Beyond the Timescape

Chapter 1261: The Goddess and the Clay Fox

It was True God will!

Inside the amethyst mountains, Xu Qing’s face fell, and his heart filled with intense fear. His heart started pounding, and the hair on his neck stood on end.

It’s not a single True God. It’s seven True Gods!

His pupils constricted as the entire planet seemed to distort, and all the living beings on it writhed. The emerald-green halos dimmed and lost their color. The encroaching will turned them into black clouds that covered the sky. The combined divine will of so many True Gods was like a huge wave that turned the starry sky into a sea, and made all the planets like islands about to be covered over.

Xu Qing’s fear intensified. It looked like the divine will was about to reach his hiding spot.

At that moment of crisis, Xu Qing wiped out all of the immortal energy he had been using and had Little Shadow spread out to cover him. Starfire didn’t need any prompting; she quickly appeared in the open next to Xu Qing and unleashed a godly aura to further conceal him.

That combination, coupled with the fact that Xu Qing was inherently different from other cultivators, ensured that the mutagen in the area was very strong. But all of that still wasn’t enough.

At the critical moment, Xu Qing’s eyes glittered and he pulled Goddess Starryeyes out of his bag of holding and tossed hēr to Starfire. Starfire immediately understood what Xu Qing wanted. Starfire grabbed the goddess by the throat and covered hēr eyes.

Xu Qing immediately shrank himself down until he was as small as a speck of dust, and then shot toward one of her scapula wounds. Then Xu Qing entered her flesh and used every invisibility technique he could think of!

He was making a gamble! It seemed likely to him that this divine will inspection by the True Gods had a dual purpose.

The first was to look for immortal energy in order to locate him. The other was to look for bloodline evidence or unique ringsource fluctuations to find Goddess Starryeyes.

Although they knew Xu Qing and Starryeyes were together, it made sense to carry out a dual search. However, that method had an inherent flaw. And that flaw was that it overlooked other gods!

Inside and out, Starfire was a god! Even with multiple True Gods combining their divine will, that flaw still remained.

There was always the chance Xu Qing was wrong in his assessment. But there was nothing he could do about that. There was no way he could feel comfortable just leaving Starryeyes on hēr own. There were too many things that could go wrong. So he needed Starfire outside as well, to keep Starryeyes in check. It didn’t matter that Starryeyes was actually unconscious. Xu Qing could not give hēr any opportunity to raise an alarm.

The entire point was to be able to effectively hide inside hēr. As for whether or not hiding would work…. Xu Qing wasn’t completely sure it would work. But he was confident, and that confidence came because… of the power of the seal put into hēr by the Immortal Lord!

Back when I fought that pretty god, hē was obviously taken by surprise when I pulled out the dao weapon. The fact that hē didn’t bring out some treasure specifically designed to counter it shows that hē wasn’t aware that I had the dao weapon.

All the cultivators on the front lines knew, but hē didn’t…. It seems likely that the information about me was concealed by the Immortal Lord, so that the gods didn’t find out. He concealed the information about me and also gave me a dao weapon…. And he left a sealing mark inside the goddess….

As that information flitted through Xu Qing’s mind, the terrifying stream of divine will swept over the area, completely covering the amethyst mountains. Xu Qing stayed alert, his eyes flashing coldly as he prepared for something unexpected to happen. His space-time canon was ready.

But then, an ancient will suddenly erupted from inside Starryeyes. As it spread out, it covered all traces of hēr. Xu Qing’s eyes narrowed. In the end, the divine will didn’t notice anything in the amethyst mountains. It quickly swept over the entire planet, then left to inspect other parts of the starry sky.

Xu Qing remained motionless for about two hours until, sure enough, the streams of divine will suddenly returned and checked the entire nebula, including all of the planets in it. After finding nothing, they finally left.

Even then, Xu Qing didn’t do anything. He waited. About four hours later, a third wave of divine will returned to the nebula. These streams of divine will were from different gods. Over the next few days, the same type of thing happened repeatedly. Streams of divine will would suddenly show up, then leave, then come back. Days passed….

Eventually it seemed the event was over.

Xu Qing waited nervously for three more days to make sure the coast was really clear. Only then did he fly out of Starryeyes’ wound and return to his normal form. He looked grimly outside, then turned to Starfire. Starfire had been equally nervous over the past few days, and was only now calming down. Glancing at Starryeyes, shē chose not to speak out loud, and instead transmitted some words to Xu Qing.

“Young Lord, the divine will of those True Gods paid no attention to me after noticing my god altar. It seems to me that thēy were mostly looking for immortal energy. Now that it’s over, my sense is that if you hadn’t hidden in the goddess, my concealment efforts wouldn’t have been enough to keep you safe.”

Xu Qing didn’t say anything. He had come to a similar conclusion as Starfire. The key to avoiding detection had really been the sealing mark left behind by the Immortal Lord.

Did he predict that something like this would happen? Did he leave that sealing mark behind as a life-saving magic?

Xu Qing thought about it for a moment. Well… even if he did predict it, things can’t be going totally as expected. The seal… is not going to last forever in the mutagen-rich environment of the Fourth Star Ring.

Because the sealing mark had activated so many times over the past few days, Xu Qing had been able to sense that it was weakening.

Every time it activated, it got worn down a bit. It seems to me it will only last a few more times before it goes away for good. And when that happens….

He was feeling very uneasy.

Of course, all of the inspections were done by True Gods. And the God Lord sent down orders, but didn’t come personally. And that seems to indicate that the war is still going on, and the God Lord can’t leave the battlefield! I still have time! I need my cultivation base to recover as quickly as possible. Then I’ll find a star chart and figure out how to get back to the Fifth Star Ring!

Xu Qing’s eyes shone with determination. As for this specific location… considering how many times they inspected it, I should be safe here, at least temporarily.

Even as Xu Qing was thinking those things… the divine will of a god appeared again, rumbling through the amethyst mountains. Face falling, Xu Qing once again transformed into a piece of dust that flew into the goddess’ wound.

Moments later, a puzzled look appeared in his eyes. The reason was that the divine will wasn’t very strong. It was not from a True God, but rather, a peak Altar God. It passed quickly through the amethyst mountains before focusing on the dust forest where Xu Qing had originally landed.

As long as it wasn’t True God will, Xu Qing was confident that hiding inside Starryeyes would be sufficient.

After the divine will passed, he emerged again from Starryeyes’ wound. Looking very grim, he grabbed the goddess and slapped hēr across the side of the face.

A thump rang out, and the goddess’s face started to swell up. Opening hēr eyes, shē glared sullenly at him. Shē knew exactly why he had just slapped hēr. He clearly thought that shē had somehow left clues about hēr presence when they teleported to this location. Of course, shē knew that shē hadn’t…. It wasn’t that shē hadn’t wanted to do such a thing, it was just that shē never had time to do it. Xu Qing had woken up before shē could.

The feeling of being wronged caused the hatred within hēr to yet again swell to immense heights.

And shē decided to throw caution to the wind! Before, shē had feared the dao weapon. And the truth was that shē had actually regained consciousness days before, but had been hesitant to call for help because of Starfire. There was no way the damnable Xu Qing was going to let hēr go. Nor would he kill hēr, as he needed hēr to stay hidden. In that case, there didn’t seem any reason to stay scared.

Bubbling with hatred, shē glared murderously at Xu Qing. “If you’ve got what it takes, kill me! I dare you!”

Xu Qing looked back at hēr coldly. “Your father ordered that I be captured, not killed.” Content originally comes from novel⸺fire.net

Hēr face stiffened, and shē prepared to talk back to him. He didn’t give hēr the chance. His hand latched onto hēr neck, and he sucked ringsource out of hēr viciously. Inside, his immortal embryo surged, and his soul injuries healed even faster.

Starryeyes wilted, but the hatred in hēr eyes became an unspoken curse. But then, his canon stabbed into hēr scapula and spread through hēr. The pain caused hēr to tremble, but at the same time… it caused ringsource to start building up in hēr again.

Xu Qing continued with the extraction.

In that manner, time passed. A few days later… Xu Qing was very close to reaching complete recovery. As for Starryeyes, shē was hardly more than skin and bones.

That was when something happened that caused Xu Qing to frown. After having been drained out over and over again, the goddess had reached a state that was similar to death. The ringsource produced had slowed to a crawl. It was as if shē had grown used to the provocation.

No further pain would cause hēr to produce any ringsource. And if he pushed things any further, it was entirely possible it could kill hēr .

When Starryeyes realized that, it no longer became possible for hēr to contain hēr hatred and rage.

“Now what are you going to do, Xu Qing??” shē screamed. “So, you’ve tormented me as much as you can? I dare you to kill me! You’ve got nothing left that you can do. I thought you were better than this!

“But guess what? There are infinite things I can do to you. One of these days, you’ll fall into my hands, and then I’ll make sure that you experience ten thousand times as much suffering as I have!”

Xu Qing looked coldly at the hysterical goddess. His eyes narrowed. He was about to return hēr to his bag of holding when he heard Starfire laugh.

“Young Lord, I’ve been watching all this time, and probably should have said something earlier. Your extraction technique isn’t very efficient.” The bewitchingly charming Starfire approached Starryeyes. Licking hēr lips, and hēr eyes glittering excitedly, shē lifted the goddess’ chin with hēr finger. “Let me give you a suggestion….”

Starryeyes had no choice but to look up at Starfire, and hēr eyes were filled with fear. Shē was suddenly feeling very uneasy.