Beyond the Timescape [Wuxiaworld]

Time passed.

Back in Seven Blood Eyes, in Harbor 176, Xu Qing sat cross-legged on the deck of his dharmaskiff. As the boat swayed up and down in the water, he looked at the brilliant red sunrise. It looked like fire filling the dome of heaven.

About half a month had passed since the Seastars were exterminated. That affair had caused a huge commotion. After Seven Blood Eyes publicly announced what the Seastars had done, backed by Bai Li from Torchlight, countless groups and peoples finally got an answer as to why their chosen disciples had gone missing. And of course, everyone was furious at the Seastars, Torchlight, and the other three species that had been involved.

The Seastars had been exterminated, but the other species still existed. Seven Blood Eyes didn’t need to lift a finger regarding them. Other groups that had lost their chosen took the initiative. When countless threadworms were found infecting those other three species, it was all the proof that was needed.

Before long, those other three species had been exterminated.

Master Sixth’s actions made Seven Blood Eyes even more the center of attention than before. The fact that he had transformed the Sixth Peak into a fortress struck fear into the hearts of many.

However, after much analysis, many people came to the conclusion that though the mountain was mighty, it lacked a truly formidable power source. Although the fortress was capable of greater teleportations, it was relatively weak when it came to crushing power. Some people even speculated that, without using the War Banner of Humankind, Master Sixth wouldn’t have been able to crush Bai Li.

Regardless, the extermination of the Seastars, and the assimilation of Bai Li from Torchlight, were now matters of public record. As a result, Seven Blood Eyes seemed even more powerful than before.

After everything was over, Master Sixth had escorted everyone back to Seven Blood Eyes. Along the way, he didn’t speak. Nor did Xu Qing. Neither of them had experienced the satisfaction they had imagined they would after exacting their revenge. Instead, they felt calm and even slightly melancholy. However, life went on. There was still a path to follow.

As Xu Qing sat on the deck of his dharmaskiff, he raised an alcohol gourd in the direction of the Violet Lands, then took a drink and closed his eyes. “Have a safe journey, Teacher.”

Rumbling sounds echoed within him; his 65 dharma apertures were like furnaces, burning brightly... as the massive numbers of discarnate souls within them were slowly being assimilated.

They were the discarnate souls of the Seastars. However, they were weak and almost valueless. Thankfully, he had acquired enough of them that they were going to be somewhat helpful in opening dharma apertures.

There was also one special soul in the group, imprisoned in one of his dharma apertures. There it burned, day and night, without ceasing. It was the soul of the Gruegloom cultivator. After capturing the Gruegloom with his shadow, Xu Qing had tormented it for some days. Eventually, the Gruegloom’s body collapsed, whereupon Xu Qing extracted his soul.

Unfortunately, Golden Crow Assimilates Myriad Spirits had not yet been able to take the Gruegloom’s innate ability. It wasn’t because of a weakness on the part of the imperial-class technique. Rather, it wasn’t possible to get the ability from only one member of that species. Many members were required.

That didn’t bother Xu Qing. All he cared about was inflicting suffering on the Gruegloom. Gruegloom souls were unique in that they would naturally recover soul power, even when being suppressed and assimilated.

Master Sixth assimilated the Seastars into the Sixth Peak, where he refined them into a candle which he now burns at his son’s memorial tomb. I can’t do that, but I can suppress the Gruegloom’s soul for as long as I’m alive. I’ll make him wish he could die. And I’ll continue to use the soul power he provides. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll be able to steal his innate ability.

Whether because of the usefulness of the soul power, or his hatred of the Gruegloom, Xu Qing wasn’t going to simply devour him.

Right now, Xu Qing was using the power from all the other discarnate souls to batter at his 66th dharma aperture. Before long, it opened, and more dharma force spread out to fill him. However, he wasn’t finished. Shortly thereafter, his 67th dharma aperture opened. Then he sent the remaining soul power toward his 68th aperture, which he just barely managed to open.

Xu Qing shivered. His aura and dharma force were obviously on a higher level now. As he had come to find out, after igniting his second life flame, opening dharma apertures became increasingly difficult. Furthermore, the Seastar souls were not whole, and as a result, he only managed to open three apertures.

Opening his eyes, he took out a jade box and opened it. Inside was a black medicinal pill. On the surface of the pill was the image of a vicious soul shadow, constantly howling noiselessly. It almost seemed like there was a soul trapped inside the pill.

This was an extremely precious, high-level soul pill!

To cultivators who used the Balefire Soulswallowing Scripture, souls were kindling used to open dharma apertures. Only by slaughtering enemies and extracting their souls was it possible to advance their cultivation base. But sometimes, slaughtering enemies was a slow process. Because of that, soul pills like this were often used to get the large amounts of soul power needed.

For example, the pills Wu Jianwu had given Xu Qing were soul pills, just not a very high quality version. [1]

This particular pill had been concocted by Master Sixth using part of Bai Li’s soul. He had then given it to Xu Qing as a gift, explaining that it was a discarnate soul pill. It was only made using part of the soul.

Master Sixth had directly explained that he himself needed a lot of souls for his forging work. This one pill was all that he could give. That said, he also stated that he owed Xu Qing a big favor.

Xu Qing felt it was perfectly reasonable. The only reason he had gotten his revenge so smoothly was because of Master Sixth. Therefore, even if Master Sixth hadn’t given him the soul pill, he still would have been content.

Besides, Master Sixth had also given him that pendant of protection. Though he had used most of it during the clash with Bai Li, there was still some usefulness left to it. In terms of value, it was worth more than the discarnate soul pill.

Clearing his thoughts, Xu Qing picked up the soul pill and unhesitatingly put it in his mouth. As he chewed it up, it was possible to hear agonizing screaming from the pill. Eventually, he swallowed it, incinerated it with balefire, and then sent the power toward his 69th dharma aperture.

A moment later, he shivered as his 69th aperture opened. Then he moved on to his 70th. Then his 71st....

The majestic power of the soul pill allowed him to open even more dharma apertures. After the 72nd, he proceeded to his 73rd, 74th, and 75th.

But that wasn’t it! He also opened his 76th, 77th, and 78th!

The discarnate soul pill made from Bai Li’s soul was astonishingly powerful.

Finally, popping sounds rang out inside Xu Qing, and he opened his eyes, revealing a violet glitter of light. He had opened his 79th dharma aperture!

A terrifying energy swept through him, and stupefying dharma force abounded. Waves rolled out on the surrounding seawater as Xu Qing’s cultivation base rose to a much higher level.

I actually opened 11 dharma apertures.... I think this soul pill contained more than just Bai Li’s discarnate soul! Xu Qing was more than a little surprised. When Master Sixth said it was a discarnate soul pill, he must have meant... that he included the discarnate souls of the cultivators from the other three species, including their patriarchs.

Though those species’ cultivators weren’t very high level, there were many of them, so even a fraction of the aspects of their souls would provide terrifying results.

Only 11 more dharma apertures and I’ll be able to ignite my third life flame!

With that, he looked into his bag of holding at the two wish boxes he had. After learning how to open them, he had begun the process, but it took time. Now, it was close to the point where he could open them.

Next, he looked over his shoulder at the continent of South Phoenix as a whole. Now that things had calmed down, he found himself thinking about Sergeant Thunder….

Beyond that, there had been some major developments in the Seazombie war during the half month that passed. For one thing, Third Highness had accomplished something very monumental.

Xu Qing hadn’t heard much about Third Highness since the war started, and only now did he realize there was a reason for that. Third Highness had been assigned the task of inciting rebellion behind enemy lines.

Xu Qing wasn’t sure how Third Highness did it, but he had successfully convinced three of the Seazombies’ most important allies to turn against them on their home turf. Previously, the Seazombies and Seven Blood Eyes had been at something of a deadlock, but now things had changed.

The event had multiple ramifications. For one thing, it won acclaim for Seven Blood Eyes, and made them even more glorious than before. It also attracted the attention of the Seven Sect Coalition on the Revered Ancient mainland, which seemed completely caught by surprise by the turn of events.

Clearly, the Seven Sect Coalition had been happy to see Seven Blood Eyes and the Seazombies in a deadlock. Because of that, they had been content to simply stand by and watch things play out. But now Seven Blood Eyes had taken the fight so far that they were about to invade the Seazombie’s ancestral land. The Seven Sect Coalition seemed worried.

That was because... the Seazombies’ ancestral land was very close to Revered Ancient.

To be precise, the Seazombie’s ancestral land, their fortified islands, and the Merfolk Isles created a straight line between Seven Blood Eyes and Revered Ancient.

Before Third Highness’ plan came to fruition, the Seven Sect Coalition had been hoping to see Seven Blood Eyes slowly draining resources as the war dragged on. But then Third Highness’ plan completely changed their attitude. All of a sudden, the Seven Sect Coalition began interfering with matters related to the war. Before long, rumors started spreading in Seven Blood Eyes. Some people thought that the war would end soon, thanks to the interference from the Seven Sect Coalition.

Xu Qing wasn’t paying much attention to all that.

He was getting ready to take a trip back to the scavenger basecamp. He wanted to go back into that forbidden region, clean Sergeant Thunder’s grave, and try to get news about Crucifix and Graceful Raptor. Two years had passed, and he was curious how the two of them were doing. [2]

After looking off into the distance for a time, he stood, put away his dharmaskiff, and headed toward the teleportation portal complex. Along the way, he spotted the Captain haggling with a vendor over how many spirit coins to pay for a bag of fruit.

When the Captain spotted Xu Qing, he tossed over an apple, then picked one for himself and took a bite. Smiling, he looked Xu Qing up and down and said, “Going out? Say, why not take me along?”

Xu Qing looked at the apple, then the Captain. He refused to believe that this was some sort of chance encounter.

The Captain cleared his throat, ate some more of his apple, and then sighed and shrugged his shoulders. “Fine, you got me. The old man gave me another mission. I’m supposed to keep an eye on you while he’s gone. Keep you safe. I think the old man is anxious to take on a new apprentice, and doesn’t feel like messing with all those silly tests and assessments. When he sees someone he wants, he seals the deal. Anyway, now he’s anxious to get the war over with and come back.”

The Captain seemed to have no qualms about selling out Master Seventh.

A strange look appeared in Xu Qing’s eye as he considered the situation. After some thought, he decided there was no reason to say no. After all, the Seazombies still had a bounty on his head, and as Chen Feiyuan had pointed out in the Violet Lands, there were plenty of people who wanted that bounty. Having the Captain by his side when he went out would make things a bit safer. At the same time, there was also the possibility for craziness.

“I’m heading home for a bit,” he said.

“Heading home? Then I’ll be a guest! Hahaha! Alright, let’s get going. It’s so boring in the sect nowadays, we really need to get out and get some fresh air.” The Captain seemed more anxious to get out of the sect than Xu Qing, and led the way as quickly as possible toward the teleportation portal complex.

“You did something, didn’t you?” Xu Qing said. “You want to go out and lay low for a while?”

“How could that be possible?” the Captain replied, shaking his head. After arriving at the teleportation portal complex, he asked Xu Qing exactly where they were going, personally made the adjustments to the formation, and then dragged Xu Qing onto it. A moment later, they vanished.

Not long after they were gone, a howl of rage erupted from the Sixth Peak.

“Chen Erniu, you little bastard! Is there anything you won’t chew on?”

A stream of divine will swept out of the Sixth Peak and filled the capital city, looking for any traces of the Captain. All to no avail....

In a temple on the forested back side of the Sixth Peak, Master Sixth stood looking grimly at a cleverly concealed passageway. Only members of the echelon could do something like this, and only the top three members at that. Only they could bypass the Sixth Peak’s spell formation in this way. The tunnel led deep into the interior of the Sixth Peak, which was the core of the battle fortress. The Sixth Peak’s true power source was a secret, and was kept hidden by a concealing fog that would make it very difficult for anyone to perceive its true nature. But Master Sixth could see everything clearly. And on the foot of that power source was a missing chunk with teeth marks on the edges.

Was Chen Erniu a dog in his last life? He’ll bite anything!

Master Sixth sighed. Struggling to control his anger, he looked up at the power source concealed by the fog.

The little brat must have seen the whole thing. And I bet he guessed at the truth.... That said, he knows when to keep his mouth shut. Besides, he surely noticed that, back when I was crushing Bai Li, I was careful not to tap into the core power source.... If he can’t keep his mouth shut, though, the patriarch is going to skin him alive.

1. The soul pills from Wu Jianwu were mentioned in chapters 144 and 148. ☜

2. Attending to the graves of dead loved ones is an important part of Chinese culture. I’m sure some of you are aware that one of the major Chinese holidays is Qingming Festival a.k.a. Tomb-Sweeping Day. ☜

Deathblade's Thoughts

Thanks to KnightElm for the review. And special thanks to ParagonStar for the review, and also all the years of support throughout various translations and original works of mine!

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