Chapter 1055: The Source of Authority

Inside and outside the city, Xu Qing and that middle-aged cultivator stared at each other.

Rainwater floated in mid-air, radiating a sharp killing intent.

The two of them in the curtain of rain formed a stark contrast at this moment.

One was peerlessly handsome, suspended in the rain, long hair dancing, eyes revealing a strange glow.

The other had graying hair and a dignified face, yet his expression was very unsightly.

Between them, the city gate stood as a partition.

And all the raindrops, like sharp blades, pointed toward the middle-aged cultivator inside the city at the wave of Xu Qing's hand.

Time, at this moment, seemed to have frozen; only the killing intent on both of them was rising.

Neither side chose to make a move immediately.

Xu Qing was observing; this was his first attempt at controlling an opponent's Dao marks of authority, and he needed more of the opponent's actions to verify his hypothesis.

And the middle-aged cultivator was also observing.

Not just observing Xu Qing, but even more so, observing the rain all around.

The authority of rain came from the transformation of his Dao marks, and before he stepped into the Sovereign realm, he had lived in this Fifth Star Ring, naturally making him a brave and battle-hardened individual.

He had fought many battles, and he had climbed up the ranks relying on slaughter.

It was just that when he finally broke through and stepped into the Sovereign realm, before he could even nurture his foundation, he encountered a powerful enemy.

In that battle, he was severely injured and managed to escape by luck, but the severity of his injuries cut off his path forward.

Afterward, he became disheartened and settled in this corner of the world.

This time, it had also taken him a long time to make up his mind to go out and give it one last fight.

But he hadn't expected that in the very first battle... he would encounter such a situation.

However, although he hadn't had many engagements since becoming a Sovereign, and thus had never personally encountered this kind of situation where Dao marks of authority went out of control, he had heard of similar things.

Generally speaking, the occurrence of such a situation where Dao marks of authority go out of control mostly happens when one encounters an enemy who shares the same authority, and the opponent's understanding of that authority surpasses one's own.

"Authority comes from the Immortal Dao that accompanies the birth of an Immortal Embryo."

"Immortal Dao is similar to Heavenly Dao, but it is not substantial; rather, it is ethereal and illusory, a way for cultivators to seize the power of the Star Ring that originally belongs to the gods."

"Any Star Ring contains special traces in the dark that belong exclusively to the gods. Once these traces are sensed by the gods, they become divine authority."

"Cultivators cannot master them, but in the process of forming an Immortal Embryo, they naturally absorb them, making them their own origin."

"Therefore, the appearance of someone with the same authority also has a not-insignificant probability."

As the middle-aged cultivator pondered, his mind steadied, and a sharp glint appeared in his eyes.

"Although I haven't experienced it, this kind of thing... is not unbreakable! After all, this person is only in the Spirit Nurturing realm, not a Sovereign! Even if he is a heaven-gifted genius, there is ultimately a limit!"

The next instant, amidst their mutual staring, the middle-aged cultivator moved first.

He suddenly raised his right hand and slammed it hard against his own chest.

As the sound of a boom echoed like thunder, his whole body shook, and blood instantly erupted outward through every pore of his skin.

As soon as this blood appeared, it immediately merged into the surrounding rainwater, turning this curtain of rain into blood rain in an instant.

At the same time, his will, aided by the infusion of the blood mist, was bolstered within his own Dao marks, using the blood mist as a medium to manipulate the blood rain, attempting to drive away Xu Qing's control and regain mastery over the authority.

But he could not fully succeed.

Xu Qing's Five Elements Water seemed even more special; even with the middle-aged cultivator's will erupting to bolster his control, he only managed to reclaim half of it.

The next instant, this curtain of rain between Xu Qing and the middle-aged cultivator, with the city gate as the boundary, split into two.

Inside the city gate, blood rain permeated, and a fishy stench spread.

Outside the city gate, the rainwater was crystal clear and pure.

In the blink of an eye, these two curtains of rain suddenly erupted, each transforming into sharp swords, rain puppets, and water techniques.

Viewed from afar, it was like two armies at war, thousands of troops charging at each other at this moment.

The roaring sound was earth-shattering.

The sky changed color, the earth rumbled, and the minds of countless cultivators within the city were shaken; the city gate, bearing the brunt of it, immediately shattered and collapsed into dust.

As for Xu Qing and the middle-aged cultivator, both of them were also subjected to backlash and collateral damage from their respective eruptions.

Both retreated.

But their expressions were different.

The middle-aged cultivator's face was even more unsightly.

Xu Qing, on the other hand, had a look of brilliance in his eyes.

The reason he hadn't acted immediately before was to gather more information to verify and judge.

And now, he had roughly seen some clues.

He could feel that the line of thought regarding viewing his Seven Extremes Dao as authority was, at least for now, correct.

Additionally, from the previous rain charge, he felt the instinctive longing emitted by his Five Elements Water.

"I can devour this person's rain authority to strengthen my Five Elements Water!"

A sharp glint flashed in Xu Qing's eyes.

Besides this, he also judged that the middle-aged cultivator before him was clearly weaker compared to the Sovereign he had encountered when he appeared from the spirit mine.

That Sovereign guarding the spirit mine, in Xu Qing's judgment, should have been infinitely close to the mid-stage of the Sovereign realm, which could be said to be the peak of the early Sovereign stage.

And this one seemed to have old injuries in his body, and the combat power he displayed was significantly worse.

"Either this person just stepped into the Sovereign realm not long ago, or it is caused by his old injuries."

"In that case... I can kill him without using Ninth Grandfather's sword qi!"

Thinking of this, Xu Qing felt a strong murderous intent in his heart; his body flickered, and he headed straight for the middle-aged cultivator.

The Five Elements Dao within his body erupted instantly.

In an instant, strange phenomena appeared all around him.

The earth churned, and the power of earth surged, as if the ground had awakened at this moment, causing the earth to move and the mountains to shake.

Plants swayed, and the vegetation in all directions seemed to turn into demons and ghosts; all plants were stimulated and grew wildly, causing the power of wood to rise to the heavens in an instant.

The city rumbled, and all the metal power within it was affected; whether it was magic tools, magic treasures, or metal objects, they all trembled instantly, each controlled and rising into the air from where they were.

Looking at this scene in mid-air from afar, it was incredibly shocking, suddenly converging.

The sky rippled, and vast heavenly fire appeared out of thin air, a sea of crimson covering the aurora, burning wildly like a flowing sea of fire, pressing downward.

The momentum was magnificent.

At the same time, the surroundings were also twisting; from the air, from the bodies of countless cultivators, and even from all things... everything related to water was seeping out, enveloping everything, like a sea swamp manifesting in the world.

These were no longer descending purely in the posture of Heavenly Dao as in the battle between Xu Qing and Ling Feng, but were erupting in the form of Dao marks of authority under Xu Qing's thought.

The moment they were displayed, the heavens and earth changed color, and the wind and clouds surged.

Falling into the eyes of the middle-aged cultivator, it turned into a roar in his heart and a degree of horror and shock even greater than when his authority was controlled before.

"Five authorities!!"

"This is impossible!!"

The middle-aged cultivator's mind was already churning with monstrous waves, as if millions of thunderbolts were erupting simultaneously.

In his cognition, five authorities were enough to be listed among the Eight Great Stars.

Most importantly, he had never heard of anyone at the Spirit Nurturing level possessing five authorities.

"Who exactly are you!"

The middle-aged cultivator's heart was completely churning, but his words clearly received no answer; Xu Qing had already approached.

The next instant, a roaring sound erupted near the city gate.

The surroundings were chaotic, and outsiders could not see a thing.

If one's cultivation was insufficient, even a single glance would cause their mind to collapse; even if their cultivation was decent, but they hadn't reached this level, what they saw would be an abstract painting.

Because they didn't understand.

The lack of cognitive understanding would cause the mind to become disordered, making it difficult to form an effective image.

Therefore, they could not see that in this blurry and twisted abstract painting, besides the Five Elements, space was changing, and time was freezing.

Until a while later.

With the flash of a sword light, the chaotic and twisted abstract painting returned to normal.

In the appearing scene, the middle-aged cultivator stood on the spot, blood at the corners of his mouth, hair disheveled.

A sword had pierced in from his crown, directly penetrating his body.

Blood flowed all over the ground.

And Xu Qing was in mid-air, gazing at the middle-aged cultivator.

This middle-aged cultivator was now struggling to lift his head, also looking at Xu Qing.

He seemed to want to say something, but when he opened his mouth, blood blocked his words.

Xu Qing had no intention of listening to his words and, with a wave of his hand, pulled out the Emperor Sword.

The middle-aged cultivator's body shook, the light in his eyes dimmed, and his soul perished.

Furthermore, as Xu Qing grabbed with his hand, the opponent's rain authority transformed into dots of crystalline water, flying out from his body and merging into Xu Qing's Five Elements.

The Five Elements Water surged suddenly.

Along with it, Xu Qing's aura was also higher than it had been before the battle.

Besides this, the middle-aged cultivator's storage ring also arrived.

Furthermore, Xu Qing clearly sensed that his sensing range for other tokens had surged tenfold at this moment.

At the same time, a new ranking appeared in Xu Qing's mind.

1145th in the Southern Region!

All around, there was silence.

Xu Qing glanced at the corpse standing there, and with a wave of his hand, everything collapsed, including the traces of the battlefield here, which were wiped away by his authority.

"If I had had this shift in thinking when I fought the one guarding the spirit mine, then perhaps I wouldn't have needed to waste one of Ninth Grandfather's sword qi."

After Xu Qing thought about it, he still felt that even if he had realized it at the time, he would likely still have had to use the sword qi.

Without knowing the situation outside, seizing the opportunity to kill with one strike was the optimal choice.

Thinking of this, Xu Qing stopped dwelling on the past and gazed into the distance.

"This place is not suitable for a long stay."

His body flickered, and he went far away in an instant.

In the sky, crimson aurora flowed.

Between heaven and earth, the long rainbow transformed by Xu Qing was speeding along at an extremely fast pace.

While staying vigilant of his surroundings, he was also pondering this battle.

Ultimately, the focus of this battle was his Five Elements authority transformation and the matter of controlling the opponent's authority.

This matter was of great help to Xu Qing's cognition.

It allowed Xu Qing to verify his previous judgment and, as a result, generated more thoughts regarding the Sovereign realm.

Before this, Xu Qing knew that the Void Returning realm in the cultivator system was a process of sensing the rules and laws of heaven and earth.

The four small realms within it were all like this, in a progressive manner, ultimately allowing Void Returning cultivators to master all the rules that could form their own Great World from the Heavenly Dao of the world they were in.

This mastery, Xu Qing understood, was not becoming the source, but just understanding and possessing the right to use it.

Or rather, it was comprehending the world one was in to weave one's own Great World.

Overall, it was a process of accumulation, stitch by stitch.

Xu Qing's ability to go from Void Returning to Spirit Nurturing in one step was also within this scope.

On one hand, his accumulation at the time was sufficient; on the other hand, the initial origin transformed from that physical body of Ming Yan already contained everything and was incredibly pure.

Therefore, after cooperating with the comprehension from the Ten Extremes Dao from Thick Earth, Xu Qing used these accumulations and the nourishment of the initial origin to break through and become Spirit Nurturing.

He formed his own Seven Realms.

Spirit Nurturing was the term used in Wanggu; this realm was also called Spirit Nurturing in other places.

The names were different, but the meaning was the same.

Because the spirit being nurtured was not a god, but a Primordial Spirit.

As for the essence of the Spirit Nurturing realm, Xu Qing had also explored it before leaving Wanggu.

He understood that the foundation of this realm was to go and form one's own Great World one by one after sensing enough rules and laws.

Ultimately, there were nine Great Worlds.

These nine Great Worlds could be consistent or inconsistent, determined by the cultivator's own thoughts and experiences.

But regardless, no matter what kind of world it was, these were ultimately nourishment.

Nourishment to push oneself to step into the Sovereign realm.

It was just that the path of the Sovereign was broken in the Wanggu Continent; unless one possessed a special bloodline that could continue it for oneself during the impact process, otherwise... it was difficult to step into.

Part of the reason was that the Heavenly Dao shaped by those Xia Immortals in the Wanggu Continent back then had problems.

But ultimately, the biggest reason was the influence of that Upper Desolate remnant face on the Wanggu Continent.

The divine aura was too heavy, hence Immortals were hard to produce.

Because... the Sovereign realm was very special.

It was the process of fusing nine Great Worlds to form one's own Immortal Embryo.

It was also a watershed for the transformation between cultivator and Immortal.

Once the Immortal Embryo was formed, one was a Quasi-Immortal, which was a Great Emperor.

Like the Human Empress of that year, although she inherited the bloodline from Xuan Zhan and the blessing of human destiny with the help of Sword-Wielding, thereby stepping into the Sovereign realm, that was her limit.

She could take one step, but ultimately could not continue; it was impossible for her to become a Great Emperor in this life.

And after the arrival of the divine remnant face, no new Great Emperors appeared on the Wanggu Continent.

Therefore, she had to switch to cultivating the divine path, using rituals to burn divine fire, using her Immortal Embryo that she could never form as fuel, causing the divine fire to erupt and burn ever brighter, ultimately stepping onto the Divine Altar.

From then on, she was cut off from Immortals.

This was the path regarding Sovereigns and Quasi-Immortal Great Emperors that Xu Qing had learned in the Xia Xiangong before leaving the Wanggu Continent.

As for authority, in the records of the Xia Xiangong, this phenomenon had never appeared in Thick Earth.

It only appeared after coming to Wanggu.

At first, the Xia Xiangong thought it was origin, but origin had actually been manifested in Thick Earth cultivators for a long time.

And there was a difference between the two; Dao marks of authority were clearly much stronger.

And the way it appeared was through the Immortal Dao that accompanied the process of forming an Immortal Embryo in the Sovereign realm.

The so-called Immortal Dao was the ethereal existence that transcended Heavenly Dao; what it manifested was authority, was Dao marks.

Why it appeared, the Xia Xiangong also did not understand.

However, generally speaking, Dao marks of authority only appeared in the Sovereign realm.

But there were exceptions; for example, some heaven-gifted geniuses often had them appear in advance at the Spirit Nurturing level.

And this time of appearance also became the standard for measuring geniuses in Wanggu before the remnant face arrived.

As for Xia Immortals, that is, Lower Immortals...

That was after the Immortal Embryo was formed and nurtured to the extreme, ultimately breaking through, transforming from the embryo, and giving birth to an Immortal.

The Xia Immortal realm, in the records of the Xia Xiangong, was the limit of the Thick Earth Star Ring.

It was also called the Ninth Step in Thick Earth.

However, the manifestation of Xia Immortal combat power existed with a big difference between Thick Earth and Wanggu.

Xia Immortals, in the Thick Earth Star Ring, could cover the entire Star Ring in a single thought; besides not being able to collapse the Star Ring they were in, they were almost omnipotent.

But in Wanggu, they could not do it.

This point also had an explanation in the analysis of the Xia Xiangong.

They knew that where Wanggu was located was the Ninth Star Ring, and they also explored that there were a total of thirty-six such supreme celestial bodies like the Ninth Star Ring.

The Ninth Star Ring, which was the Huangtian Star Ring, was just one of them.

These thirty-six Star Rings, in the cognition of the Xia Xiangong, belonged to the Upper Row.

To some extent, they could also be seen as the Upper Realm.

And Thick Earth was a Lower Row Star Ring, or the Lower Realm.

Like such a Lower Row, the Xia Xiangong believed that it was impossible for there to be only Thick Earth; there should be thirty-six corresponding Lower Row Star Rings, or more.

It was just that what was above Thick Earth was Huangtian.

This was just the judgment of the Xia Xiangong, without conclusive proof.

But it was also based on this judgment that there was an answer for the change in Xia Immortal combat power.

The suppression power of the Upper and Lower Rows was different, so the combat power displayed was also different.

It was just like the difference between a Great World and a Small World.

In a Small World, without suppression, one could naturally summon wind and rain.

But in a Great World, one could not.

Its foundation, under the research of the Xia Xiangong, was believed to be that the Upper Row thirty-six Star Rings were the land of gods.

The source of divine authority, those traces in the dark, exerted great suppression on the entire Upper Row thirty-six Star Rings.

Whether it was gods or cultivators.

Xu Qing's feeling about this point was actually not that great, because he had never been to Thick Earth, so he didn't know what kind of terrifying degree his current cultivation would display in Thick Earth.

For him, his life until now had been in the Upper Row Star Ring.

"As for why my Five Elements transformed authority is special..."

Xu Qing narrowed his eyes and instinctively touched his chest.

There, a purple crystal was shining.

"What exactly is it..."

"In the totem I saw when comprehending the Ten Extremes Dao, there was a complete crystal that had shattered into ten parts."

"And this one of mine is not shattered; it is complete." ===== CHAPTER 1058 =====