Chapter 1053: Carving Your Fate
Within that 50,000-kilometer area, black flames burned, the heat distorting everything as the fire made something like a sealing mark. The flattened lands also featured Sir Westdevil’s seven major worlds, which were organized atop each other to make a seven-layer prison.
With that blessing, Sir Westdevil was able to unleash the most powerful manifestation of his gruish authority. It was... the Seven Prisons Heaven-Devil World.
That world had a heaven that was the darkest black imaginable, and an earth that was boundlessly crimson. Heaven-devil fire raged, burning with utter madness as if to incinerate all prisoners within that world, destroying them in body and soul.
Sir Westdevil sat cross-legged outside of the heaven-devil world, his motions mirrored exactly by the illusory heaven-devil projection behind him. He was severely withered, and his aura was very weak. His Heaven-Devil Transformation had obviously required him to pay a heavy price, and it was the same with the Seven Prisons Heaven-Devil World.
However, he didn’t seem concerned about that. He was completely focused on assimilating Xu Qing. Xu Qing was so difficult to deal with that their clashes up to this point had been as effective as striking a wad of cotton.
Xu Qing had obviously sustained numerous blows that should have seriously injured him. But his gruish transformation ability and his perverse level of speed made it possible for him to appear at any spot at any time. If that were all there were to it, it might not have been a big deal. It wasn’t as if Sir Westdevil didn’t have defensive techniques. But Xu Qing’s strange melting ability was very pernicious. Every time they made contact with each other, Sir Westdevil found that his energy, lineaments, defenses, and life force were melting. Normally speaking, he wouldn’t have cared about that. But he couldn’t sustain his Heaven-Devil Transformation for very long, and as a result, this fight was becoming extremely frustrating.
The only upside was that his killing intent was constantly growing stronger. Therefore, he was holding nothing back. He was using all trump cards possible to negate his opponent’s advantage, and change the tide of battle to his favor. His devil energy rumbled as he constantly bolstered the heaven-devil world. At the same time, he sent the spear stabbing down into the world. As a result, the assimilating devil fire in the world grew more intense.
Within the heaven-devil world, Xu Qing’s eyes glittered with mysterious light. He was currently ignoring how the red candle was devouring the devil fire. He was also ignoring how the candle’s aura of awakening was growing stronger. His current focus was on the carving knife formed from his godly authority of fate. This was his first time to actually use the power of the godly authority of fate. However, he had done a lot of research and also had been given advice by the empress. As a result, he had a good initial understanding of the godly authority.
Therefore, he took a deep breath and extended his right hand. The carving knife shivered, then shot toward Xu Qing and settled onto his hand. It glittered brightly, sending out majestic and astonishing fluctuations that caused all the surroundings to pulsate.
Being on the outside, Sir Westdevil was unable to see anything on the inside. Therefore, he kept his guard up. Gritting his teeth, he burned his own heart-blood to bolster the assimilation process.
As for Xu Qing, his expression was grave. His heart wasn’t beating, and his view of the world had become a monochrome made of black and white. The black was space, the white was time. Between the black and white were innumerable gray strands. They were the fate of all living beings.
When Xu Qing’s heart stopped beating, his emotions became outstandingly calm. There were no fluctuations whatsoever. It was as if all bits of human nature had completely disappeared from within him. The only thing left was godly nature. What was more, this was a godliness that contained no mercy whatsoever. Nor did it contain death. It only contained control over fate.
“Sir Westdevil,” called Xu Qing, his voice thrumming with the might of godly authority.
When his voice echoed out, Sir Westdevil shivered from head to toe. He had suddenly felt a profound sense of fear filling him, something that caused him to struggle merely to breathe.
Within the heaven-devil world, Xu Qing’s breathing caused the countless gray threads to all vanish, with the exception of one that remained behind in front of him. It undulated constantly, all while growing larger. Astonishingly, when it was completely unfurled, it showed Sir Westdevil’s past, present, and future.
The past was already sealed. The present was developing. The future was full of constants.
There were infinite images of Sir Westdevil’s future, all floating in front of Xu Qing. As Xu Qing well knew, they were all possibilities of what could happen.
Zi Qing could select one of those and pick it as the only possible future. But Xu Qing’s control of fate wasn’t about influenced constants. It was about creating variables. Therefore, he took his own will and put it into the carving knife, then sliced out a first stroke.
That stroke didn’t require any sort of innate artistic ability, as it didn’t matter if the final product resembled the original. The only relevant things were the thoughts and desires of the person doing the carving.
Xu Qing’s thought consisted of one concept.
This person must die.
The first carving stroke formed an image of Sir Westdevil dying. It was a miserable death in which he was decapitated and his body shriveled up. This was reaped karma.
Next, Xu Qing’s hand moved as he carved the second concept. This time, in order to lead to the reaped karma, he added the sown karma.
The head of the corpse is lopped off by The Emperor’s Sword!
The carving knife fell, and the image in front of Xu Qing showed The Emperor’s Sword beheading Sir Westdevil from behind. The moment the image took shape, Xu Qing shivered and his mind spun. He coughed up a massive mouthful of blood, and the entire heaven-devil world shook.
Something incredibly terrifying was coming. It was a transformation to fate!
That was because, before this moment, though Sir Westdevil’s countless future constants did contain versions of him dying, they weren’t all instances of him dying, and definitely none in which he was killed by The Emperor’s Sword.
Originally speaking, nothing like that existed. But now those images had appeared, and as they were sealed into Sir Westdevil’s fate threads, he gained an additional future. What was more, it was the only future that had anything to do with The Emperor’s Sword. That indicated that, as long as The Emperor’s Sword appeared in his presence, then Sir Westdevil’s future could not end with any other possibility.
This was the power of a god. This was godly authority!
Unfortunately, the price to pay was enormous. As the image was carved, Xu Qing’s five yin organs writhed, his soul filled with stinging pain, and blood sprayed out of his mouth. It wasn’t just one mouthful of blood. It was seven or eight successive mouthfuls.
His powerful fleshly body suddenly showed signs of withering. A sense of weakness filled the depths of his soul, and quickly spread into his sea of consciousness.
Then his Emperor’s Sword secret trove... suddenly erupted. The trove gate, which had already been opened, emitted raging sword energy. Within that secret trove, the emperor’s soul was fused with The Emperor’s Sword. And that sword had been powering up this entire time. As the sword energy rumbled, the actual sword trembled... and then shot forth.
It flew out of the trove gate, flew out of the sea of consciousness, pierced out of the inside of Xu Qing’s body and emerged into the open. In the blink of an eye, the heaven-devil world began to shake violently as The Emperor’s Sword shot upward, its power crushing everything. It was bolstered by the emperor’s soul, blessed by fate, and was able to conquer every obstacle!
This one sword... could pierce worlds! And it stabbed directly toward Sir Westdevil, who was still in his astonishing state of transformation.
Sir Westdevil’s mind reeled, and his flesh seemed to be screaming out because of the danger. Lunging backward, he held nothing back to defend himself.
The heaven-devil spear shot toward The Emperor’s Sword. When the two weapons clashed, the spear shattered!
The Emperor’s Sword pierced onward toward the terrified Sir Westdevil. With only one burst of momentum, it stabbed right toward his neck!
When Sir Westdevil realized the sword was about to plunge into his neck and kill him, he let loose a roar of defiance. All of a sudden, an ancient bell appeared, surrounding him and providing an obstacle to the sword.
RUMBLE!
Cracks spread out over the bell, but it didn’t explode! It actually blocked The Emperor’s Sword!
Xu Qing sat cross-legged in the heaven-devil world, blood constantly spraying out of his mouth. This was the price for dealing with fate! He had to bear the consequences of the fate he carved. What was more, once the path of fate was set, he had to suffer the backlash of any attempts by the target to fight against that fate.
If he could deal with that, then the fate would be completed. But if he couldn’t, that carved image of fate would fail. The carver had to pay an extremely heavy price.
At the moment, Xu Qing’s soul was weak, and cracks were already spreading out across his fleshly body. When it came to dealing with a chosen like Sir Westdevil, there was still a big disparity in battle prowess. Killing a person like this was going to be extremely difficult.
Up in midair, Sir Westdevil was breathing heavily as he stared at The Emperor’s Sword on the other side of the bell. However, after sensing that his ancient treasure had managed to resist the attack, the fear in his heart finally began to subside. And thus, his eyes turned cold.
“You’re not Sir Blood Dust!” he said. “That sword is not something that comes from my species. And this power... you’re stirring my fate! That’s the power of a god! Who are you really...?”
Sir Westdevil’s eyes glittered with understanding. And then a sense of wild joy rose within him as he realized that, if this person had a secret identity, it was highly likely that Lu Lingzi would also have another identity. This was something big. Furthermore, if he was wrong about that speculation, it wouldn’t really matter. But if he was right, then he would earn an incredible amount of battle credit!
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Shivering slightly, he began to contemplate methods of getting away from this fight. At the same time he pulled out a jade slip to send a message to his Master. However, as he backed up and took out the jade slip... he suddenly saw something playing out that hadn’t previously existed in his fate.
From the moment he had gained enlightenment of his authority, the heaven-devil behind him had always moved in harmony with him, no matter what type of battle he had fought. But not now. It was the first time it had ever happened.
Instead, it looked down at Sir Westdevil, and there was greed in its eyes. Then it lunged toward him!
Sir Westdevil’s mind and heart were instantly thrown into chaos as he looked over his shoulder in incredulity. There wasn’t time for him to shout out, much less take evasive action. The suddenly traitorous heaven-devil slammed into him.
A howl of anguish erupted from Sir Westdevil’s mouth. He wanted to struggle free. He wanted to fight back. But he was powerless. This heaven-devil was almost the same as him, but stronger, and thus, none of his efforts amounted to anything. He could do nothing as the heaven-devil entered him and began attacking him wildly.
Down in the heaven-devil world, Xu Qing’s face was pale and he was getting very weak. His soul was listless. However, his eyes shone with merciless coldness. He was not surprised by any of this.
If Sir Westdevil’s gray fate threads could be magnified exponentially, it would be possible to see that the fate image Xu Qing had carved included the rebellion of the heaven-devil! That was because Xu Qing’s carving didn’t contain only two concepts. It contained a third! And in that third concept, the heaven-devil turned traitor!
Xu Qing was fully aware of the extent of his battle prowess, and knew that directly fighting a chosen like Sir Westdevil would be extremely difficult. However, just because he couldn’t kill someone didn’t mean that person couldn’t die.
Therefore, he had carved out that the true death fate of Sir Westdevil wasn’t because of The Emperor’s Sword, but rather, because his own heaven-devil revolted against him! It was a case of using four ounces to move a thousand catties.
That was why the first concept that he had carved wasn’t just a simple beheading. It was also a withering of his body, something akin to life force being sucked out. That reaping of karma was the result of two things. First was the beheading by The Emperor’s Sword, while the withering came from the heaven-devil rebellion.
That was why the second concept Xu Qing carved was: The head of the corpse is lopped off by The Emperor’s Sword!
What was beheaded was the corpse! That was because Xu Qing couldn’t sustain the fate of the Emperor’s Sword executing this opponent. However, he could sustain the instigation of the heaven-devil rebellion.
More blood sprayed out of Xu Qing’s mouth as, outside of the heaven-devil world, Sir Westdevil screamed, and his body rapidly withered. The heaven-devil was absorbing his life force.
That included the bell blocking The Emperor’s Sword. And then, since the sword had nothing opposing it, it slashed forth and beheaded the corpse of Sir Westdevil. It was... exactly the same as the first concept from Xu Qing’s carving!
“Sir Westdevil was not killed by me. He was killed by the heaven-devil.” Xu Qing rose to his feet as the heaven-devil world collapsed around him.