Beyond the Timescape

Chapter 1016: Do I Look the Same as Before?

There had been developments since the arrival of the celestial-level holy lands.... Large-scale war had broken out in the south, west, and north of Revered Ancient. There had been great victories and defeats on both sides, and casualties were high. At any given moment, lives were being lost, and new fighting was breaking out. Revered Ancient was in a state of major upheaval.

In the east, the alliance of species led by the Firemoon Darkheavens and humankind created a consummate spell formation that separated heaven and earth. What lay outside of the formation was the dome of heaven, where four celestial-level holy lands were. Inside of the spell formation were the living beings native to Revered Ancient.

Though the four holy lands in question all had Grand Emperors, after the initial clash with the empress and the three Firemoon gods, they didn’t show their faces again. That said, the three gods also stayed out of the public eye. No one knew exactly how that peak battle had played out.

There was only one certainty: Empress Summer Departure was fine, and was the one leading the war effort.

Fighting continued in the east, with both Firemoons and humans willing to fight fiercely. There were no major battles, as both the eastern forces and the holy lands both tried to keep things under control. That said, there were small battles that occurred on a daily basis.

At the moment, one of those small battles was playing out atop the consummate spell formation. A lot of people were involved in the fighting, and they looked like a host of black spots buzzing around atop the spell formation.

It was around that time that Xu Qing and Erniu arrived in the imperial capital, having taken several teleportation portals from Sea-Sealing County. Things had gone smoothly on their journey. They didn’t waste any time, although Erniu made sure to snatch some teleportation hairs from that living teleportation portal.[1]

The moment they appeared on the teleportation portal, they heard the sounds of booms and screams from above. The countless sounds mixed together into a rumble like that of thunder. The colorful light of magical techniques flared everywhere, creating dazzling glows interspersed with periods of darkness.

When looking up, it was possible to see the ranks of eastern cultivators, some of them on the front lines fighting, others in the back resting. Those who came back into the spell formation were all in bad condition.

However, the situation was the same with the holy lands. Corpses dropped down constantly, to be destroyed by the spell formation.

“War...” Xu Qing murmured, his expression grave.

Because the teleportation portal was located in the middle of an army encampment, it was under constant watch of the divine sense of numerous cultivators. The moment he and Erniu arrived, streams of deadly energy locked onto them. Upon realizing who Xu Qing was, though, the divine sense and streams of energy vanished.

Then, a group flew over to Xu Qing and bowed in greeting. Leading them was an old man.

Xu Qing had seen this person before. He was a human heavenly marquis surnamed Chen.

“Greetings, Imperial Tutor!” Heavenly Marquis Chen said. “Some of the heavenly kings are trapped on the battlefield outside the formation. As a result, your humble servant is currently in charge here. What’s more, Her Majesty issued orders for you to go to the grand hall as soon as you returned.”

Xu Qing nodded. Looking up at the fighting and scanning the field of battle with god perception, he could see that the forces from this encampment were made of a variety of species, and there were many of them who were wounded. In the other parts of the east that he had traveled through, the fighting wasn’t nearly as severe as this. It seemed most of the action was taking place here. This was the core of the east, and it could also be considered the front line of fighting.

“How goes the battle?” Xu Qing asked.

“We’re holding strong for now,” Heavenly Marquis Chen replied with a grin. However, his aura wasn’t very stable, and he had obviously sustained some injuries. He was about to continue speaking when, all of a sudden, a huge boom echoed out beyond the spell formation.

In the swarm of black dots above that made up the forces of both sides, a dazzling eruption of light could be seen. It was a burly, middle-aged man from the holy lands who had a pair of wings on his back. He pulsed with a fiendish, bloody aura, and had a cultivation base in the five-world Smoldering God level. It was a cultivation base that surpassed many of the human heavenly kings.

In a small-scale battle like this, some of the species had fielded Smoldering Gods, but most of those were pinned down and couldn’t disengage to move to other parts of the battlefield. Therefore, this newcomer was able to unleash slaughter as soon as he arrived.

From the look of it, he was carving out a path through the battlefield. Flanking him was a group of over a thousand Devilbird cultivators, who were acting like bodyguards. Together, they crushed everything in their path. And their target was the spell formation.

When Heavenly Marquis Chen saw what was happening, his pupils constricted. However, he didn’t panic. Obviously, there were measures in place to deal with situations like this. Light flowed across the spell formation as it reacted to stop the assault.

However, that was when Xu Qing vanished. Astonishingly, when he reappeared, he was outside of the spell formation.

A sound far more intense than anything from before rang out clearly for both sides to hear. As that deafening sound erupted, Xu Qing appeared right in front of the path of the charging Devilbird. The burly man saw him, snorted coldly, and continued forward. All of this takes a bit of time to describe, but actually happened in the time it takes a spark to fly off a piece of flint.

Inside the spell formation, Heavenly Marquis Chen was shocked. He knew that Xu Qing was a very important person, but had the impression that his battle prowess was just barely able to meet the standard for heavenly kings. And this was a five-world Smoldering God.... He immediately got nervous.

Next to him was Erniu, who cleared his throat. “What are you getting worried about? Calm down.”

Of course, it didn’t matter what Erniu said, there was no way Heavenly Marquis Chen couldn’t be nervous.

And he wasn’t the only one. There were heavenly kings from numerous species on the battlefield who saw what was happening and recognized Xu Qing. All of them were stunned, and some of them even started cursing and swearing. Clearly, none of them believed that Xu Qing could stand up to this five-world Devilbird cultivator. Some were inclined to interfere, but none were able to break free from the fighting to do so. All they could do was watch as the burly Devilbird closed in on Xu Qing.

“Foolishness! Why’d Xu Qing show up here of all places?”

“Activate the spell formation! Send it out to protect Xu Qing!”

“Hurry!”

The spell formation emitted rumbling sounds and bright light as it prepared to extend protection to Xu Qing.

But that only served to emphasize to the Devilbird that Xu Qing was important. Upon seeing what was happening, his eyes lit up. He had recognized Xu Qing!

It was only natural that the Devilbird holy land would have information about all the important humans. And that was especially true of Xu Qing. After all, he had brought an entire holy land to ruin. After all, he was why all the terrestrial-level holy lands had been driven out of the east. That said, their information was limited to the fact that Xu Qing had been captured by Floating Fiend and then subsequently freed. They didn’t know all the details. For example, they didn’t know that Floating Fiend ultimately died at Xu Qing’s hands, nor did they have any clue what Xu Qing’s battle prowess was.

Therefore, this burly Devilbird’s eyes lit up. Cackling, he accelerated in Xu Qing’s direction. But then... just as he was about to reach Xu Qing....

Xu Qing’s facial expression didn’t change a bit as he lifted his hand. Reaching toward the burly Devilbird, he clenched his hand into a fist. That gesture caused all of the sound surrounding Xu Qing on the massive battlefield to cease! Sound had been seized!

The silence only lasted for a moment. Then, all of that sound converged on the burly Devilbird. It was like an unrivaled wave that turned into a massive sphere surrounding the Devilbird and his thousand bodyguards.

The sound waves assailed them endlessly with deadly force. Screams began to ring out from the mouths of the burly Devilbird and his guards. But that only added to the deadly sound authority. Thirty percent of the bodyguards exploded, whereupon the burly Devilbird’s face fell. He had just heard chanting.

The chanting grew clear and intense, repeating endlessly. It was an ancient power, something mad and voracious that penetrated his heart and mind, overtaking his perceptions. And it took away the very concept of sound from them. Their bodies, souls, and even their sense of self was being taken. And then... the burly Devilbird and all the remaining guards shattered into a blood mist!

The sphere collapsed, turning back into countless sounds. Xu Qing remained in the middle of it all as the sounds spread in all directions. Wherever they passed, and wherever sound existed on the battlefield, deadly attacks were unleashed.

Although this incident only took place on one small corner of the battlefield, its effects spread instantly. In fact, the heavenly kings from the various species as well as the Smoldering Gods from the holy lands were all visibly taken aback!

There was no doubt... that Xu Qing’s attack was simply too fast and deadly. The eastern cultivators were stunned. The holy lands cultivators were astonished.

“Godly authority!”

“Something’s off about this human!”

Though the forces from the holy lands were shaken, the reality was that... the actions of one person couldn’t affect an entire war. At least, not unless that person was strong enough to crush anything and everything.

Next, a terrifying stream of divine will shot out from one of the holy lands hovering above. It indicated the arrival of an Imperial Sovereign!

At the same time, the aura of a god shot out from the human region below. It was the zombie emperor Dark War!

Because of pressure from those two forces, Xu Qing vanished, returning back into the spell formation. Upon leaving, he released the power of sound authority onto the battlefield, mixing misfortune and curse power with it. The rumbling outside of the spell formation turned into a tempest of sound.

The cultivators of the east who were participating in the fighting were all enlivened. The heavenly kings issued decisive orders, and thus took advantage of the moment to launch a deadly counter attack. The small-scale battle was now becoming somewhat one-sided. Given that, it wasn’t long before the sound of bells rang out from the holy lands, calling for a retreat....

About two hours later, this particular battle was over, and the forces from the various species fell back, all of them discussing Xu Qing’s arrival.

***

Xu Qing and Erniu had already entered the imperial capital, and were now waiting outside of the grand hall.

Xu Qing had changed into his imperial tutor’s robe, while Erniu was wearing his special Grand Zodiacist Armor, which was an imitation of the Grand Darkheaven Armor. The suit of battle armor had been made according to his specifications, and he had personally overseen the process. He didn’t get many chances to wear it, but loved how it looked. As he stood proudly in front of the grand hall, his armor sparkled like the sun and made him look like he was made from pure light. From a distance, he really did look mighty and impressive.

They didn’t have to wait long before a voice called out from inside the hall.

“The imperial tutor and the Grand Zodiacist are hereby summoned for an audience with the empress!”[2]

Xu Qing and Erniu strode into the hall. Upon entering, they saw the assembled officials, as well as the empress seated above everyone else. Next to the empress was Ningyan, who looked very excited.

“My respects, Your Majesty!” Xu Qing said, bowing at the waist.

Erniu also bowed and said the same words.

The empress nodded slightly, then spoke in a cool voice. “It’s good you’re back. Have a seat.”

Xu Qing strode over to his spot among the thirty-three heavenly kings. Specifically, he was able to sit in the second-ranking spot. From that position, he could look down on all the other officials. There was only one person who could sit higher than him among the officials, and it was King Firecrusher, who wasn’t present. The other officials all had to incline their heads when Xu Qing looked at them.

As for Ningyan, he bowed to Xu Qing. Whether it was because of how Ningyan had previously relied so much on Xu Qing, or the fact that Xu Qing was now the imperial tutor, it was from deep in his heart that Ningyan offered him devotion. In fact, Ningyan was actually closer to Xu Qing than he was to his own mother.

When Erniu saw all of that happening, he felt a bit jealous. However, his attention was soon drawn to an old friend. At first he looked surprised, and then thoughtful. He even took out his sageheaven god vine and started fiddling with it.

As for Xu Qing, after he looked over at the officials, his gaze was also drawn to that same figure....

The Devilbird cultivator they had both noticed was filled with mixed emotions as he took a deep breath and bowed. “I, Feng Lintao, offer greetings to the imperial tutor!”

1. The living teleportation portal was introduced in chapter 743, and Erniu took the hairs in chapter 744. Back in roughly 904-907, when Xu Qing and Erniu went out to the broken face, they used these hairs as part of the plan. Unfortunately, the author got mixed up and started calling them feathers. Back then, I was confused about where the ‘teleportation feathers’ came from, but assumed I had just forgotten something. As it turns out, it was an author mistake. He also calls them feathers here in 1016. It was in the course of going back to search for the references that I realized what happened. Some of you (mostly Champions) read the 904-907 part with the ‘feather’ translation. I’ve since edited that mistake away, so for those who became Champions later, or who read them after their public release, you might have read them as ‘hairs.’ In any case, everything is now edited to maintain continuity. ☜

2. Erniu is being called the Grand Zodiacist because of his Grand Zodiacist Armor that he was given in chapter 929. I originally translated that suit of armor in a different way, and some Champions might have read that version. I later decided to change the translation when I realized that it was supposed to be connected to a title. That wasn’t clear early on, but here in 1016 it’s much more obvious. ☜