Beyond the Timescape

Chapter 1198: Unambitious Fox Maiden

Xu Qing sighed. Deep down, he felt somewhat helpless.

From the moment he had met Starfire until this day, hēr way of speaking had not changed. Shē spoke in a way that was direct, shocking, and audacious. It didn’t matter if he was weaker than hēr or stronger than hēr. Nothing had changed. Regardless of the time or place, shē was always ready to flirt with him….

Shaking his head, he waved his hand. A gown appeared that covered Starfire’s astonishingly attractive figure.

Running hēr hands down herself and looking a bit annoyed, shē said, “Hm. It’s a bit tight. Ohh. So you like tight clothes, you naughty boy.”

“You can absorb the god blood and break through now,” he said.

Noting how disinterested Xu Qing seemed, Starfire covered hēr mouth as shē laughed softly. Seemingly more fascinated by him than ever, shē took a step closer to him.

“Alright, Young Lord. And how exactly would you like me to break through?” Shē spoke in a sultry tone, and when shē called him Young Lord, it was very reminiscent of when shē was the fox maiden back in the Aurora Immortal Palace.

Xu Qing closed his eyes and continued fishing. “Time is limited. You decide.”

Shē smiled coquettishly. That said, shē knew that the most important thing at the moment was to absorb the god blood. So shē stretched, stuck hēr chin up, and looked at the bottle floating in the air. Hēr phoenix-like eyes shone with a golden light.

Reaching out, shē shattered the bottle, causing an astonishing aura to pulse out. Countless godly striations appeared, intersecting and combining. The drop of blood wriggled and pulsed between different sizes and shapes. It exuded terrifying mightiness, and was accompanied by a soundless roar that caused the air to vibrate.

If you looked closely at the drop of blood, it seemed like it was made of stars. Innumerable crimson stars! It was as if the redness of the blood was the light emanating from those countless stars.

Starfire looked at the blood and inhaled deeply. Then, hēr godly might erupted, causing mutagen to suddenly fill the area.

The surface of a sea appeared within the godly aura, and everything within it was inverted. The sea was the sky, and the stars were beneath it. The sky reflected infinite starlight, which descended to create a divine likeness that hovered between the sky and the sea.

The divine likeness’s mouth opened, and the drop of God Lord blood was absorbed. The statue shivered as if in pain.

After being absorbed, the drop of blood ceased to be red, and instead, became golden, which was the color of the gods! Something like a ball of fire ignited within Starfire’s divine likeness. The fire raged, completely engulfing the statue, and spreading out to incinerate the sea and the stars.

An astonishing aura erupted from the divine likeness. Before, the mightiness of the blood had been constrained inside of it, as if it had been sealed, or even dead. But after Starfire consumed the blood, it was as if it came to life.

A terrifying aura swept out of the statue, bringing incomparable fluctuations like a storm that could rock all existence. It filled all of the star domains in the Inksun Universe, as well as all of the galaxies and planets!

The planets shook. All living beings reacted with visible shock. All inanimate objects swayed back and forth. Innumerable nonhumans were shaken to the core. Top experts were clearly taken aback, down to the last one. Numerous gazes in the Inksun Universe were focused on Xu Qing’s location.

The development was even surprising to Xu Qing. The aura was just too spectacular. Under its weight, the entire Inksun Universe was visibly shaking.

Cracks appeared on Starfire’s divine likeness, and golden fire began to seep out of them. Hēr sea was really disappearing, and hēr sealing marks were blurring. It was as if shē couldn’t handle the force.

It only took a glance for Xu Qing to understand what was happening. Starfire had only come as a clone to the Fifth Star Ring, and that clone wasn’t strong enough to deal with God Lord blood. It seemed he was going to have to step in to help. In fact, he was preparing to help take away some of the strength of the god blood, to reduce it to a manageable level. That would make the blood less effective, but he wasn’t just going to stand by and watch Starfire be burned out of existence.

However, just before he was about to take action, Starfire spoke in a hoarse voice.

“I can do it!”

The nearly collapsed divine likeness trembled, and then a starry sky appeared over the head of the statue. It was not the star ring of the Fifth Star Ring. It was… the starry sky of the Revered Ancient mainland. It was the starry sky of the Ninth Star Ring! Starlight began to fall from that starry sky, like a rain of stars, and as it landed on the divine likeness, it merged inside and suppressed the golden fire.

However, that didn’t seem to be enough. The golden fire was suppressed momentarily, but then it surged back even stronger than before.

As things reached a critical point, determination shone in Starfire’s eyes. Opening hēr mouth, shē took a deep breath and then spoke in a godly voice.

“Switch the primary and secondary!”

New strength seemed to flow into the crumbling statue, building up with every moment that passed. The divine likeness shone with glittering, dazzling, blinding light. The starlight falling from the starry sky became unfathomably boundless.

It was no longer a rain, but rather, a falling sea of starlight. All of it was falling. It provided continuing nourishment until the golden fire first stabilized, and then began to unify with Starfire’s divine likeness.

The pressure weighing down on the surrounding universe began to subside. The starry sky above the divine likeness blurred and faded away.

A massive and astonishing altar appeared beneath the divine likeness, something that could support an entire starry sky. It was extremely ancient and covered with complicated, godly designs. It was something that could end the heavens and crush the earth, and it seemed to be part of a higher star ring. The godly aura it emitted surpassed the Godfire level.

This was… a god altar! The moment it formed, it indicated that Starfire had entered the Altar God level!

Xu Qing could see it all very clearly. He could also sense that, just now, Starfire had apparently used a god magic to sacrifice hēr true self back in Revered Ancient. That was the price shē had paid to absorb the god blood! That was what had fueled the breakthrough.

Xu Qing could also sense the love felt by a higher star ring toward a god. Altar Gods were the equivalent of the Quasi-Immortals of the cultivator system. When a cultivator broke through from Imperial Sovereign to Quasi-Immortal, dramatic changes occurred to heaven and earth, but it wasn’t anything like the breakthrough Starfire had just experienced. It was as if, to the natural laws of a higher star ring, this… was orthodox and correct.

Xu Qing could sense that this universe, and this starry sky, had actually been helping this Altar God to come forth.

Gods really are doted on by the higher star rings….I’m sure the law enforcement forces in the Nineshores Immortal Palace noticed the commotion just now.

Almost as soon as Xu Qing thought that, the starry sky trembled. An immense and indescribable force arrived, causing all living beings in the Inksun Universe to go still.

The light from the suns stopped moving, and all the planets stopped rotating. Time seemed to be sealed. It was as if the entire Inksun Universe had been encased in a huge bubble. It was cut off from everything outside.

Starfire’s breakthrough seemed to stop as if it had been paused, and the forming god altar was frozen in place. There it remained in place, completely motionless.

Then a pair of eyes appeared in the starry sky, seemingly replacing the entire Inksun Universe. The eyes were staring at Xu Qing. It seemed as if a single thought from those eyes could wipe out Xu Qing, Starfire, and the entire universe.

Suppressing his fear, Xu Qing bowed. “Exalted one, this is my god slave.”

The eyes focused on Starfire. The divine likeness blurred, and a lifetime of images appeared. They started out with a human emperor, who, in the face of an invasion of gods, chose to split his three souls and transmigrate into the bodies of gods. Eventually, one of those gods encountered Xu Qing, got wrapped up in his affairs, and then came along to the Fifth Star Ring. Then everything that happened in the Hundred Flowers Palace became a foundation. Then came a body made of god clay, which Xu Qing controlled.

Everything was very clear.

A cold voice echoed through the starry sky and into Xu Qing’s mind. “If this god does anything wrong, you will bear responsibility!”

Xu Qing bowed again. He knew exactly who this person was.

The eyes in the starry sky closed, and the bubble surrounding the Inksun Universe vanished. The planets and living beings went back to normal. And Starfire’s breakthrough continued!

No one else but Xu Qing was aware of what had happened.

The god altar beneath Starfire rose up, lifting the divine likeness high. And then an Altar God aura began to pulse out of Starfire. Shē opened her eyes, and shē shone with golden light. Behind hēr, boundless and dazzling stars glittered. Waving hēr hand, shē absorbed all of the supernatural phenomena, then smiled and approached Xu Qing.

“Seems you were being overcautious, you naughty little boy,” shē said casually. “You used that clay because you wanted to feel me up, didn’t you? Nothing unexpected ended up happening after all, did it?”

Starfire was clearly very pleased with how things had turned out. Not only had shē become an Altar God, but having absorbed the godly authority in the blood, she now had a much greater likelihood of becoming a True God, as well as a path to follow in that direction.

Glancing at hēr, Xu Qing coolly said, “Immortal Lord Nineshores just paid a visit.”

Starfire’s eyes went wide, and hēr pupils constricted. Shē was very familiar with Xu Qing’s personality, and shē knew that he was telling the truth. What was more, shē hadn’t sensed the visit of the Immortal Lord.

She sighed softly. This star ring…. Well, who cares? The affairs of gods and immortals aren’t important to me. Whatever happens in the future doesn’t matter as long as I end up happy.

Having reached this conclusion, Starfire blinked a few times, put everything out of mind, and prepared to do some more flirting.

Xu Qing didn’t give hēr a chance. Looking at the Inkland black hole, he said, “Since you’re an Altar God, you can go with me in there to look around. I want to see exactly what makes the Inksun Universe so special.”

He started walking.

Looking at him from behind, Starfire licked hēr lips. “You naughty boy. The more deadpan you act, the more I like you.”