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Chapter 235: Amazing Developments

The opposite was true for Night Dove. Their casualties were shocking. Over 4,000 Night Dove operatives from all over South Phoenix were snared in the crackdown, and virtually all of them were either captured or had their heads hung on the city wall.

By dawn, the city was functioning as usual. However, there were many locations where blood was still splattered on the streets. Because of the slaughter, the Violent Crimes Division became the talk of the sect.

Most Night Dove operatives were Qi Condensation cultivators, but it was the same with Violent Crimes. However, to the visiting nonhumans, though the Seven Blood Eyes disciples were mostly low-level cultivators, they were also like venomous bugs in a jar, and were brutal down to their core.

That brutality caused many of the nonhumans and allies to look more highly on Seven Blood Eyes. That was especially true when you considered that, if the low-level disciples like this climbed the ranks, then the high-level disciples would be even more impressive. After all, only the ultimate wolf could rise to the top of the pack. At the same time, many onlookers were planning on keeping a close eye on Xu Qing.

However, Xu Qing was simply too skilled at maintaining a low profile. After his fight with Sima Ling, he never showed his face in public, and rarely even left the Violent Crimes Division cell block. Thus, people had a hard time observing him.

What was more, thanks to Yanyan taking part in the night crackdown, Xu Qing didn’t need to lift a finger.

He wasn’t sure what to make of the situation with her. She had come looking for him on numerous occasions recently, but he had always refused to see her. Eventually, she’d given up, and he’d assumed she wouldn’t bother him again. As such, it had been a complete surprise to find out she was suddenly helping with the fight against Night Dove. He obviously heard about what she was telling everyone. But considering how much help she was providing, he decided not to bicker over such things.

Right now, he was waiting for his final two dharma apertures to open. Then he could ignite his third life flame. He also wanted to see how powerful his next generation of black beetles were.

Furthermore, he wanted to wait for the Violent Crimes Division to continue tightening the net on Night Dove, and eventually figure out where their main headquarters was. When that happened, he would finally take action.

Thus, Xu Qing remained out of sight, working on improving his battle prowess and cultivation base.

It wasn’t possible to raid all of the Night Dove safe houses in a single night. The process continued over multiple nights.

As that happened, the Seazombies finally paid their wartime reparations!

Marquis An of the Seazombies, who had a Nascent Soul cultivation base, arrived in the city, where he would remain for a full sixty-year-cycle, with only one chance to ever go outside. Along with him came the Gold Core boy Ying Ling, as well as... Vastworld, who would serve as a royal hostage. [1]

Vastworld had no desire to come to Seven Blood Eyes, but he had no choice, as only someone in the Seazombie echelon could serve as a royal hostage. His heart overflowed with humiliation and madness, but he had to endure it. At the same time, he hated Xu Qing down to his bones, but couldn’t do anything about it.

The arrival of the Seazombies sent the sect’s celebration into a fever pitch. Bells filled the air, and Sir Bloodsmelter’s face appeared in the dome of heaven, looking down on everything below.

The peaklords appeared, representing Seven Blood Eyes to receive the Seazombie procession. Countless nonhumans and Seven Blood Eyes disciples looked on as the humiliated Seazombie Marquis An handed over the official documents of surrender, as well as the reparations. He also provided a jade slip with the dao oaths of the Seazombies in the Gold Core level and higher.

Finally, the Seazombies in their ancestral land... began preparations to send their zombie ancestor divine likenesses to Seven Blood Eyes. There were still two peaklords stationed in the Seazombie ancestral land, and they were taking the lead in the process. The primary work involved moving the statues from their original positions to a huge teleportation portal.

The entire purpose of that portal was to send the statues to Seven Blood Eyes as battle trophies.

Although it was common knowledge that removing the divine likenesses from Seazombie territory would cause them to lose their special properties, they were still precious to the Seazombies, and thus, it made sense that Seven Blood Eyes wanted them. Anyone else in their position would do the same thing.

Because of the great distance involved, and because Seven Blood Eyes didn’t want to make an intermediary stop in the Merfolk Isles, they were building a special teleportation portal to ensure that the statues would go directly to South Phoenix. When the actual teleportation itself occurred, it would happen quickly. According to calculations made by various individuals, the statues would arrive... right when the celebration was ending.

The event became a spectacle that everyone was paying attention to. What was more, the challenges being issued by the Seven Sect Coalition temporarily stopped.

Now that the Seazombies had paid their reparations, the wartime rewards were finally being distributed. With that reward, and the amount Xu Qing had received from Sima Ling, he was unprecedentedly rich.

He felt much more happy than normal, and it wasn’t just him. All the disciples who had taken part in the war got their rewards. As a result, everyone was buying cultivation resources and supplies to improve battle prowess.

However, that joy only lasted for a few days, until the Seven Sect Coalition started issuing challenges again.

This time, the challenges didn’t just come from the chosen. With the exception of Huang Yikun from the Dark Serenity Sect, all of the other chosen had come with retinues that included dao protectors and other outstanding individuals from their sects. Such people weren’t as famous as the chosen, and thus, they started issuing challenges to disciples who didn’t rank among the highnesses. Though both sides had wins and losses, the Seven Sect Coalition usually came out on top.

No one challenged Xu Qing.

Because of all the Night Dove safe houses that were being raided, and how many operatives were being arrested, Xu Qing was getting close to opening his 89th dharma aperture. After buying a vast quantity of poisonous plants, he was starting to experiment with reconcocting the taboo poison pill. At the same time, he had successfully produced a third generation of black beetles. The third generation only had six beetles in it. They were so few in number it wasn’t possible to see them. The only reason Xu Qing would sense them was the resonance between them and his blood. Furthermore, the third generation were very faintly colored, and were also much smaller than before. That said, the effects of their poison was more dramatic, and they had also picked up some of the characteristics of the taboo poison pill.

Treating the six beetles like precious treasures, Xu Qing carefully inserted them into some Night Dove cultivators to feed. This time, he changed his feeding method by infusing the Night Dove operatives’ bodies with all sorts of medicinal and poison plants for the benefit of the third generation. Xu Qing went about it all in a very academic fashion. He observed things carefully and kept careful notes. He was very pleased whenever he saw good results.

That said, to the Night Dove cultivators in the cell block, life was like a living hell. All of them had done cruel things in the past, but as far as they were concerned, they couldn’t hold a candle to Xu Qing. They had inflicted sadistic punishment on disobedient living treasures, and had even toyed with them in various perverted ways. Therefore what was happening... was just the cycle of karma.

Bloodcurdling screams echoed out of the cell block, over and over again. Although the Violent Crimes constables had grown used to the situation, none of them dared to get too close.

Furthermore, because Xu Qing was in charge of this Night Dove operation, and because of how he had crushed Sima Ling and set up the curfew, things were different. It wasn’t like before, when the other Violent Crimes Divisions wouldn’t give him prisoners after he ran out. The other Violent Crimes Divisions sent him new prisoners on a daily basis. Beyond all that, the capital city was currently locked down, so the Night Dove operatives couldn’t flee. They could only hide and wait to be arrested.

It was easy to imagine how stunning of a loss this was going to be for Night Dove’s operations on South Phoenix.

Xu Qing’s research was bringing results. What was more, he wasn’t wasting any of the Night Dove operatives’ souls. Though the souls were weak, there were a lot of them, and he used every single one to help with his dharma apertures.

Because of the screams coming out of the cell block, it wasn’t long before people all through the city were talking about how vicious he was.

***

Master Shengyun stood in the middle of a huge fighting arena on the First Peak. Voice cool, he said, “You’re all weak. Too weak.”

He sounded disappointed. Shockingly, eight of the First Peak’s highnesses were sprawled on the ground at his feet. Wu Jianwu was one of them. All had pale faces, and were coughing up blood. They looked shaken as they stared up at Master Shengyun, who looked spectacular bathed in the moonlight.

His seven-colored umbrella seemed to block out the sky, and the chanting of the wind echoed everywhere. Behind him was the green-bodied red-tailed ravagemist bird, its head thrown back as it let loose a piercing cry, dark winds sweeping left and right around it.

Not too far away was the First Peak’s grand highness, who had just emerged from seclusion. His face was pale, and there was blood at the corners of his mouth. He had just broken through to the Gold Core level, but before he had a chance to stabilize his heavenly palace, he had to come out and fight. There was no other option, as the stabilization process would take too long, and he had no basis upon which to ask for more time.

The First Peak... had been routed by Master Shengyun.

The grand highness lost, but what was even more humiliating was that Master Shengyun had demanded that all nine highnesses fight him at once. They all lost. It was just too difficult of a fight.

“This place is boring,” Master Shengyun said, his face expressionless. For a moment, he looked over at the Seventh Peak, but then he shook his head. Turning, he flew off the First Peak and headed in the direction of Forbidden by the Phoenix. His three dao protectors followed him dutifully. “The little sparrow knows not to stick his head out. He’s not stupid after all. Well, I just hope he grows up soon. That way, he can make a delicious snack sooner rather than later.”

As Master Shengyun disappeared over the horizon, the moon shone down on the Seventh Peak, where Huang Yikun from the Dark Serenity Sect walked haughtily up the stairs.

“Today, I, Huang Yikun, hereby challenge the Seventh Peak!”

1. Marquis An and Ying Ling last appeared in