Beyond the Timescape-Chapter 1079: Who Was That Person?

A sigh echoed through the lonely time within the Summer Immortal Palace. Only the butterfly in the temple could hear it. And yet, she didn’t actually understand what the sigh meant. She was still obsessed with finding out why her Master called her naive, and why her Master was helping that annoying guy she hated. Because of that, she didn’t notice the gleam of determination in her Master’s eyes.

***

Of course, Xu Qing did not hear that sigh. He was still in Netherflame’s secluded meditation facilities, looking at the dandelion seeds. A few breaths of time passed.

“Eight Extreme Daos...” he murmured. With that, he sent his divine will into the dandelion seeds.

Rumbling sounds filled Xu Qing’s mind, like the explosive sound that echoed out upon the creation of heaven and earth. The sound shattered time, becoming a force of attraction that dragged Xu Qing into the location that held the immortal essence of Deep Earth.

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The ground was made of flesh and blood that seemed to go on forever. Growing out of that sludge was the same gigantic dandelion he had seen before. The stalk of the dandelion was covered with innumerable symbols, each of which emanated terrifying might. All of it combined to make the dandelion miraculous and one-of-a-kind.

As for the ground, it was actually formed from the corpses of countless gods. Thēy had been turned into a dandelion that provided eternal power. The god souls of these gods were trapped, forced to bow, with no choice but to howl in terror and agony. Thēir godly voices just helped the dandelion to grow.

This was the land of the immortal essence. Nine Summer Immortals had buried a god world to create it.

Immortal essence!

Xu Qing had been here once, which meant that this was his second time. Yet it was still just as shocking to behold the dandelion. It was in full flower, sending countless wispy seeds out into the distance. At the same time, some seeds returned from afar, to be absorbed by the dandelion before being sent out again. It was an endless cycle.

Xu Qing sent out his divine will, which split into millions, tens of millions, or even hundreds of millions of strands that swept after the seeds, filling the void, filling the starry sky, and filling all the legacies.

Countless daoist magics appeared in front of him. Countless blurry figures stepped into his senses. They were training. They were practicing cultivation. Time seemed to lose purpose. Space seemed to lose meaning. The only thing in existence were the never-ending legacies. It was like being in a majestic library.

As Xu Qing studied such things, he was repeating ‘Eight Extreme Daos’ in his soul. Even as he did, within the boundless legacies within the immortal essence, three seeds became clear and floated toward him.

At the same moment that Xu Qing noticed the three seeds, the palace lord’s ancient voice echoed within the land of the immortal essence. “Those are three of the Eight Extreme Daos that make up the legacy. You only have time to gain enlightenment of two. Make your decision. I can’t help.”

Xu Qing looked quietly at the three seeds.

Within the first he saw a figure seated in meditation, seeking enlightenment.

In the second, he saw two figures looking at each other. He couldn’t make out their facial features.

Within the third, he saw three figures, apparently in the middle of passing on a legacy.

He would have two chances. What would he choose?

Xu Qing looked them over before focusing on the second. His eyes shone with determination. The reason he decided to pick the second was that he got the vague sense that the two figures inside actually had the same origin.

A clone and a true self?

He sent his divine will into the second of the dandelion seeds. Heaven and earth trembled.

At the same time, a scene from the history of Deep Earth played out for Xu Qing to see. He saw an unfamiliar continent that couldn’t possibly compare to Revered Ancient. But there was something special about it. There were a lot of fierce beasts in it. Apparently, those beasts provided the operational force of the continent. [1]

But what caught Xu Qing’s attention was a palace atop the continent. The canopy of heaven was over it, which seemed to have been ripped out to be an independent entity. Night and day were currently switching!

As Xu Qing looked down at it all, a sigh drifted out from the palace. The sigh was extraordinary. It ripped apart heaven and earth, causing a host of magical symbols to be born. Upon looking at the magical symbols, Xu Qing determined that they contained essence power.

They’re warding spells.

Things were starting to get interesting. He wanted to look at the person practicing cultivation in the palace, but something was preventing him. It wasn’t the person inside, but rather, the power of the dandelion.

After some thought, Xu Qing came to the conclusion that he could only act as an observer. He could only see what was happening, not interfere or participate. Time passed. More and more warding spells appeared in the sky above the palace. However, they seemed blurry as if they were beginning to scatter.

But then a shocking whistling sound emerged from the palace as five beams of light appeared. Though Xu Qing couldn’t see them clearly, there were clearly five people inside of them. And Xu Qing could also sense... the power of the five elements.

Metal. Wood. Water. Fire. Earth. Xu Qing looked closely at them. He watched as the five beams of light pulsed with the sensation of the five elements, until... they combined to create a five elements body.

The body stood tall amidst heaven and earth, a giant that was fully 3,000 meters tall! The presence of the body also started to stabilize the vanishing warding spells created by the magical symbols of essence.

But then, a ragged howl echoed out from the depths of the lands below. A fierce soul body appeared along with the howl. It was a sphere of flesh with a huge, brutal, insane eye in the middle of it. [2]

The moment the beast appeared, Xu Qing’s eyes glittered. It actually reminded Xu Qing a lot of Hellfei. And the biggest similarity between the two was the raging ferocity they both had.[3]

The fierce soul looked at the five elements true body in the sky above the palace, and its lone eye glittered with greed. It charged forward. As it neared, it shrieked piercingly. Before it could arrive, though, a tranquil voice echoed through heaven and earth.

“Calm.”

That word caused everything to go still. The howling soul went completely still, and even the ferocity in its lone eye seemed frozen.

Xu Qing looked on with curiosity glittering in his eyes.

When the fierce soul froze in place, the surrounding magical symbols seemed to pulse with a hunger that had been building for countless years. And then, upon seeing some food, they madly rushed toward the soul. One after another, they burrowed into it. The soul shivered, and as it was devoured, it began shining with a mysterious light.

The ferocity in the eye disappeared, to be replaced by an illusory figure. That figure stepped out from within the eye to stand in the open, emanating a majestic power of an essence warding spell.

Xu Qing was shaken. This is the true body formed by the essence warding spells? The five elements true body drew out the fierce soul, and then the fierce soul was used as nutrients to complete the creation process!

Xu Qing continued to watch as the scene played out to the end.

As night and day shifted in the sky, the daylight became a rising sun, and the flowing light entered into the still body of the soul. The fierce soul trembled and shrank down again as a second figure emerged from its eye. The figure shone with bright light that made it seem like a sun. And as it emerged from the eye of the beast, it stood next to the true body made from the warding spell essence.

Next, the remaining darkness of night also entered the body of the soul. The soul shivered, and then its eye collapsed as a third true body emerged. When this figure emerged, the ultimate killing intent exploded out along with it. Everything trembled.

Xu Qing stared at the third essence body, and his heart raced. Next, the five elements true body began to absorb the power of the fierce soul. Xu Qing was now starting to understand what was going on.

When the soul was ripped apart, the parts instinctively wanted to come together again. That instinct became a guiding force that surpassed the fierce soul. It became a medium by which the true bodies could bridge together and fuse!

As Xu Qing came to those conclusions, a black bolt of lightning exploded from within the palace. Along with it came a very cold voice.

“Combine!”

At almost the same time that the voice echoed out, a majestic divine will enveloped heaven and earth.

The bodies combined! They turned into a fiendish figure with black hair! An extreme aura erupted from the figure, something that wished to destroy all living things, to eradicate heaven and earth. It was an essence power that represented slaughter!

A sonorous voice echoed out from the palace. “From now on, you will replace me in hunting down my enemies! You will spread my destructive intent and kill those that seek to harm me! Your name is Slaughter and you dao name is Punishment!”

The scene ended there. [4]

The world in front of Xu Qing’s eyes collapsed, and as it did, his divine will returned to the lands of the immortal essence. The second of the dandelion seeds dissipated.

Then the palace lord’s voice echoed out again. “You just witnessed the integration and unification, one of the precious aspects of the Eight Extreme Daos. Whether or not you master it will be up to your own good fortune.”

Xu Qing thought back to what he had just witnessed. A moment passed. “Senior... who was that person?”

The palace lord didn’t answer the question. After remaining silent for a moment, she said, “Perhaps you’ll encounter him in the timescape. The two of you are the same type of person.”

Xu Qing looked at the spot where the second dandelion seed had been moments ago. Then he looked at the first dandelion seed and sent his divine will inside. An instant later, an ancient scene played out for him.

He saw a person that appeared to be a middle-aged cultivator in an imperial robe. He seemed to be the ancestor of a species, as countless people were offering him worship and calling him ‘Celestial Ancestor.’ He was currently bowing to a broken stone, upon which was carved a symbol that was difficult to make out clearly. [5]

The symbol depicted a crystal that had been broken into ten irregularly shaped parts. Among them, five represented metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. One of them contained space, while another contained time. It was impossible to say what the other three were. The crystal was surrounded by the images of infants and stars. It seemed to depict the creation of worlds.

As the Celestial Ancestor bowed, he seemed to gain enlightenment of a technique from within the broken crystal. Then the symbol blurred away and didn’t return.

Xu Qing was shaken. He wasn’t sure what the Celestial Ancestor had seen, but it seemed like he had been looking at the birth of a star ring. As for the ten shattered pieces of the crystal, the power within was clearly that of... the Eight Extreme Daos.

“Origin...” he murmured.

He was back in the land of immortal essence. After a moment, he closed his eyes to analyze and seek enlightenment of everything he had seen.

Time passed. It was hard to say how much time went by within the dandelion. It might have seemed to be thousands of years, but in reality, it was only thirty breaths of time.

“Time’s up,” said the palace lord.

Xu Qing opened his eyes. Within them were the five elements. He stood and bowed.

1. Many Chinese readers seemed to think that this place is a version (perhaps an early version) of the Immortal Astral Continent from Renegade Immortal, which was described initially in chapter 1617 of that novel, although it was mentioned a few times before that. ☜

2. Chinese readers came to the conclusion that this beast was the same beast (or type of beast?) that the translator of Renegade Immortal rendered as “Luo Hou” in chapter 2046. ☜

3. Hellfei first appeared in chapter 888 of this novel. ☜

4. The scene in this chapter is obviously a reflection of what happened in chapter 2046 of Renegade Immortal. Many lines were exact copies, but many lines were not exact copies, although obviously intended to carry a similar meaning. The character Slaughter also appeared a number of times in I Shall Seal the Heavens, the first time being in chapter 1122. ☜

5. The term ‘Celestial Ancestor’ comes up a lot in Renegade Immortal. I think the first true explanation or mention comes in chapter 1800. In chapter 1825 there is a mistranslation in English, or at least a lack of continuity. The chapter is titled “Eight Signs” where in reality it’s the “Eight Extreme(s)” that are the same characters from the “Eight Extreme Daos.” The chapter title of 1825 should really be “The Celestial Ancestor’s Eight Extremes” or perhaps “The Celestial Ancestor’s Eight Extreme Daos.” Incidentally, the Chinese character being rendered as celestial here could also be rendered as immortal. If ever one day I did a master edit of all of Er Gen’s works to try to create continuity between everything, I would probably change Celestial Ancestor to Immortal Ancestor. It is what it is. There are many instances in my past translations of Er Gen works where I used celestial instead of immortal for that character. ☜