Chapter 612: Secrets of the Emperor-Level Cultivation Technique

Xu Qing took a deep breath, his eyes gleaming with an unusual light. As he sat cross-legged, his consciousness immediately sank into his Golden Crow.

This time, he didn't pursue the Golden Crow's transformations, nor did he ponder its origins or the suns from his memories. He stripped all of these thoughts away.

In his perception, everything around him and even his own being had vanished at that moment. Only the Golden Crow, shining with fire in his eyes, remained.

Its black body and brilliant flames became his sole focus.

"If I go 'into the subtle,' these flames are illusory, meaningless!"

As this thought arose in Xu Qing's mind, the flames on the Golden Crow's surface, as he perceived them, instantly dimmed. They abruptly extinguished, ceasing to exist.

With the dissipation of the flames, Xu Qing's body trembled. He had never extinguished the Golden Crow's flames before. At this moment, a dull ache reappeared throughout his body; it was the consequence of the Golden Crow being harmed, which in turn affected his Nascent Soul.

Had it been before, Xu Qing would have stopped at this point, sensing the danger of his actions.

But now, with the Prince's guidance, Xu Qing pondered, suppressed his discomfort, and gazed at the Golden Crow before him, now as black as a crow.

The Golden Crow quivered, also looking at Xu Qing.

As Xu Qing watched, he frowned, feeling that the Golden Crow in this state was also somewhat superfluous.

With a thought, the Golden Crow immediately trembled. All its feathers instantly vanished, leaving only a bare body.

The backlash from this step was clearly greater.

Xu Qing's breathing quickened, but he forced himself to endure. His intuition told him that this direction was correct. He gritted his teeth firmly, hardening his resolve.

The next moment, the Golden Crow roared and exploded directly in front of Xu Qing, scattering into countless illusory pieces of flesh and blood. Xu Qing spat out blood, but his divine consciousness, at this instant, converged with unprecedented intensity, enveloping the mass of flesh and blood.

In his perception, this flesh and blood was formed by various colored threads interwoven like a tangled mess, entwined together to create every external manifestation.

Each thread within contained spiritual fluctuations. Xu Qing sensed his own Nascent Soul, the flames of the Heavenly Fire Sea, and hundreds, even thousands, of living souls within.

All of these had been absorbed and accumulated by the Golden Crow as it grew.

"This is the tea!" Xu Qing murmured.

"Then, the next step is to separate all the substances within!"

With a shift in Xu Qing's will, the flesh and blood rapidly diminished. Threads were peeled away one by one and cast aside, accompanied by the Golden Crow's wails.

Xu Qing spat out more blood, but his gaze remained resolute. He gritted his teeth and continued.

As time passed, he seemed to fall into a trance, forgetting everything outside. His eyes focused solely on the steadily diminishing Golden Crow. After several days, ninety percent of the tangled threads that formed the Golden Crow had been removed.

Only three threads remained: one black, one red, and one purple!

"The tea is about to be completely separated!"

Xu Qing's heart surged. He felt that the purple thread was his Nascent Soul, the red represented the flames, and the black was the Golden Crow's true essence, the manifestation of the Royal-grade cultivation method's core.

"The Prince guided me, saying that even if a leaf separates, its origin remains the same, still part of the whole. So no matter how much is stripped away, it can always be restored."

Although this was the Prince's guidance, Xu Qing also felt it during the stripping process. He sensed that the threads he had peeled away had not vanished; they were still there.

Because of their intricate connection to him, they could swiftly return with a single thought.

This further proved the truth of the Prince's guidance.

"Then, first, strip away its fire!"

Xu Qing gritted his teeth, his divine consciousness converging, pulling the red thread out little by little. This process inflicted immense pain on Xu Qing, making him tremble with every inch.

But Xu Qing did not give up; he continued.

Days passed. Immersed in his cultivation, he was unaware of the significant commotion that had enveloped the apothecary shop over the past seven or eight days as he cultivated.

His back room was filled with extremely violent spiritual energy fluctuations, forming invisible threads that constantly whipped out in all directions, causing a series of explosive sounds wherever they passed.

His body was covered in blood!

His clothes had burned away, and the Golden Crow totem on his body was wailing, every stroke of the totem bleeding.

This was not all. His aura, over these days, became even more exaggerated, sometimes erupting with terrifying fluctuations, sometimes instantly losing all vitality.

Vaguely, an incredibly astonishing power seemed to be awakening within him.

This power appeared to be forbidden by the Heavenly Dao and intolerable to the Ancient Continent.

Thus, outside the apothecary shop, in the sky above Mount Kusheng, the heavens and earth changed color over these seven or eight days. Winds surged, and the rumble of thunder echoed continuously like roars.

All the cultivators on Mount Kusheng were shaken, unsure of what was happening. The thunder in the sky sounded as if it were conveying words that outsiders could not comprehend.

Almost no one could understand it.

But the Prince could understand, and it was this understanding that made him even more astonished by Xu Qing.

Inside the apothecary, Ling'er was nervous and incredibly anxious.

The Captain was startled, somewhat awestruck.

Ning Yan was horrified, filled with trepidation.

Wu Jianwu was bewildered, at a loss.

The Prince... had already arrived in the back room, sitting cross-legged in front of Xu Qing, watching intently.

His expression was complex multiple times. He raised his right hand several times, wanting to interrupt Xu Qing's breakthrough, but ultimately restrained himself.

Outside, the thunder rolled, and in the Prince's ears, it was the deterrence and strong warning of the Ancient Heavenly Dao.

"Every Royal-grade cultivation method, in fact, contains the seal of the Ancient Heavenly Dao..."

"But I clearly guided him toward coexistence and relinquishment that day..."

The Prince sighed, waving his hand to seal all of Xu Qing's aura, personally protecting him.

At this moment, Xu Qing remained immersed in his perception. Through his efforts and persistence, the red thread was finally pulled out by him, little by little, completely.

Now, the appearance of the Golden Crow in front of him had completely vanished, leaving only two threads intertwined, one black and one purple.

"Next, is my purple."

Xu Qing did not hesitate, immediately moving to extract his purple thread. The pain this process brought was like pulling out his own tendons; Xu Qing felt his soul tremble.

But his intuition was very strong: the answer would appear before him after his purple thread was extracted.

"Come out for me!"

Xu Qing's mind surged. He exerted all his strength. After an unknown amount of time, he completely extracted the purple thread. The moment the purple thread departed, only a single black thread remained of the Golden Crow before him!

This thread vibrated, emitting a terrifying fluctuation that made Xu Qing feel immense dread.

"This is..." Xu Qing's soul shook. His perception converged, continuously magnifying this black thread in his eyes, magnifying it, and magnifying it again!

Until finally, when this black thread was magnified infinitely, as if a whole world was projected into Xu Qing's perception, his heart instantly boomed. He saw it!

The black thread was not continuous!!

It was composed of countless black fragments, innumerable fragments densely packed together. And between each fragment, there existed arc-shaped lightning.

These lightning bolts, like ropes, ran through these endless black fragments, making them appear as a single black line after being infinitely reduced.

The shape of these fragments was irregular. If pieced together...

It was clearly a black long spear!

He merely sensed it, and a realization spontaneously arose in his mind.

"Forbidden Weapon!"

This weapon could shatter the heavens, collapse the earth, obliterate paths, and slay gods!

This scene overturned Xu Qing's thoughts and roared through his soul. He had never imagined that within the Golden Crow's essence, there actually... existed a terrifying weapon shattered into countless pieces!

"Is this the essence of a Royal-grade cultivation method?"

"Is this the origin of the Golden Crow?"

"Then is every Royal-grade cultivation method actually like this, sealing such a terrifying weapon?"

"Who sealed it? The Heavenly Dao?"

"Why was it sealed? Who were the masters of these Forbidden Weapons?"

"How many secrets are still hidden in the Ancient Continent!"

Xu Qing's body trembled violently. His consciousness suddenly recoiled. As his perception withdrew, the purple thread instantly reintegrated, followed by the red fiery thread, and then the other threads he had successively separated.

In a blink of an eye, the tangled mess reappeared, submerging all secrets within. Then, the Golden Crow's flesh and blood formed, transforming into the Golden Crow's outline, its feathers recovering, and flames erupting.

A wave of heat swept over him. Xu Qing instinctively leaned back, his eyes snapping open as he spat out blood.

His breathing was unprecedentedly rapid. The moment his eyes opened, the first thing he saw was the Prince, who had appeared before him at some unknown point!

Before Xu Qing could speak, the Prince suddenly spoke.

Xu Qing's heart pounded, his eyes flickering. After a long moment, he calmed down, looked around, sensed the fluctuations here, and also the rumbling from outside.

Finally, he looked at the Prince, nodded, and took out the Black-Eyed Venerable's bead, handing it over.

"Senior, I no longer need this item. I can't defeat Black-Eyed, nor do I want the Golden Crow to be devoured. Most importantly, I have found the Golden Crow's true path!"

"You truly no longer need it..." The Prince silently took the bead, his gaze complex as he looked at Xu Qing.

At this moment, he clearly felt that the Golden Crow within Xu Qing's body possessed a sharpness it had never had before. Vaguely, its form seemed to be changing, as if transforming into a long spear.

This was Xu Qing's Golden Crow Nascent Soul's ultimate trump card!

"Thank you for your guidance, Senior, for enlightening me 'into the subtle'!" Xu Qing took a deep breath, struggled to his feet, and bowed to the Prince.

He was very grateful. Without the Prince's words at that time, he would not have gained such a profound understanding.

The Prince suddenly spoke.

"Did your master ever guide you like this?"

The Prince fell silent, then sighed after a moment.

"Your master, he's not an easy one."