Chapter 1000: Battle of the Protector of Calves

The black fire within a radius of one hundred thousand li was extinguished at this moment.

The Heavenly Demon Prison formed by the seven great worlds collapsed in an instant.

The heavens returned, the earth recovered, the mountains and rivers remained as before, and the rivers flowed thus.

Xu Qing stood in place, his face pale, his soul weak, and before him lay the blood he had previously spat out—whether on the ground or on his robe, it was shocking to behold.

Even now, a trickle of blood he could not suppress still flowed; as he rose, it seeped from the corner of his mouth, drop by drop.

Xu Qing took a deep breath—this was the first time in the true sense that he had exercised the divine authority of fate, and through this use, he gained deeper understanding of this supreme divine authority.

And the more he understood, the more his heart pounded.

The terror of this divine authority could be called extreme.

The price……was equally unparalleled.

He knew clearly that if he had not had the third thought just now, then wanting to make the fate of the Western Demon Child come true would have cost him more than he could bear, and in the end, it would most likely have been mutual destruction.

And even if he relied on the third thought, using the principle of four taels moving a thousand catties to inscribe the fate of the Heavenly Demon's rebellion, thereby indirectly killing the Western Demon Child, he still paid this price.

His soul was weak.

His flesh was permeated with cracks.

The power of his cultivation within his body had been largely exhausted, and even his authority and other divine authorities had dimmed somewhat.

"This divine authority……must not be lightly used……"

Xu Qing took a deep breath, wiped away his blood and traces here, his body trembled, and he wanted to leave quickly.

Because the death of the Western Demon Child would surely cause an uproar, lingering here posed too great a risk.

But Xu Qing had only taken one step when his body paused, he furrowed his brow, and his face grew grim.

Behind him, the red candle now had a flame!

Intense heat exploded suddenly behind him, warping all directions.

The restorative intent from the red candle seized this opportunity and began to ignite recklessly.

Once ignited, though Xu Qing did not know the specific harm, the sense of danger rising from deep within his heart erupted fiercely in this instant.

This danger was like a sea of fire, seeking to burn Xu Qing within.

This made it impossible for Xu Qing to leave now; what lay before him as the most important task was to deal with the red candle.

So he hesitated not at all, disregarding his injuries, he forcefully activated his Erasure Divine Authority within himself, simultaneously sending a thought to Xiao Ying.

In the next instant, his Erasure Divine Authority surged within him toward the red candle on his back, while Xiao Ying, trembling, lunged over as well.

The wick of the red candle flickered……

About to become fire!

And the arrival of the divine authority, the appearance of Xiao Ying—both were extremely urgent; working together, they continuously suppressed and wore it down.

Thus suppressing the resurgence within the red candle caused by its prior absorption of demonic fire.

Fortunately, Xu Qing's previous breakthrough had been swift, wasting no time, and the red candle had absorbed only limited demonic fire, so even if it had seized this chance to revive, under the full effort of Erasure Authority and Xiao Ying, this resurgence was ultimately gradually contained.

Finally, as the flame vanished, there seemed to be an unwilling low roar echoing in Xu Qing's ears.

The resurgence was completely suppressed.

Yet the sense of danger remained—not dispelled, coming from the heavens and also from not far away, the continuously withering corpse of the Western Demon Child.

The former inspired terror, the latter made his heart pound.

That corpse, in utter withering, gave rise to black mist.

This mist swiftly gathered, forming a shadow of a heavenly demon; at first glance, it was not Xu Qing but the horizon that it looked toward.

Then, in an instant, it dispersed, leaving only a single sentence behind.

"This Western Demon Child fruit of yours is not yet ripe, yet you disturbed its fate, causing me to unknowingly swallow it prematurely. Thus, the ensuing karma shall be made up by you……Hope you can survive the coming death tribulation; if you do not die, then in the future……I will come find you."

Had this been another time, the words from this heavenly demon would surely have made Xu Qing lose himself in thought, but now, compared to this heavenly demon, he was more concerned with the danger coming from the heavens.

This danger surpassed the heavenly demon, surpassed even the previous Western Demon Child, and could even be said to surpass all hostile cultivators Xu Qing had encountered so far!

It gave him a feeling, as if facing a divine spirit!

Because, it was a sovereign power capable of waging war against divine spirits!

Not like the newly ascended sovereign Fu Xie, but one who, within the sovereign realm, had advanced to a certain degree and become a true great power.

Thus, in this instant, Xu Qing's soul trembled, his thoughts roared, and his authorities fluctuated.

The feeling of danger was wildly escalating, the shadow of death had already enveloped his mind and spirit, drowning everything.

He wanted to flee, but there was nowhere left to flee.

Because the heavens twisted, silently and without sound, a colossal mirror appeared, spanning a million li in range, as if it had become the sky here!

This mirror was round, its surface pitch black.

Beneath its shroud, it was as if covered by night.

Then……snowflakes drifted from within the mirror's surface, as if snow were falling in the black night.

And this snow, too, was black.

Heaven and earth windless, only the black snow fell naturally, replacing rules, surpassing laws, making this place a world unto itself.

Xu Qing, within this world.

And the heaven of this world—that black mirror—also, in this instant, fell like heaven collapsing, slowly descending.

As it fell one inch, within the million-li range, all mountain ranges blurred in unison, vanishing from sight.

And within this black mirror's surface, the outlines of all the vanished mountain ranges emerged.

They had been drawn into the mirror's interior, no longer existing in reality.

Xu Qing's body trembled, fissures appeared one after another, the sensation of life and death made his eyes blood-red, wanting to struggle, yet he could not.

Only blood, mouthful after mouthful, surged forth.

From his mouth, from his body, from every part of his body, it was flowing.

In the end, he still could not face the Sovereign.

Under the Sovereign's strike, his divine authority, his power, all became mere ornaments.

And the black mirror that had replaced the sky, at this moment, sank another inch.

Within a million li, there were lakes and rivers; now, in the blur, they vanished, appearing within the mirror, becoming outlines.

Then came the earth.

The million-li earth twisted, rapidly dissipating.

As for the black mirror within the azure heavens, now all things had appeared within it, and within it... Xu Qing's silhouette was also rapidly forming.

Death had arrived.

Only needed to sink another inch.

Xu Qing trembled all over, already a blood-man, yet what appeared in his eyes was not despair, but madness.

He truly was no match for the Sovereign, whether it was the initial Floating Evil or this now-unrevealed cultivator; even if he had obtained opportunity and his combat power had been bolstered, facing the Sovereign, he still could not shake it.

But... this did not mean he had no means to make the opponent pay a price.

At this moment, in this madness, Xu Qing roared to the heavens, about to erupt, while the black mirror of the azure heavens also, at this moment... sank again.

It seemed the situation was about to undergo a shocking, earth-shattering change.

And just then, a tall figure emerged from the void, silently traversing a million li, entering the world formed by the black mirror, arriving where Xu Qing stood, standing before him.

Like a towering mountain, standing firm upon the storm-lashed battlefield.

Lü Lingzi!

Or more accurately, the Empress incarnated as Lü Lingzi!

It appeared at this instant before Xu Qing, blocking all wind and rain, blocking all life and death, causing all pressure descending upon Xu Qing to vanish instantly.

Xu Qing's heart eased; he knew he no longer needed to fight desperately.

Then, in Xu Qing's bow, the Empress raised her head, gazing at the black mirror of the azure heavens.

Where her gaze fell, it seemed a thousand cavalry charged, beacon fires connected the heavens, mountains and rivers shattered, all things, all of it, were within her gaze, falling upon... the center point of the mirror surface.

This gaze contained power; the black mirror surface, in the azure heavens, rumbled once.

This gaze also contained profundity; within the black mirror, at the center where the Empress's gaze converged, a white point suddenly appeared.

This white point was like the sun in the night.

At the moment of its appearance, it flashed with endless white light; this light spread, tearing through the night, withering and destroying, with an unstoppable momentum, sweeping across the entire mirror surface.

Wherever it passed, the mountain peak outlines originally imprinted within the mirror were instantly dispersed.

Rivers, lakes, even the earth, and Xu Qing's blurred silhouette, all in this instant, were forcibly erased.

The black mirror became white!

And as all outlines within it vanished, the million-li earth reversed, mountains and rivers all, entirely returned!

This was the confrontation between Lü Lingzi and that unknown Sovereign.

And this confrontation, was not explained.

Almost at the moment the mirror surface became white, a cold snort echoed in the azure heavens; the vast mirror surface directly collapsed, splitting into fragments, each fragment's white instantly turning black again, within each, a middle-aged silhouette appeared.

Countless mirror fragments refracted, gathering this silhouette upon the azure heavens.

That was... the Seventeenth Sovereign of West Moyu!

And also the master of West Moyuzi!

He, in the azure heavens, gazed upon the Empress, then swept his wide sleeve, endless black snow booming loudly around him.

The Empress's expression remained normal; her brow split open, revealing a bloody eye.

At the instant this eye appeared, the azure heavens surged, a great blood-red sun rose directly behind the Seventeenth Sovereign.

Immediately after, the Empress spoke softly.

"Blood Dust Child, my authority is wind; do you know how the next layer of wind's authority manifests?"

Xu Qing took a deep breath, shook his head.

The Empress's expression calm, she spoke the answer.

"Qi has weight; wind, too, has weight."

"Just like this."

The Empress raised her hand, pressed downward.

Instantly, the blood-red sun behind the Seventeenth Sovereign blurred; then, within this million-li range, all air was controlled in this instant, coming from all directions.

The range still spread; in the blink of an eye, it exceeded a million, reaching ten million... and their flow formed wind.

For a moment, the storm rumbled.

But the true killing force was not the storm, but... the weight of qi.

This weight all pressed upon the Seventeenth Sovereign, making his face change drastically, unable to resist, unable to dodge; under this absolute force, in this deep development of authority, his body boomed and fell directly from midair to the ground.

As the ground trembled, his body fell, as if suppressed; upon the ground, no matter how he struggled, he could not free himself in the slightest.

And an even more astonishing scene also appeared at this moment.

The air gathered upon him, under this extreme effect, actually forcibly broke through his defenses, drilled into his flesh, causing the Seventeenth Sovereign to emit a miserable cry.

His entire body instantly covered with countless wounds, yet no blood flowed out; all blood surged inward.

Miserable beyond compare.

The might of Lü Lingzi, terrifying to this degree.

At this moment, first revealed within West Moyu!

Shocking all directions!