Beyond the Timescape

Chapter 1272: Here? Here!

The Dark Serenity God-Assimilating Incantation is a very tyrannical secret magic. It’s strong enough to assimilate the ringsource of a True God!

Xu Qing looked off into the distance, and the fog clouding his mind began to clear. He stopped using the secret magic and instead tried an ordinary collection technique on the corpse. The result was just as he had expected. It didn’t work at all.

So that’s how it is. If I want to collect from a True God, then I either have to rely on the power of the Aurora heaven beyond heaven to collect from the god imprisoned there, or I have to target lower-level gods like Starryeyes. Of those two, the first was half-returned, and thus not complete, while the other is seriously injured, and has dropped in cultivation level.

As for this god corpse, the ringsource is fading after death. The sourcefiends are devouring it, and the motherworld is absorbing it…. That’s why ordinary collection techniques don’t work at all. I can only use the domineering Dark Serenity God-Assimilating Incantation to succeed.

With it, I can counteract the effects of this locale that drains ringsource. And that means I can actually stay here safely. Except, there’s no way the Immortal Paragon just wants me to come here, absorb god corpses, and improve my cultivation level!

Xu Qing’s eyes narrowed. From what he could tell, the Immortal Paragon was the type of person who crafted plans within plans within plans.

I’m probably just one part of the overall plan. Or maybe I’m just here to help! Perhaps my presence here is the mere foundation for something else….

In other words, I probably don’t need to sit around trying to figure out what the Immortal Paragon is planning. I should just wait and see. The truth about his plan will probably be revealed unexpectedly at some point. Unfortunately, I am not fond of arrangements like that!

Xu Qing didn’t like it when his fate was manipulated by others, even if it was the Immortal Paragon himself.

That said, when he assessed the situation honestly, he had to admit that after coming to the Fifth Star Ring from the Revered Ancient mainland, everything he had done had been his own choice. But at the same time, it seemed that the Immortal Paragon had been watching over him, ensuring that he never ran into too much trouble to handle. He had long come to sense that.

Sighing, he focused on absorbing the ringsource, keeping some for himself and giving some to Starfire. After taking enough to counteract the effects of his surroundings, he settled cross-legged to focus on building another stockpile.

A few days later, the god corpse had sunk all the way down into the glacier. As the sourcefiends looked on with their blue eyes, Xu Qing flew up and then sped along over the surface of the primeval motherworld.

The ringsource I’ve taken so far is enough to keep Starfire and I going for a number of days. Going forward, I need to explore this place a bit more. Naturally speaking, the ideal outcome would be to find an exit. As for the Immortal Paragon’s plan… I guess I’ll consider it as a debt owed. Until the plan is revealed, I’ll just focus on my cultivation.

With that decision made, he sent some ringsource to Starryeyes. After all… he didn’t want the goddess to die. That wouldn’t do any good. As far as Xu Qing was concerned, if shē was going to die, it needed to benefit him in some way.

And thus, half a month went by.

There was no division between day and night on the primeval motherworld. But there was occasional dark-green moonlight that allowed Xu Qing to track time according to the timekeeping standards of the Revered Ancient mainland.

During the time that passed, he saw a lot of god corpses fall from the sky. Most of them crumbled in the process of falling, turning into ashes. Some, those who were Altar Gods or higher, didn’t completely crumble, and landed on the glacier as mostly intact corpses that slowly sank down.

Seems Starryeyes wasn’t lying after all…. Gods under the True God level who develop the godrot come back here and become nutrients. Only True Gods land as intact corpses. Seems to me that ‘primeval motherworld’ isn’t the best description of this place. Calling it a ‘corpseworld’ would make more sense. It’s like hell itself.

Xu Qing looked up as a Godfire god crumbled into ashes. Beneath the glacier underfoot were countless sourcefiends staring at him. And amidst the hordes of sourcefiends was a temple that the moonlight barely reached.

Xu Qing looked down at the glacier, his eyes glittering coldly. During the half month that had passed, he hadn’t just explored the topside of the glacier. He had also gone down below, where he had found a total of three additional temples. All of them, without exception, were surrounded by endless corpses and innumerable sourcefiends.

Xu Qing had not held back any ringsource. He had unleashed all his battle prowess to fight his way through them. Inside each of the three temples, he had found a bronze door. Unfortunately, no matter what efforts he made, the bronze doors were as useless as the door in the temple he had arrived in.

Apparently, the doors in the temples lead the way into this location, but are not exits to the outside.

Xu Qing had also come to a conclusion about the sourcefiends. There’s a definite connection between the temples and the sourcefiends.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t sure of the specifics. Contemplating such things, he flew up into the air. He needed to find some more fallen god corpses to replenish the ringsource he had used and also bolster Starfire. He had grown used to this process over the last half month. Though he hadn’t found any True God corpses like the very first one he’d encountered, there were other corpses he could make use of, though most were in bad shape.

The ringsource those gods provided wasn’t as amazing as that of the True God, which had provided enough in one shot to keep him going for days. But after absorbing from multiple corpses, he would get what he needed to continue exploring.

Days passed. Xu Qing would replenish his ringsource, then widen his search of the primeval motherworld. Unfortunately, nothing atop the glacier changed. It was always black, and it always went on forever.

Other than the sourcefiends under the glacier and the god corpses falling from above, he didn’t see anything. He was the only living being in the world, flying along endlessly alone. He was slowly getting numb to it all. But then… on one particular day, he stopped in place and looked off into the distance, his eyes glittering.

“Is that…?”

Shockingly, a great distance away on the glacier, he had spotted a massive crevice! It was like a gigantic, ghastly canyon. This was the first unusual terrain feature he had encountered in this place!

His spirits lifted, and he raced along like a shooting star to appear right above the canyon! Looking down at it, he realized it resembled a wound. And it was so long and deep that his senses couldn’t penetrate it. But there was something even more shocking….

The opposing walls of the valley, from top to bottom, were covered with innumerable bronze doors. Some of the doors were sealed with ice. Others were half-exposed. Yet others were completely out in the open.

If that were all there were to it, Xu Qing wouldn’t have been so taken aback. But what really caused his pupils to constrict was that there were sourcefiends seated cross-legged around all of the exposed doors. These sourcefiends were different from the ones he had seen. Thēy didn’t just have blue arms. Thēy were completely blue from head to toe, and thēy looked almost exactly like the one inside his Eldest Brother.

Wait, no. The one in Eldest Brother is a dark blue color. These ones… thēy’re light blue!

Xu Qing’s guard went up. Having fought many sourcefiends, he knew what thēy were like and how difficult thēy could be to deal with. But this was his first time seeing any that were pure blue. And there were a lot of thēm. It seemed that just as he caught sight of thēm, quite a few of thēm looked over at him with blue eyes.

Xu Qing didn’t make any sudden moves. Similarly, the sourcefiends didn’t move either. Thēy just looked at him. Xu Qing slowly backed up, and the sourcefiends looked away from him.

Thēy’re not coming out….

Given everything he had experienced so far in this place, Xu Qing was certain that the valley… would be an extremely dangerous location to enter.

But why are thēy all sitting there by those bronze doors?

He frowned, then settled cross-legged in midair to study the sourcefiends. A few days later, something happened in the valley that dispelled much of his confusion. One of the bronze doors at the very bottom of the valley slowly opened. Godly chanting drifted out from inside.

“Kan Shan… Kan Shan….”

The godly voice seemed to contain the power of the star ring, and it stirred the local mutagen, causing it to converge in the form of a god talisman. It floated out of the door! And it shot right toward the nearest sourcefiend!

The god talisman seemed infinitely ancient, and it contained unimaginable mysteries. But all it took was one glance at it for Xu Qing’s heart to start pounding. He immediately backed up. As for the sourcefiend, īts eyes became more intensely blue, and then īt let loose a raging howl. It was as if the god talisman was a tribulation īt had to face, and thus, īt howled maniacally as the talisman approached.

As Xu Qing watched, the talisman and the sourcefiend collided. Next, golden light shone from the god talisman, while the sourcefiend shone with a blue glow. It looked like the two were trying to devour each other.

But the convergence of the blue and gold was like boiling water meeting a snowflake. The blue glittered, but in the end, couldn’t fight back, and was wiped out by the golden light from the god talisman. And then… it was as if the god talisman sucked all the life out of the sourcefiend. In the middle of the god talisman, bones appeared, then meridians and veins, and then flesh….

It became a god body! It surged with endless life force! A new god had been born!

The aura of a True God surged from the god body. And before the body could awaken, the bronze door sucked the body in. It vanished completely.

Xu Qing watched the whole thing happen, his heart pounding the entire time.

This is how new gods are reconstructed in this place! The reconstruction process requires a carrier in the form of a sourcefiend of blue ice. What came floating out of the door… was a true name!! The true name is imprinted and transferred to a new god. And the sourcefiend can’t do anything about it. It’s like predestination!

Xu Qing’s heart was racing.

Does that mean that I came out of that bronze door in the same manner as a true name?

He wasn’t sure. But as he looked at the sourcefiends and the bronze doors, he couldn’t help but think of his Eldest Brother!

It seems more than ever that Eldest Brother… is very unique! Whenever he goes all out, a sourcefiend comes out of his chest. It almost seems like he and the sourcefiend are occupying one body! What’s more, Eldest Brother certainly does have undying characteristics!

***

A god fell from the sky off in the distance. The body had been on quite a journey. As the corpse fell to the ground, it didn’t break apart. It was the corpse of a True God!

When Xu Qing spotted it, he settled his thoughts. His eyes glittered. Assimilating damaged gods was very limiting. It was nothing like dealing with the corpse of a True God! Xu Qing blurred into motion toward the corpse.

***

Inside that very corpse, Immortal Fairy Spirit Phoenix opened her eyes.

“Husband, we’ve arrived.”

Young Lord Aurora opened his eyes and looked around calmly. He was about to speak, when all of a sudden a strange expression overtook the calmness on his face. “Hmm?”