Beyond the Timescape [Wuxiaworld]

Yue Dong looked off in the direction in which Xu Qing and the Captain had fled. Although she was loath to let them off the hook, in the end, she decided not to pursue them. Right now, the most important thing to her weren’t more flesh puppets, nor the holy fardark nectar. Rather, she needed the Fardark holy ancestor legacy in Feng Lintao’s soul. After all, that was the legacy of a Quasi-Immortal Grand Emperor!

I can’t give Feng Lintao time to recover. Furthermore, he has one of my emotion seeds in him. Tracking him will be as easy as following a bright torch in the middle of the night.

Yue Dong’s eyes glittered as she made her decision. Without any hesitation, she flew at top speed over the horizon. Lan Yao gritted her teeth and followed after Yue Dong. As for the Grand Emperor’s talisman, it faded away and was taken with them.

***

The cave was completely silent. Only a few moments passed, and then the mirror emitted some cracking noises. Then an enraged roar echoed out, followed by a stream of golden light.

It was none other than the golden rat. The moment it broke out into the open, it emitted a shrill, miserable scream. It shivered from head to toe, as if immense pressure were weighing down on it and trying to force it out of these lands. Before long, the pressure turned into countless magical sealing marks that resembled blood vessels within it. Even its head was full of numerous magical symbols. The magical symbols seemed ancient, and they pulsed with godly fluctuations. Clearly they had been there for many years, and were the reason the golden rat had been unable to leave the cave. It had been suppressed there!

Intense stimulation filled the rat, causing its god soul to tremble, and provoking more shrill screams. As it struggled, the sealing marks almost seemed to come alive, flowing through its body and ultimately converging on its head, where they stabbed deep into it. They surrounded its mind and crushed down on its soul, wiping away any scraps of intelligence and making it like nothing more than an animal.

Most gruish of all was that signs of a paper talisman could barely be seen on its forehead. It was as if further struggle would cause its flesh and blood to turn into paper. It would become a paper rat. Its blood-red eyes stared up into the sky, and then it unleashed an astonishing roar of defiance.

Wild colors flashed in heaven and earth. Winds screamed. And then the entire sky seemed to turn into a massive vortex, within which was visible a cold eye staring down at the golden rat.

The strange eye almost looked like a painting. Even more strange, the magnificent vortex in the sky, if you looked at it closely... looked like it was made from paper.

A deep voice echoed out.

“Sir Nightcrusher, you have been refined for 30,000 years, and your godfire has been extinguished by me many times. Yet you still aren’t willing to be a night god under my command?”

The golden rat’s eyes grew even redder, and it shook even more violently. Then its pupils suddenly filled with a bit of intelligence. A moment passed in which it said nothing, and then it spoke in a hoarse voice that seemed to contain irreconcilable enmity.

“Master... Deluo...!” [1]

With a roar, the golden rat spun, rushed back into the cave and the passageway within.

Up above, the eye in the vortex turned even colder. “Fine. I still have plenty of time.”

As the voice echoed out, the vortex blurred and then disappeared.

All heaven and earth went back to normal.

***

Of course, the scene which played out there was visible only in that limited location. Xu Qing and the Captain were so far away that they couldn’t see it, nor could the fleeing Feng Lintao nor Yue Dong or Lan Yao. That said, they were all extraordinary individuals, and thus, they could at least sense that something strange was going on behind him.

In fact, Xu Qing looked over his shoulder as he flew through the air, and his expression was one of suspicion. Next to him, the Captain looked up into the sky, looking similarly suspicious. They exchanged a glance, and didn’t need to exchange any words to know what each other were thinking. They sped up.

Three days passed in a flash.

Xu Qing and the Captain used various methods of concealment and invisibility. As a result, they didn’t run into any trouble. Before long, they left Fardark County and entered the border of the Imperial Region of humankind.

Eventually, they caught sight of a human city on one of the outer rings of the imperial Region. The familiar scenery and aura entered their hearts, and they felt like a great weight had been lifted off them. That said, they didn’t let their guard down. Truth be told, the things they had witnessed in the past few days left them both feeling very shocked.

Once in the Imperial Region, they kept up the same pace as they traveled forward. As a result, they ended up passing over both mortal cities as well as occasional sects located atop lofty mountain peaks. The former weren’t anything worth paying attention to. No mortal city would ever cause any trouble for Xu Qing or the Captain. The latter did occasionally contain powerful cultivators who noticed the two of them speeding along. Most of them felt fear in their hearts, and pretended not to notice them.

But occasionally there were some mighty individuals who weren’t pleased by the intrusion.

In fact, as Xu Qing and the Captain were flying over a bright red mountain range, a cold snort echoed out.

“Who goes there? How dare you look down on our Crimson Blood Sect by just flying right over us! Stop right there!”

Along with the voice came a blood mist that rose from the mountains into the air to block the path of Xu Qing and the Captain.

Xu Qing frowned and was about to say something.

Before he could, the Captain glared at the blood mist and yelled, “How dare you! This is Region Lord Xu of the Holytide Region, the respected Grand Darkheaven of the Firemoons! In the presence of Heavenly Marquis Xu Qing and his Eldest Brother, people like you should back down immediately!”

He finished his sentence in a voice that boomed like thunder and was filled with immeasurable pride. What was more, his words came out very smoothly, as though the Captain had been practicing them in his heart for a long time. In fact, it was almost as if he had been just waiting for something like this to happen.

The blood mist lurched to a halt.

The Captain snorted coldly, then continued on his way. Xu Qing said nothing. And thus, the two of them flew on without so much as slowing down.

After they left, the blood mist shrank down until it turned into an old man with red hair. He looked hesitantly off to the horizon. The truth was he hadn’t dared to block the path of those two passersby. After all... the identity of the person the Captain had announced was completely spectacular!

That was especially true considering that this Patriarch Crimson Cloud was not the type of person who spent all his time in secluded meditation. He was very well aware of what was going on in the world, and over the past few years had heard a lot about the new region lord of the Holytide Region. He had also heard about him being named a heavenly marquis.

At the same time... thanks to the announcement sent out into Revered Ancient by the Firemoon Darkheaven people, he had heard the shocking news about a human becoming their Grand Darkheaven.

And the name of that esteemed person was none other than Xu Qing.

“Xu Qing...” he murmured. Although he couldn’t be absolutely sure if the person who had passed by was actually Xu Qing, he didn’t dare risk offending him either way.

After all, if he wasn’t Xu Qing, it wouldn’t benefit Patriarch Crimson Cloud. And if he was, it didn’t make sense to do something inappropriate just in order to earn a tiny bit of face. In the end, all this person had done was pass by without calling out formal greetings.

So what if he passed through without being very polite? That’s not a big deal.

Clearing his throat, Crimson Cloud turned back into a blood mist and returned to his mountain.

In that manner, Xu Qing and the Captain spent a few days flying through the outer rings of the Imperial Region. As they went on their way, they finally started to calm down a bit. In this territory, they were generally safe. If the people they had been dealing with really wanted to cause trouble for them, they wouldn’t do it here. For all intents and purposes, the danger had passed.

After quite a bit of travel, they caught sight of their target destination. It was a huge, ancient teleportation portal, and it led to the inner rings of the Imperial Region.

Because of being located in a strategic location, it was guarded year-round. There were currently about 1,000,000 troops stationed there, and they were overseen by a heavenly marquis with a Void Returning cultivation base.

As Xu Qing and the Captain approached, vicious wills rose from the area. The heavenly marquis on duty flew out and hovered in midair looking very serious.

When he saw who was flying in his direction, his expression flickered, and his heart surged with emotion.

“Xu Qing!”

This heavenly marquis had once sat with Xu Qing in the imperial palace during court. He recognized Xu Qing, and had heard about how he became the Grand Darkheaven. Though that startling news had come several days ago, he still felt very excited. A Grand Darkheaven was the type of majestic person that ordinary individuals could only dream about meeting. Even more importantly, the Firemoons occupied such a high level of glory that countless other species could only bow to them in subservience. But most importantly of all, the conflict between humans and the Firemoons had been ended by a single request on his part.

Power, position, and status like that made him like an unmatchable star to humankind! That wasn’t to mention that he was the lord of an entire region! Although his cultivation base was only in Void Returning, this heavenly marquis had heard that he had fought the number one chosen among the Firemoons, the Smoldering God Sir Firedark. And he had crushed him!

Because of all of that, this heavenly marquis’s heart was racing. However, he kept his facial expression neutral as he clasped hands and bowed.

“Well met, Heavenly Marquis Xu!”

Xu Qing and the Captain approached and stopped in midair. Their arrival, thanks to the words spoken by the other heavenly marquis, caused all of the 1,000,000 human cultivators in the area to look over. Although not all of them knew what Xu Qing looked like, they had all heard of Heavenly Marquis Xu. As a result, every single one of them excitedly clasped hands respectfully to him.

Over the past few days, it wasn’t an exaggeration to say that just about everyone in Revered Ancient had heard stories about Xu Qing.

“Well, if it isn’t Heavenly Marquis Wang,” Xu Qing said, giving the other heavenly marquis a faint smile. “I’m trying to get to the imperial capital and was hoping to use this teleportation portal.”

Heavenly Marquis Wang immediately nodded his head. “Heavenly Marquis Xu, your return is a momentous event for humankind. All teleportation portals are available for your use!”

With that, he gave some orders, and his subordinates scurried about as if they were dealing with a heavenly king. In fact, they even treated the Captain with great respect. The Captain enjoyed that quite a bit. As the work went about, countless human cultivators couldn’t help but secretly look over at Xu Qing.

Soon, the teleportation portal activated. After bowing in farewell to Heavenly Marquis Wang, Xu Qing and the Captain stepped into the teleportation portal. The light of teleportation flared, and the two of them vanished. Although they were gone, everyone was still talking about him.

“That’s the number one chosen of humankind!!”

“He’s young, and he’s got exceptional talent! Hahaha! Hey, once word gets out, maybe I’ll start getting famous too. I’m the one who activated the teleportation portal for Heavenly Marquis Xu!”

Heavenly Marquis Wang looked at the empty teleportation portal and listened to the excited talk spreading among the troops. He sighed in his heart.

I bet the next time I run into him, he’ll be a heavenly king at the very least!

1. In chapter 955 of A World Worth Protecting, in the scene which most people believe features Xu Qing, he mentions a Master Deluo, saying that he pursued him for three months, killing millions of his clones in the process. There is not much more information than that in that chapter. As of translating this chapter, there is very little information about this person, even in upcoming untranslated chapters of BTT. In A World Worth Protecting the name is rendered in MTL style as De Luozi, which is most likely incorrect. When the “zi” character is at the end of a two-character name in xianxia/Daoism, it’s almost always a title (that I usually render as Master or Sir). The other two characters “De” and “Luo” can be interpreted many ways. Usually the first one is something related to morals or morality. Luo means net or sieve, and is a character that appears in “Allheaven” from ISSTH and also the term Nobleplexus I coined for this translation. For the time being I’m going to simply transliterate the name as Deluo. Later on if/when we get further information about what the name means, I might come up with a translation for it. ☜