Chapter 3: Wishing... Rest in Peace

"This thing..."

A fierce light appeared in Xu Qing's eyes, his mind flashing back to that perfectly intact corpse before he had taken the purple crystal.

"It can keep a corpse intact, and it can make a living person's wounds heal rapidly?"

Xu Qing gripped the purple crystal in his hand, his heart racing as he scanned his surroundings.

Although he knew there were likely no other living people here, he was instinctively vigilant due to having obtained such a supreme treasure.

At this moment, he did not linger, but instead sprinted at full speed, heading straight for the burrow where he hid.

Along the way, he faintly discovered that not only were his wounds healing rapidly, but even the exhaustion in his body seemed to have lessened significantly.

In the past, he would have needed to rest after running for about half an hour, but now, even though more than half an hour had passed, he felt warm all over, and his stamina seemed still abundant.

On his way back, he even caught a stray bird in passing.

He did not kill it, but knocked it unconscious, as living things could be preserved for longer.

Even after doing all this, the time it took him to return to the burrow was greatly reduced. He saw his burrow from afar while there was still some time before nightfall.

Xu Qing's mood became better than ever, but he did not become negligent.

Because he knew that perhaps due to the god opening its eyes and the forbidden zone having just formed, this area would see not only awakened exotic beasts but also some eerie existences appearing at night.

He had heard people in the slums say that in this world, many places with high death tolls would form such eerie phenomena.

For instance, the laughter that came from outside at night was emitted by this type of existence.

And regarding these strange entities, the consensus was: do not look, do not touch, do not encounter.

Although his previous experiences showed that those existences only appeared at night, Xu Qing was not certain if they might occasionally emerge during the day.

Thus, his speed did not slacken in the slightest; he soon neared the burrow, flashed inside, and blocked the crack.

Afterward, he sat cross-legged and opened his tightly clenched palm.

The purple light radiated from his palm, illuminating the small burrow; under that light, Xu Qing's face and eyes were also rendered purple.

He stared unblinkingly at the purple crystal in his palm.

This crystal was long and thin, about the size of his finger, and inside it seemed to be some flocculent matter; the purple light was emitted precisely by that flocculent matter.

"Healing wounds..." Xu Qing observed for a long time, then unbuttoned his shirt to look at the wounds on his chest, discovering that they had healed by ninety percent.

Now, the remaining part seemed as though it would not take long to heal completely, and even the surrounding scars were fading away.

Connecting this to the fact that he felt much less exhausted than usual after running back, Xu Qing had already formed a preliminary judgment about this purple crystal.

The function of this object was obviously recovery.

Recovering wounds, recovering stamina, recovering vitality!

"I wonder if there are any other effects." Xu Qing murmured, a look of contemplation in his eyes.

He did not know if this purple crystal was related to the god opening its eyes, but it was highly likely.

But regardless, this was a supreme treasure; at the very least, Xu Qing had never heard of any item that could possess such astonishing restorative power since he was a child.

Having such an item by his side was equivalent to a second life.

But Xu Qing was very clear that the only reason he could possess this item now was because there were no other living people in this city besides himself.

And once the blood rain ended and he walked out... he feared he would have no power to protect such a treasure.

Therefore, the only method was to hide this purple crystal...

Xu Qing pondered for a long while, looked at the unconscious bird he had brought back, and raised his hand to grab it.

After pinching its beak so it could not make a sound, he drew the dagger from his calf and sliced a wound directly into the bird's body.

As the bird struggled, Xu Qing stuffed the purple crystal inside.

Then, he watched closely without blinking.

He saw that the bird was still struggling at first, but soon, dark currents surged in the surroundings. Spiritual energy seemed to be attracted, even more than the amount that surged when Xu Qing cultivated, and it rushed straight into the bird's body.

The force of the bird's struggle also suddenly became much stronger than before; compared to it, Xu Qing's strength seemed barely able to hold it down.

This scene made the light in Xu Qing's eyes flare brilliantly.

The bird's neck, which he could have crushed with one squeeze in the past, took several forceful squeezes to break this time.

He quickly removed the purple crystal from its body, wiped it off, and closed his eyes to think.

"The bird didn't die, but instead had spiritual energy pouring in, and its strength suddenly became immense... it should be fine."

A moment later, Xu Qing opened his eyes, a look of determination on his face, and stuffed the purple crystal directly into the wound on his chest that was about to fully heal.

The process of inserting it was somewhat painful, but Xu Qing gritted his teeth and endured it.

There was no place safer than hiding it inside his own body.

And he had briefly verified that the effect seemed even better when the object was placed inside his body.

As the purple crystal merged and his chest wounds healed, before Xu Qing could examine it carefully, a rumbling sound came from within his body.

A surge of spiritual energy, even more majestic than the power attracted by the bird earlier, whistled toward him from all directions, piercing through the soil.

This spiritual energy was too astonishing; Xu Qing's body instantly turned a pale cyan, and an indescribable icy cold permeated his entire body.

This was caused by the excessive impurities within the spiritual energy.

But Xu Qing had long been prepared, and without hesitation, he immediately circulated the Sea Mountain Art.

As he circulated it, a large amount of impurities were suddenly separated from the spiritual energy pouring into his body.

The remaining pure spiritual energy flowed through his meridians throughout his body, causing Xu Qing's body to emit popping sounds at this moment.

It was as if some clogged areas within his body were instantly opened, and his flesh and blood were nourished and refined.

The image of the Xiao he visualized in his mind also seemed to come alive at this moment, automatically assuming various postures.

The Sea Mountain Art, although a cultivation technique, was not a magic-cultivating method, but rather a body-refining one.

It was divided into ten levels, corresponding to the ten levels of the Qi Condensation realm.

The bamboo slip had a clear introduction to it: each level could allow the practitioner to increase their strength by one tiger's worth, while five tigers equaled one Xiao, and two Xiao equaled one Kui.

It was said that a Xiao could move mountains and a Kui could shift seas, which was why it was named the Sea Mountain Art.

At this moment, the purple crystal buried in his chest was like a vortex, constantly sucking in energy, and spiritual energy arrived as if pouring down from the heavens.

Xu Qing's cultivation speed also surged as a result.

He did not know how much time had passed, but the popping sounds within his body suddenly intensified, and a large amount of internal impurities flowed out through the pores of his skin.

A foul, fishy odor also permeated the burrow.

And as the impurities flowed out, Xu Qing's body actually became much more crystalline, and his face, previously covered in grime, now looked increasingly refined.

Until half a day passed, as the sounds within his body and the influx of spiritual energy gradually vanished, Xu Qing's eyes snapped open.

A purple light flashed and vanished within his eyes.

After returning to normal, Xu Qing was stunned for a moment.

The pitch-black burrow now appeared somewhat clear in his eyes; he hurriedly lowered his head to check himself, his expression gradually revealing disbelief.

"This feeling..."

With a hint of excitement, Xu Qing stood up and threw a punch, which actually stirred up a sharp whistling sound.

Because the burrow was very small, he could not test his speed, but the feeling of lifting his legs and throwing punches let him know that he had achieved astonishing improvements in every aspect compared to before.

Afterward, he immediately rolled up the sleeve on his left arm.

Upon seeing a black dot the size of a fingernail appear on his forearm, Xu Qing took a deep breath and suppressed the excitement in his heart.

"So, this is the first level of Qi Condensation!"

This black dot, according to the description on the bamboo slip, was an alienation point; the Sea Mountain Art's alienation point was on the left arm, with one added for each level.

Touching the alienation point on his arm, Xu Qing felt mostly exhilarated by his obvious increase in strength, so he looked up at the entrance crack, pondering that when dawn came, he would go and test his speed.

But soon, Xu Qing's expression turned suspicious; he moved closer to the entrance crack to listen carefully.

Outside, it was clearly still pitch black, yet there was not a single abnormal sound.

This was something he had never encountered in his many days here.

In the past, even after dawn, when there were no exotic beasts or eerie sounds, the sound of rain was always present.

But now, even the sound of the rain was gone.

"Could it be..."

Xu Qing's mind shook, and a guess surfaced in his heart.

While waiting silently, until a beam of dazzling light shone in through the crack of the burrow's entrance, reflecting into Xu Qing's pitch-black eyes, it seemed to light up his world.

The moment he saw the light, Xu Qing's body visibly trembled.

He raised his hand, slowly reaching toward that ray of sunlight, placing it inside, and cupping the sunlight in his palm; the long-lost warmth slowly awakened his dormant soul.

"Sunlight..."

After a while, a bright luster appeared in Xu Qing's eyes; he pushed away the debris blocking the crack, and as more beams of light embraced him, he slowly crawled out.

The moment he leaned out from the exit, he looked up and saw not the dense, gloomy clouds, but a bright and brilliant sun.

It was as if an old man in the morning glow, after being critically ill for many days, had regained his vitality, slowly pulling back the curtain and bringing freshness back to the world once more.

"The rain has stopped."

Xu Qing took a deep breath of air containing the sunlight, silently gazing at the city bathed in the morning glow.

Everything within the city, under the dazzling red sun, seemed to bloom with a different kind of brilliance.

The bright red morning glow on the horizon shone down through the gaps in the clouds, like countless whales spouting golden waterfalls, washing away the gloom and fog of the entire city bit by bit, revealing its mottled scars.

Those collapsed houses, those blue-black corpses, those shocking blood-colored puddles, all seemed to be reminding Xu Qing of the catastrophe that had occurred here.

A complex look appeared in Xu Qing's eyes; he had lived in the slums outside the city for six years, and he had looked at this city for six years as well.

Although he had not entered many times, this place was the one he had most longed to live in during those past six years.

"I obtained the cultivation technique here."

"I obtained the purple crystal here."

"I... survived here." Xu Qing murmured, falling silent.

After a long while, he sighed softly, walked over to a dark green-black corpse, looked down at it for a long time, then hoisted it onto his back and walked forward.

He walked all the way to a nearby plaza before setting the corpse down, then turned around to carry the second, the third, the fourth...

Some corpses were scattered along the streets, while others were pinned beneath the ruins.

By the time he had carried all the corpses from the surrounding area to the plaza, the remains were piled high like a mountain, some intact, others mangled.

Xu Qing stood there and set a fire; perhaps due to the strange energy, the flames burned increasingly fiercely, sending up thick smoke...

Amidst that thick smoke, Xu Qing watched for a long time before silently walking away to the second area; very quickly, another plume of thick smoke rose, then more and more... and more...

Just like that, on the first day sunlight shone into this ruined city, besides the light, the city was filled with the black, thick smoke of cremating corpses.

These black plumes rose into the sky one by one, obscuring the sunlight, and at this moment, the morning light was also filled with helplessness, turning a dim red as if harboring a deep sigh.

It seemed those plumes of thick smoke had become its tears, and the streaks of shadows formed on the ground seemed to turn into the tearstains of the earth.

The last tearstain was the place where Xu Qing had discovered the purple light.

There, Xu Qing set down the corpse of the old apothecary; as the fire of the corpse pile burned, heat waves brushed against his face, and he stood silently by the pyre, the rolling flames reflecting in his pitch-black pupils, flickering incessantly.

His messy, long hair curled from the permeating heat, and after a while, Xu Qing’s body also bent, and he bowed his head in obeisance.

"May you... rest in peace."

At this moment, the flames suddenly burned violently, growing ever more intense, scattering countless sparks like dandelions that drifted away with the wind.

Yet that curling, rising thick smoke still carried the unwillingness and regrets of the departed that could not be dissolved, which even the wind could not blow away.

It rose higher and higher, like a few scars upon the firmament.

Insignificant, and full of helplessness.

A long time later, accompanied by messy footsteps, a strange, mocking voice suddenly came from the distance behind the youth.

"I was wondering why I hadn't seen any corpses along the way; so it turns out there's such a foolish boy, wasting his own stamina to actually move the corpses here for cremation."

"Fine, since you are so attached, then I shall help you out and throw you in to accompany them."

Xu Qing turned around abruptly.