Beyond the Timescape

Chapter 880: Eyes of Annihilation

The spider moved so quickly that it was a blur.

In his god state, Xu Qing’s battle prowess was equivalent to fourth-stage Void Returning. He hadn’t even tapped into the blessing of Ninedawns yet, and yet his current state was incredibly formidable. However, the spider’s speed caused his pupils to constrict. He knew that this spider was only one of the many living things in this god domain that were listed in Sir Heavenink’s jade slip. However, these spiders were fairly common. And in terms of ranking how terrifying they were, there were many that far surpassed this type of spider. The fact that this spider was so fast, and yet was so common, went to show how astonishing the god domain was.

Eyes narrowing, Xu Qing shot backward by 300 meters to avoid the attack of the spider. He waved his right hand, and the golden crow appeared. It surged with black flames as it turned into a black spear, which Xu Qing hurled out in front of him.The black spear streaked through the air, and the spider lurched to a halt as the spear pierced through it.

The spider didn’t try to dodge out of the way. The spear passed through it, and in gruish fashion, it didn’t create any wound. In fact, it didn’t seem to have any effect at all. It was as if the spider could ignore all magical techniques and divine abilities.

The spider burst into motion again, closing in on Xu Qing with a piercing shriek that could shake the soul.

Xu Qing frowned and thought back to the description of this type of spider from Sir Heavenink’s information.

“The spider spirits are a type of guard that roam the fringes of the god domain. They can occasionally be encountered alone, but usually stay in groups. They have strong levels of godliness and are very fast. They’re impervious to all manner of physical attack. Their attacks can only be vanquished with divine abilities.”

Xu Qing’s eyes glittered as he realized that the information from the jade slip wasn’t entirely correct. His black spear was the manifestation of a divine ability, and the damage it inflicted wasn’t from fleshly body power. Yet it was still ineffective. Either the information was wrong, or things had changed in this god domain.

As those thoughts went through Xu Qing’s head, the spider closed in again. Xu Qing clenched a hand into a fist and launched a blow, but the spider ignored it. Appearing right in front of him, it spat a mass of white spider silk out of its mouth. It quickly swept out to surround Xu Qing.

His eyes glittered coldly; since neither magical techniques nor fleshly body power seemed effective, he needed to try something else to resolve the situation. Instead of dodging, he became a bright beam of light that shot forward.

Moving with astonishing speed, he blasted through the mass of spider web, arriving right in front of the 300-meter spider. However, he didn’t launch an attack. He just kept going.

Rumbling sounds echoed out as he shot into the spider’s body. Although it didn’t actually hurt the spider, now that he was inside, his killing intent burned as he sent a host of soul threads out. In the blink of an eye, millions of soul threads swept away from his god state, filling the spider and instantly erupting with a soul-devouring ability.

This was Xu Qing’s idea for how to kill the spider. Given that his soul threads were made from godsource, it actually worked quite well.

The spider could ignore cultivator techniques, but it couldn’t ignore godly might. The 300-meter spider shivered and then let loose a shriek of agony. Its body visibly withered, shrinking down faster and faster until it collapsed in drifting ash.

Xu Qing appeared, his expression quizzical. The moment he was out in the open, another shadowy form shot toward him. It was a second spider! There were more shadowy blurs in the distance, accompanied by shrieking sounds. There were more than a dozen spiders there, all racing toward Xu Qing. Seeing that, Xu Qing’s quizzical expression grew more prominent.

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He was thinking back to what Sir Heavenink said, that the living beings in god domains were said to be treasures. After absorbing the spider just now, he gained more than a hundred thousand additional soul threads.

That level of increase surpassed anything he could have predicted. Most importantly, Xu Qing had sensed something like heavenly dao fluctuations on the spider. Though these spiders weren’t heavenly daos, if they were ensorcelled, they could turn into heavenly daos.

I currently have something like 5,000,000 soul threads. All the slaughter and devouring earlier on the outside increased my limit. And this place... seems perfectly suitable to keep that trend going.

He licked his lips as he looked at the spiders closing in on him. Then he blurred, sending out a mass of soul threads to form a tempestuous vortex around him. Storm winds raged as the spiders bore down on him, shrieking the entire time. They entered the tempest.

There were a total of seventeen of them. Once they were inside the vortex, their screams echoed out. In fact, one of the spiders managed to break free and tried to escape. It acted too late. The soul thread count increased, reaching the level of more than 6,000,000. As a result, the vortex expanded, becoming like a gaping maw that devoured the fleeing spider.

Sometime later, the more than 6,000,000 blood-red soul threads shrank back down and turned into Xu Qing again. He waited around for a time, but no more spiders appeared. Sighing regretfully, he took out the bottle with the Captain in it and opened it.

A blue worm flew out and started wriggling dramatically, turning first into what looked like a half-melted wax person, but eventually turning into the Captain. If anyone had been present to observe, they would find the scene gruish to the extreme. But Xu Qing was used to it.

When the Captain opened his eyes and looked around, his eyes lit up and he started laughing uproariously.

“I finally got in here!! Little Ah Qing, we are now very, very close to our goal! Hahaha! Also, what a risk! Back when Sunfire looked at you, that not-male, not-female old fart, shē very nearly noticed me. Luckily, I prepared very well, and had myself completely sealed from the beginning.” The Captain seemed to be getting more and more excited as he continued looking around. “This place is an original god domain without any master! Let’s go, little Ah Qing. Follow me!”

With that, the Captain started moving in a specific direction, as if he was familiar with this place already.

Xu Qing sighed. Based on how comfortable the Captain looked, it seemed likely he had been here in a past life. Presumably, the big job he wanted to pull off was something he had failed at in the past. Now he wanted to get the job done.

Xu Qing shook his head. Sometimes he really couldn’t understand why the Captain was so fond of risking his life. It was almost like he worked hard in every life to toe the line with death. Apparently, he wouldn’t rest until he was able to put his life on the line.

With such thoughts on his mind, Xu Qing made sure to keep his guard up, and reminded himself that he definitely was not going to participate in the Captain’s big job. With that, he hurried after the Captain.

As they sped along, the Captain decided the route. As he led Xu Qing into the god domain, they passed through gaps in the spider webs.

Seven days passed. During that time, countless participants in the Great Hunt spread out into different parts of the god domain. Some hunted living beings, others turned out to be the hunted. If you could look down from a very high vantage point, and could take in all of the tens of thousands of cultivators, you would find that... people were dying constantly.

The majestic god domain had lots of living beings in it. Every single one was outrageous and extremely gruish. That said, the cultivators who were participating in the Great Hunt were all confident for varying reasons, and simply had to find a balance between self-preservation and hunting. Of course, there was also mutagen to deal with. It was incredibly strong, to the point where there wasn’t any spirit energy present.

To species other than the Firemoons, that could be fatal. But the Firemoon Darkheavens were a species consecrated to specific gods, and they had a natural resistance to mutagen.

Unfortunately, the god domain also had all sorts of terrifying entities that, if you encountered them, would reduce your chances of survival significantly. For example, there was that tentacled fish at the very outset. Another example were the dead planets that the spider webs had grown over.

Some of those dead planets would tremble as if having been struck with earthquakes. And then, the lands would part... to reveal that the planets had huge eyes in them. The eyes were white, and wherever their gazes landed, spider webs would proliferate. And whenever they blinked, all living beings and grues in the spot where they had been looking would be wiped out of existence.

“They call those the eyes of annihilation,” the Captain explained. “The living beings in god domains are affected by the gods, and thus experience all sorts of mutations. Even the planets are no exception. In one of my lives, I tried to graft one of them onto my forehead. Sadly, it didn’t work.”

The Captain sighed.

As Xu Qing and the Captain proceeded along, one of the dead planets trembled, and then the eye opened. As it looked around, it seemed to notice something, and then swiveled to look at Xu Qing and the Captain.

The moment that happened, the Captain took out some sort of invisible object and pressed it into Xu Qing’s hands.

Xu Qing didn’t resist. He soon sensed an invisible sealing mark on his hand, which caused the gigantic eye to lose focus and look in a different direction.

Xu Qing looked down at his hand.

“Remember the Wordless Book of Stone? Heh heh. Trust me, little Ah Qing, I really prepared well this time around!” [1]

The Captain lifted his hand and waved it in front of Xu Qing.

Xu Qing nodded as he thought back to the time the Captain had carried out an undercover mission to get that book.

“The Wordless words can be used to conceal yourself with invisibility. That way, terrifying entities like the one from just now won’t notice you. Let’s go. Things should go smoothly from here on out. Our first goal is just up ahead.”

The Captain excitedly flew ahead. Xu Qing shook his head and followed.

A few days passed in which they passed through a lot of spider webs. That was when Xu Qing caught sight of a very unique area.

It was a vast red sea. The sea water appeared to be frozen, and it went on forever. There were enormous shells sticking out of the water, some 30,000 meters tall. Some of them were open, revealing the enormous heads of beasts that resembled eagles.

The Captain pointed out. “We’re here, little Ah Qing. This is the site of our first goal.”

1. In chapter 810, the Captain explained that he wanted the words from the Wordless Book of Stone specifically for use in the god domain during the Great Hunt. ☜