Beyond the Timescape

Chapter 1147: The Aurora Epoch

The first year of the Immortal calendar in the Fifth Star Ring was the year that the God Paragon perished and the Immortal Paragon rose to prominence. After that, there were twelve epochs named after twelve Immortal Lords. Each epoch was 12,000 years, and together they formed a major cycle. Each epoch was divided into the following time periods: Dao Beginning, Dao Luster, Dao Firmament, and Dao Finale. Each Dao period was 3,000 years long. The combination of the four of them formed a minor cycle.

According to the custom, whenever a new Immortal Lord rose up, a new epoch started in the Immortal calendar. Furthermore, because the Immortal Paragon spent most of his time in cultivation, another custom dictated that the Immortal Lord associated with a given epoch would be in charge of the Fifth Star Ring during that time.

It was currently the eleventh month of the year 2999 of the Dao Finale of the Nineshores epoch. It was only one month until the beginning of the Aurora epoch.

The transition of one epoch into another was always a huge celebration for the cultivators of the Fifth Star Ring. It was very significant. It didn’t matter who the new Immortal Lord was or who the old one was. It was always a special occasion.

The next center of government was going to be the Aurora Immortal Palace, and thus, the place was fully festooned with shining lanterns and colorful banners. Everyone there was anxious to bid farewell to the former and welcome the new. There were countless tasks to be handled as the moment of transition approached.

Years had already passed since the immortal subordinates of Immortal Lord Aurora had spread through the Fifth Star Ring to serve as assistants before ultimately taking over their new positions in the administration. Immortal Lord Aurora had four apprentices. The fourth apprentice was going to stay in the immortal palace, but the other three had outside assignments. All would take over positions as immortal generals that had previously been held by Immortal Lord Nineshores’ subordinates.

Whenever one epoch transitioned into another, things like this happened. As of now, all arrangements had been made, and the only thing left to do was wait for that last month to pass.

The entire Fifth Star Ring was waiting to welcome the new epoch. For the next 12,000 years, Immortal Lord Aurora would be the most powerful individual in the star ring.

However, even though the immortal palace was currently full of hope and excitement, there was currently a howl of agony ringing out in the east of the palace. It came from the Scourgebolt Cliffs.[1]

The screams were so intense that many cultivators in the immortal palace could hear them. However, few people paid much attention. Occasionally, someone would look in the direction of the Scourgebolt Cliffs, but usually they would just sigh, shake their head, and then go about their business.

A young man was hurrying toward the cliff. Occasionally, some bemused onlookers noticed him and called out to him.

“Is the young lord being punished again?”

“What did he do this time?”

“What’s the hurry, Zhong Chi? Come on, tell us what’s happening.”

Whenever people would say things like this to the young man named Zhong Chi, he would smile wryly and offer greetings, but he would just continue on his way to the Scourgebolt Cliffs.[2]

As he neared, the sound of thunder grew loud, as did the howls of agony and grief.

The moment Zhong Chi stepped into the warding spell that protected the Scourgebolt Cliffs, the screaming stopped. Looking surprised, Zhong Chi hurried forward through the warding spell. His vision blurred, then grew clear again, whereupon he saw a sky full of green lightning bolts.

There was no end to the lightning, which fell without cease on a person hanging in midair. He wore tattered garments, had disheveled hair, and was completely surrounded by lightning. Yet for some reason he had stopped screaming, despite how the lightning continued to smash into him, causing him to gasp for breath, and sending blood spurting out of numerous wounds on his body. Blood even oozed out of the corners of his mouth.

Zhong Chi was relieved to see that the young lord still had some energy left in him. Relaxing a bit, he clasped hands and bowed.

“Young Lord… as you commanded, the Hundred Flowers Palace was sealed immediately. No one will go inside during your lightning punishment.”[3]

The lightning continued to crash down.

The figure in midair didn’t seem to have noticed Zhong Chi. His head was currently bowed, and his eyes were tightly shut. As long as the lightning was striking him, he would not open his eyes. That was because… if he did open his eyes, they would be full of helplessness, confusion, and similar emotions.

How come I got sent right into a torture session?

Being punished by countless bolts of lightning was not making Xu Qing feel very good. He clearly remembered that only a moment ago, he had entered the door in the North Sea of the third world. He had uttered those specific eight words, and had then appeared here.

This was not his body. In fact, it wasn’t even his soul. But his thoughts were his own!

It was like he had been transported. In an instant… all of the memories and knowledge of his host became part of his own thoughts. And then, every aspect of what the host was experiencing filled Xu Qing’s senses.

The imp had not fooled him. The identity of his host was without any doubt that of Immortal Lord Aurora’s only son. This was the fourth world. It was something that had happened in the past.

As Xu Qing absorbed the memories of his host, the lightning strikes from above ceased. It wasn’t just the lightning that stopped. The dome of heaven ceased to rotate, the air went still, and time even seemed to slow down. His study partner Zhong Chi similarly went still.

A figure appeared out of thin air, right in front of Xu Qing. The figure was blurry and impossible to see clearly, but was full of majesty. It was like the will of heaven, or the world itself. Or the lord of the entire star ring. He looked coldly at Xu Qing.

A moment passed, and then he snapped, “You unfilial son! You want to screw around with women all the time? Fine! You want to dally at your Hundred Flowers Palace? I can look the other way. I can tolerate some impudence.

“But you… you actually fooled around with the daughter of Immortal Lord Nineshores?? And you didn’t just mess with her emotionally! You messed with her physically? Maybe I could deal with that if you had smoothed things over on your own. But in all your genius you seduced her and then unceremoniously dumped her in the most heartless way possible!! Well guess what? Immortal Lord Nineshores’s daughter just showed up asking for an explanation!”

Xu Qing was feeling very nervous and had his guard up completely. There was no doubt that the person in front of him was Immortal Lord Aurora. His first worry was that he would break his own cover. Granted, the whole arrangement of going back in time was the work of the immortal palace, and he was following all the rules.

But an Immortal Lord was an Immortal Lord!

What was more, he had no way of knowing what was going on with the imp. It was entirely possible that the imp had occupied a host in this place as well. If that was what happened, it would make perfect sense for the imp to select Immortal Lord Aurora as his host. After all, the imp was apparently a bit of discarnate will left behind by Aurora.

But Xu Qing had no way to know for sure. What was more, now that he had absorbed the memories of his host, he knew that when Immortal Lord Aurora got mad, the best thing to do was keep his mouth shut.

“Oh, now you know how to keep your mouth shut?” Immortal Lord Aurora said coldly. He waved his hand, and the power of the lightning surged, becoming many times stronger than before. Having done that, he turned to leave the Scourgebolt Cliffs.

“Since you know how to keep your mouth shut, you can keep it shut and wallow in your regret. I’ve already proposed a marriage on your behalf. You and Nineshores’ daughter are going to be wed whether you want to or not! Also, I’ll give you half a month to tear down that pestilential Hundred Flowers Palace of yours!

“Zhong Chi, I know you’re just a study partner, but this time I want you keeping an eye on everything!”

As his voice echoed out, the lightning that had gone still earlier suddenly went wild again, slamming down onto Xu Qing with even greater force than before. Everything else started to move again as well, including the young man Zhong Chi, who was, of course, Li Mengtu.[4]

Li Mengtu took a deep breath and bowed his head respectfully. In his heart, he was feeling profoundly nervous. He knew that Zhong Chi had never actually seen Immortal Lord Aurora. And that was because whenever Immortal Lord Aurora went somewhere, everything went still. But this time, Zhong Chi had been mentioned by name, and thus, Li Mengtu had been able to sense some of what was happening.

He had already been in the fourth world for a while now, so he was familiar with the identity he had assumed, and knew that the other people in this past space-time couldn’t tell who he really was. But there was no way he couldn’t be nervous in the presence of an Immortal Lord.

As for the young lord…. According to the popular saying, when the father is a lion, the son will never be a dog. But according to Zhong Chi’s memories, that was not how this father-son relationship had worked out. The young lord had a lot of cultivation aptitude. But he was very given to lust, and had accomplished nothing of note in his entire life.

What was more, based on what Li Mengtu remembered of history, the young lord would die at the end of the month. In fact, on the very day he was to marry the daughter of Immortal Lord Nineshores, before the wedding could even be carried out… the entire Aurora Immortal Palace would experience catastrophe.

In a month, he’ll die, but so will everyone else in the palace. Not one person will survive the slaughter carried out by the Immortal Paragon. I just need to play along according to my role, and complete my dao along the way!

Everyone else in here is keeping their identity deeply hidden, so I only have some basic guesses about who is who…. Well, as long as they don’t interfere with me, I have no reason to do anything to them.

Having reached the conclusion that this was definitely the best idea, Li Mengtu looked up at the young lord and sighed.

“Young Lord, the Immortal Lord has made his decision. Why not… just go along with it?”

Xu Qing only vaguely heard the words, as if they had reached his ears across a vast span of time. By now, he had absorbed the memories of his host, the son of Aurora, and he was having a hard time trying to decide how to assess the life he had lived.

It wasn’t correct to say that he had slacked off in cultivation. Nor was he a silkpants. He was over 300 years old, and his cultivation base was in the Imperial Sovereign level. In fact, he wasn’t far off from becoming a Quasi-Immortal. He generally behaved well. Most people perceived him to be cultured and refined. He was graceful, and was very impressive, at least on the outside.

But his big downside.. was that he was very passionate. In the self-deprecating memories of the young lord, the best way to describe it was to say that his heart had been broken countless times, and each time, it was broken by a different woman. The end result was that his memories were like an erotic painting.

Xu Qing frowned and dispelled the memories. After that, he could hear Zhong Chi speaking, and he opened his eyes. His host’s memories were telling him that this person was his study partner. At the same time, Xu Qing’s memories were telling him that Zhong Chi was most likely Li Mengtu. That said, he had no plans to reveal that he knew that.

Looking at him, Xu Qing hoarsely said, “I’m a bit tired.”

Li Mengtu blinked a few times. It seemed like this young lord was different than before. However, there was one thing he was absolutely certain about.

There were three historical figures who couldn’t possibly be possessed by others. One was the Immortal Paragon, one was the Immortal Lord, and one was the young lord. It went without saying why that was true of the Immortal Paragon and the Immortal Lord. As for the young lord, he was under the protection of the Immortal Lord, so there was no possibility that someone could take his identity.

He was certain of this because of the very means by which he and the other Shining Stars had acquired their identities in the fourth world. The end result was that he was certain of that fact, and so were the other Shining Stars.

With that thought in mind, Li Mengtu said, “That’s probably because of the lightning punishment and what the Immortal Lord just said. Young Lord, on the way in I made an inquiry at the Scourgebolt Palace, and they said the punishment will last seven days. After the seven days are up, you and Li the Chosen are supposed to have your duel. Do you want me to request an extension on the date?”

Xu Qing consulted the memories of his host. His host had gotten into a quarrel with Li Shaofeng, who was known as Li the Chosen, from the Heavensieve School. The conflict was over a beautiful maiden who was the reincarnation of a charming 1,000-year-old fox. In the end, they had agreed to duel, and the winner would get the maiden.

What kind of a duel is this…?

Xu Qing frowned slightly. He was about to ask for some more details when all of a sudden he thought about the clay fox.

Don’t tell me Starfire got in here too…?

1. Scourgebolt Cliffs: The Chinese character I’m rendering ‘scourge’ usually means something like torture or punishment, and in xianxia novels, at least in Er Gen’s novels, this character is almost always associated with some sort of government department or location where criminals are punished or tortured. The character I’m rendering ‘bolt’ is the one for thunder or lightning. So although there has not been an explanation of this place, the characters imply that it’s some location where criminals are punished with lightning. Incidentally, as I’m sure many of you know, there are no true plurals or singulars in Chinese, so this place could also be Scourgebolt Cliff (singular). There is never any clear description that decisively states one way or another whether it should be cliff or cliffs. However, as the narrative reveals, it’s more like a world/dimension, and the sense I got when reading is that it’s a huge place, not just one singular cliff. ☜

2. Zhong Chi: Zhong is listed #53 on the list of 100 common Chinese surnames. It has a handful of other meanings, but most notable of them are “clock, time, bell, o’clock.” Chi means “late, delayed, slow.” ☜

3. Several hundred chapters ago there was a reference to ‘hundred flowers,’ and I included a footnote with an explanation. In this instance, the meaning/feeling of the ‘hundred flowers’ is different. Considering that we’re in the middle of some sort of ‘palace/imperial’ arc, and especially because this moment involves a ‘young lord,’ this instance makes one think of women, concubines, or maybe even courtesans. My first reaction was to assume the place was either a brothel or a harem of some sort. We’ll find out more details in coming chapters. ☜

4. The author did not seem to want to bother to differentiate between Zhong Chi and Li Mengtu. In other words, even when we’re inside the head of Zhong Chi and seeing the thoughts that are obviously those of Li Mengtu, the author usually just calls him Zhong Chi. I feel like this makes sense in Chinese but is confusing in English. I’m going to do a bit of selective editing so that it makes more sense in English. When the story is being told from Li Mengtu’s POV, I will use the name Li Mengtu. But when seen from the POV of other characters, he will be Zhong Chi. This same thing goes for other characters who have assumed identities. In some cases the author uses their real name, and in other cases he uses the assumed identity. And he will switch back and forth randomly, seemingly with no standard for doing so. I feel like it was mostly just a matter of carelessness on his part. Like he just typed out whatever came to mind in the moment, without much regard to keeping the POV accurate. In any case, throughout this arc I will try to make the English reading experience as smooth and logical as I can. ☜

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