BEYOND THE TIMESCAPE

Xu Qing and Erniu were completely and utterly incapable of fighting back or defending against this terrifying head. Along the way, they had been bound so thoroughly that nothing they had attempted had given any hint that they could free themselves. All their efforts had failed.

Upon being freed, and checking to see the head’s facial expression, Erniu inhaled sharply.

“Uh… does it want us to cook for it or something?”

Xu Qing was getting a sense of what the head wanted. Presumably, it had taken note of how his Eldest Brother summoned all of those corpses, which had saved it a lot of effort. In one fell swoop, it had acquired all the food it had been after there. That was what had led to it taking them captive. The reason he had been included probably had something to do with how he lent the power of his carving knife with its gray mist to the effort.

Xu Qing looked at Erniu. That’s most likely what’s going on here….

Meanwhile, the huge head was looking at them like two servants who were loafing around instead of getting to work. Therefore, it intensified the gravitational force coming out of its mouth, which swept over Xu Qing and Erniu like a warning.

The two of them were shaken. Without any hesitation, Xu Qing unleashed the gray mist from his carving knife of fate.

At the same time, Erniu held nothing back as he shouted, “Awaken!”

The graveyard trembled, and the burial mounds began to collapse. Corpses started crawling out in response to the summons. An instant later, the gravitational force pulled them up into the air and into the head’s mouth. It lasted for the time it takes an incense stick to burn, during which time Xu Qing and Erniu kept working hard to facilitate the process. After that, the gravitational force faded away, and an expression of contentment appeared on the head’s face.

Apparently, it had been a long time since it was able to feed until it was full. After all, in the past, it had been forced to eat a lot of dirt along with the food. Now it had someone to extract and clean the food for it.[1]

Seeing the head looking so content actually caused Erniu to scowl on the verge of tears. Xu Qing was also frowning. The reality was that they were in a very passive position in which they couldn’t take the initiative at all. Before they could even start formulating a plan, the gravitational force sprang up again, and they shot uncontrollably back up to the head. And then they started moving again….

The head screamed along to the next big restaurant. As a result, Xu Qing and Erniu were able to travel a huge distance in a very short time. They soon appeared in a mountainous region. Just like before, the lands were pitch black. Rain was falling. And as Xu Qing and Erniu looked around, they were shocked to realize that the so-called mountains… were actually enormous burial mounds.

In the previous locations they had visited, the burial mounds were ordinary in size. But here, they were the size of mountains. The place was also dotted with smaller gravestones and tombs.

Upon stopping in midair, the huge head opened its mouth, but this time there was no gravitational force. Instead, the head howled. The sound was like thunder as it echoed through the rain.

Next, Xu Qing and Erniu bore witness to something completely shocking.

There was a howl of response. And then another. In fact, there were many of them, all coming from different directions. And then… a head appeared that was only slightly smaller than the head which had captured them, moving with stupefying speed in their direction. From the look of things, this head was female, and from the fluctuations coming off of it, it was also in the Imperial Sovereign level.

Meanwhile, seven or eight smaller heads rushed from other directions. They looked almost like children. They were much weaker, being only in Void Returning.

Xu Qing’s heart sank. Erniu was trembling.

“It’s a whole family?” Erniu murmured.

It was indeed a family. Upon reuniting, they all noticed Xu Qing and Erniu. As they edged closer to them, they opened their mouths as if to devour them. However, that was when the biggest head of them all, the one that had captured the two of them, let loose a howl. It seemed to be warning its mate and children. Next… the eyes of the other heads opened wide and began sparkling.

Seeing that, Xu Qing and Erniu had no choice but to sigh. They were completely helpless, and were captives of this family. Thus, they had no choice but to work hard getting them food.

And the restaurant was this huge area of burial mounds. With the two of them working together, it wasn’t long before corpses appeared. Unfortunately, they failed to summon anything out of the massive burial mounds.

As for the family… at first, they unleashed their own gravitational forces to devour the corpses. As a result, some of the burial soil still ended up getting mixed in with the corpses. But eventually, the floating heads stopped using their gravitational force. They would just wait for the corpses to climb out into the open, and then gobble them up one by one. They would occasionally howl, which seemed to be their family method of chatting during a meal.

Xu Qing and Erniu were quickly becoming exhausted. After all, doing this constant summoning work was very draining. Unfortunately, the family had a huge appetite.

Erniu sighed inwardly. They’ve eaten a few mountains each? How could they not be full?

Then he gave Xu Qing a look. Xu Qing could tell what he meant. The two of them sent the gray mist into one of the mountainous burial mounds. Although it didn’t summon anything out, their previous work had brought them to the realization that they could stimulate whatever was inside.

And there was always the possibility that such stimulation could lead to an awakening. As for what would happen after that, they couldn’t do much about it. After some hard work, they got the burial mound to start rumbling. The mountain shook, and then a huge hand stretched out from inside.

The instant it appeared, the biggest head’s eyes glittered. The expression on the face was enigmatic, as if it completely understood what Xu Qing and Erniu were trying to do. It didn’t seem surprised at all that this huge corpse had shown up. Without any hesitation, it and its mate shot forward and slammed into the huge hand.

The hand trembled as if in fear, and then began to retract. The two heads, however, were very fierce. They continued to slam into the mountain, sending dirt spraying everywhere.

Without any hesitation, Xu Qing and Erniu fled in the opposite direction.

The little heads wanted to stop them, but weren’t fast enough. Before long, Xu Qing and Erniu had disappeared over the horizon. They hardly took a breath for the time it takes an incense stick to burn, nor did they slow down or exchange words. They just fled.

Unfortunately, it didn’t take long for a familiar pressure to appear. The huge head appeared in front of them. First it looked at the surrounding grave mounds, then it looked at the two of them with that same enigmatic smile from before.

Xu Qing and Erniu lurched to a halt, their scalps tingling. At the same time, the rest of the family of heads raced into the vicinity and surrounded them.

Heart pounding in the face of disaster, Xu Qing solemnly said, “This area has a higher concentration of corpses.”

Erniu nodded fervently. Putting a fawning expression onto his face, he said, “That’s right! Exactly! We weren’t running away. We were scouting for areas with more corpses. This area is perfect.”

With a moment of hesitation, he and Xu Qing started the summoning work again. Before long, rumbling sounds echoed out, and burial mounds started collapsing. Corpses crawled out, turning into food that the family made short work of.

Xu Qing and Erniu felt more helpless than ever. Not daring to harbor any further thoughts of escape for the time being, they focused on summoning. Occasionally, slip-ups would occur, and their summoning wouldn’t succeed. However, accidents sometimes led to unexpected successes. As their summoning work yielded fewer and fewer corpses in the area, and they were just about to give up, an enraged howl erupted from under the ground.

“Who’s interrupting my cultivation??”

The ground shook violently and dirt sprayed in all directions as a huge vortex appeared. An old man emerged from the vortex, a frown on his face, his eyes sinister and cold. He was actually one of the western Devilbirds. Given the energy that surged around him, it was clear that he was actually an Imperial Sovereign. His authority related to death, which was why he had been delighted to sense the death aura in this rain world. As far as he was concerned, this was the ideal place to practice cultivation. As such, he had chosen to just settle down cross-legged in a subterranean cavern and absorb the death aura. But then the gravitational force appeared, and sensing the disturbance, he had emerged with a cold expression on his face.

When Xu Qing and Erniu saw him, strange expressions appeared on their faces.

Even as the old man’s words echoed out, he stopped in place and looked up to see Xu Qing and Erniu. He recognized who they were, yet didn’t reveal that via his facial expression. And that was because of the terrifying heads. In fact, his heart was already pounding. Moments ago, he hadn’t sensed any terrifying entities outside. He had only noticed Xu Qing and Erniu. Otherwise, he would never have shown his face.

But now… he was nearly shivering with fear. And it was all because the family of heads were all looking directly at him.

Seeing that, Erniu’s eyes lit up, and he suddenly realized that he wasn’t in that bad of a position after all. Sticking his chin up, he coolly said, “Did I hear someone bitching just now?”

The old man suppressed the fury that flared in his heart. Keeping his eyes on the two huge heads, he took a cautious step backward.

But Erniu wasn’t going to let an opportunity like this pass, so he looked down arrogantly at the Imperial Sovereign below and continued, “And what was he bitching about?”

The old man choked down his humiliation. Never in his life had someone talked to him like this. But all he could do was grit his teeth helplessly and keep trying to back up.

That was when Xu Qing narrowed his eyes and said, “Drop your bag of holding!”

The old man’s face fell. However, that was when the huge head let loose a wave of pressure.

Shaken, the old man had no choice but to suppress his feelings, throw down his bag of holding, and turn to flee.

Erniu licked his lips. “Drop that bracelet too. And your hairpin. And the belt too. It’s obviously a treasure. Oh, don’t forget that jade pendant as well. Drop it too. That’s a nice robe! Take it off!”

The old man let loose a bellow of rage. But that only caused the pressure from the huge head to increase. Trembling in fear, the old man gnashed his teeth and threw down his bracelet, hair pin, belt, pendant, as well as his outer robe…. Then he fled at top speed.

The huge head glanced at him but didn’t give chase. As for the things he had left behind, the head wasn’t interested in them. It just looked around for more food.

Xu Qing and Erniu were a bit disappointed. That said, at least they got some loot. They quickly collected all the things the old man had thrown onto the ground. Then they exchanged a look, and could tell that they were both thinking the same thing.

What a wonderful family.

***

In the depths of the rain-soaked world of graveyards, there was a towering mountain that was actually a tomb. The mountain was completely still. The only motion to be seen was the empress, strolling through the mausoleum in the middle of the mountain.

There were countless corpses around hēr, but they were all turning into dust. It was the same with the huge coffin in the middle of the mausoleum. The terrifying entity in the coffin never woke up. It just faded away for all eternity.

No expression could be seen on the empress’ face as shē strode to the far end of the mausoleum.

There was a stone door there. The empress stood in front of the door, hēr vision piercing through to the other side. There was a majestic crypt inside. It was full of skeletons. There were so many piled together they formed something like a sea of bones.

In the middle of them was an altar. Atop the altar was a corpse, glittering with silver light. It also pulsed with immortal energy and the mightiness of a Grand Emperor. Sadly, this individual had long since perished.

Floating around it in the air were a host of multi-colored legacy seals. Each pulsed with extraordinary fluctuations, indicating that they were fantastic in nature. There were also dao lineaments visible. They were made from authority, and contained terrifying mightiness. Also present were various Grand Emperor treasures, dormant, but shining brightly. If even one of these things appeared in the outside world, they would drive Imperial Sovereigns mad with desire.

Especially noteworthy was that the cross-legged corpse held a black crystal in its hands. Within it was a swirling mist that contained the face of Grand Emperor Devilbird!

Astonishingly, there were eight doors leading into the crypt, all of them sealed tightly. The empress was only standing in front of one of those doors. Shē didn’t open the door. Shē just looked at it thoughtfully.

The legacy seals are real. The dao lineaments of authority are real. The Grand Emperor treasures are also real. As for the corpse of that immortal, it certainly seems to have the aura of Netherflame. The skeletons were likely used as a source of life force. This is how you would expect to find Netherflame in his state of seclusion.

The empress’ gaze came to focus on the black crystal in the gnarled hands of the corpse.

That’s the fate-soul of Grand Emperor Devilbird, which was taken away by Netherflame when he was at the peak of his power. Whoever controls that will control the fate of Grand Emperor Devilbird. And that’s what Grand Emperor Devilbird wants back!

1. In Chinese the verbiage is a bit different. It uses the word that translates as “to peel” (as opposed to clean), and is the verb usually used when talking about peeling shellfish. In the context it makes sense in Chinese, but I think using the verb “peel” is confusing in English, thus my translation choice. ☜

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