Chapter 585: Hundreds of Thousands of Statues
The moment Xu Qing’s hand touched the door, a tremor passed through him. The same will that he had encountered earlier erupted from the door and into his mind. It didn’t give him any chance to react or back away. It rushed into him like an ocean, inundating him and filling him with intense pain. The pain stabbed through his flesh, blood, and bones. It felt like countless sharp blades slicing away at every part of him.
The sudden turn of events left Xu Qing reeling. Then the pain changed; it didn’t get weaker, it got more intense. It became like a fire burning every bit of him.
Then the burning sensation left, to be replaced by a feeling of decay. In both body and soul, he felt like he was sinking into the Yellow Springs. Although Xu Qing had experienced pain because of the many injuries he had suffered, at this moment, he couldn’t stop himself from shivering.
That said, he didn’t pass out.
Next, the sensation of decay changed. Now it felt like he was being chewed. It was like he was inside some gigantic mouth with sharp teeth that were slashing him to bits. What was most terrifying was that the pain just kept getting more and more intense, until it could only be described as a horrific torture. It only lasted for a moment. But even Xu Qing with his unswerving determination quickly reached the point where he was shaking too hard to stand up straight.
After about a dozen breaths of time, everything turned back around, and the pain vanished. Sweat dripped out of the cracks in the statue and landed on the ground, where they spread out like ink blotch flowers.
As Xu Qing gasped for breath, the majestic divine will echoed in his mind.
“That is the pain awaiting you in the future when Crimson Mother’s curse activates. It is the same torment that all living beings in this region must suffer. You have passed the third subtest, which is to experience the true pain of the curse. Is that what you want for the future? If not, if you wish to fight back, if you wish to resist, then open the door. You are welcome to join us. Join the Moonrebel Congregation!”
The divine will faded away. Everything Xu Qing had experienced was an illusion. He looked up. As of now, he understood the third subtest.
Everyone who enters must experience the pain of the curse, to prove that they truly wish to rebel against the moon.
A moment later, Xu Qing’s jaw nearly dropped.
If that was the third subtest, then what about blasting my way through the passage? Which subtest was that?
A strange expression appeared on his face as he looked hesitantly back at the altar. Then his eyes glittered. There wasn’t any point in wondering about trivial matters like that. Putting his hand on the door, he pushed. An ancient creaking sound reached his ears as the temple door slowly opened.
He found himself looking at a strange world. The sky was blue, which was something he hadn’t seen for a long time. Gentle sunlight filled the sky and spilled down onto everything below. He detected a fragrant aroma in the air. Compared to the dusky darkness of the Moonrite Region, this place seemed like an otherworldly utopia. If Xu Qing, a visitor from another region, was so moved by what he was seeing, it was impossible to imagine the reaction of people who had been born and raised in the Moonrite Region.
Heart pounding, he walked out of the temple. Directly outside the entrance was a corroded bronze cauldron.
The temple itself was located on a mountain. It was the only mountain in this world, and it was massive. Countless temples covered its surface. Some were dark, and some shone brightly, but every single one emanated a sensation of ancient time.
So, this is the Moonrebel Congregation.
As he stood at the bottom part of the mountain looking up, it made him feel extremely small.
Floating in the air above the huge mountain were nine extremely large temples. Five of them shone with brilliant light that reached 30,000 meters into the sky. It was just possible to see boundlessly auspicious divine likenesses in those temples. The other four were dark, and did not contain any statues.
Above the nine temples was a brilliant sun. If you looked closely enough, you would see that the sun itself also had a temple in it. However, the main door of that temple was closed. In fact, when Xu Qing spotted it, he instinctively realized that the temple... was dead. There was no statue inside! Or perhaps it was most correct to say that no one was stationed inside that temple at the moment!
Xu Qing saw other divine likenesses similar to his own. They were coming and going from the countless other temples on the mountain, and many were interacting with each other.
The mountain was actually a bustling place. Considering all the statues, Xu Qing almost felt like he was looking at a kingdom of divine beings. A very bizarre notion occurred to him that made him turn around and look at the temple he had walked out of.
It’s like the world I live in exists only in that temple....
He shook his head to dispel the notion. He knew that wasn’t possible. Taking control of the statue he was in, he flew up into the air to get a better look at the Moonrebel Congregation.
Time passed. As he carefully looked around, he started to understand more about the place.
The dark temples were unoccupied. They had not been activated, and could not be entered. The glowing temples had life in them. Even if the occupant wasn’t present, as long as they hadn’t restricted access to their temple, other statues could enter whenever they wanted. Most temples had glowing spheres of light in them that contained items for sale.
Is the Moonrebel Congregation mainly a marketplace?
After inspecting more temples, he confirmed that it really was like a marketplace. Each temple had a bronze cauldron, some of which were empty, but some of which had incense burning in them.
At first, Xu Qing was confused by that. But after further inspection, he realized why some cauldrons had incense. If a statue entered another person’s temple and completed a business transaction, incense would appear.
In some cases, he saw temples with only a single stick, in other cases, there were many sticks.
I guess the incense shows how popular the place is.... After looking around at more temples, he felt even more like they were shops.
After looking around for a while, Xu Qing found a temple whose owner wanted poison pills, and was offering rare medicinal plants in exchange.
Some of the medicinal plants were so rare that Xu Qing couldn’t help but be interested in them. It seemed to him that the owner of this temple was probably some amazing grandmaster of alchemy. As he was inspecting the glowing sphere of light with the transaction information, the statue on the altar opened its eyes and looked at him.
“Can I help you?”
Xu Qing thought for a moment, then asked, “What kind of poison pills do you need, Fellow Daoist?”
The statue glanced at Xu Qing out of the corner of its eye. “I cultivate the Ultimate Poison Resistance Body. Any kind of poison will do.”
Xu Qing thought about it for a time, then took out one of his personal poison pills. “This poison pill of mine is a bit unusual, Fellow Daoist. I suggest taking it slow and easy when using it.”
He put the pill into the glowing ball of light.
The statue, meanwhile, was chuckling coldly inside. I’ve been consuming poison for years. Occasionally people give warnings like this, but their poisons are always average at best. In any case, based on what I can sense, this pill is also average.
He accepted the transaction.
The sphere of light proceeded to give Xu Qing the medicinal plant he wanted. At the same time, he sensed a faint fluctuation in his mind. It was a very simple stream of divine will that allowed him to give his feedback about the transaction. He could either select satisfied or dissatisfied.
He selected satisfied. When he did, a stick of incense appeared in the bronze cauldron outside the temple.
Oh, I see. He walked outside, but before leaving the temple, looked back at the statue. “Be careful, Fellow Daoist. I suggest you avoid taking the whole pill at once. Start out by shaving some off and sampling it.”
“Sure.” The statue frowned a bit impatiently.
Xu Qing was surprised at how confident this person was. However, there are always more talented people out there, just as there are always higher heavens out there. Perhaps this was just a case in which Xu Qing didn’t know as much as he thought he did. Forgoing any further warnings, he turned and left.
As he continued on his way in the Moonrebel Congregation, Xu Qing mused that the place was definitely different than he’d imagined. And the more temples he visited, the more he came to understand it. Physical goods weren’t the only thing for sale. There were intelligence reports available, job offerings, even bounties.... In fact, just about everything imaginable could be found. That included information related to curse research.
There were also some medicinal pills for sale here and there that caught his attention due to how expensive they were.
Painquelling lozenges!
Xu Qing had first learned about such pills thanks to the bounty put on him and the Captain by the Yin-Yang Betwixt Flowers Sect. Even back then, he knew how expensive those pills were, but even still, he found the price tag shocking. Here, the pills weren’t sold for spirit stones, and they were offered in small quantities. Most people wanted various precious materials in exchange, either that, or services performed.
When it came to precious materials, Xu Qing noticed the price for one painquelling lozenge was twenty red heavenfire crystals. Xu Qing was fully aware of how rare heavenfire crystals were. Twenty was about how much a small species or sect would have to pay to the Redmoon Cathedral as an offering. [1]
In terms of services performed, most related to the Spirit Trove level. For instance, there were assassination missions that could be marked complete when you handed over a Spirit Trove expert’s soul.
Another option was to sign a soul contract to perform other services.
After looking around and buying plenty of information about the curse, he went back to his temple at the foot of the mountain. Along the way, he ran into some of his neighbors. The statues near his temple looked at him with odd expressions when he passed. In fact, as he was returning, a statue emerged from a nearby temple, pulsing with orange light.
The statue depicted a burly man, bare-chested, with colorful ribbons draped across his torso. He looked very impressive and was glaring at Xu Qing in dissatisfaction.
Noticing that, Xu Qing’s guard went up, and he flew into his own temple and stood on the altar. Closing his eyes, he returned to the back room of the Green Spirit Pharmacy.
After confirming he was safe, he opened his eyes and thought back to everything in the Moonrebel Congregation. It still seemed very strange. After a while, he took out the jade slips with curse information and started studying them.
***
Back in the Moonrebel Congregation, the bare-chested statue looked at Xu Qing’s temple and snorted coldly.
Here I thought it was some vicious individual. After a whole month of banging, you would think he would be really impressive. I couldn’t rest at all!
Meanwhile, in another small temple at the foot of the mountain, the main door creaked open to reveal a statue. The statue held a magic bottle in one hand. Its face was pitch black, and it had six eyes. There was a divine bird on the statue’s shoulder, making it look even more unusual. After walking out of the temple, the statue stretched lazily.
It’s not that I want to be late meeting up, little Ah Qing. It’s just that your Eldest Brother is simply too amazing. Halfway through one of my tasks, I happened to earn the right to come to the Moonrebel Congregation. Ai. I really am just too amazing. But what can I do other than to just keep accomplishing amazing things?
The subtests were really hard. Given little Ah Qing’s circumstances, I doubt he could get in here. What a pity. I guess I’ll just have to enjoy the scenery on my own. I wonder if that dumb bird made it to the Bitter Life Mountains. It better not give up halfway there....
1. If you’re like me and forgot how much heavenfire crystals are worth, you can go back to chapter 567.2 to see how they compare to spirit stones. ☜
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