Chapter 125

Xu Qing stared at this mural, his heart and spirit shaken. Suddenly, the light from the black umbrella lamp within the mural flared brilliantly, as if it were truly real. The light pierced through the mural itself and spread outward toward the outside world.

At the same time, the spirit-breath lamp in Xu Qing's hand also flashed with an even more intense light in that instant, reflecting the radiance of the mural to form a sea of light that erupted with a boom.

Xu Qing's expression changed; it was already too late to retreat, and his figure was instantly engulfed by this sea of light.

In the blink of an eye, as the sea of light vanished, Xu Qing's figure vanished along with it!

It felt as if a long time had passed, and yet it also felt like only a single instant.

When Xu Qing's perception shifted from blurry to clear, the first thing he felt was an extremely terrifying pressure, like the roar of a peerless ferocious beast, rushing toward him from ahead.

Clearly there was no sound, clearly it was only pressure, yet it still made Xu Qing's ears ring, as if his eardrums could not withstand it and were about to collapse; fresh blood flowed down from his ears.

Not only that, his nose was the same, and his eyes were also stinging, making it very difficult to open them.

Inside his body, there was an even more intense churning, as if his internal organs were all trembling.

The excruciating pain caused by all of this made Xu Qing, unable to open his eyes, afraid to touch anything in his surroundings.

He could only crouch down rapidly, instinctively assuming a defensive posture, while simultaneously spreading poison powder in the surroundings; the black iron skewer was also taken out, and without any hesitation, he directly undid the seal of the Jin Gang Sect ancestor within it.

As the seal was undone, a wail immediately came from inside the iron skewer.

The Jin Gang Sect ancestor had awakened, but the very next instant, he began to howl miserably.

"Master, I was wrong, I was truly wrong! What place is this? Heavens, this... this..."

"Master, are you trying to throw me into this place to let me suffer torture here for all eternity? I have read many ancient texts, and many characters in them were dealt with in this way."

"Master, I truly surrender sincerely, I sincerely want to be your artifact spirit! Don't kill me, I am very obedient, I know I was wrong, I confess, actually I buried quite a few spirit stones in another place, and actually I also greeted some fellow Daoists and promised them heavy rewards, saying that once I lost contact, they should try to find you."

"Master, I will tell you who they are right now, I will help you kill them!"

"Shut up!" Xu Qing could not open his eyes, and he gritted his teeth as he spoke.

"Tell me, what is this place!"

The Jin Gang Sect ancestor shivered even more violently, but he dared not disobey Xu Qing's words, and he dared not hide anything; his life soul was in the other's hands, and his life and death were in the other's single thought.

Therefore, he hurriedly spoke with a trembling voice.

"Master, this place seems to be an altar, and the surroundings are a sea of bones formed by bones. We are at a high point, and there is a flight of stairs in front that leads down to a road with cliffs on both sides; at the end of the road is a circular altar.

In front of this altar is a majestic sea of bones. Heavens, this place is too big, and further ahead there are three earth-shattering divine statues!"

"Three statues side by side, is that it!" Xu Qing transmitted his voice in a low tone.

"No, it's one standing and two kneeling." The Jin Gang Sect ancestor had no idea at all that he had just circled between life and death.

"Continue." Xu Qing spoke slowly.

"The one standing is a giant, with a nine-headed great snake coiled around its body, like a god. Damn it!

What kind of thing is this? I felt like my eyes were going to go blind just from one look. If it weren't for the fact that I am an artifact spirit and don't have a mortal body, I reckon I would have truly gone blind... There are two more in front of it... Master, I was wrong, where is this..."

Following the Jin Gang Sect ancestor's rambling words, Xu Qing's heart shook; he realized that the location he was in was precisely the world of the mural.

Thus, after pondering, he did not speak, but instead casually sealed the Jin Gang Sect ancestor, making him continue to sleep and shut up, while he silently waited for his body to adapt and recover.

Until a full stick of incense's time had passed, as the restorative power of the purple crystal within his body continuously spread, it finally allowed Xu Qing to slowly adapt to the pressure of the surroundings to a certain degree.

Although the excruciating pain still permeated and the feeling of his body collapsing had not dissipated, he still managed to open his eyes and see everything in his surroundings clearly.

This place was indeed as the Jin Gang Sect ancestor had described; the place where Xu Qing was located felt like a huge cave, or perhaps another layer of the world.

The stairs in front were huge, not like a place for humans to walk, and in the sea of bones at the very front, those three divine statues possessed monstrous majesty.

The pressure that Xu Qing could not withstand was precisely what was radiating from them.

Xu Qing's eyes stung and bled, but he gritted his teeth and persisted in scanning them, when suddenly his pupils contracted; he saw that black umbrella lamp held in the mouth of one of the snake heads coiled around the giant standing in the sea of bones.

This black umbrella lamp shone with ten thousand rays of light and a thousand strands of auspicious color, illuminating the worlds on the giant's two shoulders, making those two worlds look lifelike.

Xu Qing's breathing immediately became rapid, his heartbeat was incredibly violent, and his mind was buzzing and roaring; his eyes were fixed, staring dead-set at that black umbrella lamp.

"Life Lamp?"

Xu Qing's heart and spirit shook intensely; the description of the Life Lamp that the Captain had given earlier surfaced in his mind, and an indescribable desire rose up in his heart.

Although he had guesses when he came, he was still shocked by this scene.

A Life Lamp actually existed in this place!

If this matter were to spread, the great competition outside would likely end immediately, all eyes would converge here, and the Seven Sect Alliance of the Eastern Wanggu Continent would also rush over at the first opportunity.

In reality, it was indeed so; once this matter was revealed, the outside world would definitely go crazy, and compared to this Life Lamp, things like the Mermaid Clan were completely unimportant.

Moreover, the Mermaid Clan clearly did not know about this matter; otherwise, sending it out to any great sect power would have been enough to exchange for protection!

And as for Xu Qing, it would have been difficult to find and enter this place if not for the shadow.

At this moment, Xu Qing looked at that Life Lamp, his mood incredibly agitated, but he did not act rashly; instead, he took a deep breath to suppress the waves in his heart, allowing his mood to buffer for a moment.

Then, he first raised his hand to wipe away the blood flowing from his eyes, and as the recovery of the purple crystal within his body continued to permeate, his current state was a bit better than before.

After a long while, Xu Qing, whose breathing had also slightly calmed, looked up at that lamp again, a trace of decisiveness slowly appearing in his eyes.

He attempted to walk forward until he approached the end in front, took a look at the huge stairs below, and then his body suddenly flipped down.

But the moment he flipped and jumped down, and his body landed on the second step, the pressure from this place became even stronger than before, erupting and increasing.

Xu Qing's body trembled again, his throat felt sweet, fresh blood sprayed out, his complexion was incredibly pale, and his body swayed as he immediately sat cross-legged to regulate his breathing for a while.

After a long while, he finally recovered somewhat, gritted his teeth, and continued to walk forward, each step difficult, his body roaring, his seven orifices bleeding, and his bones seemingly about to collapse and shatter.

Until he barely approached the edge of this second step, his body... had already reached the limit of what it could withstand, and at this moment, his vision was somewhat blurry.

Xu Qing knew very well that he could not continue; he had a strong premonition that if he were to flip down to the third step, something greatly terrifying would definitely appear.

But he looked up and stared dead-set at that Life Lamp, truly unwilling to leave just like that, so he lowered his head and looked at the ground beneath his feet.

The light here came from the front, so his shadow was vaguely revealed behind him.

Xu Qing looked back at his shadow, his eyes narrowed, and he suddenly spoke.

"Wake up, you don't like extinguishing lamps, right? Go get it for me."

During his words, Xu Qing immediately began to control the shadow; suddenly, the shadow twisted, and as if unwilling, it slowly retracted from behind to the ground beneath his feet, and then spread forward toward the front.

Under the illumination of the light, the shadow spreading forward could not be seen clearly; only Xu Qing's perception could feel the existence of the shadow, so under his control, the shadow landed on the third step.

No discomfort came from it.

A sharp glint flashed in Xu Qing's eyes, and he continued to control the shadow to spread, until the fourth step, the fifth step...

Finally, under his control, the shadow spread across all the stairs, reached the altar below, and continued to move forward, heading toward the three divine statues in the sea of bones.

How long the shadow could actually be, Xu Qing had no answer.

But he could feel that the more he controlled it to spread, the greater the control required; at the same time, the shadow also seemed to become more unstable, and the degree of difficulty also intensified.

Especially when it was about to approach the three divine statues in the sea of bones, the feeling of the shadow's instability was fed back into Xu Qing's heart even more intensely, and it could no longer continue to spread.

Bloodshot veins permeated Xu Qing's eyes; he looked at the Life Lamp, then felt the shadow, and with truly no other way, he simply let the purple crystal on his chest flash, emitting a suppressing force, intending to try and suppress it to see if it could make it longer.

This was a method born of no other options, but as this suppressing force formed, before it could even fall, the shadow that had been somewhat unstable suddenly shook, as if it were overdrawn, and it actually suddenly grew a large section longer.

It directly spread onto the giant's body, only a step's distance away from the Life Lamp held in the snake's mouth.

But this time, it was truly at its limit; it was clearly trembling, and a sense of tearing appeared.

Even if Xu Qing truly suppressed it for a moment, it still could not continue, and it even seemed about to retreat, as if it could not withstand it.

This made Xu Qing's breathing rapid, but he could not trust the shadow; he did not know if the other party was deliberately not going over now, or if it truly could not do it, so he stared at the shadow and spoke in a low voice.

"If you don't get it this time, then after we go out, even if I die, I will suppress you a thousand times before I die, until you are destroyed!

"

Xu Qing said these words very calmly.

But the lethality contained within seemed to reach the extreme for the shadow, so the shadow's trembling was obvious, and it frantically wanted to spread forward, but it was clearly truly unable to do so, and the sense of tearing was even more intense.

Xu Qing felt this scene, and only then did he believe it in his heart; thus, decisiveness quickly appeared in his eyes, and he took out a talisman treasure, then took out a magic boat, with all defenses fully opened.

His body even climbed onto the magic boat, and he took out a large amount of spirit stones and placed them in the array grooves, making its protective power even more substantial.

Then, he took a deep breath, and without any hesitation, he controlled the magic boat to suddenly fly forward by a distance of one step, appearing above the third step.

The instant his figure moved forward along with the magic boat, the shadow also spread one step further forward along with his movement, directly touching the Life Lamp in the snake's mouth, and fiercely hooking it.

But before Xu Qing could check if it was successful, as his magic boat approached, a monstrous roar that far exceeded the previous ones directly erupted in front of him; this roar surpassed thunder, forming a force that overturned mountains and seas, rushing toward Xu Qing.

His magic boat was the first to be unable to withstand it; the front collapsed with a boom, the first layer of defense composed of sails was directly torn apart, and the entire magic boat rolled backward abruptly.

Following that was the second layer of defense, which also collapsed and exploded; even with the support of a large number of spirit stones, it was of no avail, and it collapsed directly, while the magic boat rolled backward even faster.

Next was the bow of the boat; as the divinity on the sea lizard skin dissipated, it was still unable to neutralize it, causing the hull to instantly shatter into pieces, and then the front half of the boat body, which was the same.

While the entire magic boat was incredibly miserable, this force also landed on Xu Qing's several talisman treasures.

The protective talisman treasures blocked frantically, but the handwriting on them instantly dimmed, and after vanishing in an instant, the remaining force roared and rolled over, directly landing on Xu Qing's body.

Xu Qing's whole body shook violently, as if he had been hit by a mountain peak; his body roared, and he sprayed out a large mouthful of fresh blood.

Many bones all over his body shattered, his flesh and blood became directly blurry, and his magic boat at this moment finally retreated to the extreme; following the flashing of the surrounding light, in the temple of the Mermaid Clan's Juying Island undersea world, beside the mural, Xu Qing and his dilapidated magic boat were suddenly blasted out from within the mural.

The force of this blast was immense, causing Xu Qing's magic boat to fiercely crash into the wall on the other side; the wall collapsed, and the magic boat was thrown a hundred-zhang-long mark on the ground.

Xu Qing, who was on it, sprayed out large mouthfuls of fresh blood, and he was also jolted and thrown out a hundred zhang along with the magic boat; flesh and blood in many places on his body were shattered and destroyed, revealing bones, and even many bones were broken.

There was an even larger wound on his stomach, piercing through his torso, and as for his robe, only a small half remained; it was incredibly tragic.

While fresh blood gushed out in large quantities and permeated the surroundings, Xu Qing's vision blurred rapidly; the severity of his injuries was unprecedented, but his right hand at this moment was clutching an item dead-set.

That was... the Life Lamp... that had been hooked down and brought back by the shadow in the mural world just now!

"Cannot lose consciousness!"

Along with the blurring of his vision, Xu Qing fiercely bit his tongue, suddenly opened his eyes, struggled to take out a large handful of elixirs from his storage bag, and without time to eat them, he directly pressed them onto his wounds; he even spread poison powder to permeate the surroundings, alert to the danger that might arrive.

At the same time, as for the Life Lamp, he also had no time to check it; he put it away rapidly at the first opportunity and placed it into the storage bead he had obtained from the Jin Gang Sect ancestor.

Afterward, not feeling at ease, he placed the storage bead into a storage bag, still feeling it was not secure, so he placed this storage bag into another storage bag; with so many layers, its aura could not leak out in the slightest under the spatial superposition.

In addition, the dilapidated magic boat still retained some divinity; Xu Qing had no time to feel heartache, and immediately controlled the magic boat to make the divinity dissipate, turning it into a defense to shroud his surroundings.

After doing all this, Xu Qing sprayed out another mouthful of fresh blood; the intense feeling of weakness made him feel as if he were feeling the call of death, and the purple crystal within his body emitted obvious purple light, continuously flowing throughout his whole body.

But the excruciating pain that followed everywhere in his whole body still made Xu Qing groan; afterward, he gritted his teeth dead-set to keep himself from losing consciousness, waiting in agony for the purple crystal to recover.

Seventh update!

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