Beyond the Timescape

Chapter 493: It Was You! It Was You!!

Xu Qing descended, wreathed in daybreak light. He attacked ferociously, without holding anything back. He even activated his Ghost Emperor heavenly palace, causing the extremely terrifying pressure of the Ghost Emperor mountain to appear above him. It didn’t crush down in an attack, but rather, emanated shocking might from above. Its mere existence would strike fear and shock into the hearts of any enemies who remained hidden or in disguise, and would cause them to think twice before making an attack.

Though the Ghost Emperor mountain didn’t ‘join the fight,’ its presence also caused many of the nonhuman cultivators below to start crumbling.

But everything so far wasn’t gruish enough. What was truly gruish was when Xu Qing unleashed the aura of D-132, which caused all of the invading cultivators to be suddenly overwhelmed with an aura of misfortune.

That misfortune became immediately evident on the battlefield in terrifying fashion. Magical techniques suddenly flew in the wrong direction, and unexpected yet fatal accidents started occurring left and right. One cultivator slipped up in his attack, ripping the cultivator next to them to shreds. Another cultivator tripped and fell right into a puddle of deadly poison. Another person was in the middle of unleashing a technique when it backfired, killing him.

Astonishment rippled through the ranks of the invading rogue cultivators. Some of the prisoners among them recognized Xu Qing, and started crying out.

“He’s a jailer. He’s the Fiendish Xu from Unit D!”

There were two Nascent Soul cultivators still hovering overhead, and one was the nonhuman with four arms. Shivering, he stared at Xu Qing and then shrieked, “He’s Xu Qing! A Unit C jailer from the Corrections Division!”

This particular nonhuman was a prisoner from Unit C, and had actually been in East District 13, which Xu Qing had been in charge of.

The middle-aged woman examined Xu Qing briefly. “Who cares about some puny jailer? He might have some skill, but he can’t stand up to all of us. The western and northern fronts are all in big trouble, so there’s no way any top swordsage experts could be here right now. Everyone join forces to kill this guy! He’s obviously got a lot of valuable stuff that’s going to be ours now!”

Eyes flashing with killing intent, she shot toward Xu Qing. The four-armed cultivator gritted his teeth, then followed, his eyes flashing viciously. Even as he flew through the air, a suit of armor spread out over him. It was a manifestation of his life essence, and was incredibly tough. From a distance, it resembled a turtle shell. Rumbling booms echoed out as the two Nascent Soul cultivators flew to block Xu Qing’s path.

Xu Qing’s eyes narrowed. Even before he arrived on the scene, he’d sensed the presence of these Nascent Soul cultivators. He knew that the strongest of them was in the mid Nascent Soul stage. However, the biggest threat to him wasn’t these three individuals.

The biggest threat came from the canopy of heaven.

There were energy fluctuations coming from above that covered the whole battlefield, and Xu Qing could sense the resulting pressure.

I can’t tell if that’s a cultivator or something else....

Xu Qing’s eyes glittered coldly. He lifted his right foot, then stomped it down. Beneath his feet, his shadow transformed into a coffin that surrounded him, then fused into him.

Instantly, his fleshly body power reached unprecedented heights. His fleshly body had already been remolded by the god’s finger, making it many times stronger than before. By combining that effect with the Shadow Fusion Secret Magic, he could release terrifying power that far surpassed the Gold Core level.

As the four-armed nonhuman approached and unleashed a barrage of divine abilities and magical techniques, Xu Qing completely ignored all that. Moving far, far faster than his opponent, he closed in, clenched his right hand into a fist, and launched a punch.

The punch landed, and the four-armed nonhuman’s life essence turtle shell cracked in numerous places. The nonhuman coughed up blood like mad as he tumbled backward, eyes shining with surprise.

Xu Qing was actually a bit taken aback. Based on his assessment, that punch should have been enough to kill this opponent.

Nonhumans do have a lot of life essence innate abilities... this villain’s external shell is really tough.

The four-armed nonhuman backed away, his heart filled with waves of astonishment, and all of his organs trembling on the verge of collapse. He knew full well how tough his life essence shell was, so he would never have been able to guess that a single punch would be enough to nearly destroy it.

“You—”

Before he could say anything else, Xu Qing strode forward and launched a second punch. In response, the middle-aged woman with the charming face on her forehead lunged to intervene. Hands flashing in an incantation gesture, she summoned a huge black umbrella made of mist.

The umbrella had countless charming faces on it that moaned in an enticing way as the umbrella approached Xu Qing. Then the charming faces turned vicious as they opened their mouths to devour him.

Xu Qing’s face remained expressionless. As daybreak light shone out from him, he shattered the woman’s umbrella, causing all of the vicious faces to scream as they collapsed. The middle-aged woman was then forced into retreat. Daybreak light was like a precious treasure that could resist even the power of a god. To it, simple magical techniques were things that could easily be wiped out of existence. That was one of the terrifying things about that type of light.

Everything happened so quickly that, even as the middle-aged woman’s face flickered with surprise, Xu Qing blurred into motion toward the fleeing four-armed nonhuman.

The four-armed cultivator resorted to a minor teleportation to gain some distance. However, the enemy’s suppressive spell formation didn’t just apply to Mount Daybreak. Everyone was affected. Teleportations couldn’t go very far, and therefore, Xu Qing managed to close the distance and launch another fist strike.

It was a moment of deadly crisis, and the four-armed cultivator’s expression was one of deep madness. Stopping in place, he turned and put his four hands together into one big fist attack. As for his species, they had innate abilities focused on fleshly body power. In other words, his biggest trump card wasn’t a magical technique, but rather, his own fleshly body. Right now, he was putting everything on the line, tapping into all his strength to fight back. In fact, two nascent souls appeared behind him, further bolstering him. magic

That said, it wasn’t even possible to compare his fleshly body to Xu Qing. That’s how far apart they were. When they slammed into each other, the four-armed nonhuman’s fists couldn’t stand up to the force. The flesh was shredded, the bones shattered, and the arms were broken. As the nonhuman tumbled backward, the effects spread to the rest of him, and his entire body exploded.

One of his nascent souls was caught up and shredded to pieces. The lone surviving nascent soul screamed in terror and fled in the opposite direction.

Xu Qing was about to give chase when the middle-aged woman gritted her teeth and performed a double-handed incantation gesture. Instantly, the charming face on her forehead blurred and switched places with her existing face. Afterwards, she was a charming woman who looked at Xu Qing, opened her mouth, and exhaled a red mist.

The mist contained a powerful emotional longing; anyone who the mist hit would be attacked by their own emotions, and would suddenly want to yield to the woman. This was the technique she had used to make a name for herself. Over the years, she had used it to enslave quite a few experts who were in the same level as herself.

But today, she was dealing with Xu Qing.

Xu Qing didn’t even look at the red mist. He pointed his right finger, and a projection of a violet moon appeared above the mist.

The red mist seethed, and frantic fluctuations rolled out from it. A thump rang out as it exploded. The woman’s face fell, and blood sprayed out of her mouth. Then her face turned a shade of violet, and her expression became vicious, as if she were dealing with an internal attack.

Not slowing down at all, Xu Qing chased after the four-armed cultivator’s nascent soul.

“Why are you only attacking me??” the four-armed cultivator howled in despair.

Xu Qing didn’t bother wasting time trying to determine if the cultivator’s voice contained some sound-based magical technique. The daybreak light around him rippled, and then he waved his hand in a slapping attack. The eyes of the four-armed nonhuman’s nascent soul went wide. There was no way he could evade an attack like this in his current form. A boom rang out as he was killed in body and soul.

Meanwhile, the golden crow let loose another cry before devouring the nonhuman with the scales. The horrifying chewing sounds that echoed out shook all the remaining cultivators to the core.

Two Nascent Soul experts were already dead. It was such a crushing blow to the invading force that the surrounding villains’ hearts crumbled. They lost any desire to do battle, and madly scattered in all directions. These people had basically been a disorganized mob to begin with, so it was no surprise at all that they quickly lost the will to fight.

What was more, as Xu Qing’s poison spread, more cultivators screamed in agony. That made the rest of them think of Xu Qing as being the most vicious and fiendish opponent imaginable.

As for the middle-aged woman who had tried unsuccessfully to do something about Xu Qing, she was also fleeing, her expression extremely somber, her heart aghast. She could tell that this person wasn’t in the Nascent Soul level, but rather, was in pseudo-Nascent Soul. But his battle prowess was frightful and almost unbelievable. In fact, she had never encountered someone like this in her entire life.

Ning Yan was also present on the battlefield. Though he was fighting ferociously, when he saw everything Xu Qing was doing, he shivered.

That’s not Gold Core... it’s too powerful!

After slaughtering the four-armed cultivator, Xu Qing turned his full attention to the middle-aged woman. Eyes burning with killing intent, he was about to start chasing her when his expression flickered.

He suddenly shot backward toward Ning Yan. Before Ning Yan could react, Xu Qing reached out and slapped his belly.

Ning Yan’s garment burst open, and the green vines he had been working so hard to conceal were revealed. Xu Qing grabbed them.

Ning Yan’s jaw dropped.

Meanwhile, the area Xu Qing had just vacated collapsed, and a black hand appeared out of nowhere. It was a sneak attack that had failed. However, it sent a terrible shockwave rolling out as a figure with two black wings emerged. The fluctuations of the late Nascent Soul stage rolled out as the figure shot toward Xu Qing, leaving a string of afterimages behind it.

“Die!”

As the dark figure neared, Xu Qing’s eyes glittered with cold light, and he tugged at the vines. Ning Yan was then thrown out in front of Xu Qing to block the enemy.

A boom echoed out as the shadowy figure slammed into Ning Yan. It was followed by a cold harrumph as the figure backed away and looked at Ning Yan in disbelief.

Ning Yan didn’t have a scratch on him, and he was so shocked he didn’t even think to let loose a howl of grief. He just stared at the vines coming out of his belly, and then followed them to Xu Qing. His eyes went wide. Then he let loose an extremely brutal scream that could shake heaven and earth.

“Y-y-you...? I can’t believe it was YOU!!!”