first felt the ‘weight’ of the Corrections Division’s minor world in chapter 429-431. He started to train in that environment in chapter in 434, and that process went on for a while. ☜