Chapter 849: Divine Mountain’s Melodious Sounds

The sky became even redder.

Inside the Holy City, countless gazes and streams of divine sense converged upon Xu Qing. Within them flickered astonishment, shock, complexity, and strangeness, all ultimately settling into silence.

Xu Qing’s display of power had awed all directions and proven his formidable strength. His claim to the top position in the first round was beyond dispute, and for a time, no one else dared to fly out of the Holy City to challenge him.

Indeed, Xu Qing’s actions had stirred varying degrees of turmoil in everyone’s hearts.

Had Xu Qing acted solely with a cultivator’s methods, it would have been acceptable. But he had used divine power, which was truly startling.

While cultivators who had long interacted with divine beings might be able to manifest divine arts, especially divine envoys, to be able to drag out a vision of a Void Return Fourth Stage cultivator’s future death and substitute it for reality, as Xu Qing did, was still rare.

Many cultivators were witnessing this for the first time in their lives. The tragic state of the middle-aged Baize clan cultivator, whose death vision had been replaced, was even more shocking.

At this moment, blood still uncontrollably seeped from his lips, his internal organs were tearing and decaying, and his divine soul was withered and dim, irreversibly damaged.

The shattered great world brought not only a sharp decline in cultivation but also the withering of life.

His body visibly aged until he retreated a thousand zhang away. Only with the anxious approach and support of several Baize clan cultivators did he manage to stabilize himself, but he had become an old man in the Void Return Second Stage.

A dense aura of death permeated his entire being, the signs of old age were evident, and a lingering sense of trepidation was strongly displayed on his face.

His heart churned. After narrowly escaping death, recalling the battle, he clearly understood that in that instant, he had already died once. If this had been on a battlefield, without the Holy City’s rules providing protection, he would still be facing death now.

This thought caused the lingering trepidation on his face to spread, enveloping his entire body, turning into a tremor.

Facing the gaze Xu Qing now cast from outside the city, he instinctively avoided it, not daring to meet his eyes.

His heart was utterly awed!

Seeing this, Xu Qing withdrew his gaze and looked away, but he had firmly memorized the opponent’s aura, intending to find an opportunity to eliminate him completely later.

With this thought in mind, Xu Qing looked towards the Si’e clan cultivator trapped by Dingsan’er, lifted his foot, and walked step by step.

With each step, ripples spread through the void beneath his feet, as if he were walking on water. Within Dingsan’er, misfortune was also descending, and no matter what incantations the Si’e clan cultivator employed, they were useless.

All incantations dissipated within the misfortune. Dingsan’er’s "divine authority" was a type of divine ability that completely countered incantations.

The Si’e clan cultivator trapped within could not escape and could only gradually wither and be forgotten under the endless superposition of misfortune.

Xu Qing’s approach accelerated this process.

As his figure stepped forward, he was already above Dingsan’er. The purple moonlight of his Fourth Divine State cascaded down, enveloping Dingsan’er, about to empower it.

But at this moment, the falling moonlight suddenly changed direction, no longer descending but rapidly converging in front of Xu Qing, forming a purple light barrier.

The next instant, a finger extended from the void, was blocked, and landed on this light barrier.

With a gentle touch, the purple light rippled, visibly turning white, reflecting a jade-like luster, and finally solidifying into jade.

From a distance, this jade luster spread rapidly. Wherever it passed, the light shield formed by the purple moonlight transformed accordingly.

The entire process took only one breath. An arc-shaped jade shield appeared in mid-air.

Losing the power of the purple moon, it plummeted towards the ground, crashing onto Dingsan’er with a bang. As it shattered, Dingsan’er, which it touched, also began to turn into jade.

This scene was extremely sudden and incredibly swift. Without any hesitation, Xu Qing focused his gaze forward, his body abruptly retreating, and his right hand raised a finger.

Instantly, Dingsan’er, which was being transmuted into jade, blurred and vanished.

Xu Qing, having retreated to a distance, revealed a sharp glint in his eyes. He looked up, gazing at the area in mid-air where the finger had extended.

There, the void also emitted a jade luster. Within this light, a young man, dressed in a scholar's robe, with a handsome appearance somewhat similar to humans, gradually emerged.

Finally, he became fully clear. He smiled at Xu Qing, saying, "My little companions have taken a liking to you. They want you to become one of them."

The youth's voice was gentle, without any hint of aggression, as if stating a fact and an unchangeable future. His gaze was mild, even containing a sense of familiarity, as if looking at one of his own.

Xu Qing remained unmoved, though a faint light flickered in his eyes. Although this was their first true meeting, Xu Qing had seen this individual before, in the Grand Prince's jade slip.

In his mind, the Grand Prince's introduction of this person reappeared: "Fan Shishuang, Void Return Third Stage, Sequence Third, possesses Void Return Great Perfection combat power. He has even engaged in life-and-death battles with foreign powerful beings who had just entered the Divine Manifestation stage, successfully escaping death. This person is the foremost genius in the Nation of Divine Authority, belonging to the Moonflame High God."

In addition to this introduction, when Xu Qing had previously examined the jade slip in detail, he had also seen a residual image of the opponent's attack: everything he touched would turn into jade.

"A true member of the Flaming Moon Profound Heaven race, a peerless prodigy surpassing Mount Tuoshi." A sense of solemnity arose in Xu Qing's heart. The moment the opponent made his move, Xu Qing felt a strong life-or-death crisis, especially from that jade transformation, upon which he sensed divine power.

His gaze swept across the surroundings. Figures of jade puppets, dressed in various garments, appeared in all directions.

Each stood motionless, staring at Xu Qing.

"What, are you not satisfied? Speak up, is that a silent agreement?" Fan Shishuang smiled, his gaze scrutinizing Xu Qing, liking him more and more the longer he looked.

"To solidify this form in jade and make it a statue in my mansion would be quite fitting!"

"I advise you not to struggle. It would be a pity if you accidentally damaged your form."

"And you are no match for me." Fan Shishuang chuckled, lifting his right hand and lightly flicking it. The battle power fluctuations of a Void Return Great Perfection cultivator surged from his body, causing the sky to rumble and the earth to tremble.

Moreover, a storm rose from his body, connecting to the great winds sweeping from the earth in all directions, twisting the night sky itself. Faintly, streaks of meteors could be seen flashing across.

At first, the streaks were manageable, but quickly their number increased, becoming terrifying, almost merging into a continuous stream, forming a meteor shower.

Such an unparalleled aura, Xu Qing had never witnessed on any other Void Return cultivator, causing his eyes to narrow involuntarily.

Overlapping shadows appeared on the celestial canopy, spreading across the sky, as if all gods and devils had descended simultaneously.

Each one was astonishingly lifelike, glaring at the earth and emanating terrifying pressure. This was the manifestation of a Void Return Second Stage cultivator, where the Void Return Second Stage itself formed images of gods and devils, something Xu Qing had never heard of.

Normally, Void Return Third Stage cultivators would manifest illusory bubbles formed from divine sense, but this was not the case with Fan Shishuang.

The bubbles were not formed from divine sense but from those god and devil images. They contained the origin of life and death. After appearing, they each shattered and reformed, eventually converging into a vast scene.

It was a super great world, covering the celestial canopy, affecting the void, and many times larger than a typical Void Return cultivator's innate realm.

Although still illusory, it contained mountains and rivers, sun and moon, living beings, and both rules and laws, operating like a true world. It seemed that if this world were only a little more real, it would achieve Divine Manifestation. With the appearance of this scene, the aura emanating from Fan Shishuang made Xu Qing's heart grow even heavier. This aura far surpassed that of the previous middle-aged Baize clan cultivator, like a brilliant moon compared to a tiny star, utterly incomparable.

Although both were manifestations of the Void Return Fourth Stage, the difference in their combat power was enormous.

"Ten breaths, and it's over!" Fan Shishuang smiled slightly, a hint of malevolence appearing on his face. He raised his right hand and gently pressed it towards Xu Qing.

With this press, a thunderous roar echoed from the sky outside the city. Looking around, the firmament actually emitted a jade luster, and the earth did the same. Centered on Xu Qing, everything around him, both above and below, shimmered with jade light in that instant.

As soon as this jade light formed, it surged back violently, rushing towards Xu Qing like an overwhelming tide.

A sense of crisis continuously erupted within Xu Qing's heart. The piercing pain that made his entire body, every piece of flesh and blood, tremble, gave Xu Qing the feeling of facing a god.

At this critical juncture, Xu Qing took a deep breath, and fighting intent surged in his eyes. He also wanted to know his true limits and the extent of the gap between himself and this third-ranked prodigy of the Flaming Moon Profound Heaven.

He raised his right hand, and a layer of ripples spread out beneath his feet, as if they had become a water surface—it was precisely the starting stance of "Catching the Moon in the Well."

Inside the Imperial Holy City, countless gazes and divine senses were fixed on this battle. With the appearance of Fan Shishuang, the significance of this fight had changed.

But just as Xu Qing and Fan Shishuang were about to clash, the divine mountain within the Holy City suddenly unfurled slightly, shattering into fragments that rolled back into cracks in the earth, transforming into surging mud waves. Fan Shishuang's jade light instantly dimmed, wiped away in an instant. His face was no longer filled with malevolence as before, but instead with an expression of profound piety, as he knelt towards the divine mountain.

Not only him, but at this moment, almost all cultivators within the Holy City were breathing rapidly, bowing their heads and kneeling towards the divine mountain.

As for Xu Qing, all his divine abilities were rendered unmanifestable, and he instinctively bowed towards the divine mountain.

A resonant voice echoed through the sky, permeated the earth, becoming a divine sound and a decree in the heart of every cultivator: "The first round has just concluded. I had intended to give you some time to rest, but since you are all so energetic, there's no need for a break."

"The second round, the Great Hunt, transmigration to the Mountain and Sea Great Domain, begins immediately!" It was the voice of the Starflame High God.