Beyond the Timescape

Chapter 621: Don’t Look At Me. Don’t Think About Me. Forget About Me

Time passed. Five days went by. It was now eight days since the light of the red moon first appeared on the horizon. For over a week, red light gathered there, slowly creating a crescent shape and causing shimmering redness to spread like fresh blood.

If the dome of heaven was a canvas, then in the days that had passed, the color red had come to cover about two to three percent of it. At the current rate, it would take roughly a year for the sky to turn completely blood red. When that happened, the red moon would be fully risen, causing a death knell to ring for all living beings in the Moonrite Region.

The countdown had begun.

As death approached, people saw little need to suppress the madness within. Slaughters were carried out everywhere. It happened with both cultivators and mortals. The powerful bullied the weaker. The weaker bullied the weakest. But the weakest didn’t just accept their fate; they fought back viciously. Brutal howling filled the lands. The madness of death turned the world into a living hell in which demons and devils roved about freely.

It was the same in the Greenhair Badlands. Over the eight days that had passed already, different organizations devolved into madness in different ways. Kill or be killed. That was the new rule that governed everything. Entire species were wiped out. Mortal cities became places where cultivators vented their despair.

The same went for the mudbrick city that housed the Green Spirit Pharmacy. During the eight days that passed, hundreds of crazed individuals wreaked havoc by inflicting their own bitterness on others. Some people took great joy in seeing others suffer when they knew their own life was coming to an end.

Little did they know that in the Greenhair Badlands, there was one location that was even more dangerous than the Red Moon Cathedral. When the demons and devils descended on that mudbrick city, they ended up changing. Some vanished from existence. But others lost their madness. They smiled again and became ordinary citizens of the city.

In the backyard of the Green Spirit Pharmacy, the Heir Apparent had taken up a new hobby. And Ning Yan had a new line of work.

They were raising chickens.

During those eight days, a group of about twenty shivering chickens had appeared in the backyard. They didn’t dare to leave the yard; they would eat their food and then hide in the corner, terrified.

“Ai, are you guys blind?” Ning Yan said as he scattered chicken feed. “What did you have to come here for? Did you really want to be turned into chickens?”

Ning Yan was already unhappy having to scrub the floors all the time, and now he had even more work. As a result, he really didn’t like these chickens. In fact, when one of them got too close to him, he kicked it into the air and then spat at it.

The kicked chicken looked at him with terror, and made a few despairing clucking sounds. However, there was nothing he could do. Even though he was actually in the great circle of the Nascent Soul level, with a Master who was the top expert in the Bitter Life Mountains, he was now just a chicken. Thinking about what he had experienced, the chicken’s heart filled with grief and indignation. He hadn’t come to this city to vent, but rather, to carry out orders from his Master. His job had been to scout out the mysterious Green Spirit Pharmacy, and find out if Li Youfei really was hiding out there. How could he ever have guessed that as soon as he stepped foot into the city, he would pass out? Then, when he woke up, he was a chicken.

It left him overwhelmed with terror. Deep in his heart, his Master was as lofty as the heavens. Therefore, he was convinced that once his Master showed up, he would be saved.

My venerable Master realizes I’m missing, he’ll definitely figure out that something went wrong. This Green Spirit Pharmacy might be a mysterious place, but when my Master shows up, all these people will be dead! After all, my Master is backed by the Red Moon Cathedral! As for this brat, I’ll make sure to kill him with my own hands!

As the chicken grumbled inwardly, Ning Yan kicked it again, then sighed. I wonder how Biggest Bro Xu Qing is doing. Ling’er cries every day. And where did Chen Erniu go off to? Grandpa just sits there every day sipping tea, just like before....

Ning Yan scattered the rest of the feed, dusted off his hands, and then walked back inside, shaking his head the whole time.

***

Out in the Greenhair Badlands, Xu Qing raced along like a wild animal. His eyes were bloodshot, his body shimmered with violet light, and the hunger within him made it almost impossible to think. Terrifying fluctuations rolled off him constantly. They were like a tempest, causing heaven and earth to rumble loudly.

Covering his human nature and filling himself with godliness had caused an incomplete vortex to build within him. It was like a bottomless pit that could devour everything, even Xu Qing himself. He had lost all sense of himself, all understanding of his surroundings. Or perhaps it was more accurate to say that he had lost any sense of being human. The fetters created by such human identity now had a hole in them. Xu Qing was completely lost in that state of boundless release.

To him, everything that existed in heaven and earth was food to be eaten. And the idiom the starving can’t be picky about food perfectly described his current state. Whether it was random wild animals or the walking mushrooms or the energy in the wind, he devoured it.

Even the mutagen was like sweet dew to him. It cheerfully entered Xu Qing’s body, feeding his taboo poison and the violet moon. As a result, the violet light that surrounded Xu Qing grew more intense. And a halo spread out around him, which was taboo poison. He became like a conglomeration of violet light that turned all the surrounding sand into ash. It was like the coming of a god.

Off in the distance were some desert creatures that had seemingly lost their ability to flee. They stood there trembling, feeling terror that came from their instincts and their souls.

They did nothing as Xu Qing approached. When his gaze locked onto them, they rotted away, becoming nutrients that swept into him.

He occasionally encountered gargantuan beings like the mushrooms. They had trouble fleeing the fate that destiny had arranged for them. When Xu Qing came, all the mutagen in the area became like an unstoppable weight crushing down on everything.

Hard outer shells couldn’t provide any protection. They crumbled beneath Xu Qing’s feet. He would blast into such food, then dig out handful after handful of meat to stuff madly into his mouth. In some cases, that didn’t enable him to eat fast enough, so he would just devour the food directly with his mouth.

His missing left arm had grown back. If Xu Qing needed something, a mere thought would make it happen. It was simple.

The violet moon was very active, and his taboo poison raged. His shadow was terrified to the extreme, and Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior didn’t dare to even think about showing his face.

Forget about me. Forget about me....

That was what both the patriarch and the shadow were praying constantly.

Their very life force essence made them alarmed to the point of terror. They had both seen Xu Qing devolve into madness before. But they had never seen anything which made them despair as deeply as this. Both could tell that in this state, Xu Qing was definitely capable of devouring them. All he had to do was think about it.

Also in a state of terror was the god’s finger in D-132. īt had been stimulated awake, and when that happened, īt had been about to send out fluctuations of irritation. But then īt sensed what was happening outside, and felt shocked to the core. Without any hesitation, īt retracted īts aura and pretended to go back to sleep. The reality was that īt was trembling in indescribable fear.

Wh-wh-what... what the heck is going on?? I just went to sleep for a bit, and now this is happening? How?

The finger shivered as waves of terror overwhelmed īts heart. What īt was sensing right now was similar to what īt had sensed in the presence of Crimson Mother or Emperor Ancient Spirit. The hunger in Xu Qing led the finger to realize that he could chomp īt down at any moment. That feeling left īt with feelings of both fury and despair. īt felt that gods had destiny as well, and apparently, īt was dealing with a backlash from fate. It was as if īt was being assailed by īts own authority of misfortune. After all, how unlucky could īt possibly be?

I hid from my true form for so many years, terrified that I would be devoured. Then I had to run into this Xu Qing. Later, I had no choice but to cooperate with him to avoid Emperor Ancient Spirit. But... why didn’t someone tell me that things would end up like this? I’m hiding, in his own belly, yet here I am on the verge of being devoured!

No, this can’t be! He can’t have reached this state so quickly! He shouldn’t have done this for years!

Furthermore, he’s like all of those postheaven gods who got rid of their human nature and replaced it with godliness! They’re not like the noble, natural-born gods such as me! So how come he gives me such a feeling of incomparable terror?

Also... his human nature is actually at odds with the godly nature. Is he crazy? What’s he doing that for? That’s why he’s in such a state of madness.

The god’s finger was incensed.

All of a sudden, Xu Qing stopped in place as if he was listening to something.

The shadow pretended to be dead. Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior shrank in on himself. The finger in D-132 stopped moving. All of them seemed to be praying the same thing.

Don’t look at me. Don’t think about me. Forget about me....

All of them were profoundly nervous and uneasy.

A moment later, Xu Qing burst into motion... heading off toward some delicious food in the distance.

The shadow sighed in relief. The patriarch shivered and looked up. The finger in D-132 started grumbling angrily.

What’s the point in fighting like that? If he keeps this up, all he’ll do is end up becoming a god bastard. A postheaven god bastard. Also, there’s something strange with him. Normally speaking, considering he’s only in the god-glimpsing phase, he shouldn’t provoke such terror in me! The feeling he gives me is completely excessive!

Dammit! What do I do, what do I do?? If he really becomes a god bastard, then I’m finished! The hunger of a god bastard is so insane that they’ll eat themselves up!

As the finger in D-132 fretted anxiously, Xu Qing’s madness intensified, and he got closer and closer to the food he’d detected.

He could sense the food just up ahead, matchlessly sweet and delicious. It filled him with longing, and caused his hunger to reach unprecedented levels.

“Hungry... so hungry....”

Someone was standing in the desert up ahead.

It was the Captain! As he watched the violet tempest getting closer and closer to him, his expression was not as laid-back as usual. Instead, it was uncharacteristically serious.

“Little Junior Brother....”