Su Liwei grew more and more anxious when he saw Yang Qing take out a few more objects from his storage ring.
Even if he couldn't judge their exact strength because of his sluggish senses and disintegrating body, he could atleast feel the energy they released. They were all higher than the red pearl he had used against Yang Qing.
Seeing so many high-end goods being brought out made him feel uneasy about what Yang Qing planned to do with them.
He hasn't had any contact with anyone from his sect in the past three years and anything important had been wiped from his memory. Any lingering traces he had on him that would tie him to the sect had been wiped too.
The Dark helminth ghost sect had researched and created many measures into ensuring the anonymity of each member from one another.
With their small numbers and the dangers that came with targetting those from Order, they had to use numerous means to ensure one person didn't implicate the other.
With years of practice, they got better at it. This was why to date, despite targeting those from the Order they still managed to survive.
They chose their targets well and in case something went wrong, there were already measures in place to ensure there would be as little collateral damage to the sect as possible.
He may have misjudged Yang Qing's strength, but he had enough confidence that nothing he had on him could implicate other members of the sect.
Even though that's what he thought, a huge part of him still felt worried. As far as he knew, the Dark helminth ghost sect always kept their targets small, not once had they targetted someone at the palace realm.
Their choice of prey were new inquisitors of the outer core courts, administrators, and a few other low-level employees.
Targeting an evaluator could be considered a whale of a target. It was why he had to plan for five years in consultation with some of his seniors before he felt confident enough in his chances. He even added monarch-grade treasures for good measure and underwent ruthless cleansing to make sure that even if he was caught there would not be a thread to follow.
Just as he was sinking further and further into his quagmire of worrying thoughts, he heard Yang Qing sigh in relief.
"Phew!! I hope this works out. If it ends up being someone in the domain, I will have made such a huge loss," Yang Qing muttered as his gaze turned to the paper talismans floating above him, the grey unlit candle, the peach wood, and a few high-grade stones he had placed around the grey candle.
His gaze turned solemn as it landed on Su Liwei, who despite how terrified he felt still couldn't exhibit it on his face. His body was stiff like dried clay and the disintegration was still eating away at his body.
"I hope you'll bring me an excellent harvest," Yang Qing said as the white glow coming from his body turned even more intense.
He started forming seals in his hands so rapidly that his hands turned blurry.
An immense amount of qi leaked out of Yang Qing's body that it congealed into a light green mist and with it came a suffocating pressure that destroyed every board left in the area. Just as it was about to destroy the roof, the talismans floating above ignited into a blue flame that dissolved whatever pressure came its way.
The fog produced by the white raven got thicker, the more Qi Yang Qing leaked. It seemed to be working in tandem with the blue flame to contain Yang Qing's pressure within a set parameter.
If Su Liwei was worried earlier, now it was beyond that. Whatever he was seeing had gone beyond the realm of a worst-case scenario.
He didn't know what Yang Qing was planning, but just the prologue itself was enough to send his mind into a tailspin.
"Five thousand cardinals of the incendiary flame of the blighted plain."
Yang Qing's voice boomed with a sense of majesty as a plain field appeared behind him which then spread to cover the ground below him and Su Liwei.
Numerous white crisscrossing lines appeared on that plain.
Su Liwei still had no idea what was happening, but things turned absurdly terrifying to him by the second.
The qi Yang Qing released, had grown beyond what he had even experienced at one of the branch hideouts they used. That branch had spiritual qi that was dense enough to match a few low rank 3 organizations.
Yang Qing's whole body had turned blindingly white that he couldn't even see him properly. It was like he was surrounded by a pure white flame that swallowed everything around him. The only thing he saw in the midst of that white cloak, was one golden-yellow round object the size of an eye floating in a fixed place within it.
His body started to disintegrate faster. However, unlike before, he clearly felt that something was different this time. He felt something was being drained out of him with every disintegration.
In just a few minutes, only his shoulders were left and that indistinct feeling of being drained got clearer by the second.
He finally saw what was being drained from his body... A speck size drop of blood was floating next to him as it rapidly spun around.
His disintegrating body was rapidly swirling as it fed into the small drop of blood.
However, that was not the only thing bed fed in there.
The floating dust-like shards of the red pearl that had been floating above his arm were also congealing into the spinning blood adding more texture to it.
Su Liwei could feel his end drawing close, however the undaunting feeling he had before towards death had disappeared and was replaced by overwhelming worry.
He may not know precisely what Yang Qing was trying to achieve exactly but he had a few guesses based on what was happening around him.
His essence was being drained, and combined with the red pearl. Below him was the plain with small white threads spreading about from the center like a compass.
He guessed that his essence and the pearl were about to be used as a conduit in conjunction with the plain below him to track something. As for that something, If it wasn't obvious before, now it was. It was the person who gave him the red pearl.
He still hoped he was wrong, however his hopes were dashed when the drop of blood started descending slowly into the plain. By that point, the only part left of Su Liwei was his eyes and forehead. But even that soon mottled away as it combined into the blood drop that was about the size of a melon seed.
The last thing he saw was a grey flame ignite as the blood drop touched the plain.
