Beyond the Timescape

Chapter 705: Secrets of Deep Earth and Brilliant Heaven

Li Zihua’s voice contained immense profundity. Though he spoke softly, the entire red moon trembled as a result. And the sound waves caused the blood sea surrounding Crimson Mother to go still.

Xu Qing and everyone else breathed sighs of relief as they backed up. They all knew that the fight to come wasn’t something they could participate in. Not even Smoldering Gods qualified.

Crimson Mother’s face was expressionless. Flames burned to life in the bloody pits that were hēr eyes. Apparently, shē didn’t seem surprised at all to find that Li Zihua had awoken.

Crimson Mother’s voice didn’t contain even a scrap of emotion, neither joy nor sorrow, as shē said, “Dark Serenity left. Time itself changed. It’s pointless for you to have woken up, Li Zihua.”

The scene playing out was different for everyone.

Each person’s perceptions changed to accommodate what they could sustain. For example, the Heir Apparent and his siblings saw Crimson Mother as a vicious, evil, terrifying humanoid figure covered with feathers. And instead of fire burning in hēr eye sockets, shē had two stars. That was how gods worked. Because of existing on a much higher level of life, gods would look different to the eyes of different living beings.

If a god wanted to destroy a world, it was simple. The god just needed to reveal their true image into the eyes of the living beings, and death would come. That alone made it clear how terrifying the broken face of the god was, as all living beings, regardless of the level of their cultivation base, perceived hīm in the same way.

Crimson Mother’s voice echoed like thunder in the ears of Xu Qing and the others. In the blink of an eye, they were rendered powerless.

The Heir Apparent and his siblings used various methods to be able to sustain the force.

As for Xu Qing, he unhesitatingly took out a clump of clay and held it out in front of him. It was from the clay fox.

Next to him, the Captain took out a strand of hair, which was the authentication device from High God Moonfire. Although the High God had already left, the Captain still had that hair.

Only Li Zihua didn’t need anything like that. He stood silently in the Moon Palace, looking at Crimson Mother. A long moment passed.

“The mission still stands,” he said.

Those four words seemed to be profoundly irritating to Crimson Mother. More blood than ever flowed down hēr, and the vine of thorns tightened. The countless versions of hēr visible in all the pāramitā lilies suddenly looked furious.

“Mission? Do you mean Brilliant Heaven’s mission? Or are you talking about Deep Earth’s mission? Have you forgotten what happened in Brilliant Heaven, Li Zihua? We were originally born as gods. So who sealed our ancestors, ensuring that all their descendants lost their position as gods?” [1]

Li Zihua closed his eyes and shook his head. “I haven’t forgotten.”

Crimson Mother flared with blood-red light as shē started walking toward Li Zihua. “Who was it that hoisted the heavenly daos over our godly lands to suppress us? And who was it that banished us beneath the Revered Ancient mainland, and then built a cultivation world on our godly lands?”

As Crimson Mother’s voice echoed out, hēr spectacularly beautiful female features transformed. Cracks covered them, and blood-colored feathers began to replace the flesh.

“I chose godly ascension, Li Zihua, and it was no mistake. When you left, you were the same as me. Yet for some reason you chose to extinguish your godfire and betray our bloodline! You’re from Brilliant Heaven, but you chose Deep Earth instead! Well, I’m from Brilliant Heaven, and I still chose to represent Brilliant Heaven!”

As the last of hēr words left hēr mouth, shē appeared directly in front of Li Zihua. As of now, shē looked different to Xu Qing. Instead of looking like a woman, shē seemed like the same terrifying conglomeration of bloody flesh from before. And now, all of the feathers opened up, revealing an interior of blood, flesh and feathers. In the middle of it all… was a huge eye socket with no eye inside of it, only endless blood pouring out.

As Crimson Mother spoke and neared, Li Zihua did nothing but sigh. Then he lifted his right hand and pushed it toward the dome of heaven.

The sky shattered. As the pieces fell, they transformed, becoming heaven-shaking, earth-shattering streams of energy. In the end… they turned into a host of shadowy figures.

There were suns, moons, stars, and heavenly bodies, as well as animals that resembled dragons, phoenixes, and other primordial spirits. Xu Qing even spotted a golden crow. As they appeared, and as the energy swept out, the fluctuations of imperial-class techniques rose up. All of them were imperial-class techniques, from countless species. There were roughly 10,000 of them, and with one wave of his hand, Li Zihua summoned all of them.

The moment the over 10,000 imperial-class techniques appeared, they revealed their taboo essences. In the blink of an eye… it was as if the imperial-class techniques were all unsealed. Countless weapons and other objects appeared, including the destructive spear Xu Qing had found in his golden crow. 𝐟𝗿ee𝘄o𝘃el.𝐜o𝚖

They were taboo weapons!

Terrifying fluctuations rolled out as they all shot toward Crimson Mother.

Xu Qing had previously come to understand the secret of imperial-class techniques by studying the golden crow within him. He knew that each imperial-class technique was actually a sealed item that had been prohibited by the heavenly daos. Seeing them all right now caused his heart to pound. A divine ability like this seemed unimaginable. Not even Smoldering Gods could do something like this. Only an Imperial Sovereign would be able to unleash such shocking power.

Whether it was Crimson Mother’s attack or Li Zihua’s counter attack, they both surpassed what anyone present could understand. Xu Qing and everyone else coughed up mouthfuls of blood as they backed away. And the scene playing out continued to change according to what they could sustain.

Xu Qing couldn’t see Li Zihua or Crimson Mother. The shattering of the canopy of heaven was overtaken by another image. That image was made up of two colors: red and white.

The two colors crissed and crossed, then separated. The canopy of heaven was in motion as it transformed into a massive vortex. In the middle of the vortex was a solitary white eye with no pupil, but instead, a blood-red heart, the beating of which sounded like heavenly thunder. The eye was surrounded by innumerable eyelashes that were like tentacles, swaying back and forth. Occasionally, they would touch each other and form blurry shapes of a third color. That color was black, and the shapes were irregular. The moment they appeared, they would devour each other.

That was what Xu Qing saw happening in this godly battle. The fighting surpassed his own personhood, and therefore, to his eyes, the battle between Li Zihua and Crimson Mother looked like an abstract painting.

The red represented Crimson Mother, and the white represented Li Zihua. The third color was beyond Xu Qing’s comprehension, as if it related to the shadows of Li Zihua and Crimson Mother.

It made Xu Qing think of his own shadow.

The Captain was firmly gripping Moonfire’s hair, all while staring up into the canopy of heaven. “Little Ah Qing, remember what you’re seeing. This is a clash between two peak levels of life. A cultivator and a god! On one side you have the ultimate height you can reach when walking the path of cultivation. On the other side you have godly ascension, in other words, the source of great catastrophe for Revered Ancient.

“The former involves practicing cultivation until you reach the peak of life. Such cultivators are referred to in different ways. In some universes, people who reach that level are called paragons. In others, they’re called immortals. In Revered Ancient, peak cultivators like that are called Imperial Sovereigns. It’s the life dream of all cultivators.”

As the Captain spoke, his voice seemed to contain a profound level of age. “Little Junior Brother, did you know that there’s an even older legend in Revered Ancient…?”

“Legend?” Xu Qing’s heart started racing.

“According to that legend, a really long time ago, the Revered Ancient mainland didn’t look like it does now. There were no cultivators, no natural laws, no magical laws, and of course, no heavenly daos.

“The cultivators came from lower worlds. In those lower worlds, cultivators who reached the highest level of cultivation reached the Immortal level. They traveled among countless universes and worlds, unhindered and unthreatened. They controlled all natural laws, and were enlightened regarding all manners of essence. They could pierce through space-time with ease, transform all beings, and create all sorts of living things.”

Hearing this, Xu Qing felt shaken.

Looking up at the canopy of heaven, the Captain continued, in a low voice. “Immortals. Imperial Sovereigns. In some ways, they’re eternally indestructible, with longevity comparable to heaven itself, and different thoughts and desires compared to when they began their journey. And the daos they pursue are actually a starting point when they reach the end of the path of cultivation.

“Based on their unique experiences, perceptions, and ideals, those starting points are different for everyone. Some immortals go far beyond that, while others remain stuck in place. That’s why, in the previous era, only immortals could be a threat to immortals.

“In fact, as they made progress… they broke through the barriers of their world. They advanced from the lower worlds to the higher worlds, which was when the immortals came to know about another type of apex entity. The gods. That was when everything changed.

“They were told that the countless universes and worlds they knew actually didn’t belong to cultivators. The past, the present, and the future. Anything and everything. In the final analysis, it all belongs to the gods. And the gods had divided the worlds into the lower and higher.

“The lower worlds were called Deep Earth. The higher worlds were called Brilliant Heaven. At that time, the most appropriate way to describe cultivators was frogs in a well. And that… was when war broke out. The immortals and the gods battled each other. The lower worlds fought the higher worlds. In other words… it was a war between Deep Earth and Brilliant Heaven.”

The Captain stopped talking for a moment.

“How did it end?” Xu Qing asked.

“The immortals won,” the Captain said. “But they also lost. Brilliant Heaven fell, and became forbidden and sealed. The heavenly daos rose up. Natural laws brought new meaning. That was how the immortals won. But at the same time, all the immortals from the lower worlds came to realize a desperate truth.

“The massive Brilliant Heaven was just one of many major god worlds. The vast and boundless higher worlds… contained many, many such major god worlds. Brilliant Heaven was only the tip of the iceberg. And it wasn’t the strongest of them. It really and truly did belong to the gods.”

The Captain turned and looked Xu Qing in the eyes.

“Li Zihua and Crimson Mother… are both from Brilliant Heaven.”

1. As mentioned in the footnote in chapter 568.1, the term ‘Brilliant Heaven’ also appears in A World Worth Protecting, although in that novel, it’s always paired with the same term that came up in chapter 642 of this novel, ‘star ring.’ Deep Earth is also mentioned in AWWP. It’s also paired with ‘star ring.’ In other words, AWWP mentions the Brilliant Heaven star ring and the Deep Earth star ring. Both terms come up very late in the novel. From what I can tell, Brilliant Heaven is also translated as Brilliant Heaven in that novel. However, Deep Earth is translated differently. It, combined with the ‘star ring’ term, is rendered as ‘thick Saturn ring.’ That rendering is just horrifying MTL, as the original Chinese is a four-character term that, if parsed incorrectly, has the word for “Saturn” in it. However, that’s the completely incorrect way to parse the characters and interpret the term. Although the immediate context cannot prove one way or another if these terms imply a connection between the novels, it seems like the majority of Chinese readers think it does imply a connection. ☜