Beyond the Timescape

Chapter 535: Xu Qing’s Trump Card (part 2)

The debut release of this chapter happened at N0v(e)l--B1n.

The furious finger wanted to flee. But the violet crystal made that impossible. īt wanted to fight back, but īt was being imprisoned in Xu Qing. Although the mutagen pouring into the finger was īts own mutagen, which meant īt might have been able to break free from Xu Qing, the fact that Xu Qing had experienced the beginning of a nascent soul tribulation, and boosted his cultivation base so much, meant that the violet crystal was even more effective than before.

Because of all that, though the god’s finger still wanted to be free, there was no way it would happen in a short time. The finger knew that īt would need an incense stick’s worth of time, whereupon it could be free, and might even be able to turn the tables and possess Xu Qing. Except, that wasn’t going to happen.

After īt awoke, it sensed that īts true form had already perished. That left īt with mixed feelings. On the one hand, the terrifying situation in the outside world was very worrisome. On the other hand, īt now had a much better chance of developing a new true form. Seeing how Xu Qing was rushing forward toward the small-scale broken face, and noticing the shocked look on that face, the finger’s thoughts raced. However, no matter what ideas īt came up with, there was only one path moving forward; this dangerous situation had to be dealt with.

This brat is giving me an opportunity! For the sake of freedom, I have to go for broke! Afterward, I can devour the little punk!

Throwing caution to the wind, the finger released rumbling god power, which caused Xu Qing to rapidly grow another 30 meters. Xu Qing extended his right hand, and the god’s finger converged in his index finger. In the blink of an eye, Xu Qing’s index finger glittered with brilliant golden light as he pointed it toward the lieutenant governor’s broken face.

At that exact same moment, the two puppets fighting with Master Seventh, Marquis Yao, and Qingqin spun. Ignoring any injuries they sustained as a result, they launched attacks to interfere.

Qingqin erupted with magenta light that became a sea, which rumbled toward the broken face of the lieutenant governor.

Behind Master Seventh was a 300-meter hand of white jade surrounded by rippling distortions. It swept forward.

Marquis Yao had the highest cultivation base of anyone involved. A decisive gleam could be seen in his eyes as a blood-colored flower appeared above his head. It swayed, the stem twisting into the shape of a huge bow. Then it withered as a blood-colored arrow took form. The arrow shot forth, pulsing with astonishing might, becoming a streak of light that headed toward the lieutenant governor with mountain-toppling, sea-draining force.

The lieutenant governor didn’t evade. He just looked at Xu Qing, seemingly disappointed.

“As it turns out, you didn’t exceed my expectations. You have that god’s finger in you. That’s your trump card. Xu Qing, your cultivation base isn’t sufficient. You thought you were keeping that hidden the whole time, but my eyes saw the truth clearly.

“If that finger’s true form appeared, then I would be crushed. But īt was devoured by Crimson Mother. What a pity. I gave you your chance, Xu Qing, and you failed anyway.”

Golden light shone off the lieutenant governor’s broken face, forming into the outline of a body. The left hand of that body then lifted high, and more golden light swirled into the shape of a golden umbrella.

As the umbrella blocked the might of Marquis Yao, Master Seventh, and Qingqin, the lieutenant governor reached out with his newly formed right hand and pushed toward Xu Qing’s index finger.

They collided.

A huge boom rang out as the hand collapsed.

The power of the god’s finger could crush anything in its path. However, right then, a hand of white jade emerged from within the lieutenant governor. It started out small, but rapidly became enormous. And it grabbed Xu Qing’s finger. The god’s finger shivered, unable to move forward, and unable to fall back. Terrifying force erupted from the hand of white jade, surging through the finger and into Xu Qing.

The god’s finger was absolutely terrified. Blood sprayed out of Xu Qing’s god body as it started rotting, with many portions falling off. Blood splashed everywhere, and many golden threads shattered.

Before Xu Qing could even regret that loss, the god’s finger filled with so much pain that īt howled, and released an eruption of power. īt needed to keep this body safe. However, all īt could do was buy time, not resolve the situation.

Xu Qing didn’t say a thing.

In that critical moment, the golden umbrella above the lieutenant governor thrummed loudly. Then the attacks of Marquis Yao, Master Seventh, and Qingqin hit, and the umbrella collapsed.

But then a second hand of white jade emerged from within the lieutenant governor, and pushed back against the light coming from Marquis Yao’s arrow, Master Seventh’s god power, and Qingqin’s light. Intense booms rang out. The lieutenant governor ignored all of that. The entire time, his gaze was fixed on Xu Qing alone. He shook his head, looking regretful as he prepared to speak.

“Finally,” Xu Qing interrupted. “I got close enough.”

The lieutenant governor was stunned, and the pupils of the eyes in his broken face constricted. Within the mangled remains of Xu Qing’s left hand was a talisman of black iron. It had a single purpose: it could complete a teleportation to a very specific place. Because of the teleportation destination, the talisman contained a higher level of personhood. It was a treasure, and was a rare thing in the world.

It was called a spirit abyss talisman. Its fixed teleportation destination was a spirit abyss.

There was no god there, nor any human emperor. But that place did contain an entity who was vastly superior to the human emperor of those times. It was an entity far superior to an Imperial Sovereign. That entity once conquered all of the Revered Ancient mainland. In those days, Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity had not yet arrived, and there was no broken face of a god in the dome of heaven. After that entity died, the countless species of Revered Ancient devolved into chaos. That was when humankind rose to prominence, and eventually, gave rise to Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity.

That entity was Emperor Ancient Spirit, who had led the Ancient Spirits to conquer Revered Ancient! The spirit abyss contained the dead of his species. What was more, he... was still awake.

Xu Qing had encountered the enormous eye of Emperor Ancient Spirit, and had threatened him with the terror of Crimson Mother. He was no weaker than the god in Forbidden by the Immortal, and in fact, was actually a bit stronger.

This was Xu Qing’s trump card!

Everything he had done up to this point had been a feint. He obviously couldn’t trust anything the lieutenant governor said. What was more, he needed to be right in front of the lieutenant governor to employ his trump card. Therefore, he unleashed the god’s finger to distract the lieutenant governor and get as close as possible. As long as the lieutenant governor thought the finger was his secret weapon, then Xu Qing would be able to unleash his real trump card. He would only get one chance to make it work.

Xu Qing wasn’t a prophet, so he had no way of knowing what the lieutenant governor would do during the process. And he could only guess at how strong he really was. But regardless of how strong he was, Xu Qing could still make the trump card work.

Xu Qing had originally hoped to use this trump card on the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan. The lieutenant governor was not the crown prince, and thus, Xu Qing had hesitated at first. He wasn’t sure if it would really work. And he wasn’t sure if things would go as smoothly for him as they had before with Emperor Ancient Spirit.

But he figured that if gods could devour each other, as Crimson Mother had devoured the god in Forbidden by the Immortal, then since Emperor Ancient Spirit was like a god, hē would surely be willing to devour something else like hīmself. After all, Emperor Ancient Spirit must have been hungry for a very, very long time.... There was no way some random souls that came along every so often would be satisfying.

Those were all the things that had run through Xu Qing’s head earlier. And right now, as he crushed the talisman, a massive gravitational force erupted from his palm. He quickly visualized that imperial palace made of flesh, where he had seen the eye of Emperor Ancient Spirit. The innkeeper from Plankspring Way had explained to Xu Qing how to use the spirit abyss talisman, and the method by which to fix a destination. [1]

Because the power of the talisman existed at a higher level, Xu Qing couldn’t resist it. Nor could the lieutenant governor. After all, the lieutenant governor’s hand of white jade was clamped firmly onto the bait Xu Qing had thrown out, that being the god’s finger. They were still touching.

In the blink of an eye, the gravitational force locked onto them and swept out in all directions.

The surrounding mutagen was driven away. The light of evening appeared again. The images of an entire nation were visible in the lands, and a powerful gravitational force spread out everywhere.

The lieutenant governor’s face fell, and he sought to flee, but he was too late. He had been overconfident.

The gravitational force expanded, and the two of them vanished!

The Captain inhaled sharply, and rapidly performed an incantation gesture in the hopes of figuring out where they went.

Master Seventh’s expression was grim as he looked over at Seventh Prince, who hadn’t done a single thing the entire time.

Marquis Yao looked surprised, and Qingqin let loose a sharp cry.

With the lieutenant governor gone, there was no source for the mutagen. The ripples and distortions faded. The blurriness to the land disappeared. The dramatic transformations to Sea-Sealing County ceased. The taboo treasure net above glittered brightly as it blocked the souls from above. Many people were awakening from their dazes. The ancient mountains that had risen up trembled.

However, things weren’t over yet. The two puppets were still powerful enemies; they would not go still unless the lieutenant governor died and the connection to him was severed.

Seventh Prince looked at the two puppets.

If the two puppets went silent, and ceased to follow their orders, that would be the moment for the prince to step in and save the day.

Who’s actually going to win? The teleportation talisman Xu Qing crushed had an extremely high level of personhood. Definitely not something to underestimate. Seventh Prince decided to continue waiting. He wouldn’t side with either party until the final outcome was concluded.

***

In the Spirit Abyss, which was filled with countless souls of the Ancient Spirits, everything was completely still and quiet. The sky above was filled with an eternal darkness of evening. The lands were the same. Everything was so quiet it almost looked like a painting.

Off in the distance was an imperial palace. It was surrounded by countless vicious souls. Inside the palace was a mountain of flesh whose summit was high in the sky. Above it floated a huge eye.

īt was closed, as though there were nothing in the world worth looking at, and īt contained nothing that could disturb īts tranquility. There were fresh souls nearby that had been offered up as sacrifices. They emanated soul strands that floated up and merged into the eye. Golden dragons flew around the eye, swirling into the shape of magical symbols that accompanied the soul strands into the eye.

The surrounding souls would occasionally shiver, look up at the eye, and then bow deeply.

Countless zombies were scattered about, vicious in appearance, and pulsing with a sense of blood and madness. However, they stood in place, and didn’t move at all except to bow along with the souls.

This was not the only imperial palace in this place. There were others in distant locations. Each of them had mountains of flesh, and huge eyes that all looked exactly the same.

At the imperial palace that Xu Qing had once visited, the eye surrounded by the countless deceased souls suddenly twitched atop the mountain of flesh. īts peace had been disturbed. The eye snapped open and glared out into the sky. Then a stream of divine will erupted that seemed like it could fill all of the Ancient Spirit world.

“How dare you come back here, scoundrel!”

1. The innkeeper explained the usage of the talisman in chapter 473. ?