Beyond the Timescape

Chapter 967: After Waking Up (part 2)

Huang Yan wiped the water from his face and looked at the trembling Joine. “Poor Joine. Ever since you caught her, you’ve spent months using her as bait. Every time her body grows back, she loses it again....”

Then he looked at Little Shadow as it made its crunching sounds. “And poor Little Shadow. It’s been c-c-crunch, c-c-crunching for months now too. Sadly, it’s just not working. The giant and the bronze chariot you’re looking for are nowhere to be found.

“But poorest of all is me!” Huang Yan glared at Xu Qing. “Your Master is having a great time in seclusion, and tasked me with following you around.... I miss Elder Sister. I haven’t left her like this in a long time. She definitely misses having me around.”[1]

Xu Qing was apparently used to Huang Yan complaining like this. Inspecting his fleshly body, he said, “I’m just following Master’s orders, Second Brother-in-Law.”

Huang Yan sighed and hung his head dejectedly. Taking out a jade slip that he had been using to record the conversation, he sent the recording to a certain someone. Then he just sat there looking gloomy. About a dozen breaths of time passed, whereupon Huang Yan blinked a few times and suddenly looked very enthusiastic. Chuckling, he said, “Alright, we’re good now. I sent the message. I really have no choice in this. Your Second Elder Sister is just too petty sometimes. After all, her status in the family isn’t very high, and she’s sort of insecure. That’s why I have to care for her in this way.”

“Ohhhhh,” said Xu Qing. Over the past few months, Huang Yan had ‘cared’ for her in this way every few days.

“As you’ve seen, Xu Qing,” Huang Yan said proudly, “my status in the family is the highest in all of South Phoenix! Believe me, I’m just too charming! Your Second Elder Sister is constantly being clingy. It’s like she’s scared I won’t pay enough attention to her. Whether she goes out on errands or to do missions for your Master, she’s always begging me to come with her.

“It’s really been getting on my nerves over the past few years. Luckily, Master Seventh realized what was happening. We’re all men, right? He understands me! And that’s why he gave me this little bit of freedom!”

Huang Yan looked very pleased with himself. However, though he made it seem like he had a very high position in the family, the reality was he seemed more like one of the prisoners Xu Qing had dealt with in the Seven Blood Eyes cell blocks years ago.

“So, where are we going next? If you don’t have somewhere specific in mind, I have a suggestion.... Believe me, the place I have in mind is incomparably spectacular. Just thinking about it makes my blood start pumping faster....”

Huang Yan looked furtively left and right to make sure they were alone.

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Xu Qing shook his head. “I’m planning to go to the border of the outer sea region to take a look around.”

The Forbidden Sea was divided into the inner sea and the outer sea. The inner sea was huge, and was where most of the intelligent species lived. It could be dangerous, but as long as you were cautious, it was safe to explore. But the outer sea... was a desolate place full of mysteries. Legend had it that there were many gods sleeping out there.

“Oh, there? That’ll work.” Huang Yan seemed a bit disappointed, but then he thought of something and said, “Oh, right. When you were down there tempering your fleshly body, some news about humankind came in. You got promoted, ya little punk!”

Xu Qing looked at Huang Yan.

“The empress issued a decree naming Ningyan as the crown prince,” Huang Yan continued. “That lucky little bastard. He went to sleep, and when he woke up, the emperor had turned into an empress, and he became the crown prince. From what I heard, he’s still confused by it all!

“Anyway, you’re now the tutor of the crown prince! And you’re the region lord of the Holytide Region and the Nightspirit Region! If that brat Ningyan eventually ascends the throne, you’ll be the grand imperial preceptor!” [2]

Xu Qing wasn’t surprised to hear that Ningyan had been made the crown prince. After all... the empress only had two children. One was Ningyan, and the other was Eleventh Prince. Eleventh Prince obviously wasn’t a suitable choice. Everything that happened during the ancestral sacrifices had been done for the sake of his mother. But he had done some things that the government officials would never be able to forget. Selecting Ningyan was much more reasonable.

As for why it happened so quickly, there were clues to be had. Of course, ‘crown prince incense,’ that had been merely paving the way for what was to come.

Given the empress’ talents, I bet she saw then what was going to happen.

As the ship cut through the water, Xu Qing thought back to the events of five months ago.

After what happened in the imperial capital of humankind, a boundless mist of mutagen covered the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan that had appeared in the Heaveneater Region, making it impossible to know what was happening inside. However, based on information available, humankind knew that there was a terrifying aura inside the Heaveneater Region. Apparently... the citizens of the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan who had returned were all mutating.

“Eminent Desolation was pleased, and provided it as a gift,” the empress had said.

It was easy to imagine what would happen when the mist cleared from the Heaveneater Region. Whatever came out of the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan was going to be terrifying.

Xu Qing’s face was grim, and his heart was uneasy. Because he had half of the imperial authority of the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan, he could sense what was happening. And he could sense something calling out to him. It was the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan calling him.

Meanwhile, Chen Erniu had left the imperial capital. A few months ago, he sent word that he was on his way back. However, he hadn’t arrived yet, as he chose to visit an old friend in Garmentfolk lands on the way. Presumably, he was still having fun with the Garmentfolk girl and his old right hand.

Plumdark had arrived in South Phoenix some months earlier. After seeing that Xu Qing was in good health, she spent about half a month with him. Then, feeling quite worn out, she sighed and left. She was taking her lamp to Dark Serenity’s palace of operations beneath Sea-Sealing County. There, at the phoenix palace, she would accept her legacy from her past life.

In addition to all that, now that the empress had become a god, humankind had risen to prominence in the east of Revered Ancient. Minor species everywhere trembled in fear, and the vast majority chose to become subsidiary species. That was especially true of the regions that had previously contained lone counties belonging to humankind.

There were no major obstacles and no unforeseen circumstances. No blood was shed as humans once again took control of those regions. As a result, if you included the regions of Holytide and Nightspirit, humans controlled ten regions.

Sometimes, just being strong was a big enough threat to get things done.

Of course, there was little need to mention what happened between humans and the Firemoons. They became official allies, and jointly controlled the entire eastern section of Revered Ancient. Together, they would defend against any covetous enemies.

At the same time, humans who had been isolated and oppressed in foreign lands for countless years were found by King Firecrusher and the other military forces, and were brought back to human lands.

As for Xu Qing, when he woke up five months earlier, he used his secret key to open his special dimensional space that he had created when he first became a swordsage. Before self-detonating, he had put Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior and some other important items, such as the violet crystal, into that dimensional space. The technique for creating the secret key and the dimensional space had been taught to Xu Qing in Sea-Sealing County by the swordsage known as Ailing Ghost, and was specifically designed for swordsages to use to store things. Normally speaking, there were actually two keys that could open such spaces. One key belonged to the swordsage, while the other was in the possession of the palace lord. Other than those two people, no one could open the dimensional space. [3]

As for Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior, he handed him over to Plumdark to keep her safe while she worked on her legacy.

As Huang Yan had said, Master Seventh chose to go into seclusion. Before doing so, he had a discussion with Xu Qing. He explained many things regarding this new body of Xu Qing’s. It was created using a heaven-defying Summer Immortal magic, with the materials being the flesh of the broken face combined with immortal mercury. It had nearly limitless potential. How much of that potential was unlocked would depend on Xu Qing. He would need to use it in endless battles, constantly seek enlightenment, and gain experience in deadly situations.

Because the body’s personhood was so terrifyingly high, it was going to be difficult for Xu Qing’s soul to fuse perfectly with it. Master Seventh thus left two sealing marks in it. He also gave Xu Qing a special technique.

It was the Profound Sun Immortal Light Magic.

By cultivating that magic, it was possible to produce streams of profound sun immortal light, which would be very helpful to the process of fusing his soul with the body.

According to Master Seventh, the technique had once belonged to one of the nine Summer Immortals who came from Deep Earth to Brilliant Heaven, and ended up dying when fighting the god emperor. Before perishing, he passed on that technique. Cultivating it to completion would lead to terrifying results.

Therefore, Xu Qing had two purposes for his sea journey.

The first was to hunt and kill godly entities as a way to become familiar with the defensive capabilities of his fleshly body, to get used to the combination of this body and his godly authority, and to improve his battle prowess by using the profound sun immortal light. Through all of that, he would become more familiar with the body.

His second purpose was to try to find the giant and the chariot from which he acquired his golden crow technique. His reason for looking for the chariot and the giant was that things weren’t going very well with the profound sun immortal light.

After a while, it caused Xu Qing to think about the golden crow. After all, the fundamental basis of the Profound Sun Immortal Light Magic was to steal the glory of the sun and turn it into immortal light. By doing so, he would convert his body into a profound sun, like a furnace that burned himself and burned heaven and earth. It was actually similar to the golden crow.

Therefore, Xu Qing wanted to find the chariot, sit in it, and command the giant. He wanted to follow the same journey as the golden crow when it became a sun and flew through the sky looking down on Revered Ancient. Hopefully that would provide some enlightenment about the ‘profound sun’ aspect.

Thus, he roved the Forbidden Sea. That was why Little Shadow was constantly making the crunching sounds. Xu Qing hadn’t forgotten that Little Shadow had once drawn out the giant and chariot with that same sound. Sadly, even after trying the same thing for months, he hadn’t experienced any success.

I suppose the giant is sleeping at the bottom of the Forbidden Sea. I need to check more locations....

After glancing at the shadow, Xu Qing took out a sea chart and made a notation.

That was when Huang Yan, who had been sitting there looking very relaxed, looked at his jade slip. It was vibrating. He took it out and checked it, then gasped.

“Xu Qing, something big happened! I have to leave for a bit. This is major! I’m talking heaven-shaking and earth-shattering!” Huang Yan suddenly looked very nervous. “I have to take the lead in this matter. If I don’t act quickly, a tempest is going to rock the continent of South Phoenix!”

1. Just a reminder that Huang Yan always called her ‘Elder Sister.’ I know I probably don’t need to explain this, and in fact, I think I said the same thing hundreds of chapters ago, but in Chinese ‘sister’ does not necessarily have the familial connotations that English does. For instance, as I mentioned in a footnote a long time ago, my brother-in-law has dated women who are older than him, and both he and Madam Deathblade and my mother-in-law will call those women “older sisters” or perhaps “big sisters.” So for Huang Yan to refer to her in this way isn’t unusual at all. ☜

2. The title here is slightly different from what I previously translated as imperial preceptor, but it means essentially the same thing. To make things simple, I’m simply going to use imperial preceptor plus the word ‘grand’ so that it sounds a bit more impressive. ☜

3. Xu Qing created the secret key and the special dimensional space in chapter 400. ☜