Beyond the Timescape [Wuxiaworld]

Nethersprite’s voice made her seem elegant, like a rich, upper-class woman sitting properly in a chair. Her every word was spoken properly and with icy arrogance, making her come across as profoundly aristocratic.

Xu Qing didn’t react visibly.

As for Qing Qiu, she clearly wasn’t very happy. This entire situation made her think back to her bitter experience that day, and how she’d come away completely empty-handed. Yet despite that, she was being lumped in with the Captain and Xu Qing.

Only the Captain seemed visibly excited. Thanks to that one-meter light, every time he went out, he felt like people were looking at him strangely. He also got the feeling the swordsages were watching him. It was very humiliating, and also had him feeling very anxious. He was a swordsage now, yet everyone was looking at him like he was some sort of spy.

The swordsage elders are definitely paying close attention to what happens here. It’s a very rare opportunity, and it’s my chance to turn things around after that one-meter light situation. I need those elders to see my good side.

The Captain took a deep breath as he walked along with firm, measured steps.

In the lead was the middle-aged swordsage. He glanced back at the Captain, pursed his lips, and maintained silence.

Seeing that, the Captain felt even more strongly about his assessment.

Thus, the three of them were led down the stairs and to a large, red prison cell. The bars were the color of blood, and stretched between them was a thin, crimson membrane upon which flowed countless magical symbols. It was only possible to imagine the terrifying level of power in those flickering symbols.

Inside the red prison cell, a woman sat cross-legged. She wore a qipao and had a phoenix crown on her head. Her skin was fair, and her facial features were immaculately beautiful. A single look at her would cause just about anyone to palpitate with desire. She held a bowl of lotus seed soup in her hands, from which she occasionally sipped. She was, of course, August Spirit Nethersprite.

Because of being suppressed by the cage, she wasn’t enormous like before. Instead, she was the size of an average person. Her flawless good looks made it hard to imagine her on the Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountain, casually devouring mortals for pleasure, with seas of blood filling her mouth.

When Xu Qing, the Captain, and Qing Qiu arrived, she looked over at them. She didn’t react in any way, and just kept casually drinking her lotus seed soup.

“I brought some people to see you, Nethersprite.” the middle-aged swordsage said.

August Spirit Nethersprite laughed softly as she looked at Xu Qing and the others. “Oh, so you brought these three bugs here to try to rile me up. It won’t work. Sooner or later I’ll get out of here and kill all three of them. In fact, I should thank you. Now I know what they look like.”

August Spirit Nethersprite smiled as she looked over them carefully, as if committing their features to memory.

The middle-aged man said nothing. He just backed up and looked at Xu Qing, the Captain, and Qing Qiu. His job was simply to bring them here and then wait to see if they could successfully provoke August Spirit Nethersprite.

Xu Qing’s expression was the same as ever. He had no interest in provoking Nethersprite, and truth be told, he had no idea how to do it. Qing Qiu seemed to be in the same position. As far as she was concerned, this matter didn’t have anything to do with her, so she felt no need to expend any effort on it.

In contrast, the Captain approached the cage and looked at Nethersprite as she sipped her soup. Smiling, he said, “Hey, Granny Nethersprite. Is the soup good?”

“Screw off,” she replied coolly.

Eyebrows shooting up, he sat down in front of the cage and studied August Spirit Nethersprite’s clothing. He frowned. “Granny, how come I didn’t see this outfit when I was in your mansion grotto? How long have you been wearing it?”

August Spirit Nethersprite finished her soup and then closed her eyes to meditate.

Seeing that, the middle-aged swordsage shook his head. He was already convinced that nothing was going to happen.

The Captain cleared his throat and smacked his bag of holding. Instantly, a tattered garment appeared which he waved in front of him.

“Take a look at this, Granny!”

Nethersprite’s eyes remained closed.

The Captain didn’t seem daunted by her icy silence, and continued to produce tattered garments from his bag of holding, until they were piled up off to the side like a little mountain.

“I have lots of them here. I even have this big bodice....”

The middle-aged swordsage looked on, somewhat shocked as he looked at the pile of clothes, and then the Captain. Qing Qiu, meanwhile, felt disgusted, and Xu Qing had an odd expression on his face. Xu Qing could guess why the Captain seemed to be working so hard.

When Nethersprite heard the Captain mention ‘bodice’ her eyes opened and she glanced at the pile of familiar clothing. Noting the bad condition of the garments, she looked at the Captain.

Chuckling darkly, the Captain said, “My plan is to rip these garments into strips, one at a time. I’m not exactly sure what I’ll do with them after that. But at the moment, Granny, I have a big problem. You see, my bag of holding is too small to hold so many garments, and I need a place to store them. Besides, they actually smell bad. Say, Big Sis, are you really Nethersprite? Or should we call you Netherskunk?

“I mean, that smell is horrendous! That’s why I asked how long you’ve been wearing that outfit. I figured you might want to change.”

August Spirit Nethersprite inhaled deeply. The bug’s words were causing her heart to pound, especially considering that she was actually a very clean person. Normally speaking, she would use a special magical technique every day to keep clean. Given the level of her cultivation base, it was impossible for her to actually get dirty, but that was the routine she was used to. After being locked up and having her cultivation base suppressed, she hadn’t been able to clean herself like usual. Though her cultivation level ensured that she wasn’t dirty, she still felt out of sorts.

However, nothing the Captain had said so far was enough to truly stir her emotions. As she steadied her breathing, she regained her sense of calm, all the while maintaining the same cold facial expression.

The Captain blinked a few times. He could tell the middle-aged swordsage was watching him closely, and that got him even more excited. Oh, little Nethersprite, you just wait and see how I provoke you!

Chuckling, he said, “Granny, I know of a sound that you’ll really like. Take a listen!”

With that he took out the demon snake’s tooth and looked at Xu Qing.

Xu Qing knew exactly what the Captain was up to. Quietly walking forward, he started laying out the various garments neatly on the ground.

“Let’s start with that big bodice!” the Captain said, looking down his nose.

Xu Qing flicked his sleeve, sending the bodice flying over.

The Captain then slowly ran the tooth down the bodice, causing a loud ripping sound to echo out. The bodice was already in bad shape, but after being sliced by the tooth, it looked even worse. The Captain then moved on to the next garment.

“This is exactly how I tore up all the clothes back in your mansion grotto. Isn’t the sound just lovely?”

Nethersprite forced herself to remain calm, but the sound was so upsetting that she struggled to breathe steadily. She could only glare at the Captain as he destroyed her beloved clothing. It was almost like he was slashing her very heart with that snake tooth.

As the middle-aged swordsage watched all of this, his eyes began to shine with surprise.

The Captain was feeling very pleased with himself, but at the same time, could tell he needed to work harder. After ripping up a few more garments, he took out a jade slip used to store images.

Walking up to Nethersprite, he turned the slip on, causing an image to appear. It showed a massive body, with three people madly absorbing energy from its face. Xu Qing and the Captain were focused on the nose while Qing Qiu was focused on the forehead.

“Look at that snow-white nose. It’s so prominent! Whoa! Why is it turning black? Whoops! Look, it’s vanishing!”

“You!” snapped Nethersprite. Panting, she stared at the image, and as she saw her nose turning black, her eyes became bloodshot, and she started trembling.

The Captain was provoking her on multiple fronts. First he talked about her smelling bad, then he loudly sliced up her clothing, and then showed her that image.

It was a provocation of both smell, sound, and sight. As she watched her nose disappearing, it all became a wave of fury and frustration that battered her from the inside. That said, she was still in full possession of all her faculties, and was able to stay in control. Taking in deep breaths, she suppressed the rage in her heart.

Seeing all this, Xu Qing had to admire the Captain’s ability to provoke hostility.

Qing Qiu was fully on guard as she came to realize that Mad Dog was obviously a much bigger threat than Ghost Hand.

As for the middle-aged swordsage, as he watched the giggling Chen Erniu, he had to admit that he was a genius. That was especially true of the last thing he said, which was just profoundly low-down.

No wonder the Grand Emperor’s divine likeness only gave him one meter of light. How sleazy!

August Spirit Nethersprite gritted her teeth and glared at the Captain. Then she spoke, and this time she didn’t sound elegant at all. Voice hoarse, she said, “You want to piss me off? Impossible! A bug like you couldn’t dream of making me mad.”

The Captain looked back at her, flabbergasted. “That’s not what I’m doing! I just want to give you a little gift!”

With that, the Captain slowly pulled out a very thick hair from his bag of holding, which he placed in front of the cage.

Both Xu Qing and Qing Qiu were shocked to see that hair, as was the middle-aged swordsage. Nethersprite was similarly astonished, and without even thinking about it, looked closely at it.

When the Captain saw everyone so focused on the hair, he flashed an exultant smile and then cleared his throat.

“Come on. Don’t tell me you don’t recognize your own nose hair? It’s so big. And thick too. So very, very long. Back when we broke into your house and ripped up all your clothes and took your treasures and absorbed your nose and ruined your dao blood and threw you into a mindless rage... well, that was wrong of us. Given that you don’t have that nose anymore, this nose hair can serve as a keepsake. In the future, whenever you think about your nose, you can take it out and have a look.

“There’s no need to thank me! There’s honor even among thieves!”

The Captain finished his speech sounding like he was the absolute paragon of holy generosity.

The prison was silent but for the echo of the Captain’s words.

Xu Qing’s eyes were wide. Qing Qiu’s jaw had dropped. The swordsage looked absolutely stunned.

And Nethersprite... shot to her feet and howled, “I’ll kill you!! Swordsages, if you kill him, I’ll agree to be soulsearched. Soulsearch me any time! Search whatever you want. Just kill him and let me eat him!!”

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