Beyond the Timescape

In the time of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity, there was a distinction between east, west, south, and north in Revered Ancient. However, there weren’t clearly defined borders separating different areas. Dark Serenity himself didn’t want there to be hard-and-fast divisions between different parts of the land.

But then Dark Serenity left, and with the arrival of the broken face, everything changed. Catastrophe swept through the Revered Ancient mainland. Countless species experienced death and war. Some species ended up being wiped out forever, while other species rose to prominence. Eventually, there ended up being five top species.

In the east, the Firemoon Darkheaven people were the top species. In the north were the Northfate Kings. In the west were the Redland Nobleplexuses. To the south were the Netherworld Chasmcorpses. The central part of Revered Ancient was occupied by the number one species. Those five top species stood tall in Revered Ancient. They occupied the peak of the world.

Then Empress Summer Departure stepped into the Altar God level, and led humans to prominence. They allied with the Firemoons, and thus became one of the six top species in Revered Ancient. The result was that the east became stronger than the west, south, and north. And the east was now catching up to the number one species.

Thanks to the war with the holy lands, it was now possible to get an idea of how strong the various parts of Revered Ancient were. Not one holy land went to the central region. In the east, the fighting was restricted to areas outside of their defensive spell formation. As for the west, south, and north, the flames of war spread without cease, with deaths and casualties mounting on both sides.

That was especially true in the north. Over the better part of the past year, the four celestial-level holy lands that had come to the north waged war over and over again. Even if the Northfate Kings had been even stronger than they were, they would eventually have been put into a bad position. Taking in the north as a whole, the landscape now wasn’t pure white. Instead, there were many areas... that were stained with blood.

That was the state of things when Xu Qing and Erniu entered the north.

They felt the frigid wind, they saw the endless plains of ice, and they could smell the blood and gore. Even Erniu was uncharacteristically quiet. The whimpering wind seemed to carry with it a sense of decay and lifelessness. The ice below was red with blood, and it was possible to see quite a few corpses frozen in death. It was an appalling sight. Most of them were frozen in whatever position they had been in just before dying.

Looking off into the distance, Xu Qing murmured, “Compared to the east, this place... is obviously in dire straits.”

“That’s why we shouldn’t go very far past the border,” Erniu said, looking around at the corpses. He sighed. “Maybe we should just stop here. All we need to do is find a place underneath the ice.”

Xu Qing nodded. He looked up into the sky, then down at the icy ground. He was just about to lift his right foot to stomp down and shatter the ice when something happened.

The screaming wind brought with it an unfamiliar sound. Thanks to Xu Qing’s godly authority, he was able to see an image within the sound as well. There were people off in the distance. It was... a chase to the death.

The person being chased was a middle-aged cultivator with bluish skin and a first-stage Void Returning cultivation base. He obviously wasn’t human. He wore fancy clothing and a violet-gold crown that made it clear he was someone important. His garments were embroidered with dark snowflakes. As he moved along, illusory snowflakes would manifest around him, encircling him and sucking in the surrounding frigid energy to create blasting wind that added to his speed.

The two pursuers had similar cultivation bases. They were both in first-stage Void Returning and both wore silver robes. They had scales on their forehead, tails hanging behind them, and horns on their heads. They also pulsed with the aura of the starry sky. Both were obviously nonhuman, and clearly they didn’t come from Revered Ancient. They were from the holy lands beyond the heavens. Both had eyes that pulsed with killing intent, and as they gave chase, they performed incantation gestures and sent dazzling magical techniques shooting toward their quarry.

The middle-aged cultivator kept getting hit by their attacks, and had blood oozing out of his mouth. But his expression was placid. He wasn’t flustered at all. He just kept up his speed in the hopes of putting distance between him and his pursuers.

His tactic seemed to be working. The distance between them continued to grow. However, the repeated attacks kept hitting him, causing him to cough up mouthfuls of blood. Yet he maintained his composure. He seemed to not care how much he got hurt, nor did he seem to be worried about being caught and killed.

Xu Qing was the first to notice what was happening, but Erniu quickly caught on as well.

“That fellow’s clothing pegs him as one of the Northfate Kings,” Erniu said. “Interesting. Does he realize the two of us are here? Or does he just have some trick up his sleeve? What other explanation could there be for why he looks so relaxed?”

Xu Qing looked calmly at the three people involved in the chase. They were getting very close to the airspace occupied by Xu Qing and Erniu. However, given the level of their cultivation bases, there was no way they could detect either of them. It was impossible to determine if what happened next was a coincidence or not.

As the group neared Xu Qing and Erniu, the two pursuers from the holy lands unleashed trump card attacks. Intense rumbling sounds echoed out as the Northfate King cultivator failed to dodge the attacks, was hit, and coughed up more blood. As he staggered in place, his pursuers cut him off, leaving him no choice but to drop down straight onto the ice plains below.

The two holy lands cultivators closed in with killing intent, and then, the three of them started fighting fiercely right in front of Xu Qing and Erniu. Booms rang out, and the light of magical techniques flared brightly.

The curious scene caused both Xu Qing and Erniu to frown.

“This seems very coincidental,” Erniu said, his eyes narrowing. “They just so happened to start fighting right in front of us?”

However, from the way the three were fighting, it really seemed as if they were intent on killing each other. And their facial expressions did not give any indication that they realized anyone else was present.

Erniu was planning to just keep watching and see if any of them actually died. After all, for these three people to appear right here and now really did seem to be too coincidental.

However, Xu Qing only watched them for a short time before his eyes shone with mysterious light, and he suddenly waved his right hand out in front of him. That caused the sound being emitted by the three fighting cultivators to suddenly disappear as it turned into a deadly, invisible attack.

It turned into an explosive sound that caused the holy lands’ cultivators to look around in surprise. Then, before they even had a chance to dodge to the side, the explosive sound swept over them. Booms rang out as the two cultivators exploded. They were dead in body and soul. The only thing left behind was blood, raining down onto the ground below. ṝ𝐚ＮՕВĚṨ

As for the middle-aged Northfate King cultivator, he was visibly taken aback by the sudden development, and instinctively backed up, all while scanning his surroundings. He saw nothing.

Xu Qing and Erniu remained concealed.

A short time passed, whereupon the Northfate King cultivator took a deep breath and bowed.

“Your humble servant is disciple Long Jiu of the Northfate Kings. Many thanks for the grace of saving my life, Senior! [1]

“Since you don’t wish to show yourself, oh benefactor, I will not beg for you to do so. However, the kindness you have shown me will be forever engraved on my heart. Benefactor, if you ever come to visit the Northfate Kings, you can use this medallion to track me down. Unfortunately, I’m on an important errand right now, and therefore, I must hurry on my way.”

The middle-aged cultivator Long Jiu seemed very sincere, and his facial expression was neither servile nor overbearing. As he spoke, he took out a shimmering silver medallion, which he threw onto the ground. He bowed again, waited for a moment, and then seeing he wasn’t getting any response, he took a deep breath and shot off over the horizon.

After he was gone, the command medallion he’d left behind flew up into Erniu’s hand.

“Interesting. This command medallion is crafted from ice crystals. The quality is extremely high. This Long Jiu... has an extraordinary temperament. Considering his actions... I’d say he’s probably an important person among the Northfate Kings.

“If we ever end up visiting that species, maybe this connection will prove useful. That said, this whole thing still seems oddly coincidental. By the way, little Ah Qing, why did you interfere just now?”

Erniu turned to look at Xu Qing, all while fiddling with the medallion.

Xu Qing looked in the direction Long Jiu had disappeared. “There’s more to him than meets the eye, that’s for sure. He has... fluctuations of godly authority on him.”

“Godly authority?” Erniu said, his gaze hardening.

“It seems to be some sort of rare godly authority,” Xu Qing went on. “It’s on the cusp of being made manifest. It just needs some more time. After we finish dealing with this Feng Lintao situation, we can go try to find out more.”

Xu Qing waved his hand, and a sundial rose up into the sky. Next, he lifted his foot and stomped it down onto the ground. The ice shattered noiselessly as a huge chasm opened up. Xu Qing dropped down inside.

Erniu blinked a few times and then followed him.

Beneath the glacial surface, there was an icy river flowing along rapidly. They needed to find a place that was full of frigid cold. It needed to lack even a scrap of heat in order to conform to the requirements of Feng Lintao’s legacy. They needed to go to the bottom of this icy river!

Up above, the sundial rotated, causing the power of time to spread out. As a result, the shattered ice went back to how it was before. After that, the sundial vanished without a trace.

In that manner, time reversed by seven days.

***

Some tens of thousands of kilometers away from where Xu Qing and Erniu had just vanished underground, there was a massive glacier.

The mutagen wasn’t very strong here compared to other places. In the past, a lot of small sects had gathered here. However, when war came, some sects were conscripted while others moved away. The only one left behind was called the Ice River Sect. It was a very small sect that didn’t even have a hundred disciples. Life was normally tough for them, but with the war going on, things were even tougher.

Just now, a figure had flown out of the sky and landed in the grand hall of the sect. He was none other than Long Jiu, whom Xu Qing had recently rescued. Instead of the calm look on his face, he now looked very pleased with himself. As he sat down in the grand hall, a disciple hurried over anxiously and bowed.

“Well met, Master,” the disciple said. This was Long Jiu’s highest-ranking apprentice.

Noticing the anxiety on his apprentice's face caused Long Jiu’s eyebrows to shoot up. “Did something happen?”

“Master... just today another eleven inner sect disciples chose to leave the sect. As of now, we only have thirty-seven people left. What’s more, our cultivation resources are running extremely low. What are we supposed to do...?”

Long Jiu smiled. “Don’t worry. Everyone has their own aspirations. As for me, I’m just on the verge of achieving success.”

Upon hearing that, the apprentice sighed. He knew that his Master was in the throes of obsession, and that nothing could be said to dissuade him. All he could do was ask, “Master, how did the trip outside the sect go? Did you get anything good?”

Long Jiu laughed heartily. “One out of ten times that I leave the sect, I encounter danger. But I also encounter benefactors! This time, I got luckier than usual. In my travels, I actually ran into three benefactors!”

When the apprentice saw how pleased his Master looked, he thought back to all the tough times the sect had gone through and he couldn’t help but say, “Master, the disciples have run out of spirit stones for cultivation. Maybe... we should sell one of our command medallions? Just one...?”

Long Jiu frowned. “You’re as short-sighted as a rat! I’m going to rely on my own luck to become famous!

“You’d do well to know that the benefactors who saved me are all important people! With my command medallion in their possession, they’ll obviously realize how amazing I am. Then, when they visit the Northfate Kings, they’ll think of me, and then mention my name to the top experts of the species!

“At first, the important people in the species won’t have any idea who I am. But as more benefactors show up and talk about me more and more, the top figures in the Northfate Kings will eventually have a good impression of me. A very good impression! And then they’ll spread word in the species about who I am.

“Furthermore, every single benefactor can be considered an important connection for me. Because they saved my life, I have to pay them back. And that means karma! All the top figures will eventually become benefactors. Now, you tell me. How could I possibly not get famous this way? And once I am famous, how could I end up empty-handed?”

Long Jiu looked at his apprentice. It was true that his apprentice had been following him for years, and had gone through some really tough times.

“Just wait a bit longer,” he said comfortingly. “I have the premonition that by the time I give out the last seven medallions, it’ll be the time to strike! But enough of that for now. I need to rest and recover a bit. Afterward, I’ll go out and look for more benefactors.”

The apprentice wanted to say some more, but given his Master’s current mood, he knew that it wasn’t the time. That said, he had to admit that his Master had been quite lucky over the past few years. He had ended up in a lot of deadly chases, yet there always seemed to be an important person around to save him. As for his Master’s plan to become famous....

I just hope it works out.

The apprentice sighed again.

1. Long Jiu: Long is number 81 on the list of 100 common surnames. It means “dragon.” Jiu means “nine, ninth.” Hold on. 9x9=81. And the surname is the 81st most common??? Holy moly! Nine is a fairly auspicious number in China/Chinese, and of course, dragons are also auspicious, so combining them is... well, very auspicious indeed. Ever heard of Kowloon in Hong Kong? In Cantonese, kow is “nine” and “loon” is dragon, so basically, the reverse order of this person’s name. In Mandarin (as opposed to Cantonese) Kowloon is Jiulong. Incidentally, and this is a sort of minor obscure spoiler, but there is a character who has this same name in the classic wuxia novel I translated Dragon King with Seven Stars, although in that novel it seems to treat it more like a nickname than an actual name. And there is a connection between that character and another character in my other translation Seven Killers. ☜