Chapter 972: Heavenly Music Welcomes the Moon

The words of Venerable Dongyou echoed on the formation platform.

Falling into Xu Qing's ears, the speaker's unique, raspy voice seemed to carry a sense of age, detailing the legend of the Night Parade of One Hundred Ghosts even more meticulously.

Combining this with his current observations under divine sense, Xu Qing could almost certainly confirm that the slender hand was, in all likelihood, the hand of the musician from the Golden Crow Divine Palace, who, according to legend, played the "Heavenly Music to Welcome the Moon."

It was also the key to finding the Dragon Palanquin.

"But why did it gaze at Yan Yan and mark her, creating this entanglement..."

Xu Qing mused, his gaze falling upon Yan Yan.

Yan Yan was special; she clearly didn't possess the physique that attracted heterogeneous incursions, though Xu Qing couldn't discern the source of her uniqueness at present.

"Perhaps Master knows; I can inquire when he emerges from seclusion. It's also possible he was already aware of Yan Yan's unique physique."

After pondering, a look of determination appeared in Xu Qing's eyes.

Regardless, the priority was to deal with that slender hand and resolve the karmic entanglement it created by gazing at Yan Yan.

So, without hesitation, once he understood the karma associated with the hand, within the range of his divine sense, all the sharp, mournful wails from the dark, ghost-ridden underwater ruins suddenly ceased in unison.

It wasn't that the vengeful spirits had stopped wailing; rather, their sounds were, at that moment, stripped away by Xu Qing, becoming his power, his killing intent, his sharp blade.

This transformed into a surging and eerie destructive force, suddenly suppressing the slender hand.

Instantly, the seabed churned silently, and a storm formed within moments. A terrifying pressure and an ominous aura also surged from the depths to the surface, causing massive waves to ripple across the outer sea.

Yet, there was not a sound.

All sounds within this area, at this moment, had found a master.

The Divine Authority of Sound fully erupted.

However, the eye on the slender hand suddenly opened wide the instant the crisis descended.

It revealed crimson pupils, exuding boundless savagery, and its fingers moved rapidly, as if plucking invisible strings.

A similar Divine Authority of Sound astonishingly emanated from this severed hand.

This was completely different from any divine creature Xu Qing had ever encountered.

Generally, the strength of divine creatures lay in their divinity and divine origin; they rarely possessed Divine Authority, at least not those Xu Qing had slain in the Forbidden Sea recently.

Yet, on this severed hand, Divine Authority had appeared. The next moment, all the vengeful spirits whose sounds Xu Qing had stripped away trembled, somewhat recovering from their silenced state. Their piercing, mournful wails once again echoed through the quiet seabed.

The power they generated met the suppressing force controlled by Xu Qing in an invisible collision.

A roaring sound, reverberating in all directions across the seabed, erupted violently for an instant, then immediately fell silent.

All sounds within the seabed mirrored this: one moment deafening, the next silent; one moment controlled by the fingers, the next stripped and utilized by Xu Qing.

This was especially true for the vengeful spirits.

Their screams were intermittent.

This was a battle between the same Divine Authority, a type of divine conflict rarely seen among deities. Typically, when it occurred, it was a fight to the death.

Under the same Divine Authority, both possessed the right to use it, turning this into a struggle for divine dominance.

The sounds of the vengeful spirits were the core of this struggle for divine dominance.

Such a powerful disturbance caused many vengeful spirits to collapse, unable to bear it. Gradually, the silence created by Xu Qing's stripping away of sounds grew more pervasive.

His Divine Authority was relatively pure, obtained through both enlightenment and faint traces already present within his physical Wasteland. In terms of status, it was akin to the pinnacle.

Therefore, he naturally held an advantage in this battle for divine dominance.

But just as Xu Qing's advantage expanded, the eye in the palm of the slender hand seemed to sense a life-or-death threat. It furiously opened again, its crimson pupil radiating numerous bloodshot veins that spread across the surrounding area, finally shedding a single drop of blood-red tear.

The moment this tear appeared, the surrounding vengeful spirits, which had been continuously collapsing, trembled violently. They all turned their heads in unison, staring fiercely in Xu Qing's direction.

Recklessly, even at the cost of self-destruction, they roared frantically. The sharp sounds from their mouths, in this state, once again broke through the stripping of their voices.

From silence to instantaneous sound, a wave of noise formed, swept up by the blood-red tear. Like a crimson meteor, it rapidly surged from the seabed, piercing through the water and bursting out of the surface, heading towards Xu Qing's location on Dongyou Island like a sharp blade.

As it passed, the sky and earth changed color, winds arose, and Dongyou Island itself roared.

After accomplishing this, the eye within the slender severed hand clearly showed weakness. With a flicker, it swept up the remaining thousands of vengeful spirits around it and sped deeper into the Forbidden Sea, attempting to escape.

On Dongyou Island, all the cultivators' hearts trembled. As the crimson meteor approached, a soul-shaking chill involuntarily spread through their bodies.

Only Blood Refiner and Venerable Dongyou were slightly better off, but their hearts were also churning at this moment.

Xu Qing looked up, gazing at the crimson meteor.

The opponent's counterattack didn't surprise him much. Ever since he learned the severed hand's identity, he had mentally prepared for it to also possess the authority of sound.

After all, it was the hand of the Sun's musician.

Although he didn't know why, under the gaze of the Remnant Face, the musician still had one hand left, nor whether the will now controlling this hand belonged to the musician themselves or was a newly born vestige of thought.

But the previous counterattacks were within his expectations.

So he stepped forward, instantly treading through the air. Facing the incoming crimson meteor, he raised his right hand and grabbed towards the dark sky.

In the night sky, the sun was not visible.

But this didn't mean the sun didn't exist; it merely meant the sun in this particular area had departed. In the sky above Wanggu, there was always illumination in different regions at all times.

The Profound Yang Immortal Light not only seized the cultivators' sun in the sky.

Thus, in the next instant, wisps of dawn light, lingering in the darkness, permeated from the endless void. They were drawn from distant places and converged upon Xu Qing's entire body.

The night suddenly brightened.

Xu Qing, like a nascent sun, stood between heaven and earth. As he illuminated the four directions of the cosmos, he pressed his raised palm towards the approaching crimson meteor.

Dazzling light erupted from Xu Qing, tearing through the night wherever it passed. The crimson meteor was no exception.

It was obliterated.

Xu Qing's figure, as if devouring the night and the bloody light, became increasingly radiant. He transformed into a brilliant star and thundered towards the Forbidden Sea.

All the cultivators on Dongyou Island watched this scene from afar, their hearts stirred with immense waves of emotion.

Indeed, in their eyes, this entire spectacle was the great sun setting into the sea.

It was as if a legend had manifested in reality.

"The Golden Crow's fall, one hundred sounds turning to yin—you and I both know this likely happened, and seeing this now further proves it!"

Venerable Dongyou murmured.

Blood Refiner coughed.

"No matter what level he reaches, one thing remains constant... he's my grand-disciple."

Dongyou fell silent, his gaze resting on Yan Yan, who was gazing with fascination at the spot where Xu Qing had vanished. He then suddenly spoke.

"You meet your grand-disciple a bit too infrequently. Next time you visit, you can call him over more often..."

While the cultivators on Dongyou Island were still in shock, and Venerable Dongyou conversed with Blood Refiner, the sky above the Forbidden Sea returned to pitch black. Only a faint moon glimmered, and the light emanating from beneath the sea surface rapidly dimmed.

Until finally, the world was once again plunged into darkness.

But in the deep seabed, Xu Qing, transformed into a sun, illuminated all directions as he roared forward.

He was chasing the severed hand.

Along the way, all sounds contributed to his speed.

The faint moon in the sky was unknowingly influenced, turning purple. The purple moonlight fell upon the sea and permeated into its depths.

Numerous ferocious sea beasts failed to dodge and their bodies disintegrated. Their blood, too, augmented Xu Qing's speed.

For these deceased sea beasts, today was a day of ill fortune. For the severed hand and the hundred ghosts being pursued by Xu Qing, today was also a day of ill fortune.

Their misfortune, reflected back to Xu Qing, became good fortune, further boosting his speed.

Thus, an incense stick's time later, above an area of sprawling black seaweed on the seabed, the great sun descended before the rapidly fleeing severed hand.

Light shone brightly, illuminating all directions.

Amidst the roaring sound, the scattering immortal light, the pervasive good fortune, and the pull of blood, Xu Qing's figure stepped out from within.

He blocked the path of the severed hand and the thousands of vengeful spirits.

With a punch, the Undying Emperor's Fist instantly unleashed a storm on the seabed, sweeping everything away. Sounds were stripped, transforming into eerie destructive power that augmented the attack, while purple moonlight simultaneously pierced down from the sea surface, enveloping and sealing the area.

However, this severed hand was extraordinary. Amidst this extreme peril, after a brief pause, cruelty and indifference radiated from its eye. The next instant, its fingers plucked invisible strings.

The thousands of vengeful spirits around it immediately went mad, beginning to devour each other.

In the blink of an eye, the number of thousands of vengeful spirits rapidly dwindled under this mutual frenzy, leaving only... one hundred.

Precisely one hundred.

These one hundred vengeful spirits had also changed in appearance, becoming even more grotesque. Intertwining with each other, they formed what resembled a musical score, and accompanied by mournful wails, they created a segment of ghostly music Xu Qing had never heard before.

It belonged to the same composition as the past Night Parade of One Hundred Ghosts, but now it appeared more complete. The moment it emanated, the surrounding sea instantly grew cold, and Xu Qing's Purple Moon Divine Authority began to tremble as if being pulled, as if this piece of music held some inexplicable power over the moon's energy.

Faintly, even amidst the echo of this ghostly music, an illusory scene appeared.

A decaying moon materialized beneath the seabed, rising upwards.

On this decaying moon, a massive face was visible.

It was the face of a young girl, somewhat similar to the young boy Xu Qing had seen in the Golden Crow's inheritance, almost like siblings.

At this moment, this face was decaying, with dense chains of nether energy formed from the aura of death piercing through it, a shocking sight. Simultaneously, a terrifying divine might arose within.

It seemed on the verge of stepping from illusion into reality, affecting the present world and extending to Xu Qing.

This divine might was unlike the aura of any other deity Xu Qing had encountered, and it also differed from the surrounding heterogeneous matter. It was as if... it had no connection to the Remnant Face.

It was known that in current Wanggu, all deities were connected to the Remnant Face, either born from it or following it, and their bodies all contained some trace of its aura.

They belonged to the same lineage.

But... this moon was not.

With its appearance, Xu Qing distinctly felt that everything—the seawater here, the seabed mud, or even this entire world—seemed to ripple in that instant.

This was because the divine aura from this decaying moon shared the same origin as Wanggu.

Or, more precisely, it shared the same origin as the *former* Wanggu.

Combining all this, a conjecture emerged in Xu Qing's mind.

"The Blazing Heaven Divine Race."

Only the Blazing Heaven Divine Race could cause Wanggu to ripple with a shared origin.

Only the Blazing Heaven Divine Race would possess a divine lineage distinct from the Remnant Face.

Xu Qing's heart jolted, but there was no time to ponder. As the ghostly music echoed and the illusory moon of death rose, a terrifying pressure fully erupted.

Xu Qing's body instantly recoiled, all his Divine Authorities shimmering, and his divine sources surging within him. His mind raced to find a solution.

While his Purple Moon Divine Authority and this moon were of the same type, Xu Qing didn't believe his current authority could directly contend with it.

Even if it was merely a projection, merely a deceased deity.

Ill fortune had little effect here, and divine curses were clearly unsuitable.

Therefore... only the Divine Authority of Sound could counter it.

Without hesitation, he channeled all his divine sources into the Divine Authority of Sound, and soul threads spread out, further enhancing it.

He unleashed it with full power.

The target was not the decaying moon, but the ghosts that had summoned it. Invading this sound amidst the descent of the decaying moon was an extremely perilous process. However, Xu Qing had become proficient with the Divine Authority of Sound through constant use in the preceding period.

Coupled with his sufficient status, finally, just as the decaying moon was about to be drawn into the present world, that segment of ghostly music—named "Heavenly Music to Welcome the Moon"—which was discordant, piercing, and filled with wailing, off-key sounds, was suppressed by Xu Qing's Divine Authority.

Furthermore, with a thought, he stripped away the wails of the hundred ghosts from the melody and, using his own Divine Authority, purified the extraneous sounds within it.

Consequently, a beautiful piece of music that left Xu Qing momentarily dazed, after tens of thousands of years, emerged from the river of time, drifted from the annals of history, and reappeared on the seabed.

"Heavenly Music to Welcome the Moon"—legend said it was Wanggu's foremost musical composition.

Its beauty was indescribable.

It was ethereal, profound, and exquisite; only the phrase "Heavenly Music" could truly describe it.

One could even say it was inherently a part of the Divine Authority of Sound.

Composed for the moon, written for the moon, and performed solely for the moon.

The decaying moon's phantom, and the girl's face upon it, softened.

As the music wavered and then concluded, the moon became indistinct and eventually dissipated into the seabed.

Only Xu Qing remained standing there, his mind recovering after a long time, his heart filled with boundless emotions.

"So, this is 'Heavenly Music to Welcome the Moon'... The 'Heavenly Music to Welcome the Moon' played after the Golden Crow returned to its palace actually welcomed the moon formed by the Blazing Heaven Divine Race."

"Then, what is the origin of the Golden Crow, and that figure resembling a young ancient emperor...?"

Xu Qing already had a conjecture in his mind.

But he wasn't certain, so after suppressing this conjecture, he looked up and gazed into the distance.

The severed hand had escaped.

However, having clashed with Xu Qing in such a karmically entangled way, as long as it wasn't too far away, it would remain within Xu Qing's divine sense.

After closing his eyes to sense, he locked onto a direction, transformed into sound, and vanished silently.

As for the area where "Heavenly Music to Welcome the Moon" once echoed, it slowly grew silent.

Equally silent was the Immortal Mountain Pavilion of the Heretic Life Holy Land at this moment.

Inside the pavilion sat eleven figures.

Each had a different appearance, and in the very center was the white jade elder who had retrieved the stone gate from the Corpse Taboo.

They were all silent now.

The reason for this was a single sentence spoken by one of them during the recent deliberation.

"In the Southern Phoenix Continent, there is possibly a Summer Immortal."

After a long silence, the white jade elder, as the master of the Heretic Life Holy Land, slowly spoke.

"The landscape of Wanggu is somewhat different from what we knew before our arrival."

"Given this, our clan will maintain our previous decision. Let us not act rashly. We shall wait for the Earth-tier and even Heaven-tier Holy Lands to descend, and then follow their arrangements!"

After the elder finished speaking, another elder of the Heretic Life Holy Land beside him hesitated, then respectfully spoke.

"Ancestor, it has been several months since our descent, and our clansmen's emotions are becoming increasingly volatile, almost uncontrollable. They crave external flesh and blood, yet they can only watch now without acting..."

"Furthermore, our clan's numbers are limited and require new replenishment. The small tribes on nearby islands have been investigated, and a dozen or so are quite suitable!"

"Those suitable populations have also been sufficiently conditioned and can be parasitized at any time. In at most a month, they can be catalyzed and devoured by larvae, thereby giving birth to our clan members!"

"If we proceed discreetly, this matter should not be detected. Moreover, the suspected Summer Immortal is currently in seclusion..."

After this elder finished speaking, he looked towards their clan's Ancestor.

The other elders also looked, awaiting the Ancestor's decision.

The white jade Ancestor remained silent, then shook his head after a long moment.

"Tell the clansmen to wait a bit longer; the time is not yet right!"

"At the very least, we must wait for Fu Xie to emerge from seclusion. He has been in seclusion for a century, fully striving to break through to the Dominator realm. This is a crucial moment, with a breakthrough in sight, and we cannot afford too many complications now!"

"Once he succeeds, our clan will have two Dominators. At that time, this old man will not need to worry about too many things!"

The white jade Ancestor spoke calmly.

Upon hearing this, everyone affirmed, then successively declared the Holy Land's decree to their respective lineages.

"The Ancestor's decree is to maintain the previous policy and only change it once my father emerges from seclusion. This approach is truly overly conservative!"

Below the Heretic Life Holy Land and between it and the Forbidden Sea surface, pillars of ice had formed due to the cold aura of the blue ice.

The sea surface was also covered in icy sand, exuding endless cold.

At this moment, on this icy sand, a young man of the Heretic Life clan, clad in luxurious robes, walked forward, speaking with a gloomy tone.

His appearance was identical to that of a human, save for a closed third eye on his forehead. His expression was cold and sinister, and his deep eyes, like a dark night sky, flickered with cunning, cruelty, and savagery.

Behind him followed nine Dharma Protectors, each exuding a terrifying aura. Hearing his words, they remained silent.

The young man clearly didn't require a response; his status and bloodline allowed him to disregard many regulations within the Heretic Life Holy Land.

As he strode, he arrived at a certain area. When he paused there, one of the Dharma Protectors behind him stepped forward and spoke in a deep voice.

"Our clan's two pioneers died right here!"

The young man's gaze fell upon the icy sand, his eyes flashing with a strange light.

"Interesting. Sensing with the clan's innate secret technique, the killer is the sky, the earth, the wind, the sea, the birds in the sky, the fish and ferocious beasts in the sea..."

"There are countless traces, yet it oddly gives one a sense of utter cleanliness!"

After pondering, the young man's third eye on his forehead suddenly opened, revealing an eerie glow as he gazed beneath the icy sand.

After a long while, the third eye closed.

"Even the karma is shattered!"

Murmuring, the young man clearly grew interested. He suddenly raised his right hand, and from his palm, from within his flesh, a needle threaded with a blood-red line flew out.

It danced before him, as if stitching the void.

"Then, with this needle left by a Great Emperor, I can stitch the karma back together!"

The young man smiled. The blood needle before him, now crisscrossing, finished its stitching and returned to his palm, adding a new line to his palm print.

Gazing at the newly added palm line, the young man spoke indifferently.

"Next, as long as the killer appears within my range of perception, they can be locked onto!"

"Let's go. Although this sea is filthy, those so-called 'heavenly genius materials' you marked earlier are indeed quite good. Let's retrieve them first. If we happen to encounter the killer along the way, it would be perfect!"

The young man spoke, then calmly walked forward, with the Dharma Protectors behind him acknowledging in deep voices.

Soon, the group of ten walked out of the icy sand area and headed towards the Forbidden Sea, outside the Holy Land's domain.