Beyond the Timescape

Chapter 1146: Young Lord of the Immortal Palace

Scowling, Xu Qing reached out and crushed the jade slip. Then he flicked his sleeve, taking Patriarch Diling and the others with him out of the fresco of Mount South Heaven. Once outside in the hall, Patriarch Diling and the others knew their lives had been saved. All of them bowed excitedly in thanks to Xu Qing.

“I am your humble servant Madam Spiritmoon from the Tianyue Clan in the northern planetary system,” said the female cultivator. “Many thanks for your help, Fellow Daoist. If you ever travel to the north and need any help at all, I’ll be at your call!”

As for the middle-aged cultivator, he took a deep breath and gravely said, “I am Zhang Shiyi from the School of the Enlightened Spirit in the south. I’ll never forget how you saved my life, Fellow Daoist. No matter where I am, all you need to do is call for help, and I’ll do everything in my power to rise to the occasion!”

There was no question that they would have died were it not for Xu Qing’s arrival. Their gratitude was sincere and heartfelt.

Finally came Patriarch Diling, who was extremely excited. “Exalted one, I’m so glad we’ve been reunited.”

All of a sudden, he remembered something important. “The exalted Li Mengtu looked for you to no avail. He finally went to the fourth world. But he wanted me to explain a few things to you. If you’d like, I can convey his words now.”

Xu Qing nodded.

“The exalted Li Mengtu wanted me to explain that some things about the entrance to the fourth world have changed this time around. In the past, all you needed to do was display your canon, and you could easily get into the fourth world.

“But this time, there are more specific requirements. Based on what the exalted Li Mengtu has uncovered, you have to obtain a special identity! Therefore, he wanted me to explain, not just the place to go to get to the fourth world, but also the manner in which you can secure an identity. He also wanted me to tell you his identity there.”

Xu Qing’s eyes narrowed.

“The entrance to the fourth world is located in the northern part of the palace, in a sea. The name of that sea is ‘North.’” Patriarch Diling was trying to quickly explain all the information he had. “There’s a gateway in the North Sea. As for your identity, you can get one in the North Sea. You just get an identity medallion there. As for which identity you get, it will depend on your own good fortune.[1]

“The exalted Li Mengtu’s identity… is that of the study partner of Immortal Lord Aurora’s son. He wanted me to tell you that he’ll see you in the fourth world.”[2]

Xu Qing thought about it for a moment. Thanks to the imp, he had already learned about the matter of identities in the fourth world. But from what Li Mengtu had told him, this situation with the identities was not something that had happened before. In that case… why was it happening now?

Xu Qing looked down at the empty palm of his hand. Is it because of the imp?

After bidding farewell to Patriarch Diling and the others, he stepped through space-time and left the south. He was heading north.

Shortly after, the jade slip formed anew in his palm, and the imp started talking. He sounded anxious.

“Don’t get mad! I won’t scold you this time! It’s a real identity!”

No expression could be seen on Xu Qing’s face as he prepared to crush the jade slip again. Before he could, the imp appeared in projected form above the jade slip, waving his hands desperately. Then the paper boat appeared in midair in front of him.

“Stop! Don’t! The identity is right here!”

Xu Qing looked at the paper boat. As he watched, the imp quickly unfolded the boat to reveal a piece of paper. Written on the paper were eight silver words.

Dao Finale Sixth Month First Day Early Morning.

The imp looked at the eight words, and seemed profoundly shaken. Then, he waved his hand, and a five-colored figure appeared on the paper. That figure looked exactly the way Xu Qing had appeared in the second world. The eight words converged with the figure.

Having accomplished that, the imp started folding the paper up again. However, he didn’t fold it into a boat. Instead, he wrapped it around the jade slip.

“If you wrap the jade slip with the paper, you can use the power of the second world to make it real. That way, your fate will conform to what is true and real, and you can turn illusion into truth!”

As he wrapped up the jade slip and talked to Xu Qing, there was nothing insolent about his tone of voice. Instead, he seemed to be very serious, like an older person giving important advice to a young one.

“Alright, ya little punk. Remember those eight words. After you get into the fourth world, you need to recite them. Then you’ll get the identity. By the way, I really do need your help to get me into the fourth world. Afterward, you do your thing, and I’ll do mine….

“Oh, there’s something else I should explain. When you go into the past, you can use your space-time canon, but don’t try to change history. The past cannot be changed. It can’t be altered. At least, not unless you want to die. After you get in… you are a spectator, watching history pass.”

After finishing wrapping up the jade slip, the imp blurred into motion and entered it. When he was inside, he cleared his throat, and once again spoke in an insolent manner.

“Hurry up and get into the fourth world, son! Go into the past and see how awesome and heroic your daddy was! See how he was unparalleled under heaven! Watch him in his glory and majesty as he… fights your grandpa!”

Xu Qing grabbed the jade slip and tried to crush it. This time, it didn’t work…. The paper protected it. Inside the jade slip, the imp laughed insolently.

“Hahaha! Can’t crush me, can you? Alright, alright. Save your energy. I know you’re annoyed with me. But don’t worry, ya brat, this is the last thing I’ll say to you in this life. And so… see you in the fourth world!”

After those words rang out, the jade slip burst into flames and collapsed into ashes that quickly disappeared.

Xu Qing didn’t say anything. Inside, he was analyzing what the imp had told him, and was also trying to determine what problems might crop up with this identity. It seemed that no matter how he looked at it, this identity would be superior to all others. Based on the clues he had so far, it seemed that one’s identity in the fourth world… was very important.

It determined the destined opportunities you encountered, the good fortune you acquired, and how far you could go. In other words, it determined all of your limits in the fourth world.

Most importantly, the moment the imp drew the five-colored figure on the paper, Xu Qing could feel it tugging on him faintly. It was connected to his fate.

At the same time, the world around him seemed different. It seemed to view him more kindly.

A moment later, Xu Qing looked in the direction of the north. Then he blurred into motion through space-time. He sped through the immortal palace of the third world without so much as pausing for a moment. When he reached the north, he eventually caught sight of a majestic sea.

Waves surged across its seemingly endless surface. As the waves crashed on the rocky shore, the sound seemed to tell an ancient story. Seven-colored sunlight shone through the clouds and onto the surface of the sea, creating dazzling reflections and motes of light. That only seemed to add a colorful sensation of time to the ancient story.

Occasionally, illusory sea birds would flap through the air, dive down into the water, and come up with a fish. Sometimes they just glided overhead until disappearing over the horizon.

But those were just the things visible with ordinary ‘sight.’ What Xu Qing saw with his space-time canon was something completely different. He didn’t see any seven-colored sunlight. There were no surging waves or flying birds.

In fact, it was actually deep in the night. A pale moon hung in the sky, and the sea was as red as blood. It looked like a sea of blood filled with countless corpses. A powerful aura of death formed a mist atop the water.

In the depths of that mist were two figures as tall as the sky itself, locked in combat.

One of them had a broken sword and pulsed with an incredible, baleful aura. His every movement pulsed with a heaven-destroying, earth-extinguishing mightiness, and his broken sword seemed capable of slashing apart anything in existence. He was none other than Sir Vilespirit!

Naturally, the person he was fighting was Zhou Zhengli. He seemed to be surrounded by infinite lightning bolts that created a figure so enormous it was like the lord of the sky. He wielded a long dagger-axe that could indict evil! Anything he pointed at was indicted evil, and could be targeted by canon-devastating force. This was the result of his own canon, that of… executing evil!

After the two of them ran into each other in the east, they had started fighting, and had not stopped even upon reaching the north. Here they were, still fighting at the entrance of the fourth world. Thunderous booms rang out, sending shockwaves through the air, smashing into the sea and the shore. And they reached Xu Qing.

Xu Qing looked at the two combatants. Back when he first entered the third world, he had sensed the fluctuations of major combat. Now he knew where they had come from. They were the shockwaves from this fight.

He watched for a moment, then looked away and stepped onto the surface of the lake. The fight had nothing to do with him. And he didn’t care who died.

All he was concerned with was finding the entrance to the fourth world. Face expressionless, he walked forward.

A stream of sword energy descended from above, but he brushed it aside. Lightning fell like rain, but he sliced through it with space-time. As he continued onward, the side-effects of the battle swept past him constantly. The entire time, his expression was completely placid.

Sir Vilespirit and Zhou Zhengli both noticed him. At first, they were mostly focused on their fighting. But gradually, both of them looked over at Xu Qing.

Compared to most people, Xu Qing was very young. What was more, he was unusually good-looking. There he was on the surface of the water, a young man strolling around as calmly as if he was in his own backyard. He almost seemed like he was the ruler of the palace.

The two combatants’ expressions turned serious. Both of them clearly remembered seeing Xu Qing before, and he had not come across like the ruler of the palace. And then, they simultaneously noticed something else.

His killing aura… has become stronger! Sir Vilespirit’s eyes narrowed.

His dao has a resonance with this world…. Zhou Zhengli’s eyes shone brightly.

In an unusual turn of events, they stopped fighting.

Even still, Xu Qing didn’t pay them any attention. He would walk his own path, just as he would pursue his own dao. Eventually, he reached the middle of the sea. That was where he found an ancient stone door. He stopped in front of it for a few breaths of time. Then he stepped inside.

As he did, he murmured, “Dao Finale Sixth Month First Day Early Morning.”

1. This sea bears the same name as the sea from I Shall Seal the Heavens that was mentioned only a few chapters ago. We don’t really have any evidence right now to tell us whether or not it’s the same sea or related to it. ☜

2. The Chinese term I’m rendering as ‘study partner’ can have different meanings. In some contexts, it could refer to a spouse. But that’s not what it means here. As is made clear a bit later, it means “a person hired to be a school companion to children from a wealthy/powerful family.” ☜

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