Beyond the Timescape

Chapter 154: A Meal for Three

Xu Qing had fought a Seazombie in the great circle of Qi Condensation. It had been a tough fight. Whether in terms of fleshly body power or their tenacious life force, it had taken an immense effort for Xu Qing to kill the Seazombie. [1]

Unfortunately, he had no experience fighting Foundation Establishment Seazombies, and therefore, he kept his guard up. Also, he didn’t get too close to the teleportation portal. As he watched the portal, a shadowy shape took form within the glittering light.

It was not a human that had been zombified. Instead, it was a nonhuman the likes of which Xu Qing had never seen before. Shockingly, this Seazombie had bat-like wings, although they were tattered and broken. Despite the damage it had obviously suffered before dying, it pulsed with a clear Foundation Establishment aura. This Seazombie was obviously a cautious individual, for as soon as he materialized fully, he prepared to back up.

However, he could never have anticipated what Xu Qing had set up. Before he could even start moving, the water in the area stirred, transforming into solid walls in front of him, behind him, on either side, and even overhead, making it impossible for him to move anywhere. And each wall pulsed with a terrifying aura that crushed down on him.

He slammed into the wall behind him, and a muffled rumbling sound could be heard. Foundation Establishment was mighty, and the wall collapsed. But then, a second, third, and fourth wall appeared to replace it. Xu Qing’s dharma force vastly surpassed anything from someone in the same level as him. His hands flashed in an incantation gesture, causing all of the walls of water to rush toward the Seazombie cultivator.

The Seazombie glanced around with cold eyes, and quickly spotted Xu Qing. Grinning viciously, he said, “You’re alone?”

He was completely ignoring the poison around him. After all, seazombies were known for their zombie poison, which gave them general immunity to other poisons. But as he put his hands together for an incantation gesture, his face suddenly fell as he realized that the surrounding poison was causing his wings to melt.

“What poison is this?”

Then his face flickered even more dramatically as he noticed that the surrounding walls of water were causing the poison levels to increase. As more than a hundred types of poison combined, the Seazombie cultivator’s entire body started to show signs of melting.

Shocked, he shifted to a different incantation gesture, sending clouds of zombie poison out. At the same time, he flapped his wings, releasing terrifying shockwaves to slam into the walls of water. The walls collapsed, but as they did, new walls appeared. In fact, though the Seazombie managed to destroy some of the walls, so many new ones formed that the total number increased, not decreased.

At the same time, the poison cloud being kept in place by the walls was causing big problems. The Seazombie had a powerful fleshly body power and amazing regenerative powers. But he was still starting to melt from head to toe. In fact, he had the feeling that if things kept going as they were, that after enough time passed for an incense stick to burn, he would be melted into nothing.

Without any hesitation, he pulled out a pitch-black beast bone. Eyes flashing with killing intent, he spat out a mouthful of blue blood onto the bone. The bone trembled, and then erupted with mutagen, which created a black, shadowy form that seemed intelligent. Erupting with cackling laughter, it sent out waves of energy in all directions, destroying whatever walls it touched.

That beast bone was clearly a magical device. The Seazombie focused its effect on Xu Qing, using it to smash through the intervening walls. Bursting out from the cloud of poison, he closed in on Xu Qing with cold killing intent.

Xu Qing remained in place, his expression placid and his heart calm.

He’s in Foundation Establishment, but can’t enter the profound radiance state.

If the Seazombie could enter the profound radiance state, it wouldn’t have been so difficult for him to break through the walls. He would have instantly smashed through. And it seemed very unlikely that this Seazombie could enter the profound radiance state, but was holding back as a trick. After all, he was in enemy territory. Anyone in this situation would want to kill any enemies they found, then go into hiding to make sure the coast was clear.

Having come to these conclusions, killing intent flared in Xu Qing’s eyes.

The Seazombie cultivator blasted through the final wall, and though the shadowy figure he had summoned faded away, he thrummed with a killing aura as he lunged toward Xu Qing.

However, Xu Qing was a lot faster; he burst into motion, and in the blink of an eye, body-slammed the Seazombie.

The Seazombie looked shocked as blood sprayed out of his mouth and he was thrown backward. Before he could do anything, Xu Qing unhesitatingly charged forward again. Black balefire surged on his dagger despite the fact that it was in water. As Xu Qing closed in, he and the Seazombie clashed again.

Booms rang out as they fought back and forth.

The Seazombie grew more and more shocked. It was similar to Xu Qing’s original fight with the Seazombie in the great circle of Qi Condensation. His mutagen had no effect on Xu Qing, nor did his zombie poison. And Xu Qing obviously had amazing recovery powers.

As Xu Qing slashed his dagger out, the Seazombie raised his right hand and used his beast bone to send the cackling shadowy figure toward Xu Qing. The shadowy figure had red eyes that burst with greed as it closed in. However, then those eyes went wide, and the figure tried to back up. But it was too late!

All of a sudden, Xu Qing’s shadow burst out. It had been eying the shadowy figure, and now, suddenly seemed hungry as it rushed toward it.

The shadowy figure reacted as if it had suddenly encountered a deadly predator. It trembled and slowed down, as if it didn’t dare to flee.

Xu Qing’s shadow pounced on it, opening its mouth wide and swallowing the shadowy figure.

A moment later, a burping sound could be heard, and then the shadow’s incorporeal eyes locked onto the shocked Seazombie cultivator.

The Seazombie looked terrified, and backed away rapidly. However, that was when the sound of a bell rang out from behind it. It was a sound that seemed to pierce through the fleshly body and lock onto the soul. As it entered the Seazombie’s ears, he suddenly stopped moving. It only lasted for a moment, but during that moment, the sound of the bell got closer.

Black light flashed as the iron skewer stabbed through the Seazombie’s forehead, swirled around, then stabbed him through the throat. Afterwards, the bell rang again.

Meanwhile, Xu Qing was covered in black balefire, becoming like a human torch. At the same time, he tapped into the feather-shaped magical device.

As soon as that magical device was activated, Xu Qing’s top speed skyrocketed. He took a step forward, and water surged around him as he moved with incredible speed toward the shocked and injured Seazombie.

His dagger slashed viciously through the Seazombie’s throat, causing blue blood to explode out along with an agonized shriek. Then, Xu Qing’s dagger became a stream of black fire that entered the wound and spread into the Seazombie’s body.

The Seazombie struggled to break free, but Xu Qing slammed his knee into his abdomen. A thump rang out as the Seazombie’s body almost collapsed. And as the black fire burned his soul, he let loose a hoarse scream.

Then Xu Qing’s shadow arrived and wrapped around the Seazombie’s legs, provoking more howls of anguish. On the spots where the shadow touched the Seazombie, its flesh melted. It seemed that, within moments, he was going to be an actual corpse. That was because the mutagen within him was being devoured by Xu Qing’s shadow. And as a result, the shadow began to let off some of the aura of a Seazombie.

The black iron skewer wasn’t sitting around doing nothing. It stabbed directly into the beast bone magical device. After it did, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior began devouring the spirit resonance in the device.

The entire process took an incense stick’s worth of time.

As the Seazombie cultivator fell into despair, he grew weaker and weaker. Then a final rumbling could be heard as the last of his mutagen was sucked out. At the same time, he lost his soul, and his entire body crumbled into ash that dissolved in the water. The beast bone magical device also crumbled into nothing.

Xu Qing used the Seazombie soul as kindling, sending raging fire toward his 21st dharma aperture.

A boom echoed through him as the dharma aperture opened. As spirit power poured into it and turned into dharma force, Xu Qing turned to look at the teleportation portal.

Instead of destroying it, he set up more poison, then fell back to wait. At the same time, he looked at his shadow. He had been paying attention when his shadow devoured the Seazombie’s mutagen and thus gained a Seazombie aura.

After some time passed, it was to Xu Qing’s disappointment that a second Seazombie did not teleport in.

Seazombies weren’t stupid. It seemed likely that after the first one teleported in, those preparing to follow had realized something unusual was going on. Finally, Xu Qing just destroyed the portal and moved on.

His shadow’s mutagen levels were clearly higher, and at the same time, it seemed it had developed a new taste for Seazombies. It seemed more interested than Xu Qing in encountering a second one.

Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior seemed stronger as well after devouring the enemy’s magical device. Xu Qing wasn’t sure what he thought about that, considering magical devices could be sold for a tidy profit. The patriarch could tell from Xu Qing’s expression what he was thinking, and quickly went into a very carefully worded explanation.

“I lost control, milord. Next time, I’ll only absorb seventy percent, and leave thirty percent behind. That way, you can still sell the thing. As a spirit automaton, I can do it in a way that whoever you sell it to won’t be able to tell. That said, milord, I suggest you not sell such items in the sect. I know plenty of black markets that would be a much better choice.”

Xu Qing looked at the skewer but didn’t say anything.

The next day, thanks to the help of the shadow, Xu Qing found another teleportation portal hidden in a crevice. After making various preparations, he waited. Days passed and he finally destroyed it and moved on to another portal. This time, after he made his preparations, the portal started to activate.

1. Xu Qing fought the Seazombie in chapter 119. ☜

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