Chapter 160

This time, Xu Qing didn't need to threaten it much; just this one sentence made the shadow tremble.

Even in this terror, as if by instinct, several tearing maws appeared.

There was also an urgent consciousness, desperately trying to convey itself to Xu Qing, seemingly terrified that if it were too slow, it would be obliterated.

"Sea Corpse... eat... fast breakthrough... breakthrough fast."

Xu Qing didn't bother to figure out the difference between what the shadow meant by "fast breakthrough" and "breakthrough fast," nor did he care if it had blurted out its true thoughts in its anxiety; instead, he looked at the black iron skewer.

As the black iron skewer vibrated, the Jin Gang Sect Ancestor manifested from within. He had clearly done some mental preparation in this short time; the moment he appeared, he immediately slapped his chest and spoke to Xu Qing in a firm tone.

"Master, rest assured. At most, after eating a few more magic treasures, my artifact spirit cultivation technique will be able to break through. According to my calculations, by that time, under my control, the precious skewer will be able to instantly reach a speed and sharpness comparable to the Profound Radiance State."

"Although I cannot sustain it for very long, I will definitely work even harder and will never hold you back, Master. Especially since I have recently been researching how to self-detonate."

"I have already thought it through: I will worry about what you worry about, and ponder what you ponder. My life is nothing; if we encounter a critical moment, even if I have to self-detonate, I will carve out a path of compliance for you, Master, leading straight to the Ancient Sovereign and Overlord!"

The Jin Gang Sect Ancestor spoke with such passion, continuously slapping his chest, that the shadow stopped trembling and simply stared in a daze.

After listening, Xu Qing gave the Jin Gang Sect Ancestor a meaningful look and nodded.

"I understand."

After saying this, Xu Qing withdrew his gaze, and with a single thought, the life fire within his body instantly extinguished from its burning state.

Following the extinguishment, Xu Qing's entire person suddenly dimmed, returning to his former state.

The terrifying pressure on his body also dissipated at this moment.

At the same time, returning from that powerful state, the perception that reappeared throughout his body caused Xu Qing a moment of discomfort; he even had an impulse to continue keeping the Profound Radiance State active.

But he suppressed this impulse.

In fact, this was not just the case for Xu Qing; for any Foundation Establishment cultivator, returning from that astonishing state to their original one before and after activating the Profound Radiance State would stir up waves in their heart.

The Profound Radiance State is a super-burst of the dharma apertures within a Foundation Establishment cultivator's body. During this burst, their magic power, spiritual sea, and even their own dharma body and everything else will improve by leaps and bounds.

The consumption brought about by this improvement is naturally extremely huge.

This makes it necessary for Foundation Establishment cultivators to learn to restrain themselves and reasonably utilize their own Profound Radiance State duration. Generally speaking, a cultivator with one life fire can sustain it for more than half an hour.

This duration is the limit. Unless it is an absolute last resort, no one will challenge their own limits regarding their life fire.

Because once the life fire is exhausted and extinguished within such a limit, their own dharma apertures will wither due to such overdrawing, turning into withered apertures.

Withered apertures are like waste, almost irreversible.

Xu Qing silently felt things out, and after letting himself re-adapt to his normal state, he began to check his spoils of war this time.

This time, there were four Sea Corpse Clan Foundation Establishment cultivators who died at his hands. What Xu Qing regretted most were the four magic treasures used by the life fire Foundation Establishment cultivator who had teleported in to resist his single strike.

At that time, Xu Qing had just activated the Profound Radiance State and was still in the life lamp state, so he was unable to precisely control the terrifying power within his body for a moment and could only strike with all his might.

Although he smashed the opponent to pieces, those four magic treasures were also torn apart.

"At least over a million spirit stones..." Xu Qing sighed at this thought and took out the harvested storage bags. Only after checking them did he feel a bit better.

The storage bags of these few Sea Corpse Clan cultivators were much better than those he had encountered before. The spirit stones inside added up to about thirty thousand or so; the only pity was that there was only one magic treasure.

That was the fan of the black-robed scholar.

This fan could also boost speed. Xu Qing looked at the Jin Gang Sect Ancestor to the side, who clearly wanted it very much but was forcibly holding back, and threw it over.

Instantly, the black iron skewer let out a buzz and pierced directly into the fan. The angle of entry was very tricky—not from the fan face, but from the lower fan ribs—which meant that from the outside, the fan showed no obvious damage.

As it absorbed, the spiritual charm within the fan dissipated rapidly. When it finally became dim, the Jin Gang Sect Ancestor pulled out the iron skewer with satisfaction and then blew a breath of air at the fan.

This breath was very strange. After it landed on the fan, the dimness of the magic treasure instantly vanished, and it radiated precious light again, looking... as if there was no difference from before.

"It's just fragile..." the Jin Gang Sect Ancestor said in a low voice. After saying this, he blinked, putting on an embarrassed expression, as if wanting to use this to highlight that he was not a sinister person.

Xu Qing's expression remained normal as he put the fan away, not paying attention to the Jin Gang Sect Ancestor's expression and words. At this moment, the souls of two Sea Corpse Clan members within his body erupted simultaneously, instantly forcing open his thirty-first dharma aperture.

"More souls are needed..." Xu Qing felt that after opening thirty dharma apertures, the soul power required was even more immense. Ordinary Foundation Establishment was no longer enough to let him open a dharma aperture; only life fire souls could do it.

Therefore, after the thirty-first dharma aperture was opened, the remaining force was not enough to force open the thirty-second.

As the magic power within his body increased, Xu Qing's body surged forward, heading straight for the exit of the undersea world.

Soon approaching, Xu Qing did not reduce his speed and rushed out abruptly.

Not long after, he followed the passage to the outside. The moment he appeared, he saw countless Seven Blood Eyes cultivators whistling through the sky; the war atmosphere of the Mermaid Clan island was very intense.

While the rumbling echoed in the distance, astonishing fluctuations also echoed in the firmament.

Xu Qing's expression turned solemn, and he looked up at the higher reaches of the sky.

There, more than a dozen figures of Seven Blood Eyes high-level members were fighting with some Sea Corpse Clan members, and the war intent on the sea surface in the distance was even stronger; the slaughter between the cultivators of both sides was extremely intense.

At the same time, there were rows of magic treasures constructed on the four islands, forming spell power that stirred up light of various colors, which poured down onto the battlefield.

There were even more flying swords flying out from the Sword Nurturing Pool, whistling through heaven and earth.

The formations were the same.

Clearly, this war had reached a critical node at this moment. The counterattack from the Sea Corpse Clan was very fierce, and the countless flashing tasks within the identity tokens also proved this point.

Xu Qing's magic power surged in to check immediately. Countless tasks appeared in large numbers, most of which were related to the front-line battles, and the task rewards were extremely generous. Among the war tasks, in the list of those who could obtain the Golden Core opportunity by killing ten thousand, there were already seven or eight people approaching this goal.

While Xu Qing was checking rapidly, he also handed in and completed the task of searching for the teleportation array, but he did not immediately choose the next task.

He was very clear that the most important thing in front of him right now was how to explain possessing the power of two life fires.

Unless he would not show two life fires in front of Seven Blood Eyes disciples for a considerably long time to come, but instead fight with one, only revealing them at the moment of life-and-death crisis.

Otherwise, he needed to lay the groundwork in advance, and even if he only revealed two at the moment of life and death, there would eventually be too many accidents, making it difficult to avoid showing them in front of Seven Blood Eyes disciples every time.

And once exposed, although he could use war soul-swallowing to explain it, the risk was not small. The probability of attracting attention was not absolute, but it could not withstand investigation after all; it was a potential risk.

And the method to resolve it was also simple.

Xu Qing checked his identity token, which showed that he had killed fifteen Sea Corpse Clan Foundation Establishment cultivators, and zero Qi Condensation.

"Too few." Xu Qing shook his head. With such few battle achievements, as long as outsiders had the intention, they could easily see the clues upon investigation.

So Xu Qing found a remote place, confirmed that there was no one around, looked down at the shadow, and spoke indifferently.

"Didn't you emit Sea Corpse Clan aura before? Give me another one."

The shadow seemed a bit surprised, forming a question mark under Xu Qing's feet.

"Do as you're told." The Jin Gang Sect Ancestor seized the opportunity and scolded rapidly.

The shadow felt aggrieved. After a long while, it emitted a wisp of Sea Corpse Clan aura, but the moment it appeared, the purple crystal within Xu Qing's body suppressed it fiercely, instantly collapsing that wisp of aura.

Subsequently, amidst the shadow's terror and bewilderment, Xu Qing checked his identity token and found that the Qi Condensation count on it had changed from zero to one.

"It really is as I judged." Xu Qing's eyes lit up. He had seen the shadow form the Sea Corpse Clan aura before and had been weighing in his heart how the identity token recorded the kill count. He was very satisfied with the test result at this moment.

After all, the identity token is a dead object, and its recording is relatively simple; it uses the collapse of aura and fluctuations as the judgment.

Under normal circumstances, this is no problem, and it is not easy to tamper with. As for multiple people attacking together or strong attacks, there should be another set of judgment methods. Although it is not perfect, it is generally acceptable.

However, Xu Qing's shadow is weird... it's a bit different.

This is the solution Xu Qing thought of. He prepared to take on a large number of tasks next. On one hand, he would genuinely attack to refine souls and open apertures; on the other hand, he would rely on the shadow to brush battle achievements. Whether it was Qi Condensation or Foundation Establishment, as long as he brushed enough, then his two life fire combat power would have a reasonable explanation.

Especially during the war, not many people were paying attention to him, and the number of Sea Corpse Clan members was huge, so as long as brushing battle achievements wasn't too excessive, there would almost be no flaws.

The only thing to consider was how many times the shadow could withstand the suppression.

Xu Qing only thought about this slightly and then threw it aside. He felt that since the shadow hadn't died after being suppressed by him so many times, it shouldn't hang up so easily.

So for the next two months, Xu Qing began to crazily take on tasks. During this period, most of the time he only used the power of one life fire when attacking, and only when fighting alone did he instantly activate the life lamp.

But he was also wary of the identity token; whenever he activated the life lamp, he would use the shadow to cover the identity token.

At the same time, for every task, he brushed a large number of battle achievements. The shadow was also forcibly required by him to occasionally reveal a wisp of Foundation Establishment aura and fluctuation, but it was only aura, with no combat power.

It seemed this was the current limit of the shadow's ability, which made Xu Qing's battle achievements also include Foundation Establishment.

And the shadow's misery was shocking to the Jin Gang Sect Ancestor. It clearly had nothing to do with him, but for some reason, he was also scared to death.

Especially since the shadow seemed to be really on the verge of collapse several times, but Xu Qing's genuine battle achievements in these two months were also not few, allowing the shadow to absorb them and barely sustain itself. At the same time, under Xu Qing's training, the combat power displayed by the shadow seemed to be stronger than before, which made Xu Qing very pleasantly surprised.

And Xu Qing's dharma apertures also opened one after another, reaching forty.