Beyond the Timescape

Chapter 912: Divine Ability Weakness

Xu Qing wasn’t the first person in history to practice cultivation that conformed to both immortals and gods. Others included Master Seventh and Li Zihua. And there were others Xu Qing had never heard of who walked that path. It was a path that, whether now or in the future, could be considered the most orthodox path, and was actually not very hard to walk.

However, because of that, it was actually the most difficult path. Though many people had walked it, none had reached the end. It was a path with many forks in it, and since no one had walked it to the end, it was hard to say which of those possible forks was the right one to take. The Captain’s path couldn’t be said to conform to this dao, but instead, was something to the side of it.

What was more, Xu Qing’s path was slightly different. It looked like he was cultivating something that conformed to both immortals and gods, but the reality was that his foundation came from Xeno-Immortal techniques. Walking his path involved devouring gods, imitating gods, and then using them as servants.

On his path, gods were nutrients. And the entire purpose of it all was to become a xeno-immortal! An immortal who used gods for food.

On this occasion, his first fight after reaching Void Returning, Xu Qing was able to confirm the details of his path. Eyes shining, he used soul threads to make one god after another and send them into Sir Firedark’s major world.

Instantly, the mountain peaks in the major world started crumbling as something dramatic happened. From a distance, it was possible to see Li Zihua, a figure that could prop up heaven and earth, incomparably gigantic. Wherever he went, heaven crumbled and the earth shattered. Crimson Mother’s majestic form sent a blood mist out in all directions, causing all living things to howl in anguish as they withered up. The eye that was suppressed beneath the Ghost Emperor’s weapon floated in the air, innumerable tendrils surrounding īt in all directions, whipping about violently. Wherever it went, the world turned into paper, and it was just barely possible to hear gruish singing. As for the fish bone god, īt entered the waterways of the world, reversing the rivers and turning the water pitch black. Emperor Ancient Spirit’s eye absorbed the destiny and defiled it, transforming the very substructure of the major world. This was a case of gods launching an invasion that transformed everything.

It was actually similar to what happened to Revered Ancient long ago, although on a vastly smaller scale, and with Xu Qing taking the role of the broken face. Everyone was shaken to the core.

The arrival of the gods caused an instant explosion of mutagen in Sir Firedark’s major world. A godly aura spread out, invading the sky, invading the lands, and invading everything within the major world. It was becoming a forbidden region!

If the process completed, then everything in the world would experience something like the Awakening of Insects. Fate would be changed, and living beings would transform. The place would become a world suitable for gods.

Most terrifying was that as the process of transformation into a forbidden region went on, soul threads appeared within Sir Firedark’s majestic major world. They were new soul threads, not the 40,000,000 from before! Although there weren’t many, only a few tens of thousands, they were proliferating rapidly. In the blink of an eye, they reached the level of several hundreds of thousands! The world wasn’t just being invaded, it was being devoured!

This made it obvious how terrifying Xu Qing’s battle prowess and divine abilities were after forming the godly void soil.

However, Sir Firedark was the number one chosen among the Firemoon Darkheaven people, and was known to be extraordinarily daring. Naturally, he was no weakling. Seeing that his major world was suffering an invasion, his pupils suddenly filled with innumerable heavenly bodies. As they flickered, his major world trembled. Rivers, mountains, living things, and anything and everything else seemed to suddenly possess their own wills. Seemingly coming to life, they started fighting back.

Included in that resistance were five burning suns that rose up and emanated their unique natural and magical laws. They were his heavenly daos!

Thanks to the arrival of the heavenly daos, the will of the awakening world, which had suffered interference from Emperor Ancient Spirit, continued manifesting. It was a battle of gods.

At the same time, Sir Firedark looked at Xu Qing with eyes bursting with killing intent. He took a step forward, shattering the air as he raced toward Xu Qing, imbued with a spirit that could conquer mountains and rivers.

Xu Qing’s battle spirit also erupted, and he took a step forward with power that could destroy heaven and extinguish the earth. As the two worlds rumbled, the two cultivators raced directly toward each other.

Sir Firedark moved with astonishing speed befitting of his major world. And as he closed in on Xu Qing, terrifying fleshly body power surged. Sonic booms rang out as the two of them clashed over a hundred times in the blink of an eye. Every clash sent destructive shockwaves out in all directions.

Sir Firedark took a deep breath, causing boundless energy to rush into him. Next, he didn’t pull off any flashy moves. Instead, he barreled toward Xu Qing, leading with his shoulder. It was a smashing attack, but it contained a great dao, which meant that it wasn’t possible to evade it. It could only be faced head-on.

Xu Qing's eyes narrowed. He could sense the mountain-like force come from the blow, and he met it with a fist strike.

A deafening boom rang out.

Xu Qing flew backward. Meanwhile, Sir Firedark’s eyes were bloodshot. Ignoring the injuries from the backlash, he again attacked with explosive force. Closing in on Xu Qing, he reached out toward Xu Qing’s throat and clenched his hand down into a fist.

He was trying to crush Xu Qing’s throat!

What divine ability is this?

Xu Qing’s expression turned grave. He could sense a type of great dao in this technique as well, and it caused his eyes to flicker coldly. All of a sudden, three mountains appeared in front of him.

One was frigid gold. One was as red as blood. And one was engulfed in flame.

The three mountains collapsed an instant later, and Xu Qing tumbled backward. However, Sir Firedark was still on a mad offensive. The hand he had used to try to crush Xu Qing’s throat transformed into a fist, and he launched a blow. It was the very same Undying Emperor’s Fist he had used to shatter the Captains body back in the emperor’s mausoleum.[1]

The moment it appeared, wild colors flashed in heaven and earth, and a berserk aura erupted, along with an indescribably domineering sensation.

Things weren’t over yet, though. Seemingly building on all the momentum from before, the moment the Undying Emperor’s Fist landed, Sir Firedark suddenly erupted with golden light.

That light emerged from his skin, muscles, tendons, bones, and blood! The skin was the outer barrier. The muscles were like a heavenly king. The tendons provided extra strength. The bones were the foundation. The blood was the essence. [2]

Combined, they formed....

“Undying Five Elements!”[3]

Sir Firedark glowed with boundless golden light as he moved with explosive speed and mountain-toppling, sea-draining force. He was seemingly unstoppable in this peak state of momentum, and as he closed in, all of his fleshly body techniques combined into a fist that could destroy the cosmos. That fist shattered natural laws, ravaged magical laws, and shocked all living beings.

Xu Qing’s eyes shone brightly, as if with the light of daybreak. Sir Firedark’s series of divine abilities seemed breathtaking to Xu Qing.

I want them!

As the enemy closed in, Xu Qing unhesitatingly sent Ninedawns outside in an external manifestation. It swept over him, turning into ancient mage armor. The will of the antemage filled the form, causing it to expand and grow, until it became a modern-day antemage. As tall as a mountain, with a head in the dome of heaven, it emanated a sensation of time itself, as well as a legacy from antiquity. The nine dragon skulls swirled around the armor, making it seem even more domineering. All of the beasts in the Mountain and Sea Region howled as their blood seethed.

An ancient and wild sensation filled heaven and earth, and it all came from Xu Qing. He thrust his palm out toward Sir Firedark’s incoming fist. The force from the fist and the palm collided from a distance.

A tremor passed through Sir Firedark. His fleshly body wasn’t affected at all, but his mind began to crack as intense pain flooded his brain. Blood sprayed out of his mouth, and his face turned pale. A look of intense defiance filled his eyes, yet he couldn’t stop himself from tumbling backward.

In the spot of the actual clash, the air shattered in layers, forming into a black hole that caused both of the two worlds to tilt in its direction. Infinite draconic lightning bolts snaked out, forming a massive lightning net that covered everything.

One of the two combatants used a consummate divine ability. The other used the peak of the mage dao. That clash was so destructive that both sides were wiped out. The only thing left behind was a raging tempest that would even cause Smoldering Gods to do a double take.

Within that tempest, Xu Qing was like an immortal devil, his hair whipping about him as he strode forth. He looked somewhat excited, with his eyes glittering. He could now see that this wasn’t a case of Sir Firedark’s divine ability being inferior to his dao of the antemage. Instead, his opponents’ technique... was damaged and incomplete. That was a far cry from his own, which was a complete, intact legacy.

The enemy’s technique was extreme, but it only benefited the fleshly body, not the soul. It wasn’t that Sir Firedark’s soul power was insufficient. Actually, his soul power surpassed that of most people in his generation. But when you compared how much the technique boosted fleshly body power, the soul aspect just couldn’t compare.

That was the reason why Sir Firedark had lost this exchange. That said, he was still terrifying.

Xu Qing got the feeling that the technique could be used by any level of cultivation base. And it improved as one’s cultivation base got higher, getting more and more terrifying. In fact, it didn’t seem to have a limit!

However, when being cultivated to the level of Sir Firedark and Xu Qing, it had flaws. And those flaws created a weakness.

Thus, as Xu Qing’s heart filled with coldness, he stepped toward Sir Firedark. The mage armor had already fallen off of him, turning into streams of light that faded into the air. The antemage will also departed from Xu Qing. Astonishingly, when it reappeared, it was right above the head of the fleeing Sir Firedark.

Sir Firedark’s face fell as the antemage will became corporeal and crushed down onto him. What was more, the Ninedawns skulls pierced through the air to surround Sir Firedark, with a gaping mouth that emitted a shrill sound that targeted souls along with the antemage. It created a power that could lock the body in place!

Sir Firedark shivered. He knew that he had a weakness, but the fact that Xu Qing honed in on it so quickly left him feeling very anxious. He wanted to fight back, but before he could, Xu Qing suddenly extended his right hand. Ripples spread out in all directions, turning into a surface of water.

Everything was reflected on it. It was none other than Fishing the Moon in the Well. It was a divine ability that could lock down the soul, and with the blessing of the antemage, it did so instantly.

Meanwhile, seven lamps appeared behind Xu Qing, all of them glimmering with underworld light. It was the Seven Lamps Underworld Fire Curse, in which extinguishing the lamps extinguished the enemy. At its core, it also targeted the soul!

When it came to talking about experience in battle, it was true that Xu Qing was young, but from the moment he became a cultivator, he had fought people, fought heaven, and fought gods. Countless life-or-death experiences had honed his battle instincts to an incredibly shocking level. If he found a weakness in your technique, you died. Therefore, he unleashed all of his soul-targeting techniques to the maximum level. What was more, within his major world of soul threads, the god authorities of misfortune, the violet moon, and the god curse all went wild.

Although it seemed unlikely he needed to use all of that godly authority, he was the type of person who, once he identified a weakness, could attack it with everything he had. He wouldn’t give his opponent any chance to turn things around.

1. Sir Firedark’s ability bears many similarities to Bai Xiaochun’s Undying techniques from A Will Eternal. Many readers commented on this in Chinese. Considering that in chapter 887 Sir Firedark used the “Undying Emperor’s Fist” (which was one of BXC’s go-to techniques), well.... ☜

2. In AWE, the “Undying” set of techniques more or less has five parts that correspond to the sections listed here. That’s especially true of the ‘heavenly king’ part, which is the same set of characters that could be rendered as ‘golden vajra warrior.’ This is a good point to expound on translation choices. In AWE, the “heavenly king” translation choice basically makes sense, but when put into the context of BTT, it’s not as congruous. Translations choice can change depending on context, even with the same author. ☜

3. All comments relating to Captain Planet will result in permanent IP, GPS, and DNA bans from Wuxiaworld. Thank you. ☜