Beyond the Timescape

Chapter 570: Look, Everyone! Who’s That on the Nail? (part 2)

The Captain inhaled deeply, his eyes wide and somewhat blank.

“I have no idea what’s going on! Something weird is happening. This is too bizarre! I just came in here to take a picture! I didn’t touch anything! I definitely didn’t do anything to instigate something like this. How could these Gloomites be so unreasonable? We do one tiny thing and they go and destroy everything? What are they doing! This is outrageous!!”

Trembling, the Captain looked up at the enormous blue nail, and his blank expression changed into one of shock.

That’s freaking... the weapon of an Imperial Sovereign!!! These Gloomites are all psychos! In order to destroy us, they’re deploying the weapon of an Imperial Sovereign? They were never this vicious back in the day! Also, where did they get a weapon like that? Wait, hold on. That’s the same nail that’s in the forehead of the Imperial Sovereign’s third son! What the hell? That was supposed to be my sixth major heist! Who’s taking that thing? Who?? Who is the early bird getting that worm??

The Captain was both shocked and also a bit defiant. There was no questioning that the aura he felt was from the weapon of an Imperial Sovereign. The Captain quickly snapped a jade slip, but it didn’t do anything. After that, all he could do was turn around and run. As he did, he pulled out more teleportation jade slips and snapped them.

“Stop standing around shivering, you two! Hurry up and follow me. We have to get out of here. This really isn’t my doing!”

“It’s definitely your doing!” Wu Jianwu shouted angrily. However, he also knew that now wasn’t the time to lose his temper. Gritting his teeth, he promised himself that if he survived, he would make sure to stay as far away from this crazy person as possible.

The terror in Ning Yan’s heart swept away any fear he had of the Captain, so he shouted, “This is just like the Ten Entrails Tree! Chen Erniu, don’t you know that you can’t die if you don’t have a death wish??”

Despite those words of fury... he still followed the Captain.

The three of them were like three tiny rabbits fleeing in the face of a landslide. But then, the rumbling sounds in the sky grew louder, and the area of devastation widened. Countless chunks of ice rained down from above as the massive nail pierced down and stabbed directly into the surface of the major world fragment. The descent of the nail sent out terrifying shock waves that obliterated countless deceased souls. Violent winds swept out.

All the Captain, Ning Yan, and Wu Jianwu could do was huddle together in the patch of skin and flee as fast as they could.

The Captain was really not inclined to give up so easily, and looked back in the direction of the descending nail. When he did, his pupils constricted and he gasped.

“What the eff? That nail... there’s someone standing on it!!”

Hearing that, Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu instinctively looked over their shoulders. Sure enough, they saw that atop that absolutely terrifying nail... was a person.

The blue light made it hard to see, but that person’s robe and hair whipped in the wind, making him look like an immortal. His beautiful facial features and slender frame were completely attractive in every sense of the word. The way he stood atop the nail made it seem like it was his personal weapon that he was controlling. The imposing manner, the grandeur, were enough to deeply shake anyone who could see.

The Captain suddenly stopped in place. Gaze somewhat blank, he said, “Say, guys, does that fellow look familiar...?”

Ning Yan stared, his eyes filled with disbelief and his mind a complete blank. Wu Jianwu stood as motionless as a wooden chicken, his eyes numb. Reaching out, the Captain pinched Ning Yan very hard. When Ning Yan yelped in rage, the Captain knew that he wasn’t hallucinating. His eyes began to shine.

“It really is little Ah Qing!” The Captain started jumping up and down and waving his hands. “Little Junior Brother! I’m right here!”

Meanwhile, in the shattered sky, the massive nail continued to descend. The ground was shattered and collapsing in many places. Ice fell out of the icy sky like rain.

Atop the nail, Xu Qing was not as calm as his facial expression might indicate. He was actually trembling inwardly, and was absolutely shaken to the core. The pressure from the nail really was fearsome. From the moment the nail had stabbed into the glaciers in the world above, it had smashed through all obstacles without a pause. All of the layers of ice had shattered, until the nail pierced all the way to the major world fragment.

It had taken him here. Upon looking around, Xu Qing saw the shattered black glaciers, as well as the light source in midair, which resembled a sun, except that it was going dark.

Xu Qing couldn’t help but be curious about why there was a sun here. Then he saw the figures fleeing like rabbits down on the ground below. His expression became one of absent-minded curiosity.

It seemed impossible that the Captain and the others would be here. After all, they were supposed to be meeting at Mount Heavenly Ox soon. Xu Qing had been hurrying on his way, worried about being late, only to find the Captain right here. The feeling of disbelief only lasted a moment before vanishing. It took only that long for him to realize that it actually made sense to find the Captain here.

After all, given how crazy the Captain was, the more unimaginable a place was, the more likely he was to go there. The Captain had already traveled far, far down the path of having a death wish. He didn’t ever seem to get tired of it. And the only way he would stop would be if he reached the end of the path....

Such thoughts only existed in Xu Qing’s mind for a moment. Then, it was without hesitation that he jumped off the gigantic blue nail.

Given the speed of the nail, the moment Xu Qing left its surface, he was already a great distance away from it. However, blue light still surrounded him protectively as he shot toward the Captain and the others. Behind him, the blue nail picked up speed. Surrounded by blue light and whipping winds, as well as by the collapsing heaven and earth, it got closer and closer to the icy surface of the ground.

In the blink of an eye, there were only about 6,000 meters between the tip of the nail and the ground.

Being that close, the destructive power of the nail could eradicate everything in its path. The layers of ice below shattered, revealing a huge crater.

As the 30,000-meter crater opened up, the deceased souls sleeping there didn’t have a chance to awaken before being wiped out of existence. Those who did awaken had it worse off, as they were unable to flee, and could only scream as they were ripped to shreds.

The distance shrank by 300 meters. 2,400 meters. 1,500 meters....

The ground was completely cracked and shattered, and the massive hole was so huge it couldn’t be covered back over like the crevice created by the Captain’s sun. Finally, a massive boom echoed out, and the entire major world fragment shook violently, as the Imperial Sovereign’s nail stabbed deeply into the depths of the crater.

A tempest sprang up, and a violent shock wave spread out. From a distance, it was possible to see the ice layers exploding out from that central area.

50 kilometers. 500 kilometers. 5,000 kilometers.

The ice layers erupted in a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering manner. The nail pierced into the crater like a hot knife through butter, crushing everything and piercing into the depths of the soil. As everything collapsed, the nail pierced through the outer layer of the earth! Keeping up its terrifying momentum, it continued stabbing down!

Despite Xu Qing being in midair some distance away, the shockwaves still slammed into him and sent him tumbling away like a kite with its string cut. Thankfully, he was protected by the blue light, so all that resulted was he coughed up a few mouthfuls of blood.

The Captain, Wu Jianwu, and Ning Yan had already flown up into the air. With the patch of skin as a shield, they weathered the storm. The Captain had already retracted his sun. That said, all three of them were still trembling with fear.

As Xu Qing got close to them, he raised his voice and said, “Fly up! Something big is about to happen below!”

Xu Qing knew exactly what the nail was aiming at, and thus he knew that this world fragment was heading toward destruction. After shouting his warning, he turned and fled toward the shattered canopy of heaven.

The Captain and the others followed at top speed. Everybody knew that now wasn’t the time for reunions. Wu Jianwu and Ning Yan were rather slow, so the Captain grabbed them and then held nothing back to fly high into the sky.

As they got farther from the ground and closer to the canopy of heaven, the entire world started shaking. It was far more intense than before. The effects went beyond 5,000 kilometers, filling the entire major world fragment. Because the cause came from above and went down, the effect came from below and went up!

Beneath the layers of ice in the major world fragment, there was some colossal entity... and it was emerging from a sealed state of slumber into consciousness! It shivered, and then started rising from beneath the ground. Layers of ice exploded, and ice chunks flew everywhere. A huge bronze coffin broke through the ground, the ice, and the snow to appear right in front of Xu Qing and the others.

It looked exactly like the coffin at the bottom of the Heavenfire Sea! It was horrendous and stupefying! After having been buried under the ground for countless years, it... was finally out in the open! An ancient aura spread out from it, filling the area. In the lid of the coffin was a nail, spreading out from which were numerous tiny cracks.

In that shocking moment, the face of the Heir Apparent appeared in the blue mist surrounding the nail. Looking down at the coffin, he quietly said, “Time to wake up, Third Sister.”