Beyond the Timescape

Chapter 839: Dignity Can’t Be Exchanged for Peace

“So that’s what’s going on here!”

Xu Qing’s eyes glowed with mysterious light. During the numerous times he had attacked Crown Prince Brightsouth, only to have his opponent be resurrected over and over again, he couldn’t help but think of the head and the stone lion.

He had put on a lot of pressure with the specific purpose of putting the crown prince in a very tight spot, thus forcing him to go all out. And that was because... the blessing of a god was what enabled the crown prince to repeatedly die and be resurrected. It was similar to the inmates in D-132, who were eternally indestructible thanks to the influence of a god.

To truly kill Crown Prince Brightsouth, it was necessary to break that blessing.

“High God Sunfire.”

Outside of D-132, all of the humans, including Grand Prince, were visibly stunned, and were breathing heavily.

A look of revulsion and displeasure flashed across the Captain’s face, and he narrowed his eyes as he looked at the huge eye in the sky. Golden light spilled out of the rift in the sky, sending out beams that touched the land everywhere. The clouds didn’t even dare to form. The lava on the ground ceased churning and became solid. All of the natural laws were wiped away and all the magical laws became nothing. In the presence of a god, there were no such laws.

As the rift opened, golden light shone from an eye that couldn’t be looked at directly. It contained no emotional fluctuations, but rather, was supremely tranquil. It was as if everything else was dust when that eye looked at it.

The power of mutagen spread through heaven and earth. Time and space intersected. Life force formed and was then extinguished. It was as if everything that formed could be instantly wiped away.

No beginning. No end. No rise. No fall.

Because of the gaze... a forbidden region was forming. Burning crimson vines stretched out from the solidified lava, and as they whipped back and forth, faces appeared on them, wailing in agony. Mountains and rivers rose up. To a certain extent, this was very similar to what the broken face would do. However, the broken face would form a forbidden region from the briefest glance, and it was something that couldn’t be reversed.

Right now, High God Sunfire was creating an embryonic forbidden region. And because it had no foundation, once the gaze vanished, so would the forbidden region. Regardless, the gaze shook everyone and influenced everything.

Grand Prince and everyone else started to show signs of mutation, causing looks of pain and disbelief to show on their faces.

The Captain seemed to be working hard to restrain himself, and just allowed his body to start melting.

Xu Qing was also affected. The gaze of the god caused him to blur, and made every inch of his flesh and blood feel like it wanted to rip off of him and be independent. Tendrils of flesh began to grow off his god state fleshly body.

The gaze also caused the crimson vines to wrap around D-132. The god’s finger trembled as the cell block blurred. Crown Prince Brightsouth was inside, and all of the magical techniques Xu Qing had been using on him went still. As of this moment, he was actually forming anew.

However, though his situation seemed normal, the reality was that he had already lost his undying characteristics. There was nothing extraordinary about him now. His expression was vicious and distorted, and his eyes gleamed with the light of one who had barely survived a deadly ordeal. Heart filling with madness, he stared at Xu Qing, who was already showing the signs of mutation.

“I have a blessing from High God Sunfire, human! Underneath the gaze of a god... you’re nothing more than a bug!”

Xu Qing ignored the crown prince. He also ignored the flesh tendrils growing off of him, and the sensation of his flesh and blood trying to rip free and be independent. This wasn’t the first time he had experienced something like that. Although it wasn’t possible to say he was used to it, at the very least, he knew that once the source was gone, all that would ultimately happen would be the loss of a bit of life force.

He looked up at the giant eye. Gods weren’t to be looked at directly, but with Xu Qing’s eyes pitch black from taboo poison, he could look very briefly.

Xu Qing took a deep breath and then dispelled his god state. Millions of soul threads unwound rapidly, then converged into the shape of a new body.

That body was that of a clay fox! It was tall, impressive, and very lifelike. It was none other than High God Starfire.

The moment it formed, Xu Qing lifted his right hand and produced the identity medallion the clay fox had given him. He held it high. The medallion vibrated underneath the gaze of High God Sunfire. Then, boundless starlight spread out all around Xu Qing. It was like a river of stars, filled with twinkling light that became pink fire.

The fire of stars abounded. Heaven and earth trembled. The crimson vines stopped moving, and the spreading mutagen was sucked into the starfire power. Thunderous rumbling erupted in the sky.

Crown Prince Brightsouth’s face fell. “Starfire’s... godherald??”

As the power of Starfire surrounded Xu Qing, he really did become a godherald. And the highest-ranking type possible. As he stood there, the starlight really did become a blessing, spreading out, moving, until it was a massive vortex.

Xu Qing was gambling. He was betting that the eye of an actual god wouldn’t really open for a mere Void Returning cultivator. This eye had been opened to signify the power of blessing, nothing more. When it came to the giving of blessings, gods wouldn’t view Void Returning cultivators as any different than mortals.

To a certain extent, it wasn’t a complete gamble. Xu Qing understood gods more than members of most species. He was fully aware that, given the circumstances, using his soul threads to form a clay fox, and then use the identity medallion, would be an effective line of defense. It shouldn’t matter if the god’s eye was real or not.

Xu Qing’s gamble... paid off!

The cold gaze of the golden eye landed on Xu Qing, and noted the identity medallion. Then... the eye slowly closed. The rift in the sky faded away into nothing. The eye was gone.

If it came down to Xu Qing, who had an extremely high status as an actual godherald, compared to an unimportant servant, well, it was only natural that the latter could be discarded.

The development caused Crown Prince Brightsouth’s face to drain of blood. He looked at the eye disappear, then at Xu Qing. He felt defiance, grief, indignation, and a host of other emotions. His biggest secret weapon had turned out to be useless against this opponent.

As of now, his special background seemed completely meaningless. It was an outcome he could never have predicted at the outset, no matter what powers of foresight he used. Xu Qing... was actually a godherald of Starfire.

“This...” Crown Prince Brightsouth murmured, glaring venomously at Grand Prince and the other humans. Apparently, he believed that they knew all along about this, but had been pretending not to, thus leading to his mistake....

It was too late now. He had lost his undying blessing. He had lost his secret weapon. And then he thought about how ruthless and vicious Xu Qing had been up to this point, and his heart started pounding. Without any hesitation, he turned, burning his energy and blood in a desperate attempt to escape. He wanted to take advantage of the moment the cell block was weakened to get away. In fact, he immediately resorted to a teleportation technique.

Of course, there was no way Xu Qing was going to let him get away that easily. Xu Qing’s eyes glittered with killing intent.

“Eldest Brother,” he said, waving his hand to send four taboo weapons flying out.

Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior emerged from hiding, chuckling viciously, either to bolster himself or to frighten the crown prince, it was hard to tell.

The four majestic fingers formed and crushed down toward the crown prince.

And the Captain laughed as blue light flared all around him, spreading through the sky to form a host of sinister mouths, like those of heavenly dogs. They shot directly toward Crown Prince Brightsouth. As the blue light spread, Crown Prince Brightsouth’s teleportation activated. But then Xu Qing’s divine abilities and taboo weapons arrived.

Xu Qing came along. Together with the Captain, he closed in on the crown prince. One of them attacked viciously with a dagger. The other took a huge bite with his mouth. They didn’t need to speak at all to coordinate their movements. It all came naturally.

Crown Prince Brightsouth fought back with everything he had. But no matter how he tried to defend himself, it didn’t do any good.

Ultimately, he screamed as the four taboo weapons pierced through his body and blue light corroded his flesh. Then, a long red streak appeared on his throat.

A head flew through the air.

Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior stabbed him through the forehead.

Destruction!

But there was no doubt that Crown Prince Brightsouth was an amazing individual. Extermination like this could destroy his fleshly body, but his soul still managed to slip out into the open. As it tumbled to the side, the power of teleport surged, and it disappeared.

Xu Qing wasn’t worried. He performed an incantation gesture and pointed out, whereupon the four taboo weapons vanished, as if they had already locked onto their target.

The Captain grinned as he waved his hand. Five chunks of flesh appeared around him as he unleashed a magical technique. An instant later, the soul of Crown Prince Brightsouth appeared back in the very vortex he had just disappeared into. His expression was one of disbelief and despair as he opened his mouth to cry out. He wasn’t fast enough.

Four taboo weapons appeared around his soul. The saber slashed. The battle-ax ravaged. The trident exterminated. And the spear immolated.

A scream rang out, but then faded away just as quickly.

Total extermination!

The Captain emerged from within the blue light, licking his lips. Turning to Grand Prince and the others, he smiled.

Xu Qing then shot over to where Crown Prince Brightsouth had just died. Reaching out with a grasping gesture, he caused a host of forbidden mountains to converge overhead. They were Crown Prince Brightsouth’s forbidden mountains, and there were nearly 400 of them. When added to the over 300 Xu Qing already had from before, he now had more than 700.

This was crushing all obstacles like chaff. This was a spirit that could conquer mountains and rivers. It was shocking and ghastly to say the least.

The human cultivators were shocked to the core, and couldn’t hold back from turning to Xu Qing and bowing. And yet, some of them also looked at the spot where Crown Prince Brightsouth had died, and they looked anxious.

Though none were saying anything out loud, they were all thinking the same thing. Crown Prince Brightsouth’s father was extremely powerful and influential. And it seemed highly likely that he would be furious with humankind for killing his son.

Xu Qing was aware of that possibility as well. He looked at Grand Prince.

Grand Prince didn’t say anything for a few breaths of time. Then he looked at the whip marks on his subordinates, and thought back to the humiliation they had all suffered. His gaze softened, and he lowered his voice.

“This was my mistake. I exchanged dignity for disgrace. And that’s not peace.”

The Captain’s eyes glittered. “There’s no type of peace that comes without shedding blood. It doesn’t matter whether you’re talking about an enemy or yourself. After enough blood has been shed, peace will come on its own.”