Chapter 238: Seven Peaks' Secret

As the Golden Crow soared and the sea of flames swirled, the countless grotesque faces on the ghostly umbrella shrieked sharply, attempting to suppress it, but to no avail.

In an instant, the Golden Crow plunged into it.

The sharp wails of the vengeful spirits turned into mournful screams. The entire ghostly umbrella visibly burned, and all the eerie faces within it scrambled to escape, but they couldn't.

In the blink of an eye, the Golden Crow incinerated them all. At the same time, the numerous eerie forms created by the white-robed woman, Sima Ru, seemed about to dissipate under the eruption of the Golden Crow's fiery sea.

However, Sima Ru's combat prowess was extraordinary. Despite being utterly shocked, she still charged directly at Xu Qing from all directions, traversing the sea of flames. She transformed into countless faces, fiercely tearing and devouring Xu Qing's entire body.

Gusts of chilling wind blew, attempting to extinguish his life flame.

Xu Qing raised an eyebrow, and all the mystic apertures within him flared up. At this point, he felt it was pointless to conceal them further. The woman before him, with her four-flame combat power, was difficult to suppress. Thus, his ninety mystic apertures erupted like furnaces, rising with astonishing power.

His mystic apertures were different from others; they were far more formidable, each containing a staggering five hundred zhang of spiritual sea.

Such an astonishing spiritual sea generated even more terrifying magic power, and supported by this power, Xu Qing's life flame burned with incredible intensity.

These chilling winds... might be able to extinguish most life flames, but they couldn't douse Xu Qing's fire.

His life flame burned with terrifying ferocity. Even as the eerie entities approached, they were helpless against him, not to mention his physical strength, which had reached a considerable level with his cultivation of the Golden Crow technique.

At this moment, his entire body's vitality erupted, forming a crimson glow that merged with the sea of flames and rapidly expanded outwards. Any eerie entity it touched shrieked in agony as if being erased.

Sima Ru's transformed entities were no exception; they all collapsed, reforming into swirling mist that gathered into a mass nearby, from which an even more terrifying aura emanated.

With a roar, this mass of mist transformed into a colossal three-headed beast.

This beast resembled a tiger, with two heads in front and one at its tail. The moment it appeared, strong winds swirled around it, and an astonishing wave of icy coldness erupted. Simultaneously, this ghostly tiger lunged at Xu Qing.

Its speed was immense, reaching him in an instant.

Moreover, numerous ghosts dispersed from its body, turning into mournful specters that spun around, forming a vortex storm capable of tearing everything apart.

A cold light flickered in Xu Qing's eyes. Taking a single step, he instantly appeared before the ghostly tiger. He raised his right hand, and a sinister flame erupted within him, forming a gigantic fiery fist that he brought down.

With a thunderous boom, the ghostly tiger growled and abruptly dodged. It then approached Xu Qing, opening its mouth to an exaggerated degree, as if it could devour everything, and lunged to swallow him.

Xu Qing's gaze remained calm. He formed a hand seal with his right hand and pointed upwards. Immediately, the sea of flames around his body dispersed, and a massive Azure Dragon materialized. Its size far surpassed the ghostly tiger's, and its open maw was even wider than the tiger's. It swallowed fiercely.

With a boom, the ghostly tiger disintegrated, and screams emanated from within. However, Sima Ru indeed possessed extraordinary abilities; the Azure Dragon, after devouring it, instantly shattered and exploded.

Countless wisps of mist coalesced from within, transforming into a third eerie form in mid-air.

It was a sinister entity, completely black, with wings on its back, resembling a Rakshasa.

After forming, it let out a low growl at Xu Qing and charged fiercely, but the next moment, black lightning pierced through the clouds in the sky.

It shot directly towards the Rakshasa, and shadows spread across the ground, engulfing it.

The Rakshasa, formed by Sima Ru, changed its expression, abruptly dodging the black iron skewer and the ground shadows, but it couldn't evade Xu Qing.

Xu Qing leaped forward, his presence formidable. He instantly closed in, grabbed the Rakshasa's neck, and slammed it forcefully against a nearby wall.

Amidst the roar, the wall crumbled. As the Rakshasa's body violently shook, a large amount of malevolent flame emanated from Xu Qing's hand.

His eyes showed ferocity as he began to refine it.

In an instant, the ninety-first mystic aperture within Xu Qing showed signs of opening during this refinement process.

The Rakshasa, formed by Sima Ru, struggled violently. Xu Qing snorted coldly, swung it up, slammed it onto the ground, and crushed it fiercely. With a bang, the Rakshasa's body disintegrated and exploded.

Seeing mist still dispersing, the Golden Crow in mid-air let out a shriek and powerfully inhaled. The mist immediately rushed towards its mouth, on the verge of being swallowed.

But just then, the mist rapidly converged, manifesting a fourth form!

It was a bloated giant, a hundred zhang tall, seemingly incredibly heavy. It forcefully sat down on the ground, attempting to resist the Golden Crow.

However, she was clearly not strong enough. A cold glint appeared in the Golden Crow's eyes as it resumed devouring, and Xu Qing also moved, striding forward.

He looked at Sima Ru's fourth form, a strange light appearing in his eyes.

The previous absorption had allowed him to instantly open a mystic aperture, making Xu Qing look at Sima Ru as if she were a precious treasure.

So, as he approached and the massive bloated giant struggled, Xu Qing's malevolent flames erupted across his entire body, swiftly enveloping it, and he began to refine it once more.

The giant, formed by Sima Ru's fourth manifestation, showed terror in its eyes. It struggled violently but could not break free.

Seeing Xu Qing and the Golden Crow both absorbing, even the ground shadow anxiously rushed over, and the distant black iron skewer excitedly approached.

Sima Ru's eyes showed alarm and suspicion. Without hesitation, her fourth form self-destructed.

Amidst the colossal explosion, violent shockwaves thundered outwards in all directions. This was the self-destruction of a combatant with four and a half flames of power; its immense strength created terrifying fluctuations that swept through everything.

Leveraging the self-destruction of her fourth form, a black arm bone shot out from the disintegrated entity, heading straight out of the Demon Extermination Division!

This arm bone was the core of Sima Ru's clone. At this moment, she had a profound realization of Xu Qing's terror and no longer wished to fight. The moment it appeared, it fled at full speed.

The timing she chose was indeed excellent; the astonishing power of the self-detonation could have blocked all pursuit, but she misjudged Xu Qing's strength.

Thus, in the next instant, Xu Qing's figure abruptly burst forth from the self-detonation's shockwaves. He reached out with a grab, his speed so great that he was upon it in a blink.

In this critical moment, Sima Ru's arm bone erupted with blinding black light. Knowing it couldn't escape, it sharply turned and struck fiercely at Xu Qing's head with the bone.

Simultaneously, the eerie song from before echoed once more from the surrounding void:"A single bone, gently strike,Two eyeballs, tear them wide.Three strikes open up the shell,Four tongues quickly seize inside.Five friends, strength immense,Six small hands, dig deep within."

The power of that single strike surpassed that of a four-flame combatant, about to descend. But Xu Qing narrowed his eyes, suppressing the urge to display his life lamp power, and took out a jade slip.

This jade slip was precisely the Nascent Soul protection granted by Sixth Grandmaster back then.

Although much of its power was depleted during the battle with the Starfish race, significantly reducing its effectiveness and making it unable to resist Nascent Soul power, it still retained enough might to easily withstand this one strike.

Thus, in an instant, Sima Ru's eerie strike landed on Xu Qing's defense.

Like an egg hitting a rock, the defense vibrated outwards, and the arm bone cracked audibly.

A scream emanated from within. Xu Qing violently raised his right hand, grabbed the arm bone, and unleashed his malevolent flames, refining it with all his might.

Instantly, a large amount of soul power radiated from the bone, integrating into Xu Qing's body, forming the force to open mystic apertures. It continuously impacted, directly opening his ninety-first mystic aperture.

Under Xu Qing's absorption, the Golden Crow also arrived to devour, the shadow pounced as well, and the black iron skewer pierced through, all absorbing simultaneously.

Horrifying shrieks emanated wildly from within the bone. The next instant, the bone directly disintegrated into ashes, and Xu Qing's ninety-second mystic aperture successfully opened at this moment!

He then abruptly lowered his head, looking at the scattered bone ashes.

There were no longer any fluctuations on these ashes, but a wisp of divine consciousness remained.

This divine consciousness rapidly converged, reforming into Sima Ru's initial white-robed form, though at this moment, she was nearly translucent and rapidly fading away.

She stared at Xu Qing, her eyes filled with profound light and deep shock.

"Your Golden Crow refines myriad spirits; it's extraordinary and different from the sect's description!"

"Those cultivators from the seven sects who came here were all deceived by you. Your life flames are not two, but three!"

"And your mystic apertures are even more astonishing; each one reaches a range of five hundred zhang!"

"Your combat power is not four flames, but infinitely close to five flames!"

"If you open four life flames in the future, you will be the second Saint Yunzi, save for a life lamp."

"You hide too well. You are the true number one prodigy of Seven Blood Eyes... of this generation!"

Sima Ru had come this time, believing she was strong enough to suppress Xu Qing and take her brother away. However, she never expected him to be so deeply hidden!

With such five-flame combat power, he could have suppressed Sima Ling in an instant. Yet, he deliberately left clues, creating the illusion that he had fought for a while before subduing him.

"Could his target be me, and he deliberately did this to lure me here?" Thinking of this, Sima Ru recalled the moment she was captured, absorbed, and devoured by him. She had never been so humiliated in her entire life, and now her eyes blazed with murderous intent.

"I know all your hidden strengths. When my main body emerges from seclusion, I will suppress..."

Xu Qing waved his hand and struck, and Sima Ru's rapidly fading divine consciousness instantly disintegrated, drowning out her words.

"I am not the number one prodigy of Seven Blood Eyes." Xu Qing whispered in his heart, looking at the spot where Sima Ru had vanished.

His mind pictured Huang Yikun's miserable state after going to the Seventh Peak.

In fact, let alone outsiders, even he felt that the Seventh Peak, where he resided, was exceptionally good at concealing its power.

For example, the Captain.

Even with his own recovery from the purple crystal, it was clear that a mysterious and terrifying entity was sealed within the Captain's body.

But at this moment, he didn't know that on the Seventh Peak, Seventh Grandmaster was sitting there, enthusiastically looking down at the Demon Extermination Division of Port 176.

Behind him, the Captain squatted, holding an apple and taking large bites.

Beside them, the Third Prince held a fruit basket, smiling as he handed fruits one after another to the Captain.

"Second Brother, how did you manage to charm that girl from the Grand Preceptor's lineage? Teach your senior brother!"

"Oh, it's nothing much. Maybe I'm just charming," the Third Prince replied with a full smile.

"Nonsense! No matter how charming you are, you can't compare to little A'Qing. Now I remember, years ago, after the old man went to the Ancient Continent and returned less than half a year later, you were sent from the sea with a white token. So many years have passed since then. You were only thirteen or fourteen back then, yet you already had one flame of power, and your eyes were full of hatred. You aren't from the Ancient Continent, are you? Something major seemed to have happened to the Grand Preceptor's Immortal Sect back then..."

The Captain looked at the Third Prince with a half-smile.

The Third Prince's expression remained calm as he spoke with a smile.

"Indeed, nothing can be hidden from Senior Brother. However, I, your junior brother, am genuinely curious, Senior Brother... how many times have you cultivated anew?" The Captain blinked, then replied with a chuckle:

"Guess."

The Third Prince smiled gently, said nothing more, and handed an apple to the Captain. The Captain took it, looked towards Port 176, and sighed with emotion.

"This little A'Qing really knows how to hide! He actually has three flames! And I think this kid must still be concealing more. If I were to fight him, I don't know if he would die, but the thing inside my body would definitely awaken. If that day truly comes, Master, you can't just save him and ignore me; you must treat us equally. I am your most beloved senior disciple."

As for the Second Princess, she paid no attention to the battle, nor did she care about her senior brothers, junior brother, or Master. She was constantly communicating with someone via a jade slip, her face displaying a rare blush.

Seventh Grandmaster glanced back at his second disciple.

"This girl, a fool's luck!"

He then looked at his eldest and third disciples. Although he often chided them, he secretly admired his disciples greatly. After all, he had traveled through many regions, chosen from countless individuals, and after layers of screening and selecting the best of the best, continuously observed, he finally chose these 'wolf kings among wolf kings'.

Each of them far surpassed the princes and princesses of other peaks; they could effortlessly suppress them. This was his standard for accepting disciples; he simply didn't care for ordinary prodigies.

What pleased him most was that he felt these disciples had truly inherited his teachings, mastering the art of concealing their true power, just like him.

They would never reveal all their trump cards and secrets. Many times, others thought they had seen through them, but in reality, it was just a superficial layer deliberately exposed.

"And then there's the Fourth One; he's a natural at hiding, no need to teach him, very good.""In a chaotic world, dangers are unknown, and the path ahead is unpredictable; naturally, one must hide!""Moreover... prodigies who were once rarely seen are now emerging one after another. This is true not only for humanity but for all races. This is a sign before the arrival of a great era—a great era, great opportunities, but also great perils."