Beyond the Timescape [Wuxiaworld]

The moment Eleventh Prince took out the Dawning Sun, Xu Qing started backing away at top speed. He also pulled out the emperor’s corpse. Erniu wasn’t around, and it took both of them to operate the corpse. Xu Qing had not notified Erniu of what was going on, and would have a very hard time doing anything with it by himself. But the defenses it provided would work regardless.

Xu Qing was the type of person who would occasionally want to face certain things alone. As for facing a Dawning Sun, he had a bit of experience. And there were certain clues he had already picked up on.

Although this Dawning Sun had similar characteristics to his own ancient sun, there were also some big differences. For one thing, his version was a combination of an ancient sun and Crimson Mother’s flesh. It was actually inherently unstable, which meant that being hit by it would be very dangerous.

The true Dawning Suns of humankind weren’t like that. They were a very stable source of power. Although they couldn’t be mass produced, they could be reliably created using a specific method. That was why they counted as the domain treasure of an entire species. Of course, they also required a certain amount of raw materials.

When a Dawning Sun was detonated, it created blinding light so terrifying that it made people think of a sun rising in the morning. Like a rising sun which would dispel the night, the Dawning Suns could ignite the world and dispel the darkness. They could bring radiance and light to everything, and crush all darkness and gloom. And yet... this Dawning Sun was controlled by Eleventh Prince, and thus, the ‘darkness and gloom’ was actually humankind and Planet Ancient Emperor.

The next instant, boundless light and heat spread out like an angry tempest, causing Planet Ancient Emperor to shake violently. It was as if an actual sun were rising over the planet!

In fact, it seemed as if the point was to supplant Planet Ancient Emperor and turn into an actual sun of Revered Ancient. Thanks to its immense and mighty power, the godfire forming from the Planet Ancient Emperor ceremony began to flicker violently. Terrifying fluctuations spread out. A destruction aura proliferated. It was like the end of days.

On Planet Ancient Emperor, most cultivators reacted with open shock. All were experiencing explosive sensations of deadly crisis and astonishment.

However... it was different with the four Heaveneaters as they battled with their human heavenly king counterparts. The Heaveneaters’ facial expressions never changed. From the moment they entered the vortex, they knew in the bottom of their hearts that they had a mission to accomplish. For their species, and for the fulfillment of the pledge, they were willing to become assassin blades. Their mission... was to kill the target and then self-destruct.

Resurrection formations had already been set up back home, and therefore, they were completely ready to blow up both their bodies and their cultivation bases.

To them, the detonation of the Dawning Sun was a signal. The four Heaveneaters exchanged glances and could see the determination in each other’s eyes. They didn’t hesitate. An instant later, a terrifying aura began to build up in them. A Dawning Sun plus four self-detonating heavenly kings could form a very deadly weapon!

As of this moment, Planet Ancient Emperor had plunged into unprecedented danger! Death seemed like it was only an instant away.

Beyond Planet Ancient Emperor in the imperial capital, all cultivators were completely stunned. The grand spell formation flickered as it tried to keep everything under control. Unfortunately... it was no use. Unless some vastly powerful force came along that could disregard a Dawning Sun, then the ancestral sacrifices were over. And that would signal doomsday for humankind.

Some people instinctively looked in the direction of the statue of Grand Emperor Swordsage.... Right now, it seemed that Grand Emperor Swordsage’s final sword move was the only thing that could resolve the situation. Except... Grand Emperor Swordsage did nothing.

Xu Qing sighed inwardly. Even after everything that had played out up to now, he was still convinced there was more going on that hadn’t been made public.

The Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan, who seemed to have ties of some sort to the emperor, hadn’t done anything yet. The emperor himself had remained completely calm the entire time. The destructive might filling Planet Ancient Emperor was reaching a crescendo.

But then... the emperor did do something. Though his face still remained expressionless, he lifted his right hand. As he did, many of the destiny aura chains snapped and crumbled. Pressure began to radiate down from his hand.

At the same time, a gargantuan hand appeared, taking over the entire sky of Planet Ancient Emperor, and covered all the lands. In the blink of an eye, screaming winds sprang up, and the sky dimmed. A terrifying aura that surpassed the Smoldering God level spread out. Everything trembled.

Then he gently pushed his hand down. The air shattered. The lands heaved.

The four Heaveneater heavenly kings, who were in the middle of self-detonation, all shivered as an immense force settled down on them. As they howled in anguish, the power of self-detonation that had been just starting to spread out of them... was forced back inside!

The immense force caused blood to spray out of the mouths of the four heavenly kings. Trembling, they were shoved down to the ground. After they slammed down, they were kept in place, twitching but unable to move. Their major worlds were similarly suppressed. Trying to fight back against power as overwhelming as this was pointless.

They weren’t the only ones affected. The detonating Dawning Sun trembled, and then the light and heat it was emanating was crushed. All of it went right back where it came from, and the Dawning Sun reverted to its original form. However, the cracks that covered it went to show that it was now unstable. Eventually, the Dawning Sun disappeared.

Up in midair, the emperor waved his hand. The dome of heaven went silent. Earth became as still as death.

Countless eyes came to be fixed on the emperor.

Some looked surprised. Some looked blank. Some seemed incredulous. Some were terrified.

The emperor was the only Imperial Sovereign among humans. Everyone knew it to be a fact, except that... in the 3,000 years since he had succeeded to the throne, he had never taken action in public. For the most part, humans’ understanding of Imperial Sovereigns came from simple descriptions left behind in ancient records. After all, most humans in existence had never even seen a second Imperial Sovereign. And considering that gods existed, many people weren’t very impressed with the Imperial Sovereign level.

Until now.

“Imperial Sovereign....”

“That’s the power of an Imperial Sovereign!!”

“To a presence like this, Smoldering Gods are like ants! If an Imperial Sovereign is like this, imagine what a god would be like....”

Many sharp inhalations could be heard.

Meanwhile, Xu Qing’s eyes gleamed with mysterious light as he watched the emperor. This was also his first time seeing the emperor in action.

This is far from the level of Li Zihua. But it is Imperial Sovereign battle prowess....

Looking as calm as ever, the emperor took the Dawning Sun and then looked back at the glowering Eleventh Prince.

“Is that all, Little Eleventh?” the emperor said coolly.

“I have no idea if he has more tricks up his sleeve,” a cold voice ran out. “But I certainly do!”

The voice came from behind the emperor on the Temple of Heaven. Numerous gazes shifted in that direction and locked onto the speaker. Most of those gazes were filled with surprise.

The person who had spoken was not Eleventh Prince. It was... a person standing with Grand Prince and Fourth and Fifth Princes. It was... Tenth Prince!

For this entire time, Tenth Prince, who had been allowed to join at the last minute, had watched all of the events playing out with a look of incredulous disbelief on his face. But now, his expression was one of complete calm.

The emperor looked over his shoulder. He didn’t seem surprised. “So you ultimately decided to try to fight me? You had other options.”

Tenth Prince waited for two breaths of time before coolly responding, “I realized what was happening when you suddenly asked this imperial prince that I parasitized to join the ancestral sacrifices. You wanted to force me out into the open to fight you. You’re right, I had other options. But the fulfillment of the pledge to me left me with no choice. Given that, and given their desires, I decided to test out your battle prowess.”

As ‘Tenth Prince’ spoke, his body blurred and his face distorted. A heaven-shaking, earth-shattering energy swept out of him, along with a sensation of restoration. Wild colors flashed in heaven and earth. Winds screamed.

The energy caused Planet Ancient Emperor to shake, and the disruptions spread beyond the planet as well. It caused Void Returning to tremble and Smoldering God to feel great pressure weighing down on them. It was because it was... an Imperial Sovereign’s aura. In fact, it was almost exactly the same level of power the human emperor had just unleashed.

After a few breaths of time passed, ‘Tenth Prince’s’ face went still. He looked different now. He only had one eye in the middle of his forehead, and greenish-black skin. In fact, he looked almost exactly like the four Heaveneaters!

“Emperor Dark War,” said ‘Tenth Prince.’

“Emperor Heaveneater,” Dark War replied calmly.

Two types of Imperial Sovereign energy clashed in the dome of heaven, shattering the air and shaking the cosmos. It looked like fierce fighting might break out at any moment.

But then, Eleventh Prince’s eyes shone with mysterious light as he pulled out a small silver bottle.

“Father, I prepared a little something to make this fight between you and Emperor Heaveneater even more perfect. You might not have taken action in public since you succeeded to the throne, but before then, you fought battles to the death with many nonhumans. Over the past few years, I’ve paid an incredible price and suffered untold hardships to track down a drop of your blood! With that blood, I created a life force curse!”

With that, Eleventh Prince crushed the silver bottle. As it shattered, a drop of blood appeared.

Instantly, the bloodline fluctuations of the imperial clan of humankind rolled out in all directions. All who could sense it were visibly taken aback. It really was the emperor’s blood!

The shattered remnants of the bottle didn’t fall to the ground. They swirled in the air around the blood, moving faster and faster until they turned into a host of silver maggots. Shrieking loudly, the maggots burrowed into the blood. As they madly devoured the blood, one of the maggots transformed into a centipede, which devoured the other maggots.

Then the centipede flicked its tail, which fell off and turned into an eerie-looking skeleton. The skeleton opened its mouth and devoured the centipede. Then the skeleton collapsed into pieces as a pitch-black imp burrowed out from inside. The aura of a god raged as the imp looked at the remnants of the skeleton and belched out a mouthful of black smoke.

As the smoke settled on the skeleton, the imp burst into flames, then dove into the bones. The black smoke shrank down on itself and everything else as it turned into... a drop of black blood.

A noxious, rotting odor spread out from the blood. Just barely visible within that black blood was a blurry figure. He was none other than the emperor! A powerful curse was forming inside the blood. And it was no ordinary curse!

Xu Qing’s eyes narrowed as he recognized the terrifying elements of a god curse!

Eleventh Prince grinned broadly as he looked at the emperor. “Father, I still have two more gifts for you. This is only one of them. If you last long enough, you’ll be able to see the last one. However, I have the feeling that the curse will affect your life force enough that you won’t last long in your fight with Emperor Heaveneater.”

Eleventh Prince quietly performed an incantation gesture with his right hand and then pointed at the blood. The black blood started burning.

Next, the figure of the emperor in the blood began to twist and distort, and the sounds of anguished screaming rang out. Ultimately, it turned into a single thread of fate which flew toward the chains binding the emperor. It pierced into him, and then... the thread of fate emerged from the emperor’s forehead. It was as if it couldn’t find what it was looking for! Next, it whipped around for a moment before shooting toward Planet Ancient Emperor

At that point, the curse was successful.

Everyone who had witnessed this turn of events was shaken to the core, including Xu Qing. It seemed unbelievable. Impossible. Beyond the realm of what was realistic. Every single person was stunned by the seemingly unpredictable development.

Eleventh Prince’s face fell, and this time, the expression was infinitely more realistic than any of his previous facial expressions. He felt like he was being struck by lightning. Trembling, he staggered backward a few steps, his eyes shining with disbelief. At the same time, a preposterous sensation was howling within him.

“Y-you... you’re... you’re just standing there.... The curse locks down on fate. Why would it go somewhere else...? Don’t tell me you have some way to transform threads of fate? Or could it be that you...? Impossible!”

In the end, he couldn’t shake that sensation of preposterous incredulity.

During this entire time, the emperor hadn’t cast a single glance at Eleventh Prince. Gazing calmly at Emperor Heaveneater, he said, “The kid has a bit of a temper. It’s honestly a bit embarrassing. That said, it’s time to end the tantrum. Since they wanted you to come test out my true battle prowess, I suppose I’ll show it to you. Pay attention.”

As the emperor spoke calmly, chains of destiny aura snapped one after another.

Each snapped chain released an explosive burst of energy. In the blink of an eye, rumbling sounds filled heaven and earth. A great wind blew as terrifying pressure radiated off the emperor.

“From the time I achieved my dao until now, I’ve never fought anyone publicly. Today, Fellow Daoist Heaveneater, you’ll be able to see me make one, single move.”

As the last words came out of the emperor’s mouth, the last of the chains snapped. A majestic aura immediately surged out in all directions. Planet Ancient Emperor trembled violently.

The emperor lifted his right hand in the same way he had when suppressing the Dawning Sun. However, this time... what he took control of was the canopy of heaven over Planet Ancient Emperor. And also... what lay beyond that!

The sky over the imperial capital instantly turned pitch black as a hand appeared, so large that it wasn’t possible to take in the whole thing with one’s eyes. And it caused an indescribably majestic aura to weigh down.

The air shattered. The sky cracked. The lands quaked. Mountains sank down. One hand covered the entire sky! That included any gods as well! Then the hand dropped down with indescribable speed onto Planet Ancient Emperor.

In the shortest of moments, it snatched up the entire planet. Then it started squeezing, and the planet shook. Everyone on the planet felt like the world was shaking around them.

Emperor Heaveneater was visibly stunned. He was breathing heavily, his face pale and his eyes full of incredulity. He even started backing up, and his face blurred as though he were trying to leave the body he’d parasitized. A will of teleportation even rose up.

He immediately decided to just flee!

Clearly, he didn’t act fast enough.

The majestic hand that grabbed Planet Ancient Emperor descended without hurting anyone until it was right in front of Emperor Heaveneater.

“Allow me to send you on your way!” the emperor growled.

RUMBLE!

A shadowy figure was forced out of Tenth Prince’s body. It quickly turned into Emperor Heaveneater, except he was crumbling and reforming constantly as he tumbled off to the side. The cycle of crumbling occurred over a thousand times, until Emperor Heaveneater’s soul shadow was ripped to shreds.

“Today, I will destroy your soulclone,” the emperor said coolly. “If you don’t deliver your species’ domain treasure to me within half a month, then I’ll rip apart space itself and personally go visit your species.”

As of this moment, he was being matchlessly domineering!

Among the humans, no one spoke a word. Everyone felt like their minds had been turned into complete blanks. They all knew the emperor was strong, but... the fact that he was strong enough to easily outmatch another Imperial Sovereign came as a complete shock to them. In fact, this wasn’t just outmatching. It was absolutely crushing!

Xu Qing was shaken to the core. After all, he had seen another Imperial Sovereign! Li Zihua was also an Imperial Sovereign.

Imperial Sovereigns came in different levels. Early, mid, late and peak. Each of them had wildly different levels of battle prowess.

The sense I got from that huge hand... was very similar to what I sensed from Li Zihua.... I can’t believe it! The emperor of humankind... is a peak Imperial Sovereign!

Xu Qing was really having a hard time believing that it was real. Based on his understanding, in the modern-day Revered Ancient mainland, the Imperial Sovereign level required both the proper bloodline and the right destiny aura to be able to make progress. But that was all in the early stage.

As for the peak stage... given that the top species in Revered Ancient were paying very close attention to such things, they basically didn’t exist.

For instance, when the Firemoon Darkheavens’ three gods of sun, moon, and star achieved their major breakthrough, a peak Imperial Sovereign had appeared to act as a dao protector. To the various species of Revered Ancient, that was an incredibly shocking development. Afterward, many investigations were carried out. Whether it was the top species or their gods, everyone wanted to know who that peak Imperial Sovereign was that was able to avoid the omniscience of other gods!

In the cultivation system of cultivators, Imperial Sovereigns were already rare. Those in the peak of that level... were generally not permitted to exist by the gods.

Xu Qing looked at the emperor. Don’t tell me….

Meanwhile, the emperor now floated to the very top of the Temple of Heaven. That was the place where he had previously been carrying out the ancestral sacrifices. At that spot, he turned and looked down at the dazed and bedraggled Eleventh Prince. It was almost like everything had gone back to the very beginning of this whole event.

“Is that all, Little Eleventh?”

Deathblade's Thoughts

The meaning of the chapter title is not explained fully until the