Beyond the Timescape

Chapter 87: A Vicious Night

Dark clouds slowly obscured the moon and turned the Forbidden Sea pitch black. Eventually, not even the dirge of the wind dared to interfere with the darkness, and it faded away. Gradually, an oppressive aura weighed down on the quiet mountain top.

At one point, a howl of anguish pierced the silence. Everyone was instantly on the alert.

Xu Qing opened his eyes. He saw figures drifting through the night, obviously targeting the people who had acquired lizard skins during the day. He didn’t spare any attention for the other three parties who had acquired skins. Instead, he focused on seven figures closing in on his position. The lack of moonlight couldn’t prevent his eyes from glittering coldly with killing intent. Almost as soon as the figures started moving toward him, he took action.

The attackers thought that the darkness would be their ally, but little did they know that Xu Qing actually preferred that darkness.

In the blink of an eye, Xu Qing had disappeared from the top of the tree.

There were a total of seven attackers, and three were leading the charge. Of that group, one shivered as his forehead was split open by an iron skewer. Blood sprayed out of the mouth of another as Xu Qing passed by him. The third died in even more agony. He was an extremely obese nonhuman. As he neared the tree, a dagger flashed, tearing through his throat with such force that his head flew off his shoulders along with an eruption of blood.

It wasn’t until the third was already dead that the other two screamed as they also died.

After the three clean kills, Xu Qing lunged backward, slamming into a human cultivator who was in the middle of unleashing a magical attack. A thud rang out as the man’s chest caved in, and blood sprayed left and right. There were only three more attackers, and seeing what had just played out, they all gasped.

“You two unleash magical attacks,” a nonhuman shouted. “I’ll pin him down!”

This nonhuman was extremely short, about the same height as a five-year-old child. However, as he charged toward Xu Qing, he grew larger with each step, until he was three meters tall.

Xu Qing’s expression was the same as ever. Ignoring the giant cultivator charging toward him, and the other two behind him performing incantation gestures, he lifted his right hand and made a pinching gesture. A buzzing sound filled the air as countless droplets of water rose up from the surrounding plants, then converged into long, thin threads that formed a net of water. Underneath the pale moonlight, the threads glittered coldly, spreading out to cover the other cultivators, with Xu Qing in the very middle.

Swishing sounds filled the air, and the two cultivators performing magical attacks looked shocked as the water net hit them. Their spirit power defenses provided almost no resistance. The water sliced through them, then hit the cultivators, instantly chopping them up into chunks of bloody flesh.

As for the giant nonhuman rushing toward Xu Qing, his face went pale, and his eyes shone with terror. He opened his mouth to speak, but then his skin started turning greenish-black. Screaming, he staggered backward, then fell onto his back, where he twitched a few times before dying.

Then the water net fell on him, as well as the other recently-killed cultivators, chopping them all to bits.

The extremely obese cultivator was obviously dead, but as he was chopped up, he unleashed a bloodcurdling scream. Then a small ghost-like imp emerged from within him. Many nonhumans had unusual ways of staying alive. Using some strange technique, the imp became very skinny, slipped through the water net, then fled.

Xu Qing didn’t pursue him. He just watched coldly and counted in his head.

One. Two. Three....

A moment later, the cultivator in imp form started shaking visibly. Turning to look at Xu Qing, he said, “Let me go....”

Before even finishing with the third word, his body started to melt, beginning with the tongue. Even without a tongue, he was able to scream shrilly. It was so loud and piercing that it drowned out the sounds of the fighting coming from the other three directions.

Everyone looked over. As they watched, the imp fell to the ground, thrashing around while screaming. Eventually, the screams stopped as he transformed into a pool of blood. Gasps rang out, but were immediately cut off as the surrounding cultivators scrambled to pull out antidote pills. The only one who didn’t seem concerned was the old innkeeper.

He had been steadily consuming antidote pills ever since Xu Qing arrived the day before. After all, he had some experience dealing with Xu Qing’s poisons.

Ignoring the surrounding cultivators, Xu Qing retrieved his dagger and iron skewer, took the bags that had belonged to his opponents, and then went back to the treetop to meditate.

Perhaps because this island was really the back of a huge lizard, the spirit power and mutagen were both very strong. Most cultivators who spent long periods of time at sea were used to such environments. They all had various cultivation techniques to separate the mutagen from the spirit power. However, at some point, they would all have to go ashore and use medicinal pills or other methods to extrude the mutagen they had built up.

But Xu Qing didn’t need to do that. As a result, he had no apprehensions about furthering his cultivation here. What was more, because of the aura of the Forbidden Sea, it was even easier to make progress with the Seaforming Scripture.

Even though Xu Qing was sitting there with his eyes closed, no one even considered attacking him. In fact, they all kept their distance, fearful of being poisoned. Their fear affected the fighting in general, and before long, things calmed down again.

And thus, the night passed.

When dawn came, it was as if it bit the lip of night, causing blood to seep out. That blood spread out, growing fainter and fainter until light filled the sky.

On the ridge overlooking the basin, the lone nonhuman cultivator who had acquired a lizard skin the day before had been joined by a fellow cultivator. Apparently, they had come to an agreement to work together. The newcomer was the cultivator in the woven rush raincoat that had clashed with Xu Qing briefly the day before.

As for the group of five who had laid claim to one of the lizard skins, they were now dead. In their place was the burly, trunked nonhuman, who was leading a group of seven other cultivators.

Only Xu Qing and the innkeeper from Plankspring Way were still alone.

The only difference was that Xu Qing was surrounded by blood and gore, while... not a single corpse could be seen near the innkeeper.

Xu Qing glanced at the innkeeper’s anaconda, and the snake seemed to notice. Looking back at him, she nodded as if in greeting. That seemed strange to Xu Qing, but he didn’t think about it too much. Closing his eyes, he continued meditating.

Meanwhile, the old innkeeper nudged the huge snake with his foot, and gave a cold harrumph.

“Did you see that?” the innkeeper said. “He’s ignoring you. If I were you I’d stop thinking about the little punk all the time. I’m the only family you have in this world.”

“Coo. Coooo.”

Looking hurt, the snake gazed longingly at Xu Qing at the top of the tree. Seeing this, the innkeeper sighed. Feeling a bit bad, he said, “Now you’re crying? Come on. The brat can’t speak snake language, so of course he’s ignoring you....”

Hearing this, the anaconda’s eyes brightened a bit.

When a girl comes of age, the innkeeper thought, marry her off. It’s the same with stupid snakes.

For a moment, the old man tried to decide if he should kill Xu Qing. However, the thought of Xu Qing’s ruthlessness made him abandon such thoughts.

Time began to pass. Ten days went by.

During that time, cultivators came and went. At some times, nearly a hundred cultivators gathered on the ridge. At other times, there were only a few dozen. Some were lone operators. Others were pirates. Some were nonhumans from other islands in the sea. Regardless, though there was constant fighting and killing, there were always new cultivators to replace the old ones. Sealizards appeared on three occasions, and each time, Xu Qing fought with ruthless decisiveness. Not only did he acquire more lizard skins, but also, the area around his meditation spot became piled up with corpses. In fact, the entire tree seemed stained with blood. It was a truly ghastly sight. Eventually, it became such a shocking area that, to the people in the area, Xu Qing’s area was like its own forbidden region.

There were others who had a similar reputation. One was the innkeeper, and the other was a new team made up of the nonhuman in the woven rush raincoat and the burly, trunked cultivator. They had acquired quite a few lizard skins, yet didn’t seem ready to leave. Apparently, they were waiting for something to happen.

Sensing that there was more to come, Xu Qing didn’t leave, but rather, focused mostly on cultivation. The spirit power was lively, and the mutagen strong. Because of that, Xu Qing increasingly felt like he was in the forbidden region outside the scavenger basecamp, where his cultivation speed had increased rapidly.

He was now getting close to the ninth level of the Seaforming Scripture.

I should be able to break through in three days or less.

As he went through his breathing exercises, spirit power rushed into him, nourishing him. At the same time, the mutagen poured into his shadow. As a result, his spirit sea, which had once been 261 meters, grew even larger.

264 meters. 267 meters.

Two more days passed. On the morning of the third day, Xu Qing’s rippling spirit sea was very close to being 270 meters. When it hit 270, his Seaforming Scripture would reach the ninth level.

A disciple who reached the ninth level of cultivation using Seven Blood Eyes techniques would be able to dominate just about any other human cultivator in that same level anywhere in the continent of South Phoenix. They could even consider fighting a Foundation Establishment cultivator from a small sect.

There was little need to mention that Xu Qing’s body cultivation had reached an unheard-of level by using the Sea and Mountain Incantation. After all, he could summon the spectral drought demon. Therefore... once he achieved a breakthrough with the Seaforming Scripture, his battle prowess would skyrocket. When that happened, he would surpass people at the very peak of Qi Condensation, and could well be considered as strong as a Foundation Establishment expert. In fact, Xu Qing was convinced that, once he was that strong, he could defeat and even kill Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior, though it would be a long, hard fight.

I’m going to break through tonight! Eyes filling with anticipation, he prepared to continue with his cultivation when, all of a sudden, the sound of footsteps echoed from further down the mountain.

Whoever was walking toward them hadn’t shown their faces yet, but an aura of cold brutality preceded them, filling the basin, and causing everyone to look over, expressions flickering.

The newcomers... weren’t sealizards, but rather, were cultivators!

They wore an odd assortment of clothing, but looked shockingly fierce, like the kind of people who would slaughter others without the slightest scruple. There were sixteen of them, and each one emanated powerful cultivation base fluctuations, and had ghastly auras.

“Sea Ghosts!”

“It’s the Sea Ghosts!”

“Dammit, what are they doing here??”

Immediately, cries of astonishment echoed out in the basin.