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As Xu Qing looked at the huge hand, he licked his lips, then focused on the Captain.

The craziness in the Captain’s eyes couldn’t have been more intense, and at the same time, he moved with practiced fluidity. As he wrapped all four limbs around the finger, he sank his teeth in and took a vicious bite. Perhaps because he was a father to this heavenly dao, and also because of the blessing from moments before, he managed to successfully bite a mouthful and swallow it down. Then he started laughing uproariously.

“It was wor—”

Before he could finish speaking, it was to the shock of Qing Qiu and Ning Yan that the Captain’s voice suddenly turned into a wail of anguish.

It was as if he had eaten some type of food that he couldn’t digest, as his belly started swelling. Then, an instant later it exploded. Blood and gore sprayed everywhere, while the aura of a heavenly dao erupted along with his abdomen. And within all of that gore, there was a bit of golden skin.

The Captain’s eyes went wide as he reached out to try to grab it. He wasn’t fast enough. The destructive power hadn’t abated yet, and was spreading through the rest of his body.

In the blink of an eye, his hands collapsed into nothing. His lower half was destroyed, including his entrails. His legs collapsed into pieces. Blood sprayed everywhere as his upper half also suffered. It exploded. His upper torso collapsed, his chest was ripped to shreds, all of his internal organs were eviscerated. Eventually, only his head was left intact.

For some reason, the Captain’s head was unusually tough, and it managed to stay in one piece. What was more, despite the howl of anguish, the Captain somehow managed to get his head flying in the direction of that golden skin. Then he gobbled it up.

Instead of swallowing it, he kept it in his mouth. Eyes shining with craziness, he flicked his head so that his hair wrapped around a nearby tree branch. Then, as he chewed, he finished his sentence from before.

“—worth it!”

Qing Qiu inhaled sharply.

Ning Yan looked on, stunned. Ning Yan had seen people who courted death. But rarely had he seen anyone as suicidal as this. All of a sudden, he realized that the few bites he had sustained didn’t count for much at all.

The heavenly dao apparently sensed the bite. The hand stopped moving, and a gaze emerged from the rift, and it seemed confused about what that head was doing. The hand itself was not injured. After all, what the Captain had bitten off was just some surface skin. Seemingly after a moment of thought, the heavenly dao kept pulling the Ten Entrails Tree into its belly cavity.

Seeing that, Xu Qing gave up any notions about taking a bite of his own. At the same time, the Captain’s wild laughter rang out in all directions.

“Hahaha! I finally got to taste a heavenly dao! Alright, time to make our escape. I don’t know where we’ll all be teleported to, little Junior Brother. But the general destination is set. Alright everyone... good luck and stay safe!”

The Captain laughed as golden light appeared on his forehead. As it spread, it created a host of magical symbols that rapidly reached a number in the hundreds of thousands. As they spread out, they created four huge teleportation portals. The four portals were semitransparent and about 3,000 meters wide each. All pulsed with the aura of a heavenly dao. Apparently, the piece of skin the Captain munched down had done its job.

The moment the four teleportation portals took shape, a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering teleportation power surged within them. It turned into four beams of light. The two strongest beams focused on the Captain and Xu Qing.

The other two beams landed on Ning Yan and Qing Qiu.

Seeing that, Xu Qing realized he didn’t need to do any kicking to ensure the Captain was on the portal.

As Qing Qiu and Ning Yan panted for breath, wild colors flashed in heaven and earth. Intense winds screamed left and right. Shocking fluctuations rolled out as the teleportations began!

A moment later, all four of them disappeared from the Ten Entrails Tree. After they were gone, the huge hand coming from the rift continued to pull the Ten Entrails Tree to it. Before long, the last 3,000 meters were inside the rift, roots and all. When the last root disappeared, the rift closed up, vanishing as if it had never been there.

Everything went back to normal.

Of course... the lands in the area were completely ravaged. Ten Entrails of the True Immortal, which had existed for countless years, was no longer there. The only thing left behind was a gaping hole, with numerous ravines stretching out from it. It looked almost like a huge spiderweb. It was a really shocking sight.

The thirty-six city-states were largely destroyed. The Holytides within them were deeply shaken.

Duke Heaven Zenith looked up into the sky, his heart pounding, and struggled to keep his right hand clenched into a fist instead of reaching out.

Next to him, Zhou Xingwu was shaken to the core, and just stood there quietly. It was Lin Yuandong who spoke first.

“How mighty the godchild!”

Zhou Xingwu seemed like he wanted to respond, but in the end, said nothing.

Duke Heaven Zenith finally relaxed his right hand. Eyes shining with determination, he clasped hands and bowed. “Safe journeys, Godchild!”

In response to his words, all Heaven Zenith cultivators clasped hands and bowed to the dome of heaven.

Finally, Zhou Xingwu inclined his head.

Then, just as it seemed everything would go back to normal, something else happened. A dazzling sea of light appeared overhead, spreading out far and wide.

A man wearing an imperial robe appeared. The golden robe emanated a holy might, and was embroidered with nine dragons that looked completely lifelike, as if they were real dragons that had been sealed inside the robe. They moved like flowing water across its surface, imparting a sense of incredible majesty.

He wore an emperor’s crown that was as red as the sun, and behind him was a bright-red halo. Most eye-catching of all were the tassels hanging from the front and back of his crown. There were a total of twenty-four of them, each of which was decorated with twelve pearls. Those tassels obscured his face, and the glow of the pearls made it even more impossible to make out his features. [1]

The only thing it was possible to determine was that the person in the imperial robe was a middle-aged man. The moment he appeared, the sky filled with strange colors, and the earth quaked. He emanated a power that could topple mountains and drain seas.

Zhou Xingwu immediately dropped to his knees and kowtowed.

“Emperor!”

Duke Heaven Zenith shivered and also dropped to his knees. The Black Guard cultivators and all the Holytides in the thirty-six city-states also kowtowed.

“Emperor!”

The so-called emperor of the Heavengale Dynasty was actually more like a king. What was more, the imperial dynasty that oversaw the four royal dynasties was ruled by a single ‘ancestral emperor.’

Obviously, this middle-aged man wasn’t the ancestral emperor, who hadn’t shown his face for ten thousand years. Instead, he was the ‘emperor’ of the royal Heavengale Dynasty, who had received orders from the Nightshade Cathedral to provide an escort for the godchild.

As he hovered in midair, his face expressionless, he looked at the crater where Ten Entrails of the True Immortal used to exist. Then he looked at the spot where the rift had just disappeared. A long moment passed.

“Mu Tianzheng.”

“Here, sir!” Duke Heaven Zenith said in a loud voice.

“Due to the service performed by your son Mu Ye in welcoming the godchild, he has been appointed by the cathedral as a godservant.”

The duke’s heart leapt, and he started trembling as he repeatedly kowtowed. “Your servant Mu Tianzheng offers thanks for your heavenly grace, Emperor!”

Emperor Heavengale looked at the duke and noted his expression of thanks. Then he looked off into the distance.

“Since the venerable godchild does not wish to see me, I’ll rely on you to track him down. Notify the godchild that the Nightshade Cathedral has summoned him.”

With that, Emperor Heavengale turned and took a step to leave. But then he paused, reached out in the direction where Xu Qing and the others had just teleported away, and closed his hand. Instantly, that area collapsed, and anything left behind was crushed, thus making it impossible to track those who had left, or even find any evidence of their departure.

With that, Emperor Heavengale expressionlessly vanished.

Down below, a thoughtful look appeared on Zhou Xingwu’s face.

The emperor really has good timing....

Duke Heaven Zenith’s expression was the same as ever as he watched what happened above. Then he stood and issued orders to his subordinates to scatter and look for the godchild. The search wouldn’t just be carried out in the immediate area. All government departments in the Heavengale Dynasty would participate. As the orders from Emperor Heavengale spread out, the search for the godchild began.

That said, to give time for the orders to reach everyone, the official start of the search was set for three days later.

It wasn’t just the Nightshade Cathedral in the Heavengale Dynasty that wanted the godchild found. The other three cathedrals in the other three Holytide royal dynasties also joined in the search.

Most spirited were the Redspirit Dynasty and the Moonmist Dynasty. They poured the entire resources of their respective nations into the search. And the forces of the Nightshade Cathedrals from those places, which had never even left the royal capital for many years, also joined. There were also countless species who were subservient to the Nightshades and Holytides who heard about the situation and also started searching.

And thus, the search for the godchild became a massive affair in the entire Holytide Region. In fact, martial law was imposed on the border regions. Things really started heating up.

***

As expected, the frenzy of activity was noticed in Sea-Sealing County. Many people there took advantage of their information networks to find out what was going on, and soon enough, the county capital was abuzz. The Swordsage Palace, as well as the other two palaces from the Celestial Division, were all in a bit of a commotion.

“Nightshade godchild?”

“The Ten Entrails Tree, which has stood for countless years, is gone? One of the Holytide’s most miraculous areas is no more?”

“The Nightshade Cathedrals from all four royal dynasties issued dharmic decrees?”

“The high priests from the Nightshade Cathedrals in the Redspirit Dynasty and the Moonmist Dynasty personally went out to help?”

“But why did the high priest from the Heavengale Dynasty’s cathedral issue orders but not actually join the search effort? And why did the high priest tacitly endorse Emperor Heavengale’s imposition of a three-day delay?”

The leadership in Sea-Sealing County convened an emergency legislative assembly. At the same time, large numbers of swordsages accepted missions to go to the border and keep order. The last thing they wanted was a Holytide uprising there.

Kong Xianglong and his friends took just such a mission. After they were out of the county capital, they exchanged glances. All could see the suspicious looks in each other’s eyes.

“There’s no way it could be them...” Sir Mountain-River said quietly.

Shivering, Wang Chen shook his head and said, “It’s impossible. They’re saying it’s a ‘godchild,’ but that’s probably just bullcrap to scare people.”

“Right. Hahaha!” Though Sir Mountain-River laughed, it sounded somewhat forced. “I’m just thinking into it too much. How could those two do something to rile up the entire Holytide species?”

Duskspirit hesitated for a moment, then said, “But don’t you remember what Xu Qing and Chen Erniu said before they left? They mentioned they were going to Ten Entrails of the True Immortal, and that they were going to do something really big....”

Everyone stood there silently.

A moment passed, and then Kong Xianglong forced himself to calm down.

“It was probably a different pair of Nightshades,” he said solemnly.

“That’s right,” Sir Mountain-River said. “That’s got to be it.” They all nodded. But then they didn’t say much else as they absent-mindedly continued on their journey.

1. I’m sure most of you know what a Chinese emperor’s crown looks like. If you don’t, here’s a picture. ☜