Beyond the Timescape

Chapter 1076: Enter the Place, Become an External Evil

The sky of flesh was like a shattered mirror. Innumerable rifts split the world into numerous fragments. And within every single one of those fragments was a unique heaven and earth.

Within one of those worlds was the empress, Grand Emperor Devilbird, and Netherflame’s clone, who was the grand immortal adept from the eastern Devilbirds.

The other Imperial Sovereigns, who were now hardly more than desiccated corpses, were gasping for breath in their own fragments.

In the very middle of them all was the fragment with Xu Qing and Netherflame’s true self. Xu Qing sat cross-legged, his eyes closed, seemingly unaware of anything happening on the outside. He wasn’t even moving.

Netherflame’s gruish form was half a complete person, with the other half a mass of blood vessels. A malevolent look of greed and anticipation filled his face. He had plunged his right hand into the tumor and placed it on Xu Qing’s head, and was sending terrifying energy directly through that hand and into Xu Qing.

When he spoke, his voice was raspy, but grew louder and louder as he went along. “I have two clones. One is that grand immortal adept of the eastern Devilbirds. The other… is the grand immortal adept of the western Devilbirds. You have an immortal skill from there, but little did you know that the immortal skills of the Devilbird holy land are all legacies passed down by me.

“So, boy, I know about your karma. I know that you have an almighty warding spell on you. But my act of possessing you isn’t going to be a simple invasion. Nor will it be some crass devouring. Instead… I’ll use the immortal skill Six Thieves Deceive Life!”

As his energy poured in through the top of Xu Qing’s head, innumerable strands of the seven emotions and six sensory pleasures spread out, covering Xu Qing and boring into him through his every pore. Xu Qing’s seven emotions were stirred. And along with the six sensory pleasures, which had the same origin, they made him ripe for growth. Next….

“Immortal skill: Five Dogs Cleave Immortals!”

The stingy dog cleaves to a place and loses treasure; the greedy dog cleaves to a place and is bound; the foolish dog cleaves to a place and falls into death; the depraved dog cleaves to a place and falls into hell; the austere dog cleaves to a place and forever loses the body.

This art had been passed down over many years, and had eventually come to be regarded as a gruish magical technique designed to kill. But the truth was that, when it was originally created, it was intended for… possession! [1]

Therefore, in this case, Netherflame’s memories became the stingy dog that would enter Xu Qing’s ‘place’ and cleave to it. It would forcefully cover over Xu Qing’s memories, creating countless white hairs that would make a door of entrance. [2]

That door of entrance was what would allow the possession to take place! When the door opened up inside Xu Qing, it would also form inside Netherflame. The opening of the door would also connect them. Netherflame’s soul would become a gruish white eye. And when the door opened inside him, it would charge into Xu Qing through the door.

Outside evil would invade, spinning to create a vortex.

Having insatiable desire. That is called greed. The greedy dog cleaves to a place and is bound. Renouncing the rules of life. That is called foolishness. The foolish dog cleaves to a place and falls into death.

A power of separation exploded out. Netherflame’s terrifying soul would cleave to him, and would forcibly rip his soul away from his fleshly body. As a result, Xu Qing’s body and soul would be completely unrelated to each other.

When the vortex formed, a white mouth appeared.

Arguing without understanding the facts. That is called depravity. The depraved dog cleaves to a place and falls into hell.

The mouth viciously bit down. It took a bite of his soul!

At that moment of crisis, the eyes of Xu Qing’s soul suddenly opened, and they brimmed with determination and craziness. From the moment Xu Qing realized he was in a deadly situation, he had known that he wasn’t possibly strong enough to fight back against Netherflame’s malicious possession attempt. Any type of resistance would be pointless.

Since he didn’t have the option of fighting back, he decided to intentionally absorb quintessence liquid to nourish his fleshly body and push his body into a state of being increasingly whole. The process itself would cause his fleshly body to reject his soul with increasing intensity.

That was actually what he wanted!

Of course, the process would involve immensely painful pressure on his soul.

The protection provided by his carving knife would be key. Right now, the Five Dogs immortal skill was just increasing the rejection from his fleshly body to his soul, and was actually pushing it toward a crescendo. It was essentially driving his soul away.

As far as Xu Qing was concerned, this was actually his best shot at survival! And thus….

“Five Dogs Cleave Immortals!”

The immortal skill also exploded within Xu Qing’s sea of consciousness. He wasn’t trying to stop Netherflame from carrying out his possession. He wasn’t resisting at all. It was as if his fleshly body didn’t even belong to him! He just… abandoned it without hesitation!

At the same time, he took advantage of the possession of Five Dogs Cleave Immortals, and he also took advantage of the force of expulsion from his fleshly body toward his soul.

The former was a pulling force, the latter was a pushing force. With those two forces working together, Xu Qing’s soul shot out just before it was devoured. It went through the door Netherflame had opened. And left the body!

In the moment that the other soul possessed him, he burned his own soul, used his tattoo of fate, and tapped into the warding spells his Master had put in place. He did not hold anything back. Just when his own soul was about to collapse, he stepped through the door of possession within Netherflame. It took one step for him to leave his fleshly body behind.

Once he was through that door… he entered the fleshly body that Netherflame had abandoned! He stepped right through the door Netherflame himself had opened! He became the greedy dog from Five Dogs Cleave Immortals.

He entered the place and became an external evil! He became the white eye in the opened door inside Netherflame. He was switching bodies with Netherflame!

At any other time, this would have been impossible for Xu Qing. But right now, possessing his enemy was the best path to walk. And it was all because his enemy was trying to possess him.

Xu Qing’s Five Dogs became the pulling force. The expulsion of his fleshly body became the pushing force. And thus, something which normally would have been very difficult to pull off… became a reality.

Most importantly was that, just before leaving, Xu Qing put certain things in place! For the first time, Netherflame was caught by surprise by Xu Qing’s actions. However, he was still confident in being able to stop him.

But then the fleshly body warding spells activated. At the same time, a malicious will erupted from the back of the fleshly body. That was when the first instability surfaced in the possession attempt, and it forced Netherflame to consider the situation.

Killing Xu Qing wasn’t the point. Netherflame wanted to push Five Dogs Cleave Immortals to the point of completion and gain complete control over this fleshly body. That was what he had chosen to do. Compared to that, everything else was secondary.

As for abandoning his old body….

That body isn’t even complete. It’s missing the Devilbird part. It was only my soul that managed to force it into a state of balance. Now that my soul is gone from it, it’s like a candle flickering in the wind. It won’t be long before it just crumbles.

Laughing coldly, Netherflame ignored what was happening there. Going all out with his own soul, he focused on the fifth will of Five Dogs Cleave Immortals.

It was a white face. With it, the Five Dogs immortal skill was complete, and it formed a complete face. White hair fluttered, and it grinned enigmatically, as if it were crying and laughing at the same time. It was very gruish. Its might became a restrictive warding spell, and its power covered the back of the fleshly body. It formed a balance.

Within the tumor, the ‘Xu Qing’ seated cross-legged started chanting, “Renouncing the three paths of hell before attaining lifelessness. That is called austerity. The austere dog cleaves to a place and forever loses the body.”

Smiling faintly, he opened his eyes. Though he still looked like Xu Qing on the outside, his eyes were profoundly ancient, and he contained a terrifying energy that made him seem completely and utterly different compared to before. And his fleshly body power was rising.

The might of an Imperial Sovereign pulsed out, and it was getting closer to the level of a Grand Emperor. The sense of perfection caused Netherflame’s eyes to gleam with praise.

“This body was wasted on you, boy. Your soul couldn’t sustain the full majesty of its mightiness.”

Outside of the tumor, his abandoned body suddenly shivered and staggered backward a few paces. All the while, it was withering, with chunks of flesh falling off it. It was as if the force inside couldn’t sustain a balance with the body itself. The eyes struggled to open, and it was Xu Qing’s gaze that appeared. But that was all.

Netherflame shook his head as if he was looking at an ant. He prepared to lift his right hand. But then, all of a sudden….

Within the body he had just possessed, the warding spell power that he had suppressed with Five Dogs Cleave Immortals suddenly erupted as the fleshly body power reached a tipping point thanks to the new soul.

The balance was broken. There was another explosion!

Master Seventh had actually put two warding spells in place. One was a limitation on the Imperial Sovereign level. The other was a limitation on the Grand Emperor level.

The former had been in balance because of Netherflame’s Five Dogs Cleave Immortals. But now… the second warding spell seal had been removed. In the blink of an eye, a host of silver threads appeared on the fleshly body, which turned into innumerable sealing marks. They were so densely packed they were like flowing water that swept back and forth. It took only a moment for it to create a huge net that covered the entire body, flickering with silver light that surpassed natural laws.

As soon as it appeared, it suppressed the rising power of the fleshly body. It had been put in place by Master Seventh to protect Xu Qing.

Seeing that, Netherflame’s eyes flickered with mysterious light, and he frowned slightly. However, he wasn’t very surprised. After all, there was no way this fleshly body had been prepared by some member of the Junior generation. It was obviously the work of some almighty being. Therefore, it made perfect sense that he would leave some contingency plans in place on it.

Whoever left behind this warding spell is no simpleton.

Netherflame’s eyes narrowed. Reaching up, he placed his right hand atop his head. Next, the black lotus beneath him began spinning, allowing him to suck up all the remaining quintessence in the tumor. The black lotus bloomed, and chains like stamens whipped about. Under his control, they wrapped around the body. They became a suppressing force.

“Although the warding spell can’t be wiped out right away,” Netherflame said coolly, “I can at least force a state of balance. That will work. In the future, I’ll just need some time, and I can wipe it out! So, boy, what else did you leave behind in this body? The candle on the back?”

Rumbling sounds echoed out from behind him as the fire of the candle erupted, illuminating the world around Netherflame.

“I studied that candle for a lot longer than you ever did.” Netherflame waved his hand, severing a portion of his own soul and sending it over to the candle tattoo to create a lampshade. “Look, that’s all it takes to control it. And then you can tap into some of its power. So, boy, what else did you leave behind?”

Netherflame smiled faintly. However, even as his words were still ringing out, and before Xu Qing could even answer, a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering roar of rage echoed out from the depths of the transparent sea below.

“You want to hurt my little Junior Brother, you old codger? You’d better check in with me first!”

The transparent sea started seething. A huge tsunami wave rolled out in all directions. And then the sea started changing color. It was turning blue! Innumerable blue worms could be seen in the huge tsunami wave. As they converged, they turned into a gigantic blue hand holding a bone cauldron. And it was heading straight toward Netherflame!

1. In chapter 1049 I went into a bit of detail about the wordplay behind the Chinese version of Five Dogs Cleave Immortals, I mentioned that one of the characters in the technique name is also used in the word in xianxia that refers to magical “possession” of other people. ☜

2. Also in chapter 1049 we saw how the color white related the possession aspect of the skill, as well as the creation of the door. ☜