Beyond the Timescape - Chapter 1268: A Friend Coming from Afar
Chapter 1268: A Friend Coming from Afar
Outside of the minor worlds, the fight between heaven and earth got more intense. Blood rain filled the sky, and countless imps swarmed about with axes, attacking trees and mountains alike. The lands rumbled as trees grew rapidly and fought back with great intensity.
There was also a rain of blood inside the minor worlds, as a slaughter was playing out! The howls of anguish that preceded death spread out along with intense rumbling sounds. God magics shook everything, filling the minor world with dazzling, mutlicolored light.
A deal had been worked out. And one party had demanded the complete extermination of all the other gods! Only then would the hidden fragment be revealed once again.
It was true that, from Xu Qing’s perspective, it seemed entirely possible this could be a trick. But he decided to go through with the slaughter anyway. It couldn’t be a coincidence that the little golden rat was waking up.
The blood rain in the minor world grew heavier. The corpses of gods fell out of the sky, crushing the ruins below and sending dust out. As the dust mixed with the blood rain, it turned into a blood fog. At the moment, the blood fog roiled as Xu Qing’s immortal embryo occasionally appeared and occasionally disappeared within it.
At the same time, the three Altar Gods he had noted earlier were closing in on him in the fog.
Those gods looked like an eye, an old woman, and a half-blooming half-withering tree! Thēir godly authority surged around
That was especially true of the eye with the pupil that was a bronze bell. Hīs gaze was filled with a canon that reminded Xu Qing of Zhou Zhengli. As soon as it locked onto Xu Qing in the blood fog… the bell rang, causing everything to shake. It turned into a godly voice that could strike madness into the listener.
It was locking onto Xu Qing’s soul! The color bronze spread out everywhere, infecting the blood fog and converging on Xu Qing’s flesh and blood! In addition, stardust filled with god script poured out from the eyelid of the eye, becoming a torrent that swept forth to block Xu Qing’s path forward. In the back of the eye was a suction device that resembled the hand of a buddha, and it exerted a huge gravitational force that locked onto Xu Qing, as if to drag him over to be devoured.
Meanwhile, the old woman and the tree unleashed attacks.
Within the blood fog, Xu Qing’s eyes glittered, He knew that time was of the essence, and that delays could bring unintended consequences! He needed to end the slaughter as quickly as possible.
With that thought in mind, his heart filled with determination, and he unhesitatingly gave into the gravitational force and allowed himself to be dragged toward the bronze eye. In fact, he added some of his own effort to get him to the eye faster.
The blood fog roiled, obscuring the line of sight, and making it impossible to see what fighting was going on inside. It was only possible to hear intense rumbling sounds.
That was the sound of numerous Altar Gods unleashing god magics. Mixed in were muffled grunts coming from Xu Qing, as well as the sound of a tolling bell.
An instant later, the fog thinned, and Xu Qing became visible, blood spraying out of his mouth. Astonishingly, he was right in front of the eye-shaped god. Despite being covered in blood, he didn’t hesitate for a moment to stab the iron skewer in his hand deeply into the pupil of the eye!
The bronze bell shivered and released an unprecedented scream of lamentation. Countless faces appeared on the surface of the bell, and all were writhing in agony. The weeping turned corporeal, becoming blood-red incantation text that flowed out of the eye and surrounded Xu Qing.
At the same time, a host of innumerable tentacles erupted from the eye and madly stabbed toward Xu Qing like blades. The goal was to push Xu Qing away….
Off in the distance, the other Altar Gods took advantage of the moment to rush in that direction.
A vicious look gleamed in Xu Qing’s eyes as he let the tentacles stab into him. Ignoring the injuries and the blood splashing down, he unleashed all of the power of the iron skewer. Rumbling sounds echoed out as the skewer stabbed right into the bronze pupil! The eye shivered. The bronze cracked, and golden god blood oozed out!
The power of Xu Qing’s immortal embryo erupted within him, sending terrifying immortal energy out.
The eyeball was crushed out of existence, transforming into a rain of blood that spread out everywhere. Every drop of blood reflected the host of Altar Gods and Godfire gods who had surrounded Xu Qing. The blood fog churned more!
A few breaths of time passed, whereupon an old woman appeared, racing away from the blood fog.
Behind hēr was Xu Qing, soaked in blood, stepping over some crushed crabapple flowers to give chase. He looked seriously injured. But his killing intent raged out, seemingly connected directly to the blood fog in the minor world.
Behind Xu Qing was the god that was the half-withered and half-blooming tree, whose godly authority seemed to relate to space-time. The crabapple half of the god was already withering, while the other half was collapsing into ashes. Hīs soul lamp had been extinguished, and the god soul within the lamp oil was collapsing into dust.
Xu Qing had killed the eye first because of how the eye focused on him. Next he had killed the tree. That was because the tree’s godly authority could bolster his canon, and thus, he could sustain damage to inflict fatalities. Now Xu Qing was after the old woman!
Having witnessed Xu Qing kill so many other gods in such short order, the old woman instinctively felt a sensation of deadly crisis. And now, shē just wanted to flee. Shē had no interest in participating any further.
But the fog surged out, and once again, shē was inside its borders. A moment later, a scream rang out as the blood fog finally cleared. As it did, it revealed a blood-red dome of heaven.
The old woman raced forward. However, shē was clearly in very bad shape.
Behind hēr, beneath the blood-red sky, Xu Qing hovered in the air, his robe soaked with golden god blood. Orbiting around him were 36,000 broken planets with faces on them. And every single planet had barely flickering godfire on it.
On the ground beneath him… were innumerable god corpses.
Xu Qing licked the blood off his lips and looked at the astonished and fleeing old woman. Then he suddenly vanished, leaving behind only a fleeting afterimage.
When he appeared again, he was right next to the old woman. No matter how shē tried to flee, it did no good. To hēr surprise and despair, Xu Qing reached out and stabbed the fingers of his right hand into hēr throat and squeezed down. The power of his immortal embryo surged through the old woman.
As the sound of a cracking throat rang out, golden light shone from the old woman’s eyes, only to turn turbid thanks to the surge of immortal energy. In the end, shē turned into a desiccated corpse.
Xu Qing released his grip and turned to look expressionlessly in the other direction.
The spot he was looking at shattered. The dwarf staggered out into the open, blood spraying out of hīs mouth. Hīs expression was unsightly, and hē was visibly weak. Hē was also clearly astonished.
Hē had launched some attacks earlier when in the blood fog, but had just kept getting injured. Finally, after almost getting killed, hē decided to just hide and watch. Hīs plan had been to let the other gods wear Xu Qing out and hopefully create an opportunity for hīm to launch a good attack. Hē had also hoped to eventually be able to capture Xu Qing alive.
But then a scene of slaughter played out in front of hīm, leaving hīm shaken to the core. Now hē realized how strong this opponent was, and it led to great waves of shock smashing into hīm. Then Xu Qing looked at hīm, and that gaze caused hīm to feel a profound sensation of unease.
Backing up weakly, hē said, “Fellow Daoist, the most important thing is to wake up our True God! And our True God made a promise to you…. If you and I can just get out of here, I’ll open the exit and let you leave!”
Hē knew that it wasn’t likely this cultivator would believe hīm. Hē was just hoping to provoke a bit of hesitation. And then hē could take advantage of that hesitation….
Hīs thoughts ran wild, but… before hē could settle on a good idea, hē shivered from head to toe. Then hē looked down to see that hē was melting. It had completely escaped hīs notice before, and didn’t cause any pain or other sensation. And it was caused by a black thread that had come to be wrapped around hīs ankle at some point. The thread pierced into hīs skin and went all the way to hīs god soul.
“Ancestral God!” the dwarf screamed.
Xu Qing vanished, then appeared mysteriously right in front of the dwarf god. Moving with lightning momentum, he reached his hand out, and as the chime of a bell rang out, he stabbed his finger into the dwarf’s forehead.
The dwarf’s face writhed. Hē wanted to fight back, but hīs injuries and the effects of the blood fog, combined with the god curse, had hīm weaker than ever. Add in the chime of the bell, and there was nothing hē could do. In the blink of an eye, hē shivered from head to toe. Countless streams of golden blood oozed from hīs eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, which rose into the air to form a new rain of blood. Then hīs body crumbled, and the pieces fell to the ground.
Xu Qing hovered in the air, allowing the rain of blood to fall onto his wounds. The truth was that he really had suffered some terrible wounds during the fighting, and had been suppressing their effects. After focusing his thoughts on the call that was now clear again, he determined the direction he needed to travel to follow it, and exhaustedly began to move.
Eventually, he reached the world fragment in question, and there he found evidence that indicated a golden rat had been there! There were star ring hemp fragments on the ground that formed a teleportation portal! Given the structure and layout, it did not seem to be the work of a cultivator or a god. It looked more like the result of the innate ability of the golden rat.
Xu Qing looked thoughtfully at the teleportation portal. He had no idea where the portal led to, but he could tell that after activating it, he would need two specific items to actually teleport through it.
One was some star ring hemp. The other was the chronoflitter aura of the golden rats. Without those two things, the portal couldn’t be used.
Xu Qing’s eyes narrowed. Years ago at the outer sea of the Revered Ancient mainland, I ran into the Immortal Paragon as he was chasing down a golden rat…. That was when he told me to go to the Fifth Star Ring.
And eventually, I did go to the Fifth Star Ring. Then, out on the battlefield, I accidentally ended up teleporting to the Fourth Star Ring…. While recovering in the Fourth Star Ring, I coincidentally ended up being scanned by the divine will of some True Gods, and had no choice but to come into this pocket realm to hide.
And then, I coincidentally ran into these two True Gods fighting…. After that, in another coincidence in this minor world, my golden rat woke up, and sensed a relative. Now I’m here, at a teleportation portal made of star ring hemp. Coincidentally, going through it will require me to use the last bit of star ring hemp I got from the Immortal Paragon.
Is he saving me? Or has he been trying to lead me here this entire time?
After some more thought, his eyes shone with determination. In the end, it didn’t matter. This was the only option he had. So he prepared to step into the portal. However, right then…
An ancient voice echoed through the minor world. “Young friend, I’m interested in making a second deal. Are you interested? The True Radiants’ True God wants to devour and assimilate me, and is about to succeed. But I have a secret magic that you could use to devour that True God. It would boost your ringsource, and would let me turn defeat into victory!”
Xu Qing stopped and looked up into the canopy of heaven. Looking very calm, he said, “Considering you let me in here, you obviously knew all along that karma would play out this way in your god kingdom. In that case, is this deal of yours your idea? Or is it… someone else’s idea? I’m very interested to know whether you are… a god or an immortal!”
***
Very far away from the Fourth Star Ring was the distant Ninth Star Ring. The vast expanse of the starry sky there, right in the middle, was the Revered Ancient mainland! The pressure of that ancient immortal in the starry sky grew stronger constantly, leaving all living beings feeling very anxious.
Beneath the surface of Revered Ancient was a vast subterranean location that was tightly sealed by ancient immortals. It was where the Brilliant Heaven Godfolk were. In that remote location was a dilapidated temple.
There was no statue of a god in the temple, but in one corner, a head lay there facing upward, unleashing a torrent of curses.
“All I did was steal the corpse of a peak Altar God! Because of that you fools chased me all this time? You people just wait!”
The head ground its teeth. Then, a very wild-looking old rat appeared. It had almost no fur left, as it burrowed out of nowhere next to the head. There, it made a few lazy squeaking sounds.
The head rolled into a different position so that it could look right at the rat. The head looked surprised. “Say what now? You sense a teleportation occurring very far away?”
