Beyond the Timescape

Chapter 1168: The Majesty of the Young Lord

Sir Star Ring got an answer to his question, but it only scratched the surface of the mystery. The arrival of Immortal Fairy Spirit Phoenix cleared away enough fog for him to see things clearly. Unfortunately, not all the fog was gone, so no matter how he studied the situation, things weren’t completely and utterly clear. It was like looking at flowers in the fog.

That said, given what he could see thanks to his canon, he felt strongly that he was correct. After all, it was human nature to believe what you wanted to believe. And Sir Star Ring was human. That was the reason he looked absent-minded and spoke in a hoarse voice.

What was more, he knew that if it was as he suspected, then… there was no chance he could win this war in the end. And given the events that had played out, his opponent had only just begun to fight!

Maybe I can’t win. But there’s a possibility… I might not lose!

Sir Star Ring’s eyes glittered as killing intent rose within him. Ignoring Immortal Fairy Spirit Phoenix and the fox maiden, he turned to leave. The two of them weren’t important to him now.

At the moment, the most crucial element to him was time. And therefore, he wasn’t going to waste any time on these people.

Starfire looked at him and was inclined to block his path. Unfortunately, the pressure from the god-branding medallion made it so that all could do was look at Immortal Fairy Spirit Phoenix. “He seems to be in a hurry, Junior Sister. What do you say we slow him down?”

Yuanshan Su’s eyes glittered, but in the end… she chose not to block his path. All he told me to do was protect the fox maiden.

Eyes narrowing, she watched Fourth True Monarch walk out of the courtyard and disappear into the wind and rain.

Thunder rumbled.

***

RUUUUUUUMMMMBLE!

As Xu Qing appeared outside of Zhong Chi’s residence, he heard the crash of thunder. He walked inside. Everything blurred. There were spell formations and warding spells designed to keep people out, but they didn’t do a thing to Xu Qing.

In the blink of an eye, he was standing right over Li Mengtu, who sat there cross-legged and meditating in the guise of Zhong Chi. A flash of lightning lit up heaven and earth outside, and the light reached inside. Li Mengtu opened his eyes and looked confused.

“Young Lord?” He had not been expecting Young Lord Aurora to show up. He quickly got to his feet and prepared to bow, but before he could, a gentle force emanated from Xu Qing that prevented him from bowing.

Xu Qing walked to the window and looked out at the storm. The wind blew and the thunder boomed.

“Li Mengtu!” he said calmly.

As he spoke the words, thunder crashed outside, and the sound of it slammed into Li Mengtu’s heart. Mind spinning, his face fell. He couldn’t have been more astonished, and though he opened his mouth to speak, it was Xu Qing whose words rang out in the room.

“I know what you’re trying to do. You’re using your canon to slowly infect the body you’ve possessed. You’re trying to poison it to death!

“However, the presence of your own consciousness combined with the extraordinary nature of the body is making it difficult for you to meet the requirements to poison it to death. Therefore, you’re hoping to take advantage of a key moment in history, and the mighty waves it will generate, to make your canon of poison more effective.

“Your host is supposed to die in the coming catastrophe, but you’re hoping to kill him with poison. If you do that, then your poison will have the weight of history behind it. And technically speaking, it will have appeared in history before your own Master.

“As a result, it won’t matter that this is only a reflection of history. It will still be an effective weapon for your inevitable fight with your Master in the future. If this history becomes real, then your canon of poison will have a foundation in reality. If this history remains a mere reflection, then you’ll be able to have a foundation of an illusion.

“Either way, it will benefit your future cultivation. An ingenious plan!” Xu Qing turned to look at Li Mengtu.

The words caused Li Mengtu’s heart to pound so loudly it was almost deafening. He was breathing heavily, and the look of respect in his eyes had changed into something fierce and aggressive. Yet within that aggression there was a profound and obvious incredulity.

He was thinking the very same thing that went through the minds of Immortal Fairy Spirit Phoenix, Li the Chosen, and Fourth True Monarch earlier. A person who was supposedly impossible to possess had indeed been possessed…. The result was confusion and astonishment.

In the blink of an eye, his canon poison surged within him. Staring at Xu Qing, he suppressed his astonishment and quickly regained his cool.

A thousand thoughts running through his head, he said, “Who are you?”

“You likely guessed who I am the moment I said your name,” Xu Qing said calmly.

Li Mengtu said nothing. He was indeed able to make an educated guess, considering that he had told Patriarch Diling about his identity, and instructed him to pass the information to Xu Qing. But then he thought back to all of his interactions with Young Lord Aurora, and he wasn’t totally sure. That was especially true considering that it wouldn’t be too difficult to figure out who he was. After all, poison… was his defining attribute in real life. He was about to explain all of this when thunder crashed outside.

Xu Qing noticed it and looked outside. He had a lot to do tonight, and it was going to take time to explain everything to Li Mengtu.

“I have a better way to accomplish your goal!” Xu Qing took out a special jade slip and was about to imprint it with information. Before he did, he stopped and looked at Li Mengtu. “Pick a fundamentally defining name for your poison canon!”

Li Mengtu’s eyes flashed. Given that Zhong Chi was the study partner of the young lord, he recognized what kind of jade slip that was. It was a jade slip of decree. His heart was already racing as he realized what the young lord was about to do. It was something he had dreamed of accomplishing, but had been unable to do.

Though he was still unsure of who exactly he was dealing with, he didn’t hesitate to say, “Poison of Mengtu!”[1]

Xu Qing nodded, then pinched the jade slip as he imprinted it with divine will.

“Zhong Chi, disciple of the immortal palace, will use the canon Poison of Mengtu to protect and safeguard the young lord! Therefore, Zhong Chi is hereby authorized to create the Department of Poison in Young Aurora Hall, to further the study of his poison and permanently enshrine it as an aspect of the immortal palace. Let his proclamation be heard worldwide!”

Li Mengtu’s mind was spinning more dramatically than it ever had in his life. He knew full well… that this was a righteous bestowal![2]

His identity was receiving a righteous bestowal, as was the foundation of his poison canon. This was clearly a far more direct way to reach his goal than poisoning himself, and it was also far more impressive! In fact, the two different methods couldn’t even be compared with each other.

As the decree was being imprinted, space-time waves rolled out dramatically, vying with the thunder outside in terms of intensity.

Upon sensing the space-time waves, Xu Qing flicked the jade slip into the air and sent it flying to Li Mengtu. “Wait until tomorrow morning. Then come to Young Aurora Hall to officially set up the Department of Poison.”

Li Mengtu caught the jade slip. He wanted to say something, but at the moment was at a complete loss for words.

“Finally,” Xu Qing said, “take some of your poison and give it to me…. It needs to be strong, otherwise how could you use it to protect me?”

He looked calmly at Li Mengtu.

Li Mengtu didn’t hesitate for a moment. Reaching up, he viciously sliced open his chest, causing blood to spray out. It was pure black. Next, he sent some of his will into the blood to catalyze the poison canon to the proper level. He put it in a bottle, and then he gave it to Xu Qing.

Xu Qing took it and examined it. “It seems to me that your understanding and mastery of plants and vegetation is imperfect. From the time I gave the poison canon back to you until now… you haven’t improved it much.”

Shaking his head, he walked out and disappeared into the wind and rain.

Inside, Li Mengtu exhaled slowly. As the words the young lord had just spoken seemed to echo in his ears, he smiled wryly.

You hid yourself very well, Xu Qing….

***

The storm got more intense in the immortal palace. Rain poured down, and the chaos in the workings of heaven grew more obvious. Half of the sky was suddenly red like evening. The other half was still pitch black!

In the pitch-black part, Sir Star Ring was flying at top speed toward Zhong Chi’s residence. The waves coming from there were like flames in the night. But even as he shot forward, a fog suddenly appeared out of nowhere in the darkness, blocking his path! Sir Star Ring stopped in place.

Li the Chosen slowly walked out of the fog, his eyes gleaming with the desire to do battle. “You seem like you’re in a hurry, Sir Star Ring. Where are you going?”

***

Intense fighting was playing out in the darkness.

Meanwhile, Xu Qing was moving through the red of evening. He could sense that his actions were causing waves to fill the immortal palace’s space-time. At first, when he changed the direction of Li the Chosen, the waves were minor. But they picked up when events played out at the fox maiden’s residence.

Then he went to Li Mengtu and issued a decree, and the waves grew more forceful.

Next comes Li the Chosen’s severed arm. That needs to become a reality. After that, the decree’s contents will become effective, and the space-time waves will really kick up. Unfortunately… all of that won’t be enough.

Xu Qing sent his divine will to the poisoned blood in his hand. Other than Li Mengtu’s Master, there was only one person who could possibly understand his poison canon. And that person was Xu Qing. At the moment, he was focusing his powers of understanding on the poisoned blood, hoping to use the body of his host to augment it and… make it stronger.

Before long, he arrived at Scourgebolt Palace, and Gongsun Qingmu’s residence.

Inside was Sir Vilespirit in the form of Gongsun Qingmu. Opening his eyes, he looked in surprise at the entrance. He could sense who was there. He had been ready for someone to come looking for him, and was very confident in being able to deal with whoever it was. But how could he have ever guessed that the person to come… would be Young Lord Aurora?? Just like everyone else, he was shaken to the core.

The storm raged, and as red light shone everywhere, thunder boomed.

Xu Qing did not show any trace of politeness as he stepped forward. The door exploded, and as the wind and rain entered, so did he.

Looking down, he said, “Your dao is that of betrayal. But that’s not going to work on me.”

1. Just a quick reminder that the Mengtu from Li Mengtu’s name contains the characters for “dream” and “earth/soil.” So if you translated the name of the poison, it would be Poison of Dreaming of Earth/Soil. In all likelihood, someone who didn’t know the background of the name of the poison would think of it in that way. But all of the ‘outsiders,’ who of course are familiar with Li Mengtu, would instantly associate it with his name. And I think the meaning, in this case, is related to him as a person, rather than the implication of his name. So in this case, I’m choosing to render the poison name with his name instead of the translation of the meaning. ☜

2. The term here is a fairly unique term. The characters are the same as the ability used by Meng Hao in ISSTH, but it’s not intended to relate to that character or novel. The term does not exist in dictionaries, and interestingly, when you search for it on the Chinese internet, the top results are all explanations of how it works in cultivation novels. Essentially, it’s a magical way of authenticating something as being official. ☜

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