Chapter 1353

In the inner and outer palace of the Ziqing State.

Ziqing sat upon the dragon throne, Xu Qing stood in the outer plaza within the hall.

Their gazes met, locking together.

Xu Qing still remembered the last time their gazes had converged, which was in the human imperial capital, at the moment of his death.

And before that, it was in the rain-soaked jungle during the welcoming of Huangzhou.

At that time, Crown Prince Ziqing held Sixth Uncle's head in his hand.

One scene after another surfaced in Xu Qing's mind as their gazes met at this moment.

The only difference from before was that this time, Xu Qing's gaze was calm.

He stared at Crown Prince Ziqing, so close that he could clearly sense the other's cultivation—only at the Divine Platform realm.

Back in the human imperial capital, Crown Prince Ziqing had used the Empress's universal promotion as his own ritual to step onto the Divine Platform realm.

But it seemed that over these years, he had halted his progress.

Still, he remained at the Divine Platform.

Yet Xu Qing felt no complacency because of this; he knew well that the statues on the Desolate Wasteland's残面 were here, so the realm,

was actually no longer important.

And Crown Prince Ziqing's scheming and methods, along with his repeated layouts, all indicated that he sought the utmost!

Thus, facing Crown Prince Ziqing's words, Xu Qing spoke lightly.

"My divine body, whether fused with myself or brought here—so long as it appears before you—"

"—whether the body forged from Desolate Wasteland flesh and blood can still belong to me is unknown."

Inside the hall, Crown Prince Ziqing seated on the dragon throne, upon hearing this, his smile grew ever gentler,

"Clever younger brother, let me see if your preparations are sufficient."

As he spoke gently, Crown Prince Ziqing raised his right hand and lightly summoned toward the heavens.

With this summon, the firmament thundered, waves surged abruptly, a massive vortex suddenly appeared, violently spinning with a deafening roar.

It swept away all the black mist devouring the heavens.

And within that vortex, a scene coalesced!

The scene was precisely... Mount Zhaoxia!

Within it, everything was clearly reflected; one could see inside Mount Zhaoxia, a figure seated cross-legged.

Exuding a thick divine spirit aura—it was Xu Qing's divine body.

Around this body were dense and intricate formations; now all formations were activating, forming a terrifying suppressive force.

And outside the formations, beyond Mount Zhaoxia, one could still see figures encircling the mountain.

They were Zhou Zhengli and Xing Huanzi and the others.

All of them, seated cross-legged, each forming seals, releasing their entire selves, empowering the formations within Mount Zhaoxia.

Causing the formations' suppressive might to suddenly surge.

But these were not the focus; the true suppressor of Xu Qing's divine body was—Seventh Uncle!

Seventh Uncle, seated cross-legged atop Mount Zhaoxia, using his own power to envelop Xu Qing's divine body.

And while everything had been normal before, at the moment Crown Prince Ziqing raised his hand and summoned, Xu Qing's divine body, seated cross-legged at the formation's center,

suddenly trembled.

Its eyes actually snapped open!

Releasing golden light, while that gaze also carried an eerie quality.

It seemed, no longer Xu Qing!

Immediately, terrifying power emanated from this divine body, outward toward the world, seeking to destroy the formations, and even to burst forth, to shatter this mountain and rush toward the summoning place.

This power was astonishing; upon touching the formations, they instantly showed signs of decay and collapse.

Those empowering the formations—Zhou Zhengli and others—each had their bodies violently shake; Zhou Zhengli spat a mouthful of blood, Xing Huanzi likewise.

Also, Xieliangzi, Li Mutu, Yuanshan Su, and others—each had their minds thunder with roar, blood gushing from their seven orifices.

Seeing that suppression was about to fail, at the critical moment, Seventh Uncle let out a cold snort, raised his right hand, and pressed against the mountain.

With this press, earth's power surged in, sealing off the mountain!

Then, as he raised his left hand, he produced an object.

It was a lens!

Precisely the gift given to Xu Qing by the Mingxian Immortal Lord, containing his own constitutional might.

With this object, combined with Seventh Uncle's earth power, they finally sealed Mount Zhaoxia, making the divine body within—unable to break through the earth and emerge.

Though this method's longevity was uncertain, at least for now it seemed to have blocked Crown Prince Ziqing's first wave of summoning.

This was one of the many preparations Xu Qing had decided upon before coming to the Ziqing State.

He had long since deduced an answer.

Because Crown Prince Ziqing was closely tied to the Desolate Wasteland, then the body forged from Desolate Wasteland flesh and blood, before him—must certainly have a clue!

Thus Xu Qing knew well that he must suppress his divine body before coming to the Ziqing State, to prevent accidents.

And since he could not allow his divine body to appear, he could not merge with it, thus unable to reach that most peak formidable immortal-divine state.

Therefore, what he could use was only his immortal body.

This was also why he had remained in seclusion!

He wanted to break through his cultivation!

But even after decades of seclusion, even if he fully absorbed the light offered by the Radiant Heaven Divine Clan, the final result still fell short of letting him truly ascend to Immortal Lord!

Though his constitution was sufficient, the source quality required for Xia Xian to ascend to Immortal Lord was truly too great.

As for that mysterious light offered by the Huangtian Divine Clan, he had absorbed it for decades, already reaching the limit of the light.

Although the source substance still remained within the light, Xu Qing could no longer continue to absorb it; the remainder was the fundamental essence of that light as a key.

It could not be plundered by external force.

Thus, Xu Qing emerged from seclusion and chose to come to the Upper Realm of Prince Ziqing.

At this moment, within the vortex image summoned by the Purple Azure Prince upon the firmament, as Mount Zhaoxia stabilized for an instant, Xu Qing, standing upon the imperial palace plaza, suddenly raised his head.

He radiated intense light from within, raised his hand, and swept it toward the sky.

Instantly, the roaring of the vortex in the heavens intensified once more; then, as the entire vortex trembled, it was actually driven into a reverse rotation.

And Xu Qing's cultivation also surged at this instant, soaring heaven-shatteringly,

the fluctuations of late-stage Xia Xian instantly filling heaven and earth in all directions, enveloping the entire Tun Tian Great Realm, transformed into external force, causing the vortex's reversal—just like that.

At the same time, Xu Qing gazed upon the Purple Azure Prince within the great hall, and the Dao resonance echoed in his mouth.

"Seize!"

The moment this sound rang out, upon the Wanggu Continent, within the human imperial capital, a grand ritual had already been fully prepared.

This ritual gathered all the mighty of humanity, using human fortune as a guide, with the Empress as command, and suddenly unfolded.

As the ritual rose, a strong light shot up from the human imperial capital into the heavens, racing straight toward—the Tun Tian Great Realm.

At the same time, sensing the opening of the human ritual, all the great realms of the Wanggu Continent, with all their tribes within, at this moment began to unfold the rituals they had long prepared, one after another.

Each was a mobilization of the entire clan's strength.

Forming beams of strong light that shot up into the sky, rushing toward the Tun Tian Great Realm where Xu Qing was, howling as they came.

Though this sounds lengthy when spoken, in reality it all occurred in an instant.

The beams of light from the myriad races, together with humanity's light, tore through the void and appeared directly in the sky above the Tun Tian Great Realm like meteors.

And there, they merged together into one.

Moreover, the manifestation of the Wanggu Dao appeared within that light.

Within it could be seen the Ancient Spirit Emperor, and could be seen Xu Qing's Dao Child.

At the moment of their appearance, they intertwined with the light, and actually spread out across the sky above the Tun Tian Great Realm into a colossal mirror covering the Tun Tian Great Realm!

The mirror surface, facing the Tun Tian Great Realm, indeed reflected within it the mountains and rivers and everything within this realm!

Naturally, it also included the Purple Azure Realm and its imperial palace within!

The entire Tun Tian Great Realm, under this reflection, within the vortex's reverse absorption, instantly blurred into obscurity; threads of fortune became tangible as strands of gray qi, rising upward, being absorbed by that mirror!

And as the Tun Tian Great Realm grew blurred, everything within the mirror surface rapidly clarified!

This is precisely the Dao's manifestation of seizing national fortune!

Xu Qing gathered the strength of the myriad races, forming above the Tun Tian Great Realm a mirror of Wanggu that plunders national fortune.

This is one of Xu Qing's plans.

The Purple Azure Prince sought to seize his divine body, while his choice was to use half of the Purple Azure Upper Realm's fortune as a guide¹, to seize the other half of the Purple Azure Upper Realm's fortune.

Within the Tun Tian Great Realm, in the imperial palace's great hall, the Purple Azure Prince seated upon the dragon throne, gazing upon this scene of the outside world, his smile grew richer, and he slightly nodded toward Xu Qing.

"Interesting."

"My younger brother has indeed grown up."

"Everyone knows they want to snatch our family estate from elder brother here."

"But, do you know how much our family estate amounts to?"

Purple Azure smiled gently.