Beyond the Timescape [Wuxiaworld]

The golden crow raged with a sea of flames, causing the countless faces on the ghost umbrella to scream in high-pitched tones. They tried to fight, but it was useless. In the blink of an eye, the golden crow was in their midst. The shrieking became more shrill, and then the entire umbrella burst into flames. The grue faces inside fought among each other to flee, but were unable. In the blink of an eye, they were incinerated by the golden crow.

At the same time, it looked like Sima Ru’s mist form was about to be dispelled by the explosive fire. But Sima Ru was no ordinary person. Despite being shocked at what was happening, she swept toward Xu Qing from all directions, piercing through the fire and transforming into a host of grue faces that snapped at him with bared teeth. Sinister wind blew, hoping to extinguish his life flames.

Eyebrows rising, Xu Qing let all his dharma apertures burn bright. There didn’t seem any point in deception right now. It would be hard to defeat Sima Ru using the battle prowess of four flames. Therefore, 90 dharma apertures raged to life. Of course, Xu Qing’s dharma apertures weren’t like those of ordinary people. Each one contained a 1,500-meter spirit sea. Shocking spirit seas like that would create a terrifying dharma force. And with that dharma force under his control, his life flames would be incomparably astonishing.

As for the sinister wind... it could eradicate countless life flames that existed, but not Xu Qing’s. As his life flames burned in shocking fashion, the incoming grue faces were rendered powerless. That wasn’t to mention Xu Qing’s fleshly body power, which, thanks to his cultivation of Golden Crow Assimilates Myriad Spirits, had caught up to his cultivation progress.

His energy and blood surged, sending blood-colored light into the sea of flames, which spread out. Agonized shrieks erupted as the grue faces were wiped out of existence.

Every single one vanished, turning into a mist that spun backward, where it converged into a ball. Then, a terrifying aura spread out from it, along with a howl. Shockingly, the mist then transformed into a three-headed beast. It looked like a tiger, with two heads in the front and one where the tail would normally be. Wild, freezing winds swept around the ghost tiger as it lunged toward Xu Qing.

It moved so quickly that, in the shortest of moments, it was closing in on its target. What was more, hosts of souls spilled out of it, which transformed into tiger-assisting ghosts that joined the swirling whirlwind. [1]

Xu Qing’s eyes shone coldly as he took a step forward. Right in front of the ghost tiger, he waved his right hand, causing balefire to erupt out and cover his fist.

As rumbling sounds echoed out, the ghost tiger suddenly dodged to the side, then lunged forward with its mouth open dramatically wide, as if it could devour anything and everything.

Xu Qing placidly performed an incantation gesture with his right hand, then extended his finger. Fire roiled out of him to form a bluegreen dragon that was far larger than the ghost tiger. The dragon opened its mouth, then viciously chomped down on the tiger. A boom rang out as the tiger exploded with a scream.

But Sima Ru was no ordinary opponent. After being destroyed by the bluegreen dragon, the tiger collapsed into a mist, which then transformed into a third type of grue. It looked like a pitch-black rakshasa with wings. After forming, it howled at Xu Qing and rushed toward him.

However, a moment later a black lightning bolt suddenly shot out from the cloud overhead. As it sped toward the rakshasa, a shadow spread out over the ground.

Sima Ru in rakshasa form looked surprised. She managed to dodge the iron skewer, and even avoid the shadow. But she couldn’t get away from Xu Qing. Moving forward with unstoppable momentum, he grabbed her rakshasa form by the neck and slammed it viciously into the wall.

A boom rang out as the wall collapsed. As the rakshasa reeled, massive amounts of balefire poured out of Xu Qing’s hands. He was already starting to assimilate her! In fact, as he did, his 91st dharma aperture started wriggling as though it might open soon.

As Sima Ru in rakshasa form struggled, Xu Qing slammed her into the ground. The rakshasa collapsed.

As the mist spread out again, the golden crow let loose a cry and shot toward it, hoping to devour it.

But that was when the mist converged, transforming into a fourth state! It was a bloated giant fully 300 meters tall. It looked massive, and incredibly heavy, as it tried to crush the golden crow by sitting on it.

It didn’t qualify to succeed at such an effort. The golden crow’s eyes shone as it started devouring it. At the same time, Xu Qing strode forward, his eyes shining as he looked at Sima Ru’s fourth state.

Even just absorbing a fraction of the rakshasa had almost opened one of his dharma apertures, and therefore, Sima Ru was a precious treasure as far as he was concerned. Upon nearing the struggling giant, he erupted with balefire and immediately began assimilating it.

Fear appeared in the eyes of Sima Ru’s struggling giant form.

As the golden crow absorbed it, the shadow shot forth, and the iron skewer closed in excitedly.

A bewildered look appeared in Sima Ru’s eyes, and then, without the slightest hesitation, she self-detonated. A massive boom rattled out. A self-detonation backed by the power of four and a half flames was immense as it swept everywhere.

As the giant exploded, a black arm bone appeared and shot toward the exit of the Violent Crimes Division!

That bone was the nucleus of the clone Sima Ru had created. Now that she knew how terrifying Xu Qing truly was, she had no interest in continuing the fight. She only wanted to escape.

She had chosen the right moment to do it. The shocking power of the explosion would make it difficult for anyone to pursue her. Sadly for her, she completely underestimated Xu Qing’s abilities.

Xu Qing’s shadow shot under the explosion and closed in on her with blinding speed.

In that last critical moment, Sima Ru’s black bone shone with dark light. Realizing that she couldn’t escape, she spun in place and sent her bone form shooting viciously toward Xu Qing’s head. As she moved, the bizarre nursery rhyme echoed out around her.

“One, one, break your thumb and two, two, blind you with a screw.

“Three, three, crack your skull with glee and four, four, pour your blood on the floor.

“Five, five, keep you alive to six, six, trample you with kicks.”

The incoming attack surpassed the level of four flames, and as it neared, Xu Qing’s eyes narrowed. Suppressing any thoughts of revealing how many flames he actually had, he took out a jade pendant. That jade pendant was the Nascent Soul defense shield Master Sixth had given him. He had almost completely drained it during the battle with the Seastars, making it much less effective than then. There was no way it could stand up to a Nascent Soul attack. But it was still mighty, and there was a bit of power left in it.

Sima Ru’s grue attack slammed into the shield, and it was like an egg being thrown against a boulder. The arm bone cracked, and a scream rang out from inside. Then Xu Qing reached out, grabbed the arm, and sent balefire raging out to assimilate it.

Massive soul power surged out of the bone and into Xu Qing. Without hesitation, he sent it rushing toward his 91st dharma aperture, which instantly opened.

While Xu Qing was absorbing the bone, the golden crow was also devouring it. The shadow helped itself, and the black iron skewer also stabbed into it. Wild, piercing screams rang out. Then the bone shattered and turned into ash. Before it did, Xu Qing managed to open his 92nd dharma aperture!

Then he looked back at the spot where the bone had turned into ash. The ash wasn’t moving, but there was a scrap of divine will left in it. The divine will formed into a very faint, semitransparent version of Sima Ru in her white gown. It looked like she would flicker out of existence at any moment.

As she looked at Xu Qing, she was visibly surprised.

“Your Golden Crow Assimilates Myriad Spirits is superb. You’re not at all like the description the sect provided me! You tricked all of the cultivators who came here. And you don’t have two life flames. You have three! Beyond that, your dharma apertures are astonishing. They’re all 1,500 meters! That puts your battle prowess, not at the four-flame level, but closer to five flames!

“If you ever ignite four life flames, you’ll be like a second Master Shengyun, except that you don’t have a life lamp! You’re far too deceptive! You’re... the number one chosen of this generation in Seven Blood Eyes!”

Sima Ru had come here thinking she could crush Xu Qing, then take her little brother away. How could she have imagined how profoundly deceptive Xu Qing actually was? Obviously, if he had used his true five-flame power, he could have crushed Sima Ling in an instant. Instead, he drew out the fight to give people the wrong impression.

Don’t tell me he was actually after me? Did he do all this on purpose to lure me here? That caused Sima Ru to think back to how he had instantly started absorbing her as soon as he laid hands on her. It was the most humiliating thing she had ever experienced, and it caused killing intent to burn in her eyes.

“Now I know how deceptive you really are. My true form will be out of seclusion soon. Then I’ll come and crush—”

Xu Qing shoved his hand out, and Sima Ru’s divine will collapsed into nothing before she could finish speaking.

Looking at the spot where she had disappeared, he thought, You’re wrong. I’m not the number one chosen in Seven Blood Eyes.

He couldn’t help but think back to the miserable state Huang Yikun was in after going to the Seventh Peak. Forget people from outside the sect. Even Xu Qing himself thought that people from the Seventh Peak were just too skilled at being deceptive. Take the Captain for instance. Though Xu Qing had his violet crystal that gave him powers of regeneration, the Captain obviously had some terrifying entity sealed within him.

***

Little did Xu Qing know that Master Seventh was atop the Seventh Peak, looking down at the Violent Crimes Division in Harbor 176, feeling very exhilarated. The Captain squatted behind him eating apples whole, one at a time. Off to the side, Third Highness held a fruit basket, and was giving one apple after another to the Captain.

“Hey, Third Sib,” the Captain said, “how did you manage to seduce that girl from Supreme Arbiter? Give your Elder Brother some tips!”

Third Highness grinned. “I didn’t do anything special. I’m just dashing, that’s all.”

“Like hell! Even if you were more dashing than you already are, you couldn’t measure up to little Ah Qing. Hey, I just remembered something.” Grinning enigmatically, the Captain continued, “A while back, the old man went to Revered Ancient. After he’d barely been back a year, you stepped off of a ship onto a harbor here. And you had a white identity medallion. You were only about thirteen, but you were already at the one-flame level. And all you wanted was revenge. Does that mean you originally come from Revered Ancient? Did you cause some trouble in the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society back there...?”

Third Highness’ expression didn’t change. Smiling, he said, “Seems it’s impossible to pull the wool over your eyes, Eldest Brother. That said, I’m curious. Eldest Brother... how many times have you restarted your cultivation?”

The Captain blinked a few times, then smiled. “Take a guess.”

Third Highness smiled. Not saying anything further, he offered another apple to the Captain.

The Captain took it and looked in the direction of Harbor 176. He sighed. “Little Ah Qing really is good at being deceptive. He actually has three flames!! I think there’s more he’s being deceptive about, though. I don’t even know if I could kill him if we ended up fighting each other. But if the thing inside me actually wakes up one day, then, oh Master, you can’t save Xu Qing but ignore me! You need to treat everyone fairly! After all, I am your most favorite and beloved apprentice!”

As for Second Highness, she wasn’t paying attention to what was happening below, nor was she listening to her Elder Brother, Junior Brother, or Master. She was focused on sending messages through her identity medallion. She looked unusually bashful.

Master Seventh glanced at her. This girl! Fortune really does favor the fool!

Then he looked at Big Sib and Third Sib. Though he tended to scold them relentlessly, he was actually very proud of his apprentices. After all, he had selected them after searching far and wide for the very best candidates. Only after carefully observing them, and weeding out any who weren’t the best of the best, did he end up with the ultimate wolves among even the most ultimate wolves.

Each and every one of his apprentices could surpass the highnesses from the other mountains by a wide margin. His apprentices could crush the others if they wanted, at any time. That was how he searched for apprentices. He didn’t just want any old chosen cultivator.

What made him even more proud was that his apprentices were all worthy of carrying on his traditions. Like him, they all excelled at deception. They would never reveal their secret weapons and big secrets. And when other people thought they had them figured out, the reality was that they were just falling for the deception.

This Fourth Sib is a natural-born deceiver. I didn’t have to teach him a thing. He’s amazing. In a chaotic world with danger everywhere, and the future uncertain, it’s only natural to be deceptive!

Also... while chosen disciples weren’t common in the past, now they’re being born all the time. And not just among us humans. Among the countless nonhuman species as well. It just goes to show that a great era is upon us. A great era. Great destined opportunities. And of course. Great danger!

1. A tiger-assisting ghost is a specific kind of ghost from Chinese mythology. It is “the ghost of a person who fell victim to a tiger, yet helps the tiger to devour others.” ☜

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