Chapter 524: Crimson Mother Arrives (part 1)
The canopy of heaven in Forbidden by the Immortal was lit with crimson light, making it seem like a world of blood. What was more, it was full of rifts. Thanks to the bright red sky, it was possible to see that the rifts were very deep. And they didn’t look like they’d formed naturally. They looked constructed, such that they resembled a massive magical symbol! A mere glance at that symbol would cause feelings of uncontrollable terror to rise up in a person, something instinctual and from the depths of one’s life force.
It wasn’t just Xu Qing and the Captain who were shaken. All of the cultivators in the safety zone were also affected. Everyone felt deeply moved, and sensed as if a great catastrophe was looming. The army of cultivators was made mostly of people from the second and third wave. Most of those who’d made up the first wave had already left.
The source of the dramatic scene in the canopy of heaven was the central region of Forbidden by the Immortal. At that location was the main imperial palace hall of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity for this particular operations palace.
What had once been a magnificent and incomparable palace hall was now very different. It was now covered in a gigantic, cancerous growth of flesh. From a distance, it looked like a massive ball of flesh some tens of thousands of meters in size, covered with thick blood veins that stretched all over it. What was more, it pulsed, almost like a heart.
Thump thump. Thump thump.
Every time it moved, it sent a thunderous noise rippling out in all directions.
That noise distorted the air, turning it blurry. Mutagen levels soared, becoming like a mist. It also created gruish figures who hovered in the air and bowed to the ball of flesh. The blood vessels stretched out from the flesh and across the ground in the area.
About 500 kilometers away, there was another strange sight. It wasn’t a ball of flesh, but rather, something like a spike rising into the sky. It was pitch black, incredibly sharp, and pulsed with a cold aura. It looked like some sort of consummate, deadly weapon. It was a godly weapon, and there wasn’t just one of them. Another 500 kilometers away was another spike that looked exactly the same. Yet another 500 kilometers away was a third spike! If you could look down on Forbidden by the Immortal from a very high vantage point, you would see that there were a total of twenty-seven spikes. Starting from the imperial palace, they stretched out toward the west. It was almost as if there were some huge beast buried underneath the operations palace, and the thorns were spikes coming off of its back.
The ‘heart’ covering the imperial palace was directly above that beast, and hovering above it in the sky was an octagonal spell formation that looked like it was set into the sky itself. It pulsed with red light. There was a natural cadence to the way it flickered and turned the sky red. It was impossible to tell what the spell formation was made from. It was only 3,000 meters across, so compared to the beast below, it was insignificant other than the red light it cast.
That said, it was clearly the source of the rifts, as they spread out from the formation to fill the dome of heaven.
Inside the octagonal spell formation were 361 black-robed figures. 360 of them sat cross-legged and were chanting some sort of complicated and indecipherable enchantment. It wasn’t a human language. It sounded gruish and bizarre. What was more, every so often as they chanted, they would lift a hand, plunge it into their bodies, and pull out one of their organs. Then they would hold the organ high overhead, dripping blood, as if it were an offering. The organs would rapidly wither, turning into black energy that converged in the middle of the spell formation.
That was the location of the 361st person. Though he also wore a voluminous black cloak, he was trembling so hard that the hood had fallen back to reveal a face criss-crossed with red blood vessels.
He was none other than Zhang Siyun. He knelt there, his head thrown back so he faced the sky, his expression one of agony. The blood vessels on his face wriggled, and were seemingly trying to take the shape of a crescent moon. Tears of blood leaked out of his eyes. His left eye had burst out of the eye socket, leaving an open hole. Countless blood vessels snaked out of that hole and connected to the spell formation, whose blessing allowed them to continue growing outward. If you traced those blood vessels further, you would find that the rifts in the sky were actually extensions of the blood vessels from Zhang Siyun’s hollowed-out left eye!
As the sound of the enchantment rang out, the wriggling of the blood vessels on his face increased in intensity, and the shape of a red crescent moon became more clear. Meanwhile, the black energy converging around Zhang Siyun was sucked into him, where it became red, and was fed into the growing moon.
Then Zhang Siyun's hands slowly rose. It seemed as though he would soon rip out his right eye and then cover both eyes with his hands, which would conform exactly to the figure atop the moon that Xu Qing had seen in his sea of consciousness. [1]
The 360 black-robed figures surrounding Zhang Siyun started chanting with increased fervor, all while continuing to rip out their organs and offer them as sacrifices. The smell of gore abounded in the most gruish fashion, accompanied by a boundlessly vile aura.
Xu Qing and the Captain were deeply shaken, and were no longer seeking new places to explore. Instead, they were looking for somewhere with a lot of built-up flesh. Though there was magenta flesh everywhere, it seemed better to find a place with a lot of it.
About two hours later, as Xu Qing’s anxiety was really starting to build up, they saw some distant ruins that had been covered with so much flesh it looked like a mountain. Eventually, they found a spot in one of the massive, flesh-covered walls that seemed to be an opening.
“Let’s hole up in here, little Junior Brother,” the Captain said quietly after looking around.
Xu Qing also scanned the area, then nodded. The two of them entered. As they did, they spotted a fallen placard with the character East on it.
“East Palace? Normally a crown prince’s residence is called the East Palace.” The Captain looked around regretfully. “It’s too bad the place is in ruins. Normally speaking, the crown prince’s residence would have a lot of good treasures in it.”
Xu Qing also felt it was a pity. They had seen a lot of palaces as they traveled, which gave a good sense of the wealth during Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity’s time. They hadn’t even explored all of the east district yet, much less gone beyond it. Forbidden by the Immortal was so huge that completely exploring it would require a huge group of people, and even then would take many months.
“I wonder if we’ll get a chance to come back in later,” the Captain said.
After looking around, they selected a rather remote side chamber. Clearing out the flesh, they started digging a little cave. The flesh was in almost constant motion, so as soon as they cleared the flesh, it started growing back. Therefore, as soon as they had a little tunnel dug, they burrowed in.
As the flesh closed up behind them, they kept digging in. Eventually, when they felt they were deep enough, they settled down cross-legged amidst the flesh and the mutagen.
“I wonder how Master is planning to profit from all of this,” Xu Qing said as he looked around at the darkness. He still couldn’t stop thinking about the sigh he’d heard when he integrated the timescape bottle into his heavenly palace. It seemed to still echo in his mind.
“Hey, little Ah Qing, want to see a battle between gods?” The Captain chuckled, then extended his hand to reveal an eyeball in his palm. It blinked a few times, then projected an image of a red sky.
Xu Qing’s pupils constricted.
“I put a few eyes in place outside, all for the purpose of being able to witness this battle between gods. That said, I know it brings a certain element of risk. So let’s wait until the red moon is awakened and in the middle of devouring the local god. Things will be a lot safer then.”
Looking very pleased with himself, the Captain closed his hand, covering the eye.
Xu Qing nodded. “Yeah, let’s wait. It shouldn’t be very long now.”
With that, he put on the skin mask with its concealment powers. He settled the power of his taboo poison over his violet moon heavenly palace. He also added in the power of his heavenly dao, the Ghost Emperor mountain, and the daybreak light. With all that, he was confident the violet moon wouldn’t be revealed. Having accomplished these things, he closed his eyes and settled down to wait, all while mentally reviewing everything that happened with the phoenix-like temple complex.
In that matter, time slipped by slowly but surely.
About six hours later, intense rumbling sounds once again echoed out in the sky outside. They were so intense that Xu Qing and the Captain could hear them even in their hiding spot in the flesh.
Shaken, and still a bit fearful, they continued to wait. They didn’t try to look at what was happening. Xu Qing knew for sure that the red moon... was about to wake up.
The red color in the sky was even more intense than before, casting all of the buildings and flesh in a deep crimson light. There was some violet in it, but it was overwhelmed by the blood-red color.
The twenty-seven spikes trembled, and the racing heart seemed to pulse with an aura of awakening.
Meanwhile, in the canopy of heaven, all of the black-robed individuals in the octagonal spell formation, who had already sacrificed their five yin organs and their left eyes, dug out their right eyes. As they held them aloft, Zhang Siyun’s right eye withered into nothing, and a host of blood vessels exploded out of his eye socket.
More rifts opened up in the sky.
Then Zhang Siyun’s hands slowly covered both of his eyes. His facial expression didn’t reveal any hint of pain. The corners of his lips twitched upward slightly. A terrifying and paramount will suddenly erupted from Zhang Siyun. Both heaven and earth were all stained red by that will.
Then a red moon rose in the sky of Forbidden by the Immortal, right above Zhang Siyun!
1. Xu Qing saw the figure atop the moon, covering its eyes with its hands, in chapter 361. ?
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