This time around, Xu Qing didn't need to threaten the shadow much. Just this sentence alone caused it to shake.
In fact, amidst this horror, as though it was an instinctive reaction, a few tear marks appeared.
Emotions of anxiety were being transmitted to Xu Qing, as though it was afraid that it would be killed if it was too slow.
"Sea corpse… Eat… Quick breakthrough… Break through quickly."
Xu Qing didn't care about the difference between quick breakthrough and breaking through quickly. He also didn't care if the shadow had said it in anxiety. Instead, he looked at the black iron stick.
As the black iron stick trembled, the Diamond Sect's ancestor materialized from it. He had clearly made some mental preparations in this short time. As soon as he appeared, he immediately patted his chest and spoke to Xu Qing with a firm tone.
"Master, don't worry. At most, I'll eat a few more magic artifacts and the artifact spirit cultivation art I cultivate will be able to break through. According to my estimation, at that time, your treasured iron stick will achieve speed and sharpness comparable to the Mystic Brilliance Form under my control."
"Although it can't be maintained for long, I'll definitely work even harder and won't drag Master down. I've also been studying how to self-destruct recently."
"I've thought it through. I'm worried for Master. My life is nothing. If Master encounters a crisis, even if I have to self-destruct, I will open a path for Master!"
The Diamond Sect's ancestor spoke passionately and kept patting his chest. Hearing his words, the shadow no longer trembled but was stunned.
When Xu Qing heard this, he cast a meaningful glance at the Diamond Sect's ancestor and nodded.
"I understand."
After saying that, Xu Qing retracted his gaze. With a thought, the life fires in his body were instantly extinguished.
Xu Qing's entire body instantly dimmed and he returned to his previous state.
The terrifying pressure also dissipated.
After returning from that powerful state, the perception that reappeared in his entire body caused Xu Qing to feel a moment of discomfort. In fact, he even had an urge to continue activating the Mystic Brilliance Form.
However, he suppressed this impulse.
In reality, it wasn't just Xu Qing. To any Foundation Building cultivator, returning from the powerful state of the Mystic Brilliance Form to their original state would cause waves in their minds.
The Mystic Brilliance Form was a super eruption of the magic apertures in Foundation Building cultivators' bodies. During this eruption, their magic power and spirit sea, including their magic bodies and everything else, would be strengthened by leaps and bounds.
The consumption brought about by this increase was naturally extremely great.
This caused Foundation Building cultivators to learn to restrain themselves and make reasonable use of their Mystic Brilliance Form time. Generally speaking, a cultivator with a ball of life fire could maintain the Mystic Brilliance Form for more than an hour.
This time was the limit. Unless it was absolutely necessary, no one would challenge this limit.
This was because once their life fire was exhausted and extinguished due to reaching the limit, their magic apertures would be overused and turn into withered apertures.
Withered apertures were like trash and this situation was almost irreversible.
Xu Qing silently sensed his body. After he got used to his normal state again, he began to inspect his spoils of war.
This time, a total of four Foundation Building cultivators from the Sea Corpse Race had died in his hands. What Xu Qing regretted the most was the four magic artifacts that the six-eyed cultivator had used to resist his attack.
At that time, Xu Qing had just activated his Mystic Brilliance Form, so he couldn't accurately control the terrifying power in his body for a moment and used all his strength to attack.
The other party was crushed to pieces, but the four magic artifacts suffered the same fate as well.
"At least a million spirit stones…" At the thought of this, Xu Qing sighed and took out the storage bags he had obtained. After checking them, he felt a little better.
The storage bags of these Sea Corpse Race cultivators were much better than his previous loots. There were about 300,000 spirit stones in total. It was a pity that there was only one magic artifact.
It was the black-robed scholar's fan.
This fan could also increase one's speed. Xu Qing looked at the Diamond Sect's ancestor who clearly wanted it but endured it, and threw it over.
In an instant, the black iron stick pierced into the fan. The direction it pierced was very tricky. It didn't pierce the fan's surface but struck the lower part of the stick. This made it look like the fan had no obvious damage from the outside.
He started absorbing the spirit energy in the fan. When the fan finally dimmed, the Diamond Sect's ancestor pulled out the iron stick in satisfaction and blew at the fan.
This breath was very strange. After it landed on the fan, the dimness of the magic artifact instantly disappeared and it emitted a treasure light again. It looked no different from before.
"It's fragile…" The Diamond Sect's ancestor said in a low voice. After saying that, he blinked and put on an embarrassed expression, as though he wanted to use this to emphasize that he wasn't a sinister person.
Xu Qing stored the fan without caring about the Diamond Sect's expressions and words. At that moment, the two Sea Corpse Race cultivators' souls in his body erupted at the same time, instantly opening the 31st magic aperture.
"I need even more souls…" Xu Qing could sense that after he opened 30 magic apertures in his body, the amount of soul power he needed was a lot more than before. An ordinary Foundation Building cultivator's soul couldn't even open a single magic aperture now. Only the soul of the cultivator with life fire could do so.
After opening the 31st magic aperture, the two souls' remaining strength wasn't enough to open the 32nd magic aperture.
While the magic power in his body was increasing, Xu Qing rushed toward the exit of the underwater world.
When he reached the exit, he charged out without slowing down.
He followed the passageway to the outside world. As soon as he appeared, he saw countless Seven Blood Eyes cultivators whistling through the sky. The atmosphere of war on the merfolk island was very intense.
As the rumbling echoed in the distance, astonishing energy fluctuations also spread in the sky.
Xu Qing's expression turned solemn as he looked at the sky.
There were more than ten figures from the upper echelons of the Seven Blood Eyes fighting against some Sea Corpse Race cultivators. In the distance, the battle had become even more intense.
There were also rows of magic artifacts constructed on the four islands. The power of the spells stirred up various colored lights that surged into the sky and landed on the battlefield.
Flying swords flew out of the sword nurturing pools, whistling through the air.
It was the same for array formations.
Clearly, this war had reached a critical point. The counterattack from the Sea Corpse Race was very ferocious, and the countless flickering missions in the identity token proved this.
Xu Qing poured his magic power into it and immediately checked his token. Missions appeared in large numbers. Most of them were related to the battle at the frontline and they had extremely generous rewards. In the list of battle missions, killing ten thousand Sea Corpse Race cultivators could allow one to obtain a Core Formation opportunity. There were already seven to eight people who were close to this target.
Xu Qing quickly checked and handed in the mission to search for the teleportation arrays. However, he didn't choose the next mission immediately.
He was very clear that the most important thing in front of him now was how to explain having two balls of life fire.
Unless he didn't display the two balls of life fire in front of other Seven Blood Eyes' disciples for a very long time, and only fought with one ball of life fire in normal situations, otherwise, he would have to lay the groundwork in advance. Moreover, even if he only revealed two balls at the moment of life and death, there were still many chances for accidents.
Once he was exposed, he might be able to use the explanation of devouring souls in the war, the risk in this wasn't a lot either and the probability of attracting attention wasn't high, but it ultimately wouldn't be able to pass through an investigation which was a potential risk.
The solution was also simple.
Xu Qing checked his identity token. It showed that he had killed 15 Foundation Building cultivators of the Sea Corpse Race while the number of Qi Condensation cultivators killed was zero.
"Too little." Xu Qing shook his head. With such a small battle record, as long as outsiders were interested, they would be able to easily see through his lies.
Xu Qing found a remote place and confirmed that there was no one around. He then looked at the shadow and calmly spoke.
"Didn't you release the aura of the Sea Corpse Race earlier? Emit it."
The shadow seemed a little surprised and formed a question mark under Xu Qing's feet.
"Just do what you are told." The Diamond Sect's ancestor seized the opportunity and quickly reprimanded.
The shadow felt aggrieved. After a long time, it emitted a wisp of the aura of the Sea Corpse Race. However, as soon as it appeared, the purple crystal in Xu Qing's body suppressed it and instantly destroyed that wisp of aura.
After that, amidst the shadow's horror and confusion, Xu Qing checked his identity token and discovered that the Qi Condensation cultivators killed had increased from zero to one.
"As expected, it's like I expected." Xu Qing's eyes lit up. Previously, when he saw the shadow forming the aura of the Sea Corpse Race, he had been weighing how the identity token recorded the number of kills. Now, he was very satisfied with the test results.
After all, the identity token was a dead object and the recording feature was relatively simple. It was judged by the collapse of the aura and fluctuations.
Under normal circumstances, this wouldn't be a problem. It wouldn't be easy to tamper with it either. As for many people attacking the enemy together, there should be another way to judge. Although it wasn't perfect, it was still acceptable overall.
However, Xu Qing's shadow was bizarre… and a little different from the norm.
This was the solution Xu Qing had thought of. He was going to accept a large number of missions next. On one hand, he would really refine the souls and open his magic apertures. On the other hand, he would rely on the shadow to farm battle results. Regardless of whether it was Qi Condensation or Foundation Building, as long as he had enough on the records, there would be a reasonable explanation for his two balls of life fire.
This was possible due to the war. Not many people would have the time to pay attention to others and the number of Sea Corpse Race cultivators was huge. Hence, as long as he didn't go overboard with his battle results, the plan was flawless.
The only thing he had to consider was how many times the shadow could withstand the suppression.
Xu Qing only thought about this for a moment before tossing it to the side. He felt that since the shadow didn't die after being suppressed by him so many times, it shouldn't die so easily.
In the next two months, Xu Qing began to accept missions crazily. During this period, he only used a ball of life fire's power most of the time. He would only activate his life lantern when he was fighting alone.
However, he was wary of his identity token. When he activated the life lantern, he would use the shadow to cover his identity token.
At the same time, he would farm a large number of battle results on every mission. For this, he had been forcefully demanding the shadow. Occasionally, it would reveal a wisp of Foundation Building aura and fluctuations, but it was only an aura and didn't have combat strength.
It seemed to be the limit of the shadow's current ability, causing Xu Qing's battle record to have additional Foundation Building cultivators killed.
As for the miserable state of the shadow, even the Diamond Sect's ancestor was shocked. It clearly had nothing to do with him, but for some reason, he was also afraid.
There were a few times when it seemed like the shadow was really about to collapse. However, Xu Qing's true battle results in the past two months were quite good, allowing the shadow to absorb the Sea Corpse Race cultivators and barely hold on. At the same time, under Xu Qing's training, the combat strength the shadow displayed seemed to be even stronger than before. This made Xu Qing very surprised.
Xu Qing's magic apertures also opened one after another, reaching 40.
