Beyond the Timescape [Wuxiaworld]

The 50-kilometer taboo poison sandstorm covered all of Holy City. From a distance, the city which had long borne witness to the history of the Twofold Alliance now looked as blurry as if the end of days had come. The invasion of mutagen caused countless residences to dry up and crumble. Innumerable living beings withered up, or even worse, mutated. Many members of those two species reached and passed critical points in terms of mutagen levels. As a result, either their blood collapsed, or they mutated into howling beasts. People dropped dead everywhere.

In comparison, the taboo poison was even more dramatic. Whether it was mutant beasts or members of the Twofold Alliance, and whether they were dead or alive, they showed how powerful the poison was. It was the same with the buildings. The Mirrorlings’ mirrors turned black, and lost their reflective qualities. The Skyfaces’ hulking frames melted into bloody sludges, and their life force faded. Howls of grief and bitter shrieks merged together to make something that sounded like a funeral dirge. The sound drifted past Xu Qing as he slipped like a spectral assassin through the city.

Whenever he attacked, it added a new musical note to the dirge. Every instance of slaughter added a new rhythm to the lyrics. His dagger was not stained with blood. And that was because every slash of his dagger sent blood spraying onto his arms and clothes. By now, his robe was drenched with so much blood it stuck to his skin.

Xu Qing had long since grown used to that feeling. He crouched in the haze as he took one life after another. He ignored those wailing in agony. He wasn’t the type to give in charity, and thus, he wouldn’t give them the mercy of ending their pain.

He couldn’t stop thinking about that city that had been like a host of fireflies in the darkness and gloom. The images flitted through his mind, going faster and faster. And when he thought of the gore at the bottom of those cages, it made him grip his dagger even more tightly. The scenes reached images of Panyan, and Xu Qing sped past a Skyface. Blood sprayed all over his arm.

“Still not enough,” he murmured, suddenly backing up. A moment later, six figures landed on the spot he had occupied moments before.

All were four- or five-tribulation Nascent Soul experts. Every one had vicious expressions of hatred that mixed brutality and rage. They were supposed to be tracking down Xu Qing to kill him. But the taboo poison in the city was so strong they hadn’t been able to pick up on his trail. It was only by the occasional fluctuations that they were able to gradually find him.

All the while, they were struggling to resist the invasion of the taboo poison. Thankfully, the situation hadn’t lasted very long so far, otherwise, they wouldn’t be able to stave off the decay.

Xu Qing hadn’t bothered to fight them. He had a very clear goal, and that was the open square between the two royal palaces. That was where Duanmu Zang was.

Xu Qing’s Nightshade disguise, plus the words he had spoken at the outset, were all attempts to hide his true species and goal. That was his only chance at catching the enemy completely unprepared. He needed to save Duanmu Zang and make his escape, not create a situation in which Duanmu Zang was used as a hostage.

After all, it would be completely ridiculous to try to use a human to threaten a Nightshade.

Of course, time was still the most crucial element. If the Twofold Alliance were given the chance to study him and realize his true identity, then things could go bad. It wasn’t a completely perfect plan. But it was perfect enough.

Xu Qing sped through the haze, getting closer and closer to the public square. By means of the poison haze, he could sense Duanmu Zang there, gasping for breath.

A haze as dense as this wasn’t something Xu Qing could control easily. As a result, Duanmu Zang also had to deal with the invasion of the poison. Thankfully, he had some big advantages. He had been poisoned by Xu Qing in the past, and Xu Qing had later extruded that poison. Because of that, Duanmu Zang had a level of resistance that the cultivators of the two species couldn’t possibly have.

Though that resistance couldn’t stave off all the effects of the poison, it would at least help him to last a bit longer. It wasn’t really possible to come up with a foolproof plan in the middle of chaotic circumstances.

Though Xu Qing was in disguise, the fact was that he had shown up right in the middle of Duanmu Zang being assimilated. The cultivators of the Twofold Alliance would likely have considered that the two events were related, and could very well be hiding around Duanmu Zang, guarding a tree stump waiting for rabbits. That said, given that they had no idea what was really going on, and also had to deal with the taboo poison invasion, at least they wouldn’t be able to have a huge group of cultivators waiting in ambush.

Xu Qing’s eyes flickered with cold light as he noted a few figures moving through the haze ahead of him.

Eyes narrowing to cover any glitter in his eyes, he sped forward. Moving in a blur, he soon appeared behind a Mirrorling cultivator moving through the haze. Without a sound, Xu Qing lifted his hand to cover the Mirrorling’s forehead.

The Mirrorling sensed him, but before it could fight back, Xu Qing shoved hard. A crack rang out, and the mirror shattered. The Mirrorling was about to scream, but Xu Qing clamped his hand down over its mouth. The scream turned into a mild whimper.

Xu Qing sent taboo poison roiling out of him and into the Mirrorling. Only after the thing went still in death did he relax his grip, drop the corpse, and then spring back into motion.

There was one less figure in the haze. Over the course of the following ten breaths of time, yet another figure dropped. By now, the surviving cultivators realized what was going on. The next time he attacked, a dozen enemy cultivators sprang out of hiding.

Xu Qing’s expression didn’t change. Inside, he was calculating how much time had passed. This time, he didn’t avoid the fight. He shifted from his Gruegloom state, and instead tapped into the golden threads within him. He suddenly grew larger. The Nightshade disguise vanished, and he revealed human features. But now, instead of being his normal height, he was nine meters tall.

He looked like a devilish fiend, sending out godly fluctuations into the poison haze. This was the most powerful fleshly body state Xu Qing could utilize, and it caused a vortex to appear around him.

He burst into motion, slamming into three Skyfaces that were right in front of him. A boom resounded as the three Skyface cultivators, being completely incapable of mounting a defense, were sent tumbling backward, blood spraying out of their mouths. One of them physically exploded.

Each of Xu Qing’s abilities was more stupefying than the last. He didn’t slow down a bit. Spreading his arms wide, he jumped, passing the two Skyfaces and grabbing them along the way. Then he hurled them over his shoulders and slammed them into the ground.

A string of booms rang out as the two Skyfaces exploded into hazes of blood. However, there were still more Skyfaces and Mirrorlings closing in.

In the lead was a four-tribulation Nascent Soul cultivator.

As they neared, daybreak light with its multitude of transformations erupted from Xu Qing and swirled around. It shot toward the cultivators from the Twofold Alliance, and they were forced to back away. However, the four-tribulation Nascent Soul expert decided to hold nothing back. Bursting with killing intent, and ignoring the flare-ups of poison within him, he shot toward Xu Qing.

“Die!”

Blood sprayed out of Xu Qing’s mouth, and his nascent souls vibrated painfully as he staggered backward. Before he could get his footing, the enemy launched another attack, this time performing an incantation gesture that summoned an evil ghost that lunged toward Xu Qing.

As soon as that evil ghost made contact with Xu Qing’s godly pressure, it shrieked and tumbled away.

Yet the four-tribulation cultivator wasn’t going to stop until one of them was dead. Clearly, he knew he couldn’t do anything about the poison, and wanted to kill Xu Qing before his own body rotted away.

Seeing that the evil ghost didn’t work, he bit his tongue and spat out some blood, causing the ghost to go completely berserk. He also produced a bottle gourd, which he used to release even more evil ghosts. Finally, he performed a double-handed incantation gesture, causing a golden bell to fly out into the open.

The sound of the bell stabbed into Xu Qing’s soul, all while the evil ghosts snapped at him. Trembling, he tumbled back again and then retreated. The enemy pursued him. Xu Qing wasn’t a match in speed, and without his Gruegloom state, it didn’t take long for the enemy to catch up.

The rumbling booms from the combat were noticed by more enemy cultivators, who started moving in that direction.

About a dozen breaths of time later, Xu Qing was blasted thirty meters backward by the four-tribulation cultivator. The four-tribulation cultivator was about to press the attack when he realized his body wasn’t complete. His legs were almost completely rotted away, leaving only his torso hovering in midair. And his nascent souls were decaying as the taboo poison filled him.

“I...” the cultivator growled defiantly. He had gone all out, yet the human enemy’s body seemed capable of absorbing even immense amounts of damage. He hadn’t been able to deliver a death blow. What was more, because of the seven-colored light that he could unleash, the human was incredibly hard to capture. Even as despair filled him, a red bolt of lightning shot out of nowhere and stabbed into his forehead. The cultivator flopped to the ground, dead in body and soul.

Xu Qing struggled to his feet. He was covered with bite marks from the evil ghosts.

Now that the four-tribulation cultivator was dead, those evil ghosts were dispersing. However, some of them, having come out of that bottle gourd, didn’t just dissipate. Though they collapsed because of the mere aura of Xu Qing’s body, that took time, and as long as they could move, they still tried to ravenously devour him.

Xu Qing ignored them. As of now, he knew that he wasn’t a match for a four-tribulation cultivator. That said, he wasn’t worried. He controlled this battlefield, and though his battle prowess wasn’t sufficient to take out every enemy, his defenses were incredibly strong.

Besides, even enemies who he couldn’t take out with an attack would still die eventually because of the poison. The dead cultivators piling up around Xu Qing ensured that those survivors didn’t dare to keep fighting him. Instead, they flew up into the air in the hopes of escaping the poison.

Xu Qing paid them no heed. Gasping for breath, he continued his approach to the public square.

He had trapped six Spirit Trove enemies, shattered the city’s defensive shields, poisoned at least 100,000 members of the Twofold Alliance, killed hundreds of Gold Core enemies, and killed dozens of Nascent Soul experts. That was about the limit of what he could do.

He couldn’t push himself any harder as he finally reached the public square, and saw Duanmu Zang there, struggling to breathe.

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