In a teleportation array that was still some distance away from the county capital, light flickered and Xu Qing's figure walked out.
His face was pale and the feeling of weakness grew increasingly intense. As soon as he appeared, he didn't hesitate to head straight into the distance, using his fastest speed to enter a desolate mountain and search for a hidden cave.
The moment he stepped into the cave, blood gushed out again, and he almost blacked out. However, he gritted his teeth and used a few spells to seal the surroundings.
According to his past experiences, he should have recovered at least half of his strength in a day.
But now, it wasn't even 10% recovered.
As the pain from his internal organs continued to invade, Xu Qing also sensed the reason why his injuries were recovering so slowly this time.
His internal organs had all shattered, his flesh had withered greatly, and his bones were filled with countless cracks.
These were the source of the intense pain.
As for being listless, it was because the light of his soul was dim now.
However, these were actually nothing to Xu Qing. It wasn't like he hadn't experienced injuries that were more serious and miserable than this in the past. What made him grim was that other than these injuries, there were also countless thin needles in his body!
These needles didn't have a physical form and seemed to be formed from light that had shattered countless times. They permeated Xu Qing's body and continued to shine.
It was these needles that were causing his injuries to recover slowly.
Fortunately, he had been suppressing them and only a few areas of his bones had needles, and most of his bones weren't affected yet.
"The power of a god…" Xu Qing mumbled. His expression was gloomy and ruthlessness appeared in his eyes.
In reality, on the way back, he had already tried many methods to disperse these needles. Although they weren't ineffective, they were very slow.
Xu Qing couldn't wait that long.
This was because the Heavenly Dao warning didn't disappear at all with Chu Tianqun's death. Instead, it was even more intense!
He was on pins and needles all the way back.
Moreover, as he got closer to the county capital, the sense of danger continued to grow.
Xu Qing immediately realized that the danger… came from the county capital!
He recalled that the first time this sense of danger appeared, it was also in the county capital. After that, he went to the Holy Wave Race. Although the sense of danger was still there, it wasn't intense anymore.
It was only when he returned to Fenghai County that this sense of danger rose again.
"From the looks of it, the warning in the desert wasn't because of Chu Tianqun but because I was constantly approaching the county capital…"
Xu Qing fell silent. He couldn't understand but he knew that no matter what, he had to recover from his injuries as soon as possible and maintain his combat strength at its peak. He couldn't wait. Moreover, before his injuries recovered, he needed to be on guard against the county.
This was also the reason why he didn't rush back to the county capital immediately.
"If I want to recover faster, I can only use a special method!"
Xu Qing took a deep breath and determination appeared in his eyes. The Third Heavenly Palace in his body circulated and the power of the Poison Restriction erupted, spreading to every inch of his flesh and blood.
It wasn't to resist and neutralize the needles formed by the power of the god but to invade his body. His body started rotting rapidly.
He took out his dagger coldly and scraped the flesh on his body.
First, he started with an arm. He scraped off his poisoned flesh piece by piece along with the light needles inside. The ear-piercing sound of friction with bones echoed in the surroundings and pain that was countless times more intense than before hit him.
Xu Qing trembled and his entire body was drenched in sweat.
This was the solution he thought of. Since the light needles were being dispelled extremely slowly, he would just dig them out. He used the Poison Restriction to cleanse his body as well as stop the light needles from shifting to another part.
Xu Qing was a ruthless person. He was ruthless to the enemy but even more ruthless to himself.
He continued to dig out pieces of flesh until his body reached the extreme of what it could endure. He immediately stopped and looked at the golden thread on his wrist.
He instinctively didn't want to trigger the power of the golden light, so he couldn't let himself be on the verge of death.
Sensing that the golden thread was fine, he circulated the purple crystal to recover the flesh he had dug out. After he gained strength, he continued to scrape the flesh off other parts.
Just like that, the cycle repeated. Four days later, Xu Qing finally took out all the light needles.
During this time, he continuously took medicinal pills. The purple crystal also circulated the entire time, causing his recovery power to increase even more.
As for the light needles in his sea of consciousness, Xu Qing relied on the power of the Purple Moon and the Poison Restriction to force them into his flesh before he dug them out.
After doing all this, Xu Qing was too exhausted to even open his eyes. The pain he felt couldn't be described with words, but this price allowed his body to begin to take a turn for the better.
Three days later, Xu Qing's injuries completely recovered.
After walking out of the cave, he looked at the sunset in the sky and let out a long breath. A long while later, his expression revealed determination.
With a sway of his body, he left this place and headed for the teleportation array.
In the end, he still had to make a trip back to the county capital. On one hand, he needed to exchange the Dao Fruits for military contributions. On the other hand, he also had to head to the Great Void World to continue collecting demon transformation runes.