Five balls of life fire burned in Saintly Star's body, shocking the heavens and the earth. It was as though there was a starry sky in his body that had transformed into a sea of fire.
Beside him, the eight Nascent Soul cultivators of the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect were meditating with their eyes closed.
During this period of time, they had spent a lot of effort to help Saintly Star suppress the poison.
That poison was too special, causing them to be extremely wary.
Even the Soaring Cloud Ancestor's eyes were filled with fatigue. In order to plant the Alliance Leader's Golden Crow in his grandson's body, he had truly done everything he could. Now that he saw that his grandson had recovered, his expression was filled with relief.
"Yun'er, what are you going to do next? Step into the Golden Core Realm?"
"Grandfather, I want to challenge Xu Qing. I have to take back what I lost with my own hands!" Saintly Star floated in the air and closed his eyes. After a long time, he opened them and calmly spoke.
"With the Alliance Leader's Golden Crow around, I'm not afraid of Xu Qing's poison. Moreover, the Alliance Leader's Golden Crow gives me terrifying vitality, causing my combat strength to be even stronger than before. After all, how could the Alliance Leader bear to let me die just like that…"
"Yun'er, we had no choice." The Soaring Cloud Ancestor fell silent for a while before sighing.
"He just took a fancy to this body of mine. It's fine. Grandfather, please place a seal in my body and seal all the magic apertures in my body, preventing them from being extinguished or covered."
"Without these two vicious methods, Xu Qing is useless even with two life lanterns and I'm confident that I can kill him!"
"I'll let him… taste a pain several times worse than what I suffered!!"
Very soon, a challenge letter was sent to the Seven Blood Eyes from the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect!
Saintly Star wanted to challenge Xu Qing to a life-and-death battle!
As soon as the challenge letter arrived, the Seven Blood Eyes shook. The entire Eight Sects Alliance instantly stirred.
Xu Qing, who was in the Mystic Nether Sect's land of fortune, didn't know what was happening in the outside world. At that moment, his eyes were wide open as he looked at Wu Jianwu in the air. After the latter recited the poem, the surroundings trembled.
Xu Qing's mind was in turmoil. The captain also gasped. He didn't expect that he would really succeed.
A trace of the ancient snake's soul actually awakened! Although it was only a trace, the color of the sky changed and the wind and clouds churned. Endless soul power erupted several times over at this moment.
The expressions of the surrounding cultivators changed drastically. They opened their eyes and looked around in horror. They also saw the arrogant Wu Jianwu in the air and sensed the increase in soul power here.
This scene caused their hearts to tremble. However, it was obvious that they wouldn't stop it. Instead, they sped up their breathing technique.
Xu Qing was the same. He didn't dare to approach the depths immediately. At that moment, he sat down cross-legged and absorbed the soul power with all his might. As for the captain, he seemed to be immersed in his directing role; his eyes seemed to emit endless light as he shouted.
"Sovereign is mighty, Sovereign is domineering!"
Wu Jianwu, who was in the air, was already completely immersed in his role. When he heard this, he became even more arrogant.
He placed his hands behind his back and puffed out his chest. He looked at the demon snake skull on the nail with disdain and calmly spoke.
"I walk in heaven and earth; little snake, you are really weak!"
As Wu Jianwu's voice rang, an even more shocking roar tore through this world like never before.
Even the surrounding mountain range started shaking!
"I've suppressed you for 100,000 years, it's not pathetic to lose your body!" Wu Jianwu waved his hand and spoke even louder. His aura seemed to have soared to the peak of his life.
Even the snake head on the pillar trembled slightly. Soul power that was dozens of times denser than before instantly erupted.
Seeing this, Xu Qing was a little worried that the demon snake's soul would really awaken and devour Wu Jianwu in one gulp.
The captain also gasped. He quickly weighed the pros and cons in his mind. He felt that if the demon snake woke up, Wu Jianwu was a goner for sure. He wasn't ready to pull out the fang yet, so he quickly spoke.
"Little Jianjian, this is enough. There's no need to chant anymore."
Wu Jianwu, who was in the air, frowned. He lowered his head and coldly glanced at the captain.
"How dare a commoner speak like this? How dare you compare yourself to this Sovereign?"
At this moment, Wu Jianwu's gaze had 30% disdain, 50% arrogance, and 20% domineeringness. It was as though he had completely integrated into the character of Ancient Sovereign Mystic Nether.
After all, this was his lifelong dream and also the goal he strived for. As he spoke, the tremors in this land of fortune became even more intense. It was as though Wu Jianwu, who spoke like this, caused the soul of the demon snake, which was in a deep sleep, to suffer an even greater stimulation.
The captain saw that Wu Jianwu was too engrossed in his role. He sighed and looked at Xu Qing.
"Xu Qing, you handle it. I'm worried that this fool is going to get himself killed."
Xu Qing lifted his head and coldly glanced at Wu Jianwu. He didn't think that Wu Jianwu was too immersed in his role. This fellow should have done it on purpose. The instant he glanced over, Wu Jianwu's body suddenly paused. Just as he was about to say something, Xu Qing took out a jade slip that had once recorded the scenes.
The moment he saw this jade slip, Wu Jianwu shuddered and his expression quickly revealed a fawning expression. All his aura and gaze from before instantly disappeared without a trace and his body landed.
"Senior Brother Xu, we can talk things out. Haha, let's take it easy."
Seeing that Xu Qing had kept the jade slip, he heaved a sigh of relief inwardly. He didn't need to take a closer look to guess the content of this jade slip. There was a high chance that it was the scene of him rubbing the bear's stomach in his cave. At this moment, other than heaving a sigh of relief, the experience earlier filled his heart with excitement and he couldn't help but speak.
"How satisfying!!"
With Wu Jianwu no longer imitating the Ancient Sovereign Mystic Nether, the soul of the demon snake that showed signs of awakening slowly regained its calm. However, the few times it was about to awaken previously released extremely dense soul power to this place. Hence, Xu Qing didn't bother with Wu Jianwu and closed his eyes to cultivate.
As a large amount of soul power was absorbed into his body, the magic aperture showed signs of opening. Not long later, his body rumbled and the 111th magic aperture opened.
Xu Qing's spirits were lifted. He stood up and used the token given by Purple Mystic Fairy to head straight for the core of the land of fortune. When he got close to the blood-colored lake in the inner circle, he sensed an even denser soul power.
He sat down and quickly absorbed it.
Just like that, time slowly passed. Xu Qing's cultivation didn't stop at all as he focused on opening his magic apertures. As for the captain, although he didn't have the authority to approach the core, his eyes never left the fang that had a trace of golden blood in the demon snake's mouth.
"Good stuff, this is good stuff!" The captain gulped. While absorbing the soul power, his gaze continued to linger on that fang.
"I need to think of a way to break off this fang. This thing is fated with me. With it, I can break through anything in the future." While the captain was thinking with intense gaze, the magic apertures in Xu Qing's body opened to 114.
He continued.
It was only after Xu Qing opened the 116th magic aperture that the soul power here decreased. Hence, Xu Qing opened his eyes and looked at Wu Jianwu in the distance.
Wu Jianwu had been waiting for this moment for a long time. Without saying a word, his body rose into the air. He glanced disdainfully at the demon snake's skeleton and placed his hands behind his back as he calmly spoke.
"Little snake, it's been so many years, do you regret biting me?!"
"You eat, drink, and poop here, all your bones are filled with sh*t!"
As soon as Wu Jianwu finished speaking, the soul of the demon snake that had calmed down let out a monstrous roar again. This time, the roar was countless times more intense than before. It vaguely seemed to have transformed into a voice that gritted its teeth and spread in all directions.
"Mystic Nether!!"
In fact, in the outermost circle of the mountain range formed by its body, countless mountain rocks broke free. They continued to shake and looked like they were about to rise.
Xu Qing took a deep breath and quickly spoke.
"Enough!"
Wu Jianwu hurriedly kept quiet and descended as though he hadn't had enough. In reality, he was also shocked by this scene. However, the excitement and satisfaction in his heart caused him to be extremely obsessed with this act.
In fact, he even began to suspect that he was the reincarnation of the Ancient Sovereign Mystic Nether. Otherwise, why would the effect be so good?
The captain also looked at Wu Jianwu as though he was looking at a divine being. He and Xu Qing had only thought of testing this method and didn't know if it would really work.
However, not only was it effective, but the effect was also incomparably good. In fact, if Wu Jianwu continued like this and recited dozens of poems, he felt that this demon snake would definitely awaken.
'It's so useful? I'll also try it next time!'
As the soul power erupted in a large area, Xu Qing immediately absorbed it. The soul power in his spot was extremely dense at this moment. In fact, even if he didn't take the initiative to absorb it, it would still enter through the pores on his body.
Just like that, his 117th magic aperture was opened an hour later.
Xu Qing's eyes were filled with anticipation. He took a deep breath and the soul power in his body rapidly intensified until it accumulated to a certain extent. He then transformed it into a majestic force that charged toward the 118th magic aperture.
In an instant, the 118th magic aperture was opened!
"Two more!" Xu Qing continued to absorb.
Time flowed by. Two hours later, a monstrous rumble rang out in his body as the 119th magic aperture opened!
"Last one!"
Xu Qing's heart thumped in excitement and anticipation. However, this last magic aperture required a lot of soul power, so he spread the fiendish fire outside his body.
The black flames churned outside and formed a huge fire vortex that forcefully absorbed all the soul power here.
Even though the soul power here was very dense, under Xu Qing's absorption, others couldn't absorb it at this moment. They could only look in horror at how Xu Qing was absorbing the soul power crazily.
Finally, after it gathered to the extreme, Xu Qing opened his mouth and swallowed fiercely. Immediately, endless soul power gathered in his body, transforming into a blurry dragon-snake shadow that headed toward his 120th magic aperture with crushing force!
At the next instant, a cracking sound echoed in Xu Qing's mind. The 120th magic aperture had successfully opened!
However, no one here saw Xu Qing opening his 120th magic aperture!
The instant it was opened, Xu Qing had already controlled the shadow to cover his magic aperture, preventing outsiders from seeing the details!
He didn't want to expose his strength here.
This way, his fourth ball of life fire was covered by the shadow, blocking all probing gazes.
Only Xu Qing could sense that under the curtain formed by the shadow, the fourth ball of life fire that had gathered in his body was burning fiercely!
Under the four balls of life fire, Xu Qing sensed a great world burning in his body. As the flames spread out and shook the surroundings, two canopies were revealed above his head.
The black canopy was strange and eerie. Flames flowed like a hanging curtain.
The rainbow canopy shone with flowing light. Its light formed a sea that illuminated the earth.
The Golden Crow on his back spread its wings and revealed a savage expression, as though it wanted to refine the world. Its tail flames flowed on Xu Qing's entire body, forming an emperor's robe. He looked like a young ancient emperor, shocking everyone.
At the next instant, all of this disappeared. After Xu Qing withdrew everything, a hint of regret appeared on his face.
"It's still a little lacking." Xu Qing sighed softly. His voice faintly echoed in the surroundings and vaguely entered the ears of all the Alliance disciples who were observing him, causing them to see that Xu Qing had failed to break through.
Wu Jianwu heaved a sigh of relief. He felt that if he saw Xu Qing's fourth ball of life fire form with his own eyes, his mood would definitely worsen.
Only the captain's gaze moved away from the demon snake's fang and landed on Xu Qing. He then blinked.
"Something's not right. This kid should be hiding!!"
When the captain thought of this, he suddenly felt that… he should consider opening another seal.
"With such a junior brother, why do I feel so much pressure?!"
