Just as the atmosphere around Mount Mystic Dao turned strange, a gentle and calm voice descended from the sky.
"We are all elders of the Alliance. How can we hurt our relationship over a battle between juniors?"
All the cultivators in the surroundings were shocked. The green-robed middle-aged man from the Great Expansion Dao Palace was the first to lower his head and bow.
"Greetings, Alliance Leader."
The expression of the Soaring Cloud Ancestor returned to normal and he also lowered his head to greet.
Xue Lianzi looked at Soaring Cloud and then at the ancestor of the Great Expansion Dao Palace. A smile that outsiders couldn't make heads or tails of appeared on his face as he greeted.
Purple Mystic Fairy frowned. After greeting curtly, she turned and walked toward the Mystic Nether Sect, disappearing without a trace with a few steps.
As everyone greeted, the gentle voice rang out from the sky again.
"However, rules are rules. If they are casually shaken, how can our Alliance survive?"
"Fellow Daoist Soaring Cloud, you were a little rash. Your punishment will be the deduction of ten years of individual profit dividends from the Alliance."
"Fellow Daoist Dao Yan, when did you start acting like this? Although this matter can be understood as you having a friendship with the Soaring Cloud Ancestor, the rules can't be changed. I'll also punish you with the deduction of ten years of individual profit dividends from the Alliance."
"As for Fellow Daoist Xue Lianzi, you have a fierce temper, the punishment will be the same."
"Xu Qing, you are pretty good. Like what Fellow Daoist Xue Lianzi suggested before, you will be given the treatment of a Dao Child from today onwards. Every year, you will have a quota of eight million spirit stones and all the facilities of the eight sects will be opened to you. You will also have the right to enter all the places of fortune in the Eight Sects Alliance ten times a year for free. The sect's protection will be activated for you and it will be announced to the entire Yinghuang Province. At the same time, I will give you the right to use all the Taboo magic treasure projections in the Eight Sects Alliance."
"As for Saintly Star, he's still a seedling after all. Fellow Daoist Soaring Cloud, take him back and nurture him well. My Golden Crow can help him reconstruct his body. He should advance into the Golden Core realm as soon as possible. His future is still promising."
"Let's end this matter here. We're all allies. Unity is the most important thing."
The gentle voice echoed and gradually dissipated.
The ancestor of the Great Expansion Dao Palace casually threw Saintly Star to the Soaring Cloud Ancestor like he was an item. He then turned to look at Xue Lianzi and smiled meaningfully before turning to leave.
The Soaring Cloud Ancestor fell silent as he looked at his unconscious grandson with a hint of regret. He headed straight for the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect without even looking at Xue Lianzi..
Xue Lianzi muttered to himself before nodding at Xu Qing with approval and leaving.
Only Old Master Seventh walked over step by step and arrived in front of Xu Qing. He looked at the injured Xu Qing and waved his right hand. Immediately, a bright light spread out and landed on Xu Qing's body, healing his injuries rapidly. He then smiled.
"You did a pretty good job. Let's go."
"And you as well." Old Master Seventh turned his head and glared at the captain.
The captain felt aggrieved and wondered when did the old man reveal unfairness so obviously. Wasn't he worried about hurting his fragile heart? No matter what, he was still his disciple, and he was also his eldest disciple!
The captain sighed and obediently followed behind Old Master Seventh. He then walked toward the Seven Blood Eyes with Xu Qing, who had his mouth shut.
On the way, Old Master Seventh was in front and Xu Qing and the captain were behind him. The captain nudged Xu Qing with his shoulder.
"Why aren't you saying anything?"
Xu Qing glanced at the captain but still didn't speak.
"The moment he speaks, he will vomit blood. He is doing his best to refine the Miemeng's essence, qi, and spirit," Old Master Seventh calmly said.
Xu Qing fell silent and swallowed the blood that surged into his throat again before continuing to refine it.
When the captain heard this, his eyes lit up and he rubbed his hands.
"Junior Brother, it's not good to eat alone."
Xu Qing started and looked at his eldest senior brother in disbelief.
"It's fine. Eldest Senior Brother doesn't despise you. Why don't you spit a mouthful?" The captain's eyes lit up.
Xu Qing quickly took a few steps closer to Old Master Seventh, away from the captain.
The captain's face was filled with regret.
Old Master Seventh glared at his eldest disciple before turning to look at Xu Qing.
"Do you understand what happened just now?"
Xu Qing nodded but then shook his head.
"Our Alliance Leader is playing a game of chess."
Xu Qing narrowed his eyes.
"Unfortunately, while his cultivation base is high, his chess skills are a little lousy." Old Master Seventh smiled meaningfully.
"In short, you don't have to worry for the time being. You have to remember… that when one's cultivation reaches the level of Nihility, especially these Nihility ancestors of the Alliance, such as the ancestor of the Great Expansion Dao Palace, they will never have only one color."
"Their colors flicker. If you don't uncover them, you'll never know what color they are."
"It's an alliance. There are many sects and everything is for benefits. Although after reaching a higher realm, benefits aren't that important anymore, if you lose them again and again, what you lose might not be benefits but you yourself."
"In a human-eating world, the primitive way of eating is different from the high-level way of eating."
"At the end of the day, we're still too weak." Old Master Seventh shook his head.
The captain also sighed from behind.
"That's right. We're too weak."
Xu Qing swallowed the blood that was surging in his mouth again and nodded.
"Mm, we're too weak."
As the three of them spoke, they had already returned to the Seven Blood Eyes. Before they separated, Old Master Seventh wanted to say something but hesitated. In the end, he still spoke.
"And that Purple Mystic Fairy…" At this point, the captain immediately pricked up his ears and quickened his pace.
Xu Qing shut his mouth and didn't speak.
"Fourth… build a good relationship." Old Master Seventh's expression was a little melancholic. He patted Xu Qing's shoulder and turned to leave.
The captain looked at Old Master Seventh's melancholy and his eyes slowly widened. An explosive thought appeared in his mind.
"Can it be that…"
Xu Qing didn't bother with the captain. He immediately transformed into a rainbow and flew straight for his berth. As for the captain, he was still digesting and weighing the credibility of the explosive news in his mind, so he didn't chase after Xu Qing.
Xu Qing's surroundings fell quiet at once. After he returned to his berth, he took out the magic ship and immediately stepped into the cabin. He sat down and quickly meditated.
He had swallowed too much of Miemeng's essence, qi, and spirit blood. His body seemed to be stuffed and he couldn't adapt easily. While he was digesting with all his might, the totemic tattoo on his back constantly emitted a burning feeling, indicating that the Golden Crow was also crazily absorbing it.
A terrifying energy was accumulating in the Golden Crow tattoo and it was growing stronger every moment. This feeling made Xu Qing deeply realize the changes after emperor-level cultivation arts devoured each other.
"The effect of devouring an emperor-level cultivation art is actually so astonishing."
Originally, the Golden Crow only had nine phoenix tails and its body looked divine but it still had a hint of immaturity. However, at this moment, the tenth tail had appeared and the eleventh one was also forming.
At the same time, its body was much stronger than before. The spiritual light in its eyes was extremely dazzling like the sun and moon. Its aura had strengthened and faintly emitted a hint of ancientness.
The heat it emitted surpassed what it had been in the past. Even Xu Qing felt his body was becoming increasingly hot. In fact, hot air was rising from his body.
This heat caused his surroundings to distort to a certain extent. While it was a shocking sight, it also made Xu Qing look forward to the transformation of the Golden Crow even more.
Just like that, three days passed.
Xu Qing finally absorbed half of the blood that contained Miemeng's essence, qi, and spirit. His body was no longer like before where he had difficulty suppressing the blood that tried to gush out at all times. However, the feeling of fullness was still very intense.
As for the Golden Crow, it now had 13 tails. In fact, the totemic tattoo had already spread to his front, causing Xu Qing to look even more demonic.
Xu Qing could clearly sense that his physical body was becoming increasingly stronger.
Only at this moment did Xu Qing heave a sigh of relief. He knew that it would take some time to absorb the remaining half of Miemeng's blood, and he had the time to check his loots. He took out an item from his storage bag.
This was a piece of black wood. It was none other than the magic treasure fragment of Saint Yunzi.
Upon closer inspection, Xu Qing could tell that something was different. This wooden piece was slightly larger than the one he saw the first time. It seemed to have an additional small piece that had fused together.
Unlike Xu Qing's Taboo magic treasure fragment that was filled with dense anomalous substances, although this wooden fragment also had anomalous substances, it was much lesser. Clearly, it wasn't used very frequently and was well maintained.
Looking at the black wooden piece, Xu Qing focused his attention and studied it. A moment later, he imprinted his divine sense and activated it in the cabin.
In an instant, the black strange door appeared. It was like the gateway to the underworld and also the source of all evil. Under Xu Qing's vigilance, the black wooden door creaked and slowly opened toward him. The sinister and cold aura in the surroundings instantly soared.
At the next instant, light gushed out, transforming into icy-sealing light that directly landed on Xu Qing's body.
Xu Qing's body trembled and the Golden Crow on his back flew around his body. The fiery power spread out and neutralized the cold. However, he still felt that under the power of this ice, the most basic life level seemed to be sealed.
"Back then, Saintly Star said that this door is called the Mystic Spirit Perpetual Will Door?"
"Also, the wooden fragment of this door was sacrificially refined by Saint Cloud twice? Sacrificial refinement means…" Xu Qing picked up a jade slip to ask his master.
Very soon, Old Master Seventh gave his answer.
Xu Qing's eyes narrowed.
"It's actually finding another fragment of the same magic treasure. If you piece it together and fuse it, it'll be considered sacrificial refinement. If you find a second fragment, it'll be a twice sacrificial refinement. If you find the third fragment, it'll be a thrice sacrificial refinement!"
"Sacrificial refinement causes greater changes. I wonder what will appear when this door is opened toward others." Xu Qing lifted his hand and neutralized the ice on his body before putting the wooden door away.
He was very clear that if Saintly Star had this twice sacrificially refined wooden door in the battle back then in front of the Phoenix Forbidden Dao Temple, it would probably be very difficult for him to resist this sealing ice even with the shadow covering Saintly Star's magic aperture.
"It can freeze the most basic life level…" Xu Qing mumbled. He was suddenly very curious about what would appear when this door was opened toward the captain.
Just as Xu Qing was studying the Mystic Spirit Perpetual Will Door, an extremely nervous voice rang out from his voice transmission jade slip.
"Kid, come and see me. I have something to ask you."
Xu Qing took a deep breath. Among the people he didn't want to see the most, Purple Mystic Fairy was ranked at the front. However, no matter what, it was Purple Mystic Fairy who saved him previously. After a moment of silence, Xu Qing knew that he had no choice but to go. He braced himself and stood up. When he walked out of the cabin, he discovered that it was already late.
"It's not good to visit Senior too late… Yes, I'll go tomorrow."
When Xu Qing thought of this, he was about to turn around. However, at the next instant, the voice of Purple Mystic Fairy rang out again. There was a hint of demonic charm as well as a coquettish tone. It was like the sound of spring water or the heavenly voice of an immortal abode.
"Come now."
