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Chapter 862: Dirge of Betrayal

Xu Qing sighed. His insides were telling him that all of this history was true.

He wasn’t a member of this species, but the memory fragments had allowed him to not just see events from countless years ago, but also feel them. To some extent, it was almost like he had gone through those things himself.

So how did Ninedawns die? And what did the grand steward do to change the Darkheaven Archmage species into the Firemoon Darkheaven people? Also... what history do the three gods of sun, moon, and star have with them...? Maybe the answers will come with the memories of the five remaining skulls.

Xu Qing looked down at the muck. Unfortunately, his brown flame wisp had been extinguished, so he had no way to use Crimson Mother’s flesh to get into the cave. That wasn’t to mention the fact that he was now starting to run low on flesh.

I only have six pieces left.

Xu Qing checked the four skulls in the violet crystal, as well as the connection to the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands.

By now, he didn’t need the incense burner, and could dispel the gray fog with a mere thought. He no longer felt trapped. Based on what he could tell, if he wanted to leave, the gray fog would part for him and let him go.

But there was a big problem with the idea of leaving. His cultivation base and godly powers were still gone. Could he really just give up on them? Let the gray fog fill him, enter his soul, and become a part of him?

If that happened, I wouldn’t be a god cultivator anymore. I would be... a mage!

Xu Qing looked off into the distance.

When it came to mages, Xu Qing felt a sense of familiarity and unfamiliarity at the same time. The unfamiliarity was because he had never actually interacted with a mage. The familiarity came because the gray fog originated with a mage. And now that Xu Qing had absorbed the four skulls, to some extent, he had accepted the legacy of Ninedawns. But that wasn’t the path he wanted to walk.

The original antemage died to seriously injure a powerful god.

Xu Qing’s eyes narrowed as he looked down at the muck and kept trying to come up with a new plan. He had an idea he thought would work, but the problem was that he needed five skulls to do it. Right now, he only had four.

After some thought, Xu Qing said, “Little Shadow.”

No fluctuations came from underfoot. No emotions. It was as if Little Shadow was dead.

Xu Qing’s facial expression was the same as ever. After three breaths of time passed, he said, “If you don’t get out here now, then don’t ever come out again.”

A very faint shadow suddenly appeared on the muck below, pulsing with very weak fluctuations.

“Go down past 3,000 meters. And turn into a subatomic particle that I can control with magic.” [1]

Little Shadow’s fluctuations seemed fretful and very resistant to Xu Qing’s idea.

“I’ll make sure the gray fog doesn’t cause problems for you,” Xu Qing assured. He waved his hand, and in accord with his will, the gray fog drifted away.

That caused Little Shadow’s fretfulness to diminish a bit, as well as any resistance.

“After you’re done, I’ll give you a piece of Crimson Mother’s flesh,” Xu Qing added calmly.

Little Shadow was very fond of Crimson Mother’s flesh, and for the most part, was only able to watch as Xu Qing used it. It was not easy to get a taste. Therefore, Xu Qing’s promise caused Little Shadow to hesitate slightly. The fretfulness and resistance faded even more.

“If you don’t follow orders, then there’s no reason to continue this lord-and-servant relationship we have.” Xu Qing’s voice had turned cold.

It caused Little Shadow to shiver, and finally the combination of rewards and threats caused it to release fluctuations of pure abandon. In order to stay alive, and in order to get some meat to eat, it roared like a wild beast and then dove down into the muck.

In the shortest of moments, it dropped down 300 meters. The gray fog couldn’t get close, thanks to Xu Qing’s interference. And thus, Little Shadow had no problem descending. Soon it reached the 2,400-meter mark.

At the same time, Xu Qing could clearly sense the sealing power from below. That power was dormant, but he got the feeling that once his aura contacted it, it would immediately send out crushing force. Therefore, at a certain point, he didn’t dare to use his aura to interfere with the gray fog.

That was when Little Shadow’s progress slowed, and it emitted a howl of anguish. However, it was still better than before. And Little Shadow was going all out. Ignoring the invasion of the gray fog, it dropped past 2,700 meters and then kept going. After all, on the previous attempt, it had split up over and over again, and had not yet recovered. It was currently much weaker.

Seeing that, Xu Qing said, “Two pieces of Crimson Mother’s flesh!”

The words caused Little Shadow to tremble, then release some very crazy emotional fluctuations. With an amazing reward like that on the line, it viciously dropped down further. Rumbling sounds echoed out as it shot past 3,000 meters and entered the cave.

Xu Qing couldn’t release any of his aura there, so the fog immediately swept over Little Shadow, who howled piteously.

Xu Qing’s expression was grave. He knew that this opportunity was going to be fleeting. Thus, it was without hesitation that he extended his right hand and unleashed Fishing the Moon in the Well.

Ripples spread out, forming a surface of water. Five skulls appeared very clearly, and Xu Qing reached down and fished one of them out.

As he put it in his mouth and sealed it in the violet crystal, Little Shadow collapsed. It seemed dead, but there was still a strand of shadow that burrowed back up through the muck to Xu Qing.

Xu Qing wasn’t paying attention to the shadow. Little Shadow was inherently cunning and deceitful. Everything from before was partly real, but also exaggerated. Therefore, Xu Qing wasn’t worried about it at all. The fact that it had secretly preserved a shadow strand of itself was exactly what he had predicted it would do.

That said, Little Shadow really had come very close to its ultimate limit. It actually looked like it was about to fall into a deep sleep. But then it struggled to stay awake, all while instinctively sending weak emotional fluctuations to Xu Qing, as if to ask for confirmation about something.

“Flesh....”

Xu Qing nodded. He could sense the state Little Shadow was in, and knew that it didn’t matter whether or not he had flesh to give it. The shadow was clearly too weak to eat.

That said, being the kind person he was, Xu Qing offered some placating words. “I’ll feed you when you wake up.”

After hearing that, Little Shadow seemed content, and went to sleep.

As for Xu Qing, he settled down cross-legged to focus on recovering. A few days later he opened his eyes. He now had five skulls, and thus, he could employ the method he’d come up with earlier to get the others.

This method did not involve making a tunnel through the muck. In fact, once he used the method, the remaining skulls below would automatically appear within Fishing the Moon in the Well.

I’ll have to trust Eldest Brother on this one!

Eyes gleaming with determination, he tapped into the violet crystal. The crystal vibrated and then sent violet light streaming throughout his body. As the light spread out of him, the five skulls appeared, floating over his head in a pentagonal formation. Looking at the five skulls, Xu Qing performed a double-handed incantation gesture and started chanting.

Ripples started to flow out from the first skull. Then the second and the third....

Ultimately, all five of the skulls sent out ripples and combined, growing more and more intense until they were a black hole vortex.

Looking at the vortex, Xu Qing loudly said, “Souls in heaven and earth shall return to their origin!”

His voice seemed to thrum with something very ancient. The moment they rang out, the vortex began spinning with great intensity. Gradually, it was possible to see four balls of fire inside, slowly emerging. Those four balls of fire had the same substructure as the skulls in the violet light!

This was the very same technique the Captain had imparted to Xu Qing some time back. It was called the Grand Five Ox Essence-Tracing Grand Merciless Dao.[2]

The basic premise was to trace the essence of something back to its origin, then draw it out. The prerequisite was to have five pieces of the original.

When the four balls of fire appeared, Xu Qing used Fishing the Moon in the Well to grab them. The four balls of fire shuddered, and three of them emerged from the vortex and appeared in the water in Xu Qing’s palm. Xu Qing’s heart was pounding with excitement. Although he wasn’t able to fish out all of them, getting three skulls in one shot just went to prove how astonishing his Eldest Brother’s technique was. He immediately consumed them.

Memory fragments hit him like a tempest, filling his mind. They connected with the memory fragments from before, and also added new concepts.

The ancient wind blew again, tattered and ragged like a funeral dirge.

The lyrics of the dirge described the story of the grand steward, who had been approved of by Ninedawns as well as his whole species, and who had been entrusted as the leader inside the God-Rejecting Mage Formation. He deserved to be called chosen in every way. He had outstanding ability and grand vision, and under his leadership, the Darkheaven Archmages were united. They thrived and multiplied, and the new generation grew up in complete safety.

On the outside, Ninedawns was very pleased, but eventually stopped paying attention to what was happening inside the formation. His energy and thoughts were all focused on the war with the gods. He had accepted his father’s mantle, as well as the spirit of the Darkheaven Archmage people. As a result, he would never back down.

After all, his species existed behind him only because of his protection. If he died in battle, it would be without any regrets. That was because he had already found a successor. In his heart, the grand steward was the one who would be the next antemage.

Thus, it was without any fear for the future that he led his subordinate archmages during the long war vigil.

Years passed, until eventually, a bloody banquet was thrown by the people he had sworn to protect.

1. I’m putting this footnote here to address the inevitable comments of “How dare you use a modern term like ‘subatomic particle’ in a xianxia translation! It breaks the immersion!!!” Well, sorry about that, but if the author uses modern terms, then I also use modern terms in English. In this case, the author uses the name of a specific type of subatomic particle, and I’m simplifying it to ‘subatomic particle’ to make it easy to understand. As for why the author does this, I haven’t asked him. If I was to bet, he probably saw something on TV or Douyin (Chinese TikTok) about this type of subatomic particle and thought it would be cool to use it. It’s no more ‘immersion breaking’ than having the cultivators take selfies, send voice messages, or run tabloids in their colleges. ☜

2. The Captain revealed his Grand Five Ox Essence-Tracing Grand Merciless Dao in chapter 832. ☜