Chapter 477: One Cannot Be Left Behind

The head was filled with bitter indignation, realizing it had only been free for a short while before encountering a mere minion.

If it were an ordinary minion, it could have bluffed, since the other party wouldn't know its true nature. But facing Xu Qing, it was utterly terrified, not daring to make the slightest move, and could only flee with all its might.

It had been killed by Xu Qing countless times, and it knew full well how ruthless Xu Qing's methods were. Just the divine authority fluctuations emanating from him filled it with dread, not to mention the black shadow's devouring.

What's more, Xu Qing used to wake up every day and would step on it to death each time. After countless repetitions, it hadn't gotten used to it; instead, a deep fear of Xu Qing had taken root.

Trembling, its mind raced, causing it to flee even faster, as did the stone lion ahead of it.

Xu Qing walked out unhurriedly, his gaze cold as he watched the head and stone lion fleeing before him. Without the influence of Ding Yisan'er, many memories related to it had surfaced in his mind during this time.

He especially remembered why he had crushed the bamboo slips each time.

The bamboo slips he had taken from Ding Yisan'er had long become extraordinary. They not only accumulated divine power but also radiated the forgotten essence of fortune from a past era.

After countless accumulations and mixtures, the very essence of those bamboo slips had completely transformed.

"It seems that each time I woke up, I had this thought: to use the power of Ding Yisan'er to create a unique treasure."

As Xu Qing pondered, the Netherblood Wings materialized behind him. With a single beat, his speed exploded, instantly traversing hundreds of feet to appear beside the head.

His speed was so immense that the head's vision blurred. In the blink of an eye, it saw Xu Qing's sudden appearance and immediately shrieked, as boundless fear erupted within it, intensified by the sight of Xu Qing's raised foot.

"Ahhh, not again!" the head wailed, instinctively closing its eyes. The next instant, there was a thud.

Xu Qing's right foot descended, instantly crushing the head. He then expressionlessly looked at the distant stone lion and spoke calmly.

"Get back here!"

The distant stone lion paused, trembling violently. It wanted to continue fleeing but dared not, remembering its countless experiences of being burned to death. It finally turned around obediently, wagging its tail like a puppy, bounding back to Xu Qing, and plopped down on its knees.

Xu Qing cast a cold glance at the stone lion. Both his slowly emerging memories and the pieced-together content carved on the shattered bamboo slips made him realize that this stone lion was Ding Yisan'er's Wind Beast.

To be precise, the Wind Beast was its form under the suppression of fortune, while its true appearance was this headless stone lion.

This was also why, when the head first saw Xu Qing, it had adopted that posture and asked Xu Qing to send it to the Wind Beast: it wanted to become the stone lion's head.

As these thoughts arose in Xu Qing's mind, the crushed fragments of the head beneath his foot rapidly merged. Soon, the head was fully restored, and upon reappearing, it immediately spoke in a shrill voice.

"Lord Guardian, I..." Before it could finish, Xu Qing raised his foot and brought it down again.

With a thud, it was crushed once more.

The stone lion's body trembled, and its tail wagged even more vigorously.

Soon, the head recovered again, wailing endlessly.

"It's over, it's over! Without Ding Yisan'er's forgetting, I..."

Thud. It was crushed again.

Half an hour passed like this. After crushing it seventeen or eighteen times, Xu Qing departed.

However, when he left, he wasn't walking on foot this time. Instead, he was seated on the headless stone lion, while the head was tied to the stone lion's tail.

As the stone lion moved forward on all fours, its two hind legs continuously kicked the head. The head was filled with indignation, but dared not direct its anger at Xu Qing, so it incessantly cursed the stone lion.

Upon hearing this, the stone lion's tail wagged, and its hind legs kicked even harder.

Xu Qing had originally intended to kill this prisoner from Ding Yisan'er. However, it was clear that the prisoners from Ding Yisan'er, having been confined with a god for an extended period, had undergone peculiar transformations due to repeated influences, or rather, a special curse, the cost of which was unknown.

This curse ensured that they would quickly revive after every death.

Xu Qing also recalled this; Ding Yisan'er itself had been like this.

Since they couldn't be killed and couldn't be allowed to escape, Xu Qing simply kept them with him.

The sight of this scene was quite eerie.

The headless stone lion ran very fast, its hind legs kicking the head tied to its tail with significant force, causing the head to squeal and grumble. Meanwhile, Xu Qing sat expressionlessly on the stone lion's back, occasionally pointing a direction, and the stone lion would gallop off.

And so, as dawn approached, Chaoxia State gradually came into Xu Qing's view.

"Chaoxia State?" The bruised and swollen head spat out a piece of stone it had bitten from the stone lion's leg. It looked up in the direction of Chaoxia State, blinked, and suddenly spoke.

"Lord! Lord! I have something to report!"

"I report that old geezer from the Danqing clan; he's in Chaoxia State. Not only him, but that divine finger from our Ding Yisan'er is there too!"

Xu Qing raised an eyebrow and turned to look at the head.

The head quickly adopted a fawning expression, its tone filled with feigned righteousness.

"These prisoners are truly outrageous, not an ounce of gratitude among them! The Jail Department was so good to us—providing food, drink, not killing us, and even offering accommodation. Where could you find such a good place in these chaotic times? Yet, they actually broke out of prison!"

"Lord, truthfully, during my time outside, I truly missed life in the Jail Department. Every time I recall it, I feel deeply nostalgic and yearn for it. That's why my righteous head compelled me to report them!"

"Lord, it was actually that old geezer from the Danqing clan who instigated the prison break!"

Xu Qing, hearing this, fell into thought and looked towards Chaoxia State.

As the Palace Lord's attendant scribe, he had recently not only gained a comprehensive understanding of all war reports for Fenghai County but also possessed detailed knowledge of the Jail Department's collapse on that day.

The Jail Department's collapse was caused by the sudden dissipation of the suppressing force. Subsequently, the artifact spirit, formed from a divine clone within the Jail Department, awakened its memories and erupted, attempting to reassemble itself from its dismembered state.

Fortunately, the Palace Lord was present at the Jail Department at that time. With his intervention, the assistance of the Sword Holding Palace deacons and vice-Palace Lords, and ultimately the power of the county capital's forbidden magical artifacts, the divine clone's brain and most of its body, which had not fully revived, were successfully re-sealed.

However, during this process, the simultaneous death of the county governor and the explosion of the Jail Department plunged the entire county capital into chaos. Consequently, a large number of prisoners seized the opportunity to escape, among them a small portion of the divine clone's body parts.

Post-incident statistics revealed that two fingers and one eye had gone missing. However, these body parts had all paid a price and were severely wounded during their escape.

Earlier, during the Sword Holders' arrest operation, one finger had been located, sealed, and brought back with the intervention of the two vice-Palace Lords.

As for the remaining finger and one eye, there were no clues as to their whereabouts. In fact, they could have been found with a longer search, but the urgency of the war left the Sword Holders no time.

Considering this now, if the head was telling the truth, then Ding Yisan'er's finger was hidden within Chaoxia State.

As Xu Qing pondered, the head blinked rapidly, secretly delighted. It reasoned that if Xu Qing went to find the old Danqing man, either Xu Qing would be killed, and it would gain its freedom, or the old man would also be captured, thus reuniting most of Ding Yisan'er.

Otherwise, the thought of being captured while its other Ding Yisan'er cellmates were freely roaming outside deeply unsettled it. It believed that not a single one of them should be left out.

With this thought, the head quickly continued.

"Lord, after the Jail Department exploded that day, the old geezer from the Danqing clan of Ding Yisan'er escaped with the divine finger..."

Xu Qing cast a cold glance at the head and said calmly, "I don't like listening to lies."

The head trembled and quickly changed its tone.

"It was the divine finger. It clearly had its own independent consciousness and didn't respond to the summons of the other divine body parts at the time. Instead, it escaped with the old Danqing man, and the lion and I were forced to follow."

"Um... on the way, I heard the old Danqing geezer communicating with the finger. It seemed the finger wanted the old man to draw a body for it."

"But it's a god, different from us. So the old man said this painting would require some special pigments. That's why they went to Chaoxia State, to find the legendary remnants of a fallen sun there, to use them as pigments for the painting."

The head dared not conceal anything this time. It knew well that facing the terrifying Xu Qing, it had to avoid being excessive, for if he thought it was lying, it would be the one to suffer.

So, without any concealment, it recounted every piece of information it knew.

Xu Qing's eyes showed contemplation. He patted the neck of the stone lion he was sitting on. The stone lion quickly cast a spell, summoning wind around them, significantly increasing its speed as it galloped directly towards Chaoxia State.

As they drew closer, detailed information about Chaoxia State also surfaced in his mind.

Chaoxia State was unlike the other states in Fenghai County.

There was hardly any land here; instead, an incredibly vast, gigantic deep pit occupied nearly ninety percent of Chaoxia State's area.

This astonishing deep pit was, according to legend, the crash site of a fallen sun's corpse countless years ago, when a remnant of the Sky God arrived.

Therefore, the entire Chaoxia State appeared as a bottomless abyss. This abyss was like a dark, boundless sea, from which only a few mountain peaks occasionally emerged.

Nearly eighty percent of these mountains were submerged in the abyssal sea. Over the passage of time, the small portions of their peaks that emerged became the habitat for both foreign races and humans in Chaoxia State.

The mountains had a peculiar geology, dark in color and containing crystals. It was said that they were formed when the intense heat released after the sun's fall incinerated the land.

It was precisely this unique landscape that made the state abundant in a material known as mica stone.

Among these numerous abyssal sea mountains, in the very center of Chaoxia State, stood a colossal peak known as Chaoxia Mountain, which also served as the location of Chaoxia State's Sword Holding Court.

Additionally, the solar wind within Chaoxia State was significantly stronger than in the surrounding territories, persisting year-round in the deeper parts of the state without ever dissipating.

All of this made Chaoxia State a non-teleportation zone, where flying was also heavily impacted. Therefore, over countless years, large crossing vessels specifically designed for navigating the abyssal sea were developed to ferry cultivators of various races.

Consequently, due to the existence of these large magical artifacts, numerous ports were established along the edges of Chaoxia State.

At this moment, Xu Qing was heading towards a medium-sized port. His appearance and aura had already changed. As for the stone lion and the head, under his gaze, they obediently altered their forms as well.

The distant port looked much like the architecture of the Seven Blood Eyes. After all, this abyssal sea was, to some extent, no different from the ocean; even its color was similar.

Straight, long jetties extended from the port, reaching deep into the dark abyssal sea to form docks, yet no boats or ships were moored nearby.

However, many cultivators were already waiting on the docks. Few of them were human; the vast majority were various foreign races.

As Xu Qing approached, the bustling sounds reached his ears.