Beyond the Timescape

Chapter 965: A Fog Inside; A Hidden God of Thunder

But ultimately, he and his kingdom perished. The day he died, the mountain ranges in Revered Ancient all howled in anguish. The rivers flowed backwards as they wept. The heavenly daos grieved. Just before he died, he breathed out his last bit of energy, which contained the destiny aura of Revered Ancient, along with all of his glory as well as the providence he had gathered up in his life.

As he exhaled that last bit of energy, the providence scattered into heaven and earth. In the end, the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan was killed in body and soul.

When he reappeared, he was no longer the hope of Revered Ancient. Instead, he came back full of hatred and a desire for vengeance!

But on this day, a certain person used himself as a measuring stick on time itself. In the continent of South Phoenix, on the spot where Peerless City stood, which was where the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan died in battle, by the command of the Summer, and guided by an Immortal, heaven and earth received commands. Revered Ancient received commands.

That last bit of Revered Ancient’s destiny aura that the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan exhaled, which contained his glory and providence... was being extracted from heaven and earth, extracted from time, and extracted from all things!

At that moment, hundreds of thousands of Seven Blood Eyes cultivators in the continent of South Phoenix joined their voices.

“Commanded by the Summer; Immortal guides the energy to this spot; hasten as if by laws amended!”

High in the dome of heaven, Flame Phoenix soared, time in his eyes, his gaze penetrating Revered Ancient. His wings obscured the sky, creating a massive wind in all directions, shaking the mountains and sending waves across the Forbidden Sea. He was providing a blessing to this most astounding of spell formations! And in the end, everything converged in the hand of Master Seventh, who hovered above the silver person.

It turned into a dazzling mist. Within that mist was Revered Ancient and providence!

Master Seventh looked at the mist with his ancient eyes. Then he lifted his right hand and sent the life mist flowing down to the forehead of the silver person below.

There, it fused with Xu Qing’s blood. That, in turn, entered the silver person.

An instant later, rumbling sounds filled heaven and earth. Winds screamed, and the sky went dim. The blurry figures of numerous heavenly daos appeared. The mountains in Revered Ancient trembled. The rivers went wild, and in all locations, anguished howls rose up from forbidden regions and forbidden grounds. Mutated blood flowed from all of the forbidden grounds.

It was exactly the same supernatural phenomena that appeared when the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan was born!!

At the same time, Master Seventh’s hair swayed behind him as his aura rose to astonishing levels. With his right hand, he touched the silver person’s forehead, and with his left hand in front of his chest, he performed an incantation gesture. His eyes then shone with the light of suns and moons, which illuminated heaven and earth.

“Dark sects of heaven and earth; myriad energies as the root; numerous cultivators bring infinite tribulations; demonstrate mine divine ability; inside and outside of the three worlds; only the dao is supreme.

“Command the free spirit; a body of golden light; reflect upon the body; accept a myriad variations; eradicate magics and eradicate the respected; five motions bring celebration; thousands of gods offer worship; make use of the thunder; ghosts and demons tremble in fear; the form of the pure fiend dies.”

His words were like the voice of heaven, with every statement like the flow of time.

***

The moment those words echoed out in South Phoenix, the power of self-detonation erupted from Xu Qing in the very distant imperial capital.

A black mist swept through his body, shredding his cultivation base, shredding his bones, shredding his flesh, and shredding everything about him. In an instant, his fleshly body was torn to pieces! The power of self-detonation rippled out in all directions. From a distance, it was a black ring of fog that expanded, crushing anything in its path.

If that was all there were to it, it might not have been a very big deal. To the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan, the self-detonation of a Void Returning expert could be suppressed with the mere wave of his hand. It was the same even with someone as powerful as Xu Qing. In fact, he could even fiddle with time, and turn the situation around in the blink of an eye.

But... what Xu Qing was detonating wasn’t just his fleshly body. Put most precisely, the self-detonation of his fleshly body was only a side-effect. The true core of the self-detonation was... his soul!

His soul ignited as easily as a piece of paper, and then... was ripped to shreds. A burst of energy that could shake heaven and earth erupted from his soul. It was unstoppable and irreversible. A shuddering boom surpassed all the thunder that existed that moment in Revered Ancient.

In an instant, the bright light of the explosion turned the sky over the imperial capital as bright as day. That daytime spread rapidly to cover the entire region.

It was like something that could swallow up night, which was essentially the opposite of the empress’ god authority. The world was filled with radiance and light, but at the same time, the darkness was extreme. The boundless black fog contained the deepest abyss in Revered Ancient. Terrifying howls echoed out from the black fog that came from the self-detonation of Xu Qing’s soul.

And just barely visible within that roiling black smoke was a very ancient tunnel. Within the tunnel were innumerable doors. Some were large, some were small. They came in all sorts of shapes. But every single one of them was profoundly ancient.

The howling was coming from within those doors. As the sound of it grew increasingly shocking, the doors started shaking. Then cracking sounds rang out that could shake the ancient past, and struck the hearts and minds of all living beings.

Whatever entities were inside those doors were frantically trying to break out. They wanted to emerge from the doors!

At the same time, a terrifying aura spread.

Even more shocking was that, in the depths of the tunnel of doors, it was just barely possible to see... a chair!

It was exactly the same thing witnessed by Master Shengyun’s father Chu Tianqun all those years ago. That image had caused him to scream in agony and terror. He had no idea what those doors were, but they had terrified him. And what was even more shocking and unimaginable was the chair that he saw at the end of that horrifying tunnel.

This was that same chair. Who could possibly qualify to sit on that chair, at the end of that tunnel of terrifying doors?

Chu Tianqun never found an answer to that question.

But Zi Qing had an idea of the answer. And thus, the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan sighed. He looked at the black fog that resulted from Xu Qing’s self-detonation. He looked at the doors and the chair at the end of the tunnel.

Then he softly said, “It’s not mine. But neither is it lil’ bro’s.”

His ultimate objective was that chair!

When he discovered it years ago, he had many speculations about it. For one thing, he knew it had nothing to do with the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan. One thing he did know, however, was that it connected to one of his major goals.

And that was to become a True God!

In fact, it was even possible that it could be used to surpass the True God level and reach the level of God Lord. He wanted to acquire that mysterious chair for himself, then use the destiny aura of the returned Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan, fuse it with his throne when he became the Emperor of Violet and Cyan, and then use it to reach a higher level as a god.

By blessing the entire Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan, he could reach the highest of heights. That was the entire reason he had come to the godly ascension ceremony. That was his objective. Only by completing all of the early objectives could he lay the foundation to complete his final objective. And thus, he stitched Xu Qing back together, cut away his time, and amended his fate.

The chair was integrally fused with Xu Qing’s soul, and contained insoluble karma, which meant that taking it away with force would be very difficult. And thus unfolded the events of this day....

Zi Qing wanted Xu Qing to accept the title of Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan because that would be like them together going forward.

But Xu Qing had ended up doing something he couldn’t perceive within time. He broke the deadlock.

Zi Qing shook his head. Given what was playing out, his only option was to take the chair with force, even though that meant there would be complications. He reached out with his right hand toward the spot where Xu Qing’s flesh and soul had detonated. And he shoved his hand into the black fog.

That hand, like time itself, could stretch very far. It went into the tunnel, past the doors with their intense banging, all the way to the very end. There, it opened to grab the chair.

But then....

An ethereal daoist chant echoed within the tunnel.

“Command the free spirit; a body of golden light; reflect upon the body; accept a myriad variations; eradicate magics and eradicate the respected; five motions bring celebration; thousands of gods offer worship; make use of the thunder; ghosts and demons tremble in fear; the form of the pure fiend dies.”

Along with the chant came an aura that locked onto Xu Qing’s soul and used it as a guide. After the self-detonation, that aura found a specific object, connected to it, and drew it out.

It was a beam of golden light! And it came out because of the daoist chant! The blinding golden light had been covered with countless dao inscriptions, which glittered brightly as they sealed this object away from any form of omniscience! And the golden light pulsed with a level of destruction that could suppress all other terrifying forces.

It was an iron skewer!

Guiding the skewer was a spirit. It was none other than Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior.

His daoist name was Master Freespirit! The daoist chant had contained the following words: ‘command the free spirit.’

Before Xu Qing came to the imperial capital, Master Seventh took the iron skewer and refined it. After Xu Qing got it back, it had been significantly upgraded. But in the end, it was still weak.

As of this moment, the daoist chant had unlocked it, revealing its true might to the world. It was like a long, sharp thorn surrounded by thunder and lightning.

And it shot through the tunnel toward Zi Qing’s hand as it stretched toward the chair. It could pierce time, shatter mutagen, and shake godly authority. It moved with speed that could overlook natural and magical laws. Its might could strike fear into the hearts of countless so-called gods.

Cultivators couldn’t sense it, but gods would be startled by it!

In the blink of an eye, it reached Zi Qing’s hand. And then, without the slightest pause, it struck with mountain-toppling, sea-draining force, and mightiness that was designed to target gods.

It... pierced through Zi Qing’s hand.

The hand exploded. The palm ignited. The bones and flesh of the fingers shattered. God blood fell. Outside of the tunnel and outside of the fog, the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan’s hand was shredded into ash, and large amounts of god blood sprayed everywhere. His expression was profoundly serious.

Turning his head, he looked... in the direction of the continent of South Phoenix.

“So, there’s still a God-Extinguishing Thorn left in the world!”