The abyssal sea was completely silent.
This place belonged to a remote place in the depths of the Morning Glow Province, rarely visited by anyone. Moreover, in order to increase the life force of the sun's flesh, the god's finger had gone everywhere to capture cultivators of the various races, leaving the surroundings desolate and devoid of any signs of life.
Needless to say, both the explosion of the sun's remnants and the presence of the god's finger had led to an unprecedented concentration of anomalous substances in this area. There were even faint signs of this area transforming into a forbidden zone.
Even the head and stone lion recovered extremely slowly under the energy fluctuations of the god's finger. Right now, they were still in their shattered state and hadn't recovered.
In the painting that the old man from the Painting Race was in, there were less than five members left.
The devouring continued.
Hence, no one knew that an extremely bizarre thing was happening in the mountain of flesh and blood.
The mountain of flesh and blood formed by the god's finger was rapidly squirming. Xu Qing was enveloped by this mountain.
The flesh and blood of the god's finger were all around his body. Right now, they were flowing into his body continuously. Intense pain erupted from Xu Qing's entire body like a tide.
He felt like he was being cut alive.
Xu Qing's body continued to tremble. However, no matter how he resisted, it was useless. He couldn't stop the flesh and blood outside his body from entering. Just like that, time flowed by and the flesh and blood mountain that enveloped Xu Qing began to slowly shrink.
After the time it took for an incense stick to burn out, more than half of the flesh and blood mountain had disappeared, revealing the outline of Xu Qing's figure. His expression was distorted and endless pain was clearly revealed.
It wasn't over yet. The flesh and blood continued to crazily infiltrate the pores on Xu Qing's body.
Another incense stick of time passed and Xu Qing's figure became clearer and clearer. At that moment, only a small amount was left of the mountain of flesh and blood. It transformed into countless threads and slowly crawled into Xu Qing's forehead.
Very soon, it disappeared.
Xu Qing didn't move at all. His expression was frozen in pain and he had lost all his perception of the external world. His body had already been completely penetrated by the flesh and blood of the god's finger.
In his meridians, his flesh, blood, and bones, these strands of flesh and blood were everywhere. They were connected to each other and emitted terrifying anomalous substances. They kept modifying Xu Qing's body to frame an environment that was suitable for Its existence.
Although the purple crystal on Xu Qing's chest still emitted a purple light, the effect of this light was only to allow his body to continue repairing. It didn't resist the modifications from the god's flesh and blood.
To a certain extent, its recovery power even made the modification by the god's finger a little smoother.
No matter what kind of damage was caused, it would quickly recover.
Hence, the flesh and blood threads formed by the god's finger didn't pay attention to the purple crystal. As they continued to invade Xu Qing's body, Xu Qing's appearance started changing.
Flesh sprouts grew out of his body. They grew longer and longer and started swaying.
This scene was extremely bizarre. What was even stranger was that after these flesh sprouts spread, they rapidly weaved outside Xu Qing's body.
Vaguely, meridians and blood vessels were weaved by these flesh and blood threads. The process was exactly the same as when the old man from the Painting Race drew previously.
It was as though through the observation earlier, the god's finger had learned how to draw. Right now, every piece of flesh sprout was a paintbrush, and It itself was a painting material.
Just like that, a body that was thousands of feet long was slowly outlined by these flesh sprouts.
Clearly, the god's finger wanted to use Xu Qing's body as Its core and mold an outer shell.
As time passed, the outer shell became more and more fleshy. Bones were formed and covered by flesh and blood. Countless flesh sprouts swayed and gathered to form four limbs. They then spread out above like flowers before entangling together again to form a neck.
Next was the head. Through the somewhat hollowed-out outer shell, one could see that more and more flesh sprouts were spreading out from Xu Qing's body.
In the end, these flesh sprouts squirmed on his neck, forming a head.
His facial features also began to appear. From the looks of it, it was Xu Qing's appearance.
An hour later, this outer shell was completed. The hollow spots on it started to disappear rapidly as the flesh squirmed and skin formed.
When the last crack dissipated, a perfect body that was more than 3,000 feet tall appeared in the abyssal sea.
Its slender body, broad shoulders, and muscular chest matched the golden ratio and contained terrifying power. Coupled with its demonic appearance, its entire body emitted an extreme devilish charm.
The hair on this body wasn't black, but purple.
At that moment, the purple hair fluttered in the wind, making the body look even more demonic. As a divine might spread out from Xu Qing's body, a divine intent spread out from the body. It was enough to make anyone who saw it shudder with awe.
This was the body of a god!
However, at that moment, other than its long purple hair fluttering in the wind, no other parts moved. Even its eyelids were closed.
This was because it still lacked a spirit.
After the god's finger built a body that was suitable for It, It wanted to proceed with the last step, which was… possession.
It wanted to devour Xu Qing's soul and transform Its divinity into the soul of this body, thus achieving true independence!
Once It succeeded, It would be able to transform from a pinkie of a god's clone into a new god with an endless future.
This was Its dream. At the same time, the dream of the old man from the Painting Race was to replace It.
At that moment, It had completed more than half of this dream. It was only lacking the last and simplest thing: devouring the soul. It only needed an instant to devour the souls of mortals, after all It was a god in essence.
At the next instant, the consciousness of the god's finger contained in this body gathered together, heading straight for the soul in the depths of Xu Qing's sea of consciousness.
A cold and evil intent was sensed by Xu Qing's dizzy soul. He couldn't struggle but his fighting spirit still existed.
Even though he had lost control of his body, the control of his divine consciousness, and his perception of the external world, there was a crazy thought brewing in his mind.
"Back then, the shadow was also much more powerful than me. The possession it initiated was something I couldn't resist back then. Similarly, the current me is also unable to resist the god's finger."
"The purple crystal has the power to make the ten Heavenly Palaces in my sea of consciousness tremble. It was able to halt the shadow's possession in the past. Today… can it also thwart the possession by the god's finger?"
Xu Qing's soul emitted a sense of madness. In reality, this was also the reason why he gave up resisting. He could only watch helplessly as the god's power molded a shell outside his body. He could only watch helplessly as the other party worked hard to do everything. He was waiting…
He was waiting for the other party to devour his soul.
At this moment, what he had been waiting for had arrived.
In an instant, as the cold and evil intent invaded and the danger of death descended, the purple crystal in Xu Qing's chest seemed to have been offended.
A vast and astonishing power spread out from the purple crystal, forming a supreme sea of purple light that could suppress everything. With domineeringness, it headed straight for the consciousness of the god's finger and collided fiercely.
The rumbling sound was like countless heavenly lightning bolts exploding in Xu Qing's mind. Under the earth-shattering eruption, the originally blurry consciousness of the god's finger was actually stimulated to awaken at this moment. It let out a mournful and shocked cry.
"What… what is this!!"
"How can such an existence exist in this body!!"
"This power… this power…"
An intense horror reverberated from within the consciousness, containing an unknown and indescribable fear towards the purple crystal. In the midst of this reverberation, the consciousness of the god's finger retreated madly. It… no longer wanted to possess this body.
Xu Qing made the right bet!
He recalled that after he obtained the purple crystal, it was basically a passive existence. He had faced many life and death crises but it didn't show any effect. He was certain that it wouldn't do anything even if he died.
It only showed its power once when the shadow tried to possess him.
This was enough to show that the purple crystal wasn't interested in its vessel and didn't care if the vessel was in a life-and-death crisis. It only showed an interest when something tried to possess its vessel.
It was the same for the shadow back then and the god's consciousness now.
At that moment, the god's consciousness emitted endless horror. The recovery of Its rationality allowed It to have the ability to think and judge. Hence, It decisively gave up on possessing the body and retreated rapidly like the ebbing tide.
However, it was too late.
Back then, the shadow had done the same thing but it didn't succeed.
At the next instant, Xu Qing's purple crystal emitted a terrifying fluctuation. The sea of purple light enveloped the consciousness of the god's finger.
As the god's consciousness let out a miserable cry, a sealing power directly spread out from the purple crystal.
"No!!" The god's finger emitted an intense struggle and a roar echoed in Xu Qing's mind.
Clearly, to It, this was a life-and-death crisis that was even more intense than what Xu Qing had experienced earlier.
Under this rapid struggle and resistance, the 3,000-foot-long body in the abyssal sea shook violently. A malevolent ghost face faintly appeared on the chest of the body and protruded, spreading out ten feet, wanting to rush out.
However, at the next instant, a purple light spread out like a large hand and enveloped it. With a ruthless tug, the ghost face let out a blood-curdling scream and was pulled back.
Despair rose unprecedentedly in the consciousness of the god's finger.
"Who the hell are you!"
"What is this!!"
This roar contained grief, indignation, and an increasingly intensifying madness. As the huge body trembled, the consciousness of the god's finger continued to struggle, wanting to escape.
However, It couldn't do it.
At that moment, Xu Qing also sensed that something was wrong… He discovered that the power of the purple crystal wasn't without limits. It wasn't able to complete the sealing in an instant like when it sealed the shadow back then. Instead, there appeared a push and pull competition with the consciousness of the god's finger.
Moreover, his soul also felt a tearing pain, as though it was about to wither.
"It's not that the purple crystal's power isn't enough, but I can't endure its full strength…"
Xu Qing came to a realization. After that, a cold glint flashed in his eyes.
