Beyond the Timescape - Chapter 1157: Fishing!
Chapter 1157: Fishing!
Xu Qing’s goal was very simple. The outsiders he had not yet identified were extraordinary individuals. Not one of them could be considered a simpleton. Unless it was absolutely necessary, they weren’t going to risk revealing themselves the way Li the Chosen had. And unless they did reveal themselves, finding them would be as difficult as fishing a needle from the sea. Each of them had their own unique goals and plans, making it that much more difficult to identify them. And if they knew someone was coming after them, they would work even harder to maintain their cover.
It was less of an issue for those who wanted to create waves in space-time. Xu Qing was fairly confident that he would be able to find them eventually. After all, they would eventually be like flames in the night, easy to spot. Good examples were Li the Chosen, Li Mengtu as Zhong Chi, and Zhou Linshan, who was the daughter of Nineshores, commonly referred to as Immortal Fairy Spirit Phoenix. All of them were using him as an anchor point.
Unfortunately, the whole process would take time. What was more, it was hard to say how many of the outsiders wanted to cause waves in space-time, and how many of them wanted to protect the status quo and just watch things play out as they did historically speaking. If they truly just played the role of spectators, it was going to be difficult to identify them.
All he could do was keep looking. Otherwise….
Since I have no way to immediately locate the hidden outsiders, then the first rumor I spread will at least tell them they need to exercise greater cautions. That way, even if I don’t find them, at least Fourth True Monarch will have to work a lot harder to do the same. As for the second rumor….
Inside Young Aurora Hall, Xu Qing was looking out at the sky.
It will force him even more into the open. The rumors could directly blow his cover.
Xu Qing’s eyes glittered. It didn’t matter whether or not the inhabitants of this time period believed the rumors. The important thing was that other outsiders be given some serious food for thought. They were being sent a message. At the same time, he was already creating a wave in history.
In the situation with Li the Chosen, I won the first half of the round, but lost to Fourth True Monarch in the second half. As for the current situation, I don’t yet know how Fourth True Monarch is going to react. If he gets bogged down trying to prove he’s not an outsider, all the better for me.
Right now, the most important thing for him to do was stay hidden and keep his eyes open. He wanted to see how the immortal palace would react to the tempest caused by the rumors, and what the ramifications might be.
In addition to the advantage I have because I’m still in hiding, there’s a second upside I have in this game of history….
He looked in the direction of the Hundred Flowers Palace. Nobody had any idea that Starfire was here! Everyone else who had entered the fourth world was leaving clues behind that astute observers would eventually be able to notice. But not Starfire. had not left any clues at all, and thus, was going to be a huge asset to Xu Qing.
***
A few days later….
The rumors brought mixed results. Though they spread far and wide in the immortal palace, in the end, the inhabitants of the time period found the rumors to be laughable. After all, this was the Aurora Immortal Palace!
It was true that the different Immortal Lords in the Fifth Star Ring had all come from different minor worlds, and didn’t always get along perfectly. There were occasional conflicts. But… in a general sense, they were all unified around common ideals.
Even more important, the Immortal Paragon was always there, mighty above all else. And he wouldn’t possibly allow significant conflicts to arise between the Immortal Lords. Because of that, most people felt that it didn’t matter one way or another if there were outsiders possessing certain individuals in the immortal palace.
Beyond that, astute individuals could tell that the rumors had obviously been spread for a specific reason. And that was especially true considering that they directly called out Fourth True Monarch. Most of the cultivators in the palace chose to just wait and see what happened.
In contrast, the outsiders in hiding were exceptionally vigilant. Although they had different perspectives, all of them were able to come up with valid speculations about what was really going on.
At the moment, Li Mengtu in the guise of Zhong Chi was listening in on a group of immortal palace cultivators conversing about the subject. Of course, he was as on guard as ever. This feels like an actual war…. Just as I suspected, Fourth True Monarch is an outsider. The real question now is who started spreading the rumors. Who warned everybody? I wonder if that Diling fellow managed to get my message to Xu Qing. Did he make it here to the fourth world?
In a guest hall in the south of the immortal palace, Immortal Fairy Spirit Phoenix sat cross-legged, listening to a handmaiden deliver a report. Though she looked like she was bored, she was actually paying very close attention. Fourth True Monarch? No wonder he suddenly showed up to that duel between Li the Chosen and Young Lord Aurora. Li the Chosen was completely exposed at that point. However, it seems like Fourth True Monarch wants to prevent any changes to history, which means the two of us don’t have any conflict with each other. I do need to stay careful, though.
There were people thinking similar thoughts all throughout the immortal palace.
It was the same in the sword furnace. Hordeslayer and Rampart were so perfectly hidden it didn’t seem anyone could find them. However, after Fourth True Monarch had come to them, the brothers had been trying to figure out where they went wrong. Unfortunately, they lacked clues to work with. And then the rumors reached them….
“Someone’s targeting him,” Rampart said via divine will.
“Let them fight,” replied Hordeslayer with a cold snort. “It has nothing to do with us. We can just patiently wait for time to pass until the sword embryo is at its peak state. The main thing I’m wondering about now is who started the rumors.”
***
Zhou Zhengli was in True Monarch Hall, looking at Sir Star Ring, who was seated a short distance away. Keeping his voice low, he said, “There’s a distinct possibility that this is the work of Li the Chosen. But it’s also possible that Sir Vilespirit is responsible! Either way, the result is that we’re in a passive position now.”
“There’s no need for alarm,” Sir Star Ring replied calmly. “You’re falling right into the trap of whoever’s orchestrating this. What’s more… you’re still forgetting someone. No one we know would do this. He has to be the one behind it all.”
Zhou Zhengli thought back to that person he’d seen with Li Mengtu before they’d all entered the immortal palace. “You’re talking about that guy we saw at the entrance? The one who has canon but isn’t one of the Shining Stars?”
“Exactly,” Sir Star Ring said. He looked out the door of the hall and into the sky, his eyes glittering menacingly. “If I just ignore the rumors, I won’t have to waste time trying to prove who I am. A person with an identity like mine wouldn’t pay attention to such rumors anyway.
“The rumors don’t matter. What matters is finding the rumor monger! Thankfully, the act of spreading these rumors has revealed a bit about who this person is. I already have a theory.” Sir Star Ring’s gaze shifted… to the east, toward Young Aurora Hall! “I truly hope it’s the person who I suspect. If it is, things are going to get interesting.”
With that, Sir Star Ring stood and began walking away.
When Zhou Zhengli realized he was planning to leave, he said, “Exalted one, how are you going to respond to all this?”
Sir Star Ring didn’t bother looking back. As he walked out of the hall, he said, “I’d originally been planning to throw some threats around to certain people. This just gives me the perfect reason to do so. By the way, you don’t need to constantly try to feign weakness. You know full well what you should be doing in this situation. It’s time for you to go handle the matter I assigned to you before.”[1]
With that, Sir Star Ring vanished.
Zhou Zhengli’s only reaction was a very faint smile. Rumors amount to covert plotting. And the only way to deal with covert plotting is with overt plotting. Unfortunately, considering I’m working with someone so outstanding, I have no choice but to feign weakness, do I?[2]
***
It was midday.
Sir Star Ring materialized outside of the sword furnace and coolly said, “Someone got antsy, so tonight, I’m expelling them as an example.”
He spoke with calm confidence, and didn’t even bother waiting to see how Hordeslayer and Rampart would react before leaving.
When he reappeared, he was in the university’s secluded meditation facilities, where Li the Chosen was located. He said exactly the same thing in exactly the same tone.
Next, he arrived at the guest hall. He and Immortal Fairy Spirit Phoenix did not meet in person. He just stood outside and said the same thing. He did not speak the words out loud, but instead, said them directly into her mind. Even as she stirred in shock, Fourth True Monarch disappeared.
He didn’t just visit them. An instant later, he materialized in front of Li Mengtu, who was on his way to Young Aurora Hall in the guise of Zhong Chi.
Li Mengtu’s heart sank, but he made sure to keep a respectful expression on his face. As he bowed in greeting, Fourth True Monarch said the same words as before. Then he continued on to other locations.
It didn’t take long for him to visit all of the people he was certain were outsiders. All of them could sense the somber nature of the words he spoke to them. He was telling them very clearly what he was going to do. And it would happen that very night!
Midday passed and the sun set. Everything seemed peaceful and calm, but there were undercurrents. Eventually, night fell. Stars twinkled in the sky as the moon slowly rose and cast out gentle, silvery light. It was like gauze that covered the entire immortal palace. The darkness of night added something mysterious to the palace, making the people seem like mirages in a dream. In those mirages, immortal music drifted and immortal fairies danced gracefully.
Hordeslayer and Rampart were completely on guard in the sword furnace. Immortal Fairy Spirit Phoenix waited in combat readiness in the guest hall. Li Mengtu had not yet gone back into Young Aurora Hall. He was waiting outside.
The night became deep. The bright moonlight glittered on the lavish decorations in the palace, making them glitter like stars….
***
In an office in the Scourgebolt Palace, which managed the Scourgebolt Cliffs, one of the corrections officers opened his eyes.
He was a middle-age man with a resolute expression on his face. He was currently standing and fiddling with a jade slip. The jade slip contained an operations diagram of the immortal palace. It explained all the deployments and duty shifts, information from the spell formations, and most importantly, it explained what the highest ranking true monarchs were doing. The corrections officer looked at the jade slip, and his eyes glittered.
Selling this information will constitute a betrayal of the immortal palace, and it will definitely create waves. And the waves from a betrayal like that will be more than enough to satisfy the broken sword within me.
1. What I’m rendering as ‘feign weakness’ actually has a slightly different dictionary definition. It took me a while, but I eventually realized that the author is not using it in the way it’s defined in the dictionary. It really caused a lot of trouble for me as I struggled to justify the dictionary definition with the way it’s used with Zhou Zhengli. In the end, I talked it over with Madam Deathblade and decided to render the term as ‘feign weakness.’ The reason, as you can see here and as will become more obvious in coming chapters, Zhou Zhengli is putting on a show of humility and ineptitude as a tactic to get what he wants. Unfortunately, this is actually the exact opposite of the dictionary definition of the term. In dictionaries (both in English and Chinese), the definition term is defined as: “to hide your incompetence by remaining silent.” He is actually intentionally acting incompetent to try to hide his true strength/skill/intentions. Much later on, the author uses a different word to describe Zhou Zhengli, and it’s basically the same word used to describe Seventh Peak traditions back in the day, i.e. deceptive, or “hiding/concealing (the truth about oneself)”. This kind of thing is not important enough to talk with the author about. He is either intentionally or unintentionally using the word in a different way than its dictionary definition. He does this thing occasionally with other words, idioms, etc. By the way, the reason I’m putting this explanation here is A) because I think it’s interesting and B) I know there are people who occasionally check the Chinese or perhaps have read in Chinese, and might be curious about why I make the translation choices I do. I’m not including it as a way to solicit input or advice about other ways I could have translated the term. ☜
2. Although my translation is accurate, it lacks some of the nuance of the original Chinese. The term for plot/conspiracy in Chinese takes the character for stratagem/plan/scheme and adds the yin character to the front (from yin and yang). As I’m sure many of you know, when it comes to yin and yang, the yin side generally refers to things that are feminine, dark, soft, and hidden. So in Chinese, a plot/conspiracy is a “yin stratagem” or perhaps you could say a “hidden stratagem.” Well, there’s also a common term that adds the yang character instead of the yin one. So in that case, it’s a “yang stratagem” or perhaps you could say an “open/overt stratagem.” Both terms are used here, and I’m rendering them as covert plotting and overt plotting to try to maintain a little bit of the wordplay element that you have in Chinese. ☜
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