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Chapter 447: The Act Snowballs (part 2)

“Most laughable of all is that though their methods fooled you people, the biggest hole in their story... is the ridiculous claim about being a godchild. Hmph! I’ve studied the Nightshades for years, and have many fellow daoists among them. Yet I’ve never heard anything about some sort of godchild!

“Remember, that Nightshade divine likeness isn’t alive. Given that none of you have ever been to Nightshade lands, you probably haven’t heard that things like this have happened with these statues in the past. It all has to do with the way the godly power within them is affected by the tidal cycle. These two imposters clearly know a lot about Nightshades, and thus took advantage of this moment to do something very clever.”

The old man’s eyes flickered with cold light.

“However, in the end, they miscalculated. And that’s because, years ago when I lived among the Nightshades, the Nightshade Cathedral bestowed upon me a Nightshade spiritghost! The spiritghosts of the Nightshade Cathedral are intelligent. And when it comes to unliving objects like that divine likeness, they can ascertain the details about it almost instantly!”

With that, the preceptor touched his finger to his forehead, causing a tremor to pass through him. Then he coughed up a massive mouthful of blood as his forehead split open and a dark, shadowy figure flew out from within.

Instantly, sinister winds blew in the area. What was more, the Holytides’ minds shivered as the Nightshade blood within them stirred, causing the black marks on their foreheads to become even more distinct.

“Please perform your inspection, spiritghost!” the preceptor said respectfully.

The spiritghost cackled as it flew up into the air and then headed toward the palace complex. Meanwhile, the grim-faced preceptor continued speaking to the assembled cultivators.

“Once the spiritghost has finished its inspection, then Duke Heaven Zenith, you will personally go arrest those two reckless imposters. As for me, I’m prepared to—”

Before the preceptor could finish his explanation, the spiritghost shivered. Black light erupted from it, sweeping out like a sea of light. And its eyes shone with unprecedented brightness. A moment later, it screamed as its eyes exploded. It tumbled down, slamming into the altar, where it then prostrated in the direction of the palace complex.

“It’s His Majesty! That’s His Majesty’s aura! We mere mortals cannot look at it directly!!” The blinded spiritghost was now trembling violently, and its voice thrummed with both excitement and fervor. The sight of it caused the surrounding Holytide cultivators to be deeply shaken.

Duke Heaven Zenith was breathing heavily; even though he still had suspicions before, now he had no choice but to believe. The other dukes all felt their scalps tingling, and they didn’t dare to feel even the slightest bit of suspicion. Their eyes filled with expressions of fanaticism. As for the preceptor who had unleashed the spiritghost, he was also shaking, and his eyes were wide with incredulity.

“Th-that... that....”

As the group was battered by waves of shock, the Nightshade divine likeness floated high over the palace complex. Uncrossing its arms, it stretched them wide and looked in the direction of the altar, its eyes pulsing with black light.

Atop its head, it was just barely possible to make out Xu Qing and the Captain. Xu Qing’s eyes were cold with displeasure. The Captain looked furious at the insult to the godchild. He spoke, his cold voice echoing furiously in all directions.

“You’re a very suspicious lot. That’s not necessarily a weakness, but push it too far and it’ll turn into disrespect.”

Right then, a moon-shaped totem appeared on Xu Qing’s forehead. And it emanated personality fluctuations from his violet moon heavenly palace, which completely surpassed anything mortal.

Instantly, the blood of all the Heaven Zenith Holytides reacted, and the Nightshade blood within them suddenly surged. The thirty-six dukes were all shaking as they bowed their heads to the divine likeness. Meanwhile, the ducal preceptor was reeling. The sight of his Nightshade spiritghost prostrating and kowtowing caused him to breathe raggedly. Finally, he bowed his head and clasped hands in the direction of the dome of heaven.

Each of these Holytide cultivators had a higher cultivation base than Xu Qing. If he was just an ordinary Nightshade, then they probably could have used their cultivation bases to reach a roughly equal social status. But when they sensed their blood reacting to the pressure from this ‘godchild,’ they were shocked to the core.

That said, there was nothing humiliating about what was happening. From the very beginning, these two Nightshades hadn’t abused their authority, but instead seemed to be taking their time feeling out the Holytides.

“This is the last time, all of you,” Xu Qing said. He looked deeply at the gathered cultivators, then waved his hand and disappeared.

The divine likeness floated down to its previous position just above the palace, where it closed its eyes.

The entire city was quiet.

By the altar, the preceptor was breathing heavily, and he felt his mind and heart trembling from the pressure. He turned to look at the duke.

“Send a secret message to the royal dynasty informing them of the situation. Tell them we have Nightshade guests here at Ten Entrails of the True Immortal. They seem to have a very high bloodline, and we don’t qualify to do anything that could be considered rude. Also, send your son to the royal dynasty as well! Regardless of whether they’re imposters or not... this is a major event! And if they’re not imposters—” the preceptor took a deep breath— “then all four of the Nightshade Cathedrals in the four royal Holytide dynasties will be shaken, and your son’s future position will be beyond comparison!”

As the ducal preceptor spoke, a wind picked up, causing the leaves of the Ten Entrails Tree to rustle softly.

As the night deepened, the wind grew stronger. The canopy over Ten Entrails of the True Immortal swayed back and forth, and the wind kicked up dust as it swept through the buildings of the duchy of Heaven Zenith. The bells attached to the eaves of the buildings tinkled. It was the same in the palace complex.

Hearing the sound, Xu Qing shifted his gaze from the dark night to the Captain.

“Eldest Brother,” he said, keeping his voice low, “we can’t stick around here much longer. Two days at the most. If the dao fruits in Ten Entrails of the True Immortal aren’t ripe by then, we’ll just have to leave.”

The Captain sighed, feeling a bit annoyed. Although they had managed to find a way out of being discovered earlier, he knew that the situation would only get harder and harder to keep under control.

“I think we’re fine so far,” the Captain said. He looked at Xu Qing. No matter how the Captain studied Xu Qing, or scanned him with his senses, he didn’t get any sense that he was anything other than a real Nightshade. The divine likeness had kowtowed. He had blessed a Holytide. And even an intelligent Nightshade spiritghost had knelt to him.... Given those three things, the Captain’s thoughts were already going wild.

Finally, the Captain couldn’t contain his curiosity any longer, and asked, “How are you doing it, little Ah Qing? That can’t really be the aura of the red moon, can it?”

Xu Qing thought for a moment, then decided he didn’t need to keep hiding the truth. “The Nightshades worship that god, right? Well, back at the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pillar, I actually stole a bit of that god’s authority. So they mistakenly think that I’m the red moon.”

The Captain’s eyes went wide and he gasped. Although he had suspected it was something like this, to hear Xu Qing say it out loud left him astonished.

A moment later, he stood and walked a few circles around Xu Qing. “Say, little Junior Brother, what do you say we do something reaaaalllly big?”

The Captain’s eyes burned with a crazy look.

Xu Qing inhaled sharply. He could guess where the Captain was heading with this, and it was one of the main reasons he’d hidden the violet moon in the past.

“Your disguise is so good it’s basically not even a disguise. Why don’t we go to the Nightshade Cathedral, and from there, have them send us to Nightshade territory....

Xu Qing shook his head firmly. “I only have about half a month left before my concealment symbol fades. Once it’s gone, I’ll still have a good disguise, but people will have ways of seeing through it. That’s especially true... if you’re talking about the god in the red moon. If that god looks at me even once, I’m done for.”

The Captain was a bit depressed to hear that. However, he also knew that the plan he had just suggested wasn’t crazy. It was suicidal. After mulling the matter over, he gritted his teeth.

“Tomorrow we’ll keep harvesting dao fruits. Although the majority aren’t ripe yet, at least there are some we can harvest. And we can also start searching in other areas.

“A few days after that, little Ah Qing, we can start working toward our true goal. The dao fruits are only part of the job. The really good stuff is on the Ten Entrails Tree! We have an amazing opportunity on our hands!”

Xu Qing hesitated, then gritted his teeth and said, “Three days. No more than that!”

The Captain’s eyes shone with a crazy look, and he nodded. “Fine. Five days. No more than that! By the way, tomorrow I’m going to go out and get some fresh air. Since our plans are set already, who cares if they get suspicious? Besides, you’re the real deal. So I’m going make sure all those city-states know that when we give blessings, it comes at a price. Treasure!”

Two days later, Xu Qing and the Captain split up. One went to gather dao fruit. The other went to the other city-states to get some fresh air and offer blessings.

***

Around this time, a delegation arrived at the capital city of the Heavengale Dynasty, which was one of the four great royal dynasties of the Holytides. The delegation came from Heaven Zenith, and was led by the ducal preceptor. Mu Ye was in the delegation, and the very first thing they did was formally report the matter of the Nightshades.

Originally, the situation hadn’t caused any sort of big stir in the Heavengale Dynasty. After all, the aristocracy of the four dynasties didn’t care much about ordinary Nightshades. But after the report from Heaven Zenith was delivered, and Mu Ye went to the appropriate government department to be inspected and tested, the result was deep shock. In fact, the matter sent ripples through the entire dynasty.

“The Nightshade aura given to Mu Ye is equivalent to the first caste level! Maybe even higher than that!”

“All of his blood vessels were thoroughly scanned. He really, truly got blessed!”

“Not even the Nightshade Cathedral could advance someone from the fourth caste to the first!”

“This wasn’t just some ordinary blessing. It was a godly blessing!”

After the results were reported up the chain of command, no one had any idea of the reaction of the leadership of the dynasty, and the royal clan as well. However, two dharmic decrees were quickly issued.

The first dharmic decree stated that Mu Ye was to be immediately escorted to the Nightshade Cathedral for further testing.

The second dharmic decree arranged for a contingent of the Black Guard to be sent to the duchy of Heaven Zenith. Their stated mission was to act as bodyguards. Their secret mission was to observe and surveil. No slip ups would be tolerated.