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If Seven Blood Eyes goes to war with some other force, will it last for that long?

Xu Qing thought back to the Grand Competition and the fight with the Merfolk. Then he remembered what the Captain had said. Such weighty matters were beyond their control, and would be handled by the leadership of the sect.

If there’s not enough profit to be had, I won’t join in the fighting. Going back into his mansion grotto, he sat down cross-legged and took out the Life Nurturing Incantation jade slip.

The Balefire Soulswallowing Scripture was a martial technique, but the way it used slaughter made it something like a magical technique. After cultivating it, the way you opened dharma apertures revolved around magical martial arts stances.

The Life Nurturing Incantation was different. It revolved solely around a cultivator’s breathing exercises. In that regard, it was similar to the Seaforming Scripture. By slowly strengthening oneself, the cultivator would open dharma apertures one after another.

After more thought, Xu Qing had come to the conclusion that his previous assessment was incorrect, and that the best thing would be to cultivate both techniques at the same time. It didn’t matter which one he focused on more, as the Foundation Establishment level was all about opening dharma apertures and forming life flames, and both could do that.

And thus, he began cultivating the Life Nurturing Incantation.

The night passed.

The next morning, as sunlight slowly filled the sky, Xu Qing opened his eyes. He organized his weapons and poisons, as well as the talisman treasures he’d purchased. Then after his usual routine of suppressing his shadow, he opened the door of his mansion grotto and looked out at the rosy sky.

I need to go out to sea, kill some sea beasts, and use their souls to open more dharma apertures. Striding away from his mansion grotto, he stepped out into midair. His snakeneck dragon then appeared beneath him, roaring to heaven. Flapping its four draconic flippers as if the sky were the sea, it shot with shocking speed toward the horizon.

***

The Sea of Endlessness was covered with black waves.

Compared to the bright sky, the darkness of the water was bizarre. It seemed almost like ink. Its mysterious depths imparted a sense of awe.

Though this was not Xu Qing’s first time out at sea, he didn’t feel very much different than the previous time. He remained cautious and careful. In the sect, there were rules that everyone had to follow, but outside the sect, anything could happen.

Instead of showing off by flying, he traveled on his dharmaskiff. And he used the disguising function to make it seem like an ordinary dharmaboat. After sitting down cross-legged, he activated the defenses and set a course.

It feels better to be on my boat than in my mansion grotto.

His first destination was a location he had been to before, specifically, the area where he, Zhao Zhongheng, and Ding Xue had encountered that snakeneck dragon. [1]

And that was because his first chosen type of prey was snakeneck dragon.

He needed souls to open his dharma apertures, and he’d decided that sea beast souls would be the perfect kindling for now. Of course, he knew it was unlikely he would encounter the exact same snakeneck dragon. But he figured it would be a good place to start looking.

Not wanting to waste time, he cultivated the Life Nurturing Incantation while he traveled, and simultaneously worked on putting his personal snakeneck dragon into one of his dharma apertures. His snakeneck dragon had a Foundation Establishment aura now, and he was worried that if it was out in the open, wild snakeneck dragons would fear it and stay away.

As he traveled, he saw other Seven Blood Eyes dharmaboats. He was always very leery of them. It didn’t matter that he was in Foundation Establishment now, he was still as cautious as ever. Generally speaking, other watercraft treated him the same. Everyone was careful when on the open sea, and hesitated to get too close to each other.

Time passed. Three days later, Xu Qing’s Foundation Establishment level of speed allowed him to reach that same spot he was looking for. It was high noon, and puffy clouds danced in the blue sky above.

As Xu Qing sat on the deck, he looked at the black waters of the Forbidden Sea, then focused his senses on what was happening beneath the surface. After quite some time passed, he didn’t see any snakeneck dragons. Xu Qing stilled his dharmaskiff so that it didn’t send out any fluctuations. Then he looked to the skies, peering about until he spotted a pseudotooth albatross circling in the distance.

Waving his hand, he sent his iron skewer shooting out. The pseudotooth albatross reacted with alarm, but it wasn’t fast enough to completely avoid the attack. The skewer pierced the bird’s wing, causing the bird to let out a piercing shriek. Then Xu Qing controlled the skewer in a manner to pull the bird out of the sky and onto the surface of the water, preventing it from flying away.

Then Xu Qing waited.

Time passed. The pseudotooth albatross’ struggling didn’t do any good. Eventually, Xu Qing’s pupils constricted as he noticed something deep beneath the surface. Water flowed, and eventually, he saw a majestic snakeneck dragon more than 900 meters long.

It had an astounding aura, apparently somewhere between Qi Condensation and Foundation Establishment. But most amazing was its physical form. There was no way a Qi Condensation cultivator could fight it. As it neared, it noticed Xu Qing’s dharmaskiff. However, Xu Qing had the dharmaskiff’s fluctuations masked, and was doing the same for himself. The snakeneck dragon circled around him, then suddenly shot right in his direction, completely ignoring the pseudotooth albatross.

From the look of it, the dragon thought that Xu Qing would taste more delicious than the bird.

As the dragon neared, Xu Qing sat unmoving on the deck. When it was almost upon him, his eyes turned cold and he reached out toward it with a grasping motion.

The water around the snakeneck dragon erupted, rising high in the shape of a hand that pulsed with the dharma force of Foundation Establishment.

As the hand grabbed the dragon, the iron skewer shot down from above. Inside the skewer, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior was going all out to prove his worth, and didn’t hold back as the skewer stabbed toward the dragon.

The dragon howled, creating a sound wave that blocked the iron skewer. At the same time, its draconic flippers swept through the water, creating a wave to fight back against the huge hand. From the look in its eyes it was clearly alarmed and wanted to flee. But it reacted too slowly. Rumbling sounds echoed out as the massive hand crushed around the dragon. As it did, the iron skewer glittered, stabbing into the snakeneck dragon and piercing through its flesh toward its heart.

“I need it alive!” Xu Qing said coolly. The iron skewer trembled as it stabbed into the heart, then came to a stop before going all the way through. Although the iron skewer was like a tiny needle compared to the dragon, the creature still howled in pain. It writhed, trying to free itself, but the huge hand lifted it out of the water and into the air.

Seawater poured off of it like a waterfall. The dragon was so huge that it blocked the sun, casting Xu Qing’s dharmaskiff completely into shadow.

Xu Qing looked up at the snakeneck dragon, his expression placid as he extended both hands and began an incantation gesture. Black balefire shot from his dharma apertures out into the open.

From a distance, it looked like Xu Qing was wreathed in black fire. As the fire rose into the air, the snakeneck dragon’s eyes filled with terror, and it howled and struggled even more ferociously.

Its efforts did nothing. Xu Qing’s incantation gesture caused more and more black fire to erupt forth, eventually transforming into what looked like the head of a devil, cackling as it approached the dragon. When they collided, the devil head spread out to cover the dragon and then immolate it. Of course, what was being immolated wasn’t the dragon’s body, but its soul. After enough time had passed for an incense stick to burn, the dragon’s struggling grew weaker and weaker. Eventually, the fire swept away from the dragon and back into Xu Qing. Its body was limp now. Having lost its soul, there was no life left in its physical form, making it useless.

The giant hand released the dragon, and it splashed down into the water and sank down.

As the iron skewer flew back and circled around Xu Qing, he looked at the results of his first usage of the Balefire Soulswallowing Scripture. Inside of him there was a white soul shadow with a few traces of green on it that looked like a snakeneck dragon.

“So, it’s white,” Xu Qing murmured. According to the description in the Balefire Soulswallowing Scripture, Qi Condensation souls were white, Foundation Establishment souls were green. Green souls were ideal for opening dharma apertures, whereas the white variety were inferior.

Might as well give it a shot. With a thought, he caused the snakeneck dragon soul shadow to ignite like kindling. As the fire burned, he sent it racing toward the spot where his third dharma aperture existed.

A tremor passed through him as the third dharma aperture trembled, and a crack appeared on it. However, it didn’t open. And then the snakeneck dragon’s soul power faded away.

It’s working, but not fast enough. After some thought, he wondered if it was because he wasn’t familiar enough with the process. Piloting his dharmaskiff to another location, he used the same method to try to catch another dragon.

The pseudotooth albatross had only been the starting point. This time, he used himself as bait, but releasing some Qi Condensation fluctuations into the water. At the same time, he prepared to fly up into the air in case things went wrong. After all... it was possible that his attempt to catch snakeneck dragons could actually result in something more terrifying coming up from the depths.

Of course, it didn’t seem extremely likely, as the truly terrifying entities wouldn’t be enticed by a mere Qi Condensation aura.

Three days later, Xu Qing’s attempts bore fruit as a second snakeneck dragon approached. Following the same pattern, he used its soul power to batter at his third dharma aperture. After that, he went to another location. And thus, for the greater part of a month, he hunted for snakeneck dragons. It was only after taking a dragon in the great circle of Qi Condensation that he finally broke his third dharma aperture open, although not all the way.

The process was going far too slow. Frowning, he did some quick math, and came to the conclusion that at this rate, even if he worked nonstop and without rest, it would take three years to open thirty of his dharma apertures. And that was probably being too optimistic with his estimate, as dharma apertures weren’t all the same. The more you opened, the more soul power you needed. Considering that, he would probably need twice as much time. That wasn’t to mention that he would eventually have to go back to the city. And who knew what other things could cause delays. All in all, using this method to open dharma apertures would probably end up taking him dozens of years.

I need to think of a way to kill sea beasts faster!

Eyes glittering coldly, he looked off into the distance.

There, he saw a giantfang shark racing through the water, hundreds of meters long, pulsing with the fluctuations of Foundation Establishment. Flying in the sky behind it in pursuit was a person standing on a huge, ancient bronze sword. It was a young man wearing a First Peak crimson daoist robe. His long hair whipped behind him in the wind, and he looked grave and stern, with cold eyes.

When he noticed Xu Qing, he looked at him coldly and said, “Calling the wind and summoning the rain is not unique; put the stars in a bag to play hide and seek.”

Xu Qing frowned.

1. They encountered the snakeneck dragon in chapter 83. ☜