Beyond the Timescape

Chapter 468: A Major World on Emperor Ancient Spirit’s Corpse (part 2)

Mist floated everywhere. There was no sun or moon, only ghost fire that resembled starlight. Because of the faintness of the light, everything was murky. The ground resembled rotting flesh, with no mountains, rivers, forests, or anything like that. It was endlessly desolate and filled with an aura of death. The aura was cold, and it constantly tried to invade Xu Qing’s body and cause his flesh and blood to rot. Apparently, it was endlessly malicious toward living beings. Within moments, black blotches sprang up all over Xu Qing’s body.

A major world created by Emperor Ancient Spirit. Xu Qing activated the power of the taboo poison within him.

Sizzling sounds could be heard as maggot-like entities with ghost faces were forced out of the black blotches on his skin. When they landed on the ground, they transformed into black mist that dissipated quickly. Eventually, the blotches were gone, and Xu Qing’s skin was back to normal.

How am I supposed to find her? He could sense the malevolent nature of the major world around him. A thoughtful look appeared in his eyes, and then he looked at his right wrist.

The Ancient Spirit species and destiny auras are related....

Xu Qing exercised a thought, and his sixth heavenly palace shivered as the heavenly dao bluegreen dragon sent some of its aura to his wrist. Nothing happened.

Xu Qing didn’t give up. He continued to send his heavenly dao aura to his wrist, until it got hotter and hotter. Then, the golden thread that was connected to his bones finally appeared through his skin. Xu Qing’s pupils constricted at the realization of how deeply cracked the thread was. He sighed and felt guiltier than ever.

Lifting his hand, he paid close attention, swiveled, and then pointed straight ahead. He could sense his wrist getting hotter when it shifted in that specific direction.

She’s that way! Eyes glittering with determination, he started moving. He knew this major world was filled with dangers, but he couldn’t spend time worrying about that now.

Tapping into his cultivation base, he started moving as fast as he could, all while keeping taboo poison power swirling around him. After enough time had passed for an incense stick to burn, Xu Qing suddenly extended his left hand and pushed it down in front of him. Instantly, the golden crow appeared behind him. It released its piercing cry, and raged with fire as it dove downward.

At the same time, an enormous ghost hand appeared below. Previously, it had been about to grab Xu Qing, but instead, the golden crow slammed into it. The ghost hand was greenish-black and covered with disgusting pustules, each of which contained countless screaming souls that stared at Xu Qing with greedy hunger. Rumbling sounds echoed out as the golden crow slammed into the ghost hand. The ghost hand immediately collapsed, causing the souls to scatter. Only a moment later, though, they reconverged and rushed toward Xu Qing.historical

Before they could get close, the golden crow sent flames sweeping out, and the screams of the souls intensified as they rushed into the flames and disappeared.

Xu Qing was already back to focusing on the tug of the golden thread. He moved onward. However, not much time had passed when a vicious ghost face appeared in front of him, lunging forward with mouth wide open.

Xu Qing’s concern was finding Ling’er, so he dodged past it and sent his shadow back to deal with it. The shadow appeared next to the ghost face, opened its mouth, and devoured it. However, only a moment later, the shadow shivered and started vomiting. Xu Qing frowned. The reason for the shadow’s reaction was that the deceased souls here contained a curse. Right now, there wasn’t time to ponder that, so Xu Qing just kept speeding on his way.

About an hour later, when the heat from the golden thread was getting particularly intense, the situation Xu Qing had been fearing would happen occurred.

He heard a loud crack from his wrist! Face falling, he looked down. The golden thread was crumbling off of his wrist. A sense of deep disappointment filled him. That feeling changed into one of uneasiness, and then piercing pain.

He anxiously reached out to try to keep hold of the crumbling golden fragments, but they were already fading into nothing. There was no way to preserve them.

It suddenly felt like a blurry figure in his memories was getting further away....

In that critical moment, Xu Qing’s eyes glittered with an aggressive light. The bluegreen dragon in his sixth heavenly palace suddenly emerged from his head, exhaling heavenly dao power in the direction of the crumbling golden thread. The bluegreen dragon could sense Xu Qing’s anxiety, and was going all out with its heavenly dao power.

It wasn’t a bad idea. However, not all things can be reversed in such a simple manner. With the addition of the heavenly dao power, the golden threads stopped disappearing so quickly. But it was obvious the process couldn’t be completely halted. The power of the bluegreen dragon wasn’t sufficient to stop the golden thread from disappearing.

Xu Qing felt even more stinging pain as he saw the golden thread vanishing. He closed his eyes for three breaths of time, then opened them. His left eye was now violet, and in his pupil was a powerful violet moon. His right eye had also changed. It was now black, and it contained boundless poison. At the same time, a violet moon manifested behind him, and behind the moon were two indifferent black eyes. The surroundings blurred as godly authority erupted within Xu Qing, spreading out everywhere.

Staring at the dissipating golden thread, he said, “Stop!”

The moment the words left his mouth, everything around him shook.

After Xu Qing’s battle with Chu Tianqun, he’d come to a basic understanding of how to use godly powers. By using his two types of godly authority, he himself was like a new god, and his words were like that of a godly voice. Xu Qing hoped that, if his bluegreen dragon wasn’t strong enough, maybe adding in a godly voice would tip the scales....

The moment his voice echoed out, the crumbling golden thread shivered. And then, underneath the combined power of the bluegreen dragon and the godly voice, it stopped dissipating!

It was about half gone, but there was still some of it left behind.

Xu Qing nervously clenched his hand into a fist. Sensing the heat within it, he suppressed his anxiety and followed the direction indicated.

The main thing he was focused on now was finding Ling’er’s soul. As for how to leave this place, the key lay in the jade slip the innkeeper had given him. If he crushed that jade slip, the innkeeper could borrow power from the Wood Spirits to employ a special magical technique to extract him.

I still have six days left.

As Xu Qing sped along, rumbling sounds echoed out everywhere. To this world of the dead, and the deceased souls therein, he was like a bright, shining torch. As he moved, deceased souls emerged everywhere and lunged at him viciously. Then the ground erupted, and withered hands reached out toward him. Rotting zombies lurched in his direction with madness and avarice.

“Screw the hell off!” Xu Qing would speak in a godly voice, causing rippling distortions to spread out that dissipated the deceased souls.

Because those dead souls contained a curse, all a mutagen invasion could do was destroy them. It couldn’t force them into subservience. What was more, they seemed to form without ceasing.

Xu Qing continued until he found himself in front of a sea of souls.

He glowered as he realized he couldn’t sustain two types of godly authority for very long. Therefore, he temporarily dispelled the violet moon and focused on unleashing the full might of his taboo poison core. This time, the poison he released was even more intense than what he had sent against Chu Tianqun. What was more... this place was a sealed major world, which was a perfectly suitable place for Xu Qing to use his taboo poison in.

A moment later, the release of poison caused a tempest to spring up around Xu Qing. It rumbled out, reaching 30 meters, 300 meters, 1,500 meters and finally 3,000 meters!

Within that area, Xu Qing’s poison power covered everything. Any deceased souls and evil ghosts that appeared screamed shrilly as they rotted into nothing. It was the same with the zombies that burst out of the ground. It didn’t matter that they weren’t alive; Xu Qing’s poison reduced them to ashes anyway.

After all, this was power from a god domain, which made it like the curse of a god!

Killing intent swirled in Xu Qing’s eyes. He didn’t have to slow down a bit; he just kept his poison spread out around him. He sped forward, leaving behind screams of agony and flourishing mutagen that made the poison even stronger.

Eventually, the extent of the poison moved past 3,000 meters to 3,900 meters.

However, there seemed no end to the deceased souls. They just kept popping up nonstop. At the moment, this dead world actually seemed alive!

Although an individual soul didn’t have much killing power, with so many together, they formed a terrifying force.

When Xu Qing saw the obstacle he was facing, he gritted his teeth and once again released the power of the violet moon. Boundless violet mist spread out from him. Then he shoved his hands down, and the mist clung to the ground, spreading out and turning everything violet! The zombies climbing out of the ground shivered as the violet mist washed over them, crumbling them into ashes.

As Xu Qing moved onward, the golden crow appeared again. He stepped onto its back, and it threw its head back and let loose a piercing cry. Its tails of flames spread out and it flew onward.

From a distance, it was a very shocking scene.

As Xu Qing moved, the violet mist on the ground crumbled countless zombies into nothing. However, there were still endless zombies beyond that violet mist. The air was full of evil souls, and though they crumbled into nothing when reaching his poison tempest, there were always more behind them.

There was no end.

In that dark world, the golden crow was the only thing that brought light with its sea of flames. It was like a pillar of light. That pillar of light was surrounded by evil souls and zombies that howled endlessly. Filled with madness and greed, as well as hatred for life, they tried to extinguish the fire by covering it.

Time passed.

That pillar of light rose high above the world.

A day later, blood oozed out of the corners of Xu Qing’s mouth, and his clothing was soaked with gore. He was riddled with wounds, but had finally passed through the sea of souls. Eyes bloodshot, he looked ahead to find a great black river.

It was mighty and bubbling, like the fabled Underworld River.

Floating within it were endless skeletons who wept as they were swept along by the waves.

At the far end of the river, Xu Qing noticed a red palanquin with eight carriers. [1]

Atop each of the carrying poles, front and back, was a jug. Each jug was a different color, and they swayed with the motion of the palanquin’s movement.

Soul shadows escorted the palanquin. Most had serpentine heads and humanoid bodies, and wore red clothing.

The piercing music of a suona horn accompanied the procession as it moved along. [2]

A sinister wind blew over the Underworld River, causing more waves to form. The same wind lifted the screen of the palanquin, revealing a young woman in a bridal gown sitting there, her face pale white.

Xu Qing’s expression turned serious. However, what he was looking at wasn’t the young woman in the palanquin. Instead, he was looking at one of the four jugs, which was the color white. The golden thread on his hand was now unprecedentedly hot!

1. The palanquin, or sedan chair, with eight carriers is usually something a high official would be carried in, or possibly a bride. Here’s a gallery of four images with different variations on what it might look like. Given that there’s an emphasis on it being red, it seems likely it’s supposed to be a wedding procession. As I’m sure most of you know, red is the auspicious color of choice for weddings in China, while white is the color most commonly associated with death and funerals. ☜

2. The ‘suona’ is a Chinese reed instrument commonly used with processions. Here’s the Wikipedia article about it, and here’s a YouTube video with an example of what it sounds like. When it describes this instrument as being “piercing,” it’s no joke. I remember occasionally encountering street musicians in China playing the suona, and it can be quite ear-piercing. I worked on the fourth floor of an office building on a busy street, but when the suona players would pass on the sidewalk outside, I could hear them clearly even with the windows closed. ☜