Beyond the Timescape [Wuxiaworld]

The area high above the cloud canopy of Revered Ancient had been empty for aeons. But after Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity left and the gods came, something came to exist at the peak of the Revered Ancient sky. It was a godwarding. It was like a hex, invisible and undetectable, but as functional as a lid that made it impossible to get in or out of the world.

Only someone like Li Zihua, who was an Altar God, could surpass it. There were no other exceptions. After Dark Serenity and the emperors of other species left to establish the holy lands, people who reached the Altar God level were so rare as to be nonexistent.

Even Flawless Gods could only long to reach that level. Although they didn’t have to deal with tribulations that came from beyond their omniscience, the requirements to succeed were still staggering.

In these circumstances, the only way to succeed at Altar God would be to wage war on other gods and devour the losers.

Wars between gods weren’t things that happened casually. Gods didn’t start wars lightly, and unlike cultivators, were not used to dealing with suffering.

But to the living beings of Revered Ancient, their home was, just as the Church of Departure taught, like a prison cage. And the godwarding was the cage door. It cut off freedom and made it impossible to be unrestrained. The living beings had no choice but to wait until the day Revered Ancient was completely devoured. Death was the only way to escape from the sea of bitterness. There was no fighting back. There was no escaping.

That was Revered Ancient’s fate, as decided by the broken face of the god. Hē devoured heavenly daos, surpassing all else. Hē was like the will of heaven to Revered Ancient, and the decider of fate. Who could possibly defy the will of heaven itself?

But today there was an exception. Someone had turned the impossible into the possible. In an outrageous and daring act, they borrowed power from an upgrading god domain as well as karma from Crimson Mother, to burrow through the sky, defy heaven, and escape from within the prison cage! It was essentially a jailbreak!

When the emperor’s corpse, which was under the control of Xu Qing and the Captain, appeared in front of the broken face, there were powerful experts from many species on Revered Ancient who couldn’t stop shocked looks from appearing on their faces. Many of them emerged from their secluded meditation facilities and flew up into the air looking flabbergasted. They were shocked first by the jailbreak, second by the recklessness on display, and third by the entire scenario.

“Someone got out!”

“This....”

“What a waste! An opportunity like this is unheard-of. If we got a chance like this we would definitely escape this cage!”

“What a pity. What a real pity! This will probably never happen again!’

The three gods all had different facial expressions. Sunfire looked grim, with cold eyes. Moonfire’s face flashed back and forth between different expressions. Only Starfire had a thoughtful expression.

The focus of all those gazes and streams of divine will, the emperor’s corpse, was being guided by the Captain and Xu Qing right toward one of the drops of blood. They didn’t waste any time. In the blink of an eye, they closed in, one full of craziness and greed, the other full of excitement and hunger.

When the corpse entered the blood, an immense force of resistance sprang up along with terrifying pressure. A will that could wipe out all else erupted wildly. The terrifying power didn’t just come from the sea of blood. It also came from the holy broken face so close by. This spot was so close to the broken face that no living being had ever been here before. Naturally, the broken face’s aura was horrifying. Even if the three gods were here, they would only last for a certain amount of time before they were destroyed in body and soul.

The Captain had come fully prepared, yet he was already showing signs of physical collapse.

Given the limited time, the Captain and Xu Qing were going all out. They could sense the extreme danger around them, yet their course had already been set.

It took one breath of time to enter the sea of blood. By the time the second breath of time arrived, the Captain had already opened his mouth wide to start madly devouring whatever was on the outside.

However, after only one mouthful, the Captain exploded. He formed anew in an instant. Looking pale and a bit taken aback, he opened his mouth again. But this time, it seemed he was preparing to use a different method rather than direct absorption. At the same time, he looked like he was ready to risk being smashed to death as long as he could absorb enough of what he wanted.

Xu Qing was also going crazy. After taking in one mouthful, his void soil went wild, and his cultivation base rose dramatically. Most shocking of all was that over a hundred lineaments of godly authority appeared in his void soil. Up to this point, he’d only built up four lineaments. Yet one mouthful of blood provided over a hundred! It just went to show how terrifying the blood was!

Unfortunately, the lineaments of godly authority were faint. In fact, they weren’t even material. They were faint projections that would require enlightenment to fully manifest. Even still, they were exceptional!

Xu Qing had been prepared for something amazing, but this was such a shock he couldn’t have been more excited. His hunger was already gone! In fact, he was now feeling full!

Now, all of this takes a bit of time to describe, but the reality is that it happened in an instant. Gritting his teeth, Xu Qing ignored the fact that he was full and continued to put everything on the line. There was no way he would be satisfied with only one bite. After the second breath of time ended, the third began, and he opened his mouth and took another big mouthful.

At the same time, he fully tapped into the violet crystal. If there was anything that could sustain the personhood of the broken face, it was the violet crystal! If the violet crystal couldn’t do it, then Xu Qing would feel regret, but wouldn’t have any other options.

Violet light flared around Xu Qing, and then blood started rushing toward him. It was a success!

Full of excitement, Xu Qing kept working hard. Unfortunately, time was extremely limited.

Although this entire situation seemed like it was taking a long time, so far, only three breaths of time had passed. When the fourth breath of time arrived, the Wordless words that were keeping them concealed... collapsed. Though they were extraordinary, and had received multiple ensorcellments, they had their limits.

Without the concealment of the Wordless words, the only defense left was the emperor’s corpse. Xu Qing and the Captain were startled, but they didn’t stop devouring the sea of blood. Thanks to their ravenous devouring, they had already reduced the sea of blood by about thirty percent.

Unfortunately, the emperor’s corpse was constantly crumbling into ash. This corpse was extraordinary. It was hard to say exactly how strong his cultivation base had been in life, but it seemed that it was at least in the Grand Emperor level. Add in the authority over the god domain, and it was definitely a powerful defense for Xu Qing and the Captain. But the emperor had ultimately perished, and was only a corpse. It was like a tree with no roots, and thus, the aura of the broken face was breaking it down rapidly.

The aura of the broken face could exterminate anything and kill everything. The emperor’s corpse was slowing it down, and from how fast it was happening, it was obvious that without the corpse, Xu Qing and the Captain probably wouldn’t be able to last for a single breath of time.

As the sixth breath of time arrived, the deadly crisis was reaching a climax. Death was on nigh. Forty percent of the blood sea still remained.

“Got any other tricks up your sleeve?” Xu Qing asked via divine will, suppressing his greed. “If not, we should get out of here!”

“I do!” the Captain replied. “I’ve got one more strategy!” Instead of taking out a hair to teleport away, the Captain madly projected a message via divine will. “Master, if you don’t show your face right now, you won’t have any apprentices left!!”

Xu Qing’s eyes lit up.

What was happening in the dome of heaven was an absolute shock to any cultivators who could see it. The jailbreak itself was astonishing enough, but what was even more gasp-inducing was how greedy Xu Qing and the Captain were. In fact, that greed couldn’t even be described with the word ‘crazy’ at this point. It was such an over-the-top situation that it was definitely worthy of being recorded in the histories of Revered Ancient. Whether gods, cultivators from elite species, or other powerful experts, people throughout the mainland felt overwhelmed by tempests of astonishment. It was shocking to a river-drying, sea-draining, rock-smashing, heaven-startling level!

Living God Eminent Desolation, whose spine was wrapped around the Revered Ancient mainland, and who existed as half of a face, had always been incomparably holy, whether in the past or the present. In hīs glory days, hīs name was known in thirty-six star rings in the universe, as well as countless planetary systems. Being half a step into Living God, he was very close to the peak of being a god. Myriads of worlds offered hīm worship, and living beings could have their fate determined by hīs mere thoughts.

Though hē ultimately met with failure, and collapsed because of an unimaginable backlash, hē was still an entity that no one would dare to offend. When a whale dies, it can provide a foundation for countless living things to flourish. The same principle applied to someone with personhood like hīs.

After hē fell, countless years passed in which numerous gods arose. In fact, wherever hē went, gods followed.

That was why hē was respectfully called Father God. From that it could be seen how paramount hīs personhood was. That was why, from ancient times until now, though many people had coveted hīs flesh and blood, not one person had ever dared to try to get it.

Cultivators couldn’t get past the godwarding, so obviously they couldn’t get any of that flesh and blood. Besides, gods were so revered that no one would try. In the past, taking a bite out of hīm was literally impossible. That wasn’t even to mention that the broken face’s aura was enough to wipe out countless living beings.

Today, under the eyes of many onlookers, two people were going completely crazy. Not only did they go out to the broken face, but they went right into one of the sea-sized drops of blood. It wasn’t really appropriate to describe the actions of Xu Qing and the Captain with the idiom snakes devouring mammoths. A more accurate way to put it was ants devouring dragons. Most important, it seemed as if... even if they succeeded, they would still be killed.

As of this moment, everyone was watching closely. How crazy! How rash! How suicidal.... That was exactly the way to describe it. All streams of divine will and all gazes were watching closely, and waiting for them to die.

But right then....

A huge golden hand appeared outside of the godwarding, high in the canopy of heaven! It was a majestic hand that, as soon as it appeared, unhesitatingly swept the area clear.

It grabbed a huge chunk of flesh from the broken face, then snatched the drop of blood that held Xu Qing and the Captain. Next, it grabbed another chunk of flesh!

All the gods who were watching this event were astonished! The three gods in particular were taken aback. The broken face’s eyelashes twitched.

All of a sudden, the huge hand collapsed. Golden blood sprayed everywhere. But clearly, this gigantic hand was a font of greed. After collapsing, it clumped back together into a huge mouth that took a vicious bite of flesh before fleeing.

The price to be paid was huge, though, as the hand collapsed again. The fingers shattered, and the only thing left behind was a bit of golden light that swept up Xu Qing and the Captain and then sped away in retreat.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t fast enough. That golden light was also wiped out of existence. As it did, Xu Qing and the Captain heard someone shouting into their minds.

“What are you two suicidal brats lounging around for? I can’t hold on much longer, you dolts!!”

Even as those words exploded into their minds, a hair activated in the emperor’s corpse, which was still inside the sea of blood, only one-tenth of which remained. Thanks to the protection of the golden light, the power of teleportation flared. Within the dazzling light, Xu Qing excitedly directed the emperor’s corpse to check the golden light. The golden light faded away.

Relieved, Xu Qing was about to look away when, all of a sudden, his gaze sharpened.

Far off in the distance in the starry sky, he could see hundreds of stars on the move. They were like shooting stars, and they were getting closer!

They were so far away that Xu Qing couldn’t tell what they were. He would have examined them closer if he could, but there wasn’t time.

The next instant, the corpse he was in vanished as it teleported away!