Beyond the Timescape

Chapter 706: Why Didn’t You Call Me Over Earlier?

Imperial Sovereign Li Zihua and Crimson Mother fought back and forth in the dome of heaven, and to those below, it still seemed like an abstract painting.

As for Xu Qing, his heart was pounding. Immortals… Imperial Sovereigns… Deep Earth… Brilliant Heaven… major god worlds….

The Captain’s words struck his sea of consciousness like bolts of lightning. This information was new to Xu Qing. During his enlightenment of the God Decapitation Altar, he had come to realize that Li Zihua and Crimson Mother weren’t from Revered Ancient, and instead came from a forbidden world. As it turned out, that place really was known as Brilliant Heaven.

And though Xu Qing had long come to realize that the Captain knew a lot of things, at the moment, he couldn’t help but inhale deeply and ask, “How do you know so many secrets, Eldest Brother?”

The Captain smiled enigmatically. “I said it was a legend, little Junior Brother. What, you actually think it’s all true?”

Xu Qing looked at the Captain. “How many lives have you lived, Eldest Brother?”

The Captain blinked a few times. He was actually very pleased to see Xu Qing reacting like this. Inside he was thinking, Oh, little Junior Brother, at long last you’re coming to realize how awesome your Eldest Brother is, huh?

The Captain cleared his throat. “Before heaven existed, I was there; when there was no earth, I had already been born.”

“I think you need to stop hanging around Wu Jianwu so much, Eldest Brother.” Xu Qing looked away from the Captain. It didn’t matter whether or not the Captain’s story was a legend, and it also didn’t matter how many lives he had lived. What was important was what was happening right now.

Xu Qing looked up into the sky at the battle of the gods. Because of his personhood and perceptions, he couldn’t see what the fighting was actually like. But he knew that this battle was both critical and meaningful. After all, this was a battle between a cultivator and a god, which was something very few cultivators would ever be able to witness.

Heart filling with determination, he stimulated the violet crystal so that its healing powers spread through his body. Then he gathered taboo poison in his eyes. In the shortest of moments, his eyes turned pitch black.

There was more than that, though. He also unleashed his red moon authority, causing blood to swirl around him and form a vortex.

With those two godly powers, he looked up into the sky. The ‘painting’ up above changed! The abstract image shifted, almost like a flower blooming. As the effect spread, the two colors within the image intersected. That intersection lasted for a very long time, and at the same time, lasted only for an instant.

Next, the image blurred, and within that blur, Xu Qing saw a person.

It was Li Zihua. He was in human form as he fought Crimson Mother. Every single attack involved hurling natural laws of Revered Ancient at Crimson Mother.

The heavenly daos were like furnaces that constantly bolstered his battle prowess. Their fight was not taking place in a single aspect of space-time. Instead, there were countless aspects of space-time in which they attacked. The scene was very similar to what happened when the gaze of the broken face affected the red moon.

Numerous taboo weapons screamed toward Crimson Mother with heaven-destroying, earth-extinguishing power. Just before striking the target, the weapons would change. Instead of looking like weapons, they looked like gods. It was as if they had actually been gods in the past. Now they had been unsealed and driven to action!

The fighting seemed simplistic, but Xu Qing realized that was because of the limitations of his perception. If he actually saw the real fighting, he would be destroyed in body and soul. That said, watching Li Zihua in action was deeply moving to Xu Qing.

I never realized the natural laws of heavenly daos could be used in this way. That makes sense considering that heavenly daos act like furnaces in the secret troves of Spirit Trove cultivators. But in reality… in the hands of high-level cultivators, the ancient heavenly daos of Revered Ancient can also be furnaces.

According to the Captain, Revered Ancient’s ancient heavenly daos were created by the earliest inhabitants…. In that case, that means heavenly daos are actually precious treasures created by cultivators!

Wherever cultivators go, the first thing they need to do is create heavenly daos! Doesn’t that indicate that once your cultivation reaches a certain level, you can take your heavenly dao and put it into the orbital track of your world… just like the godchild of the Red Moon Cathedral when igniting his godfire?

Xu Qing’s secret trove appeared behind him, and based on this understanding, he started making some adjustments.

The bluegreen dragon was there, and it wasn’t just a furnace. It was also a weapon.

But Xu Qing had learned more than just that.

As it turns out, the taboo weapons can change in another way. The weapon form is only their exterior shell, not their essence! Their essences… look like gods! Don’t tell me it’s because the taboo weapons sealed inside the imperial-class techniques are actually gods that were defeated in the war between immortals and gods that the Captain just mentioned?

Xu Qing felt like his mind was tearing apart. What he was seeing, and the thoughts that filled him, made him feel like he was being pushed to the limits of his ability. Yet again, the blurred image he was seeing changed into an abstract painting. Xu Qing once more looked at the fighting between Li Zihua and Crimson Mother.

Crimson Mother was no longer beautiful like before. Hēr form was difficult to describe. Simply put, Xu Qing perceived hēr as being a combination of a human body and a mass of fleshy feathers dripping with blood. Sometimes shē was more like a woman, sometimes more like the fleshy feathers. The combination was profoundly gruish. Red threadworms swirled around hēr, vicious in appearance, with terrifying auras and the power of the red moon. Apparently, they were manifestations of red moon authority. Actually, it wasn’t appropriate to use the word ‘apparently.’ The proper word was ‘definitely’!

When Xu Qing looked at them, he experienced a sensation of familiarity. And he also got the distinct sensation that the threadworms were looking at him. His mind spun and blood oozed out of his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. As he staggered backward, he coughed up mouthful after mouthful of blood, and his body began to decay, with bits of flesh sloughing off him everywhere.

The canopy of heaven was already like an abstract painting, and as he looked down, he saw everything rippling and distorting. Although the sensation ended almost as soon as it began, Xu Qing still felt like his mind was being ripped apart.

“Red moon….”

Looking down at the ground beneath his feet, he realized he could never forget what he had just seen.

Based on what he had just seen, the red moon wasn’t made up of soil and rocks. It was made of countless red threadworms! It was like a lair of worms! And beneath all of the countless red threadworms that made up the red moon, in the very depths, there was a gaze.

That gaze was cold, yet it felt familiar to Xu Qing. But as everything rippled and went back to normal, Xu Qing had no way to probe for further details. He focused on the power of the violet crystal, coughing up blood as he recovered. As he stabilized, the fighting above changed again.

Apparently, the right combination of determination and opportunity had arrived, as High God Moonfire’s ancient wooden door was back. The door was much larger than last time, so much so that it seemed like the entire sky was the door.

And then the door opened!

A huge figure emerged. At first glance, the figure was the size of a normal person. With the next glance, the figure was incomparably large, so large that it seemed impossible to determine its actual size. Countless antlers like that of a deer grew out of hēr head, so many of them that they almost resembled the branches of a tree. In the middle of the antlers was a gray moon that pulsed with a sensation of destruction and death. The head didn’t appear to be either male or female. It was a skull with empty eye sockets that burned with gray fire. And the mouth was nothing but a jagged hole. The body was humanoid, with hands covered in so much blood it looked like a pair of red gloves. The body was covered with gray hair that swayed back and forth like clothing. The only part with no hair was the belly, which was a black hole that contained starlight, as if it was its own universe.

This was High God Moonfire.

Like Crimson Mother, it wasn’t possible for Xu Qing and the others to look directly at hēr, so their perceptions automatically changed until shē looked like a middle-aged woman in a gray robe. The woman had pronounced cheekbones and an ice-cold expression. Shē had very unique features that some people would find beautiful, while other people wouldn’t.

High God Moonfire strode to the abstract painting, and as soon as shē touched it, the painting changed. There was now another color inside. Gray, which mixed with the white and red. As a result, a third shadow appeared.

The Captain backed up until he was standing next to Xu Qing. Looking up at the painting in the sky, he proudly said, “My ex-wife is a real foodie. I was sure she would show up eventually. What do you think? Is my ex-wife pretty or what?”

Xu Qing ignored the Captain and kept his eyes on the painting.

The Heir Apparent and the others had serious expressions on their faces as they watched the fighting and similarly ignored the Captain. Thanks to the blessing of Fifth Sister, Eighth Sib had returned to life in Princess Brightblossom’s river of time. Though he was incredibly weak, he couldn’t help but comment on the situation.

“We’re not blind. We can see what the old freak looks like. Erniu… I never realized you had such unusual taste. You can even accept something like that…? That said, I’m curious. That hole in hēr belly. Did you do that?”

Eighth Sib’s tongue was as sharp as ever despite him being injured. When the Captain heard his words, his face twitched.

Turning to Eighth Sib, he said, “Well, Grandpa Eighth—”

“So, it was you,” Eighth Sib said with a thoughtful nod. “No wonder shē hates you so much. In fact, she didn’t even look at you just now. Come on, Erniu, you’ve got to spill the beans. What other offensive things did you do to her? If we handed you over, would your ex-wife be happy? Would she fight a bit harder?”

Fifth Sister and Princess Brightblossom both looked over thoughtfully at the Captain.

Looking visibly alarmed, the Captain said, “You’ve got it all wrong. I was actually joking around before. High God Moonfire isn’t really my ex-wife. I just said that randomly….” As if to prove his point, the Captain quickly took out a peach and bit into it. “I love peaches! And my Lady Peachy is waiting for me back in Sea-Sealing County.”

Eighth Sib looked at him suspiciously. At this point, even the Heir Apparent was looking at the Captain.

“I think we should take Eighth Sib’s suggestion seriously,” the Heir Apparent said.

The Captain inhaled sharply, and was about to launch into another explanation when Ninth Sib suddenly spoke up.

“Another one’s coming out!”

The sky suddenly changed color again, as if a sheet were being drawn over it. On that sheet was a painting.

The last time Xu Qing saw that image, it had been dark and shadowy, but this time it shone with warm light. It depicted a blue sky and a vast sea. In the sky flew innumerable fish. Whales even floated along. It was extremely beautiful. In the sea below, countless birds swam through the water, adding to the beauty. A divine likeness sat cross-legged between the sea and the sky. [1]

The statue was a large clay fox, clad in a red robe, emanating golden light that illuminated the sea and the sky with holiness. The fox appeared to be the ruler of that world, commanding ultimate respect.

Hēr eyelashes fluttered, and hēr eyes opened. Then, shē walked forward, swaying out of the painting with seductive grace. As shē emerged, hēr appearance changed. Now shē looked like a charming, beautiful young woman. The gauzy dress was draped over fair skin in a very attractive manner. Shē had an ample chest, long legs, and a tail that swished back and forth behind hēr. All-in-all, shē was profoundly flirtatious. Hēr soft curves and innate charming nature were unforgettable, and shē was so tantalizing that any man who looked at hēr would be filled with temptation.

After walking out of the painting and into the Moon Palace, shē looked around, and hēr eyes focused, not on the battle of gods, but on Xu Qing. Shē smiled charmingly.

“Ever since you left, you naughty little boy, my entire life has consisted of two things. Thinking about you, and waiting for you. Why didn’t you call me over earlier? I’ve been waiting this whole time!”

Hēr words, coupled with hēr bewitching gaze and the way hēr lips curled into a faint smile, made it clear shē was trying to seduce him.

Xu Qing didn’t say anything.

The Captain, meanwhile, was very taken aback. He looked at the gray color in the sky, and then at the flirtatious woman. He was really at a loss for words.

The Heir Apparent and his siblings all looked at the Captain, especially Eighth Sib, who sighed loudly.

“The two definitely aren’t on the same level.”

1. Xu Qing previously saw this image in chapter 663. ☜