Beyond the Timescape

Chapter 1072: The Immortal’s Corpse Awakens

The aura darkened the sky of the world outside. Before, it had been dusky, but now, it became deep and pitch black. The rainwater was also affected, as a resonance came into being. Looking out, it was possible to see that every raindrop that existed in the world seemed to now have life force, and was bowing in obeisance to the immortal’s corpse.

Burial mounds rumbled and collapsed as innumerable corpses climbed out into the open. In life, they had been warriors, but they had long been waiting in death for a master to command them. Now it seemed that their master had returned and called out to them. As a result, they were also coming back. Howls and roars filled heaven and earth.

The reason for it all was that, deep in that crypt, the immortal’s corpse was waking up.

All of the floating dao lineaments seemed to cheer in exultation and shoot toward the immortal’s corpse. Nothing stopped them. Nothing slowed them down. The instant they came near, the immortal’s corpse pulled them inside. As the authority returned and the dao lineaments floated over, a will of awakening surged.

Wild colors flashed in heaven and earth. The wind screamed dramatically. And all the legacy seals became like a raging sea flowing back to the immortal’s corpse.

One by one, the Grand Emperor treasures started shaking back and forth. A rushing sound filled the crypt as the spirit automatons of the precious treasures stirred. They were awake, and the instant it happened, they could sense the aura of their master, and began converging. All of a sudden, a suit of armor appeared on the immortal’s corpse. At its right hand appeared a long spear, and at its left hand… was nothing. Beneath the corpse’s feet, a geomantic compass appeared, while overhead, suns, moons, stars, and heavenly bodies popped into being. Behind the corpse was a collection of concentric halos slowly circling. It was a dramatic and majestic sight.

Meanwhile, the various Imperial Sovereigns in the crypt were all shocked to the core, and that showed in their facial expressions. As cultivators from the Devilbird holy land, they weren’t unfamiliar with Grand Emperor Netherflame. In fact, they had lived in the time a thousand years ago when Grand Emperor Netherflame ruled with an iron fist.

In fact, it was no exaggeration to say that most of them had personally witnessed Netherflame’s rise to prominence. And that meant that they knew exactly how brutal Grand Emperor Netherflame was. In fact, they revered him as surely as if he were a god.

After confirming for sure that Grand Emperor Netherflame was dead, years had passed. And only after some very serious promises being made had they agreed to come on this mission. That was one of the reasons why everyone had been so cautious before coming. That and their greed.

After all, there were a lot of stories circulating in the outside world about Grand Emperor Netherflame. Some people claimed that he had joined the paramount organization in this part of the starry sky, and had benefited a lot from their assistance. Other people said that he had acquired a legacy that surpassed the reserve powers of a Summer Immortal. Yet others were certain that noble blood flowed through his veins. And some people even believed that he had an extraordinary shackle-breaking magic hidden on him.

Of course, such stories only started spreading after Netherflame went missing as a Smoldering God and then returned as a Grand Emperor.

Regardless, there was definitely some karmic relationship between his meteoric success and ultimate decline. Because of that, all Devilbird Imperial Sovereigns wanted to reveal the secrets and seize the destined opportunity as a means of breaking through their own cultivation base shackles.

Maybe it would lead to similar meteoric successes and ultimate declines. But cultivators had long since ceased practicing cultivation for the mere purpose of living forever. The best way to live without regrets was really to reach the highest heights.

Unfortunately, the most dangerous situation they could possibly imagine was now playing out right in front of them. Netherflame wasn’t really dead!

As the legacies, authorities, and precious treasures shot back, and as the aura in the area grew stronger, the entire crypt started shaking dramatically. Everyone was inclined to flee. But as the immortal’s corpse looked around coldly, their dao lineaments trembled, their fleshly bodies were bound in place, their souls dimmed, and they lost their ability to move.

Xu Qing and Erniu suffered the effects even more dramatically. They weren’t Imperial Sovereigns, so facing an aura like this caused their minds and hearts to reel. Thankfully, they hadn’t actually entered the crypt, and thus weren’t facing the aura directly. Only because of that were they able to somehow endure the effects.

Meanwhile, Erniu, having acquired the shield-like treasure, sent his extremely weakened fleshly body of blue worms back to his head. When the two merged together, the worms turned into the body of a puerile young boy. Considering that he had the body of a boy but the head of a man, he looked very, very strange. As for his facial expression, it was one of pure craziness.

Although both of them had to fight back with full force just to stand up to the aura, it now seemed that the Grand Emperor treasure they had was waking up.

Considering how hard they had worked to get that treasure… neither Xu Qing nor Erniu could possibly be content with it returning to the immortal’s corpse.

Erniu’s eyes were bright red. Looking very anxious, he shouted, “I sacrificed my damn body to get this thing. Now you want to call it back to you?”

With that, he shoved the shield into his mouth and swallowed it. In the blink of an eye, he looked like a woman that was ten months pregnant. He appeared to be on the verge of bursting.

But Erniu gritted his teeth. From the look of it, he would rather die than give up at this point. Three breaths of time passed in which Erniu looked increasingly anxious with every moment that passed. Then his belly actually split open. The shield was just about to burst out into the open.

Without an instant of hesitation, Xu Qing gritted his teeth and pulled out a needle. It was none other than the Grand Emperor needle that he had acquired sometime back.

He started stitching. The karmic stitching this needle was capable of was nothing short of extraordinary. And therefore, he was able to patch up Erniu’s ruptured belly.

Then Xu Qing took out his Grand Emperor shears and viciously slashed out with them. He was hoping to sever the connection between the treasure and the immortal’s corpse.

It didn’t work perfectly. The connection remained. What was more, the rupture in Erniu’s belly seemed to be on the verge of opening up again….

But then, the huge head behind them opened its mouth and inhaled. The gravitational force erupted, latching onto Xu Qing and Erniu. Shivering, they tapped into that force to overcome the force trying to pull the shield out of Erniu’s belly.

The Imperial Sovereigns in the crypt weren’t paying much attention to all of that. They were focused on the immortal’s corpse.

However… the immortal’s corpse was paying attention to what Xu Qing and Erniu were doing.

The corpse opened its eyes, and they were gray. They swiveled, locking onto the stone door where Xu Qing and Erniu were. Then its gaze shifted to the various Imperial Sovereigns…. It opened its mouth and inhaled. The sound of a heartbeat rang out from its chest.

Thump-thump.

The terrifying sound hit the heart and mind like a sledgehammer. Blood sprayed out of the mouths of Xu Qing and Erniu, and their ears rang. Souls vibrating, they staggered backward.

As for the various Imperial Sovereigns, they bore the brunt of the attack, and found blood dribbling out of their mouths. All of them fought back ferociously. The teenager’s fleshly body split apart as he tried to flee in soul form. The scholar’s dao lineament flickered as he tried to turn the pages of his book. The woman in palace attire, as well as the old man, both used different trump cards, paying whatever heavy price they had to. The fifth Imperial Sovereign had a pained look on his face, and seemed like he wanted to say something. But in the end, he didn’t speak even half of a word to his Master’s corpse. Unfortunately for them, all reactionary measures taken were completely ineffective.

They all failed. Perhaps if they weren’t in this crypt, things might have been different. But they were in the crypt, and this place belonged to this immortal’s corpse. This was unstoppable power. It was a level of personhood that was completely beyond them, and thus nothing they did amounted to anything.

The immortal’s corpse didn’t seem to be in a hurry. After looking around, its gaze settled on the fifth Imperial Sovereign. As everyone looked on in despair, it lifted its right hand. Black fire erupted all over its body. It burned the altar and the surroundings, and began spreading through the entire crypt to form a black lotus.

The arrival of the black lotus made the situation even more dangerous. At the same time, lotuses of black flame materialized underneath every single one of the Imperial Sovereigns. All of them were bound more securely in place, and began to howl in agony. The sound of it filled the crypt.

Just when it seemed like everyone was going to be reduced to ashes by the lotuses of flame, one of the two unopened doors in the crypt suddenly opened.

Black chains shot out, upon which burned black flames that seemed similar to the flames from the lotuses. Popping sounds rang out as the chains moved with incredible speed, ignoring the power of the lotus to shoot directly toward the immortal’s corpse.

The level of speed was so shocking that it seemed to contain a karmic rhythm. In the shortest of moments, it wrapped around the immortal’s corpse, binding it and causing the flames around it to surge. The chains appeared with such suddenness, and did their job so quickly, that in an instant, the black flame lotus seemed like it was on the verge of being suppressed.

The Imperial Sovereigns took advantage of the moment to whip out their various magics to try to free themselves.

At the same time, a dark figure stepped through the open door. It was the black-cloaked man.

After he appeared, he took only a single step. With that step, he spanned the crypt and appeared right next to the immortal’s corpse. Reaching out with astonishing speed, he grabbed the black crystal with Grand Emperor Devilbird’s fate-soul in it. After taking the crystal, the black-robed man didn’t seem happy. Instead, a grim look appeared on his face as he shot backward.

As for the Imperial Sovereigns, after breaking free, they prepared to flee. Before they could move, the immortal’s corpse spoke in a raspy voice.

“Be sealed.”

In an instant, the huge flame lotus began spinning in the opposite direction, resulting in an intense gravitational force. Because of the gravitational force, the crypt doors all slammed shut. Escape was impossible.

Xu Qing and Erniu wanted to avoid the effects but couldn’t. The gravitational force dragged them into the crypt, whereupon the stone door closed behind them. The two of them were visibly taken aback. Everyone else in the crypt reacted similarly.

The ceiling overhead disappeared in a mass of folds. The walls also folded in on themselves. Rumbling sounds then filled the crypt as it collapsed. A cave appeared, and beneath it was another world. It was a transparent sea. However, there was a red glow atop it, as well as an enormous ball of flesh that resembled a fetus!

Astonishingly, there was a terrifying figure seated cross-legged within it! Before it could become clear, a blood-colored vortex appeared in the world beneath the crypt, cutting off all fields of view.

A blood-red tentacle-covered hand then emerged from the vortex. Then the aura of the immortal’s corpse rocketed upward as the hand shot toward the black-robed figure.