Beyond the Timescape

Chapter 434: I Will Sacrifice Myself to Hell

“Hmm?” The Captain was so taken aback he didn’t really understand what Xu Qing was getting at. “What does that have to do with me? Are you trying to show off, little Ah Qing? If it weren’t for that letter of mine....”

Xu Qing looked at the Captain.

The Captain cleared his throat. “If it weren’t for that letter of yours....” The Captain suddenly looked very serious. “Speaking of that, I have to give you some more constructive criticism. Truth be told, I’ve been telling you this same thing for a long time. We cultivators should live alone in the world. That’s the only way for us to develop an iron will. That’s the only way for us to develop true self-confidence. That’s the only way for us to confidently face life’s difficulties! Women? Hah! Could they possibly be as good as apples?” The Captain viciously took a bite of his apple, his eyes glittering with scorn.

“Women are like boulders blocking our path forward. Mountains! They’re like fetters preventing us from wielding our swords. No, they’re like hells! You really need to be careful in this matter. Don’t be like Third Sib. I mean, come on. All my advice earlier about Arch-Immortal Plumdark was mostly just harmless banter.”

Xu Qing listened thoughtfully to the Captain’s assessment, and had to admit that what he said made sense. Finally, he nodded. “You’re right, Eldest Brother. In that case, I guess I won’t introduce you to Arch-Immortal Plumdark’s friend.”

The Captain was so stunned his eyes went wide and he stopped eating his apple. “What’d you just say? Introduce me?”

Xu Qing nodded apologetically. “That was my mistake, Eldest Brother. Not long ago, Senior Li, in other words Li Shitao from the Administration Palace, wanted me to introduce a male friend to her. Due to my lack of experience in life, I almost introduced you. It’s a good thing I didn’t do anything to influence your iron will and self-confidence.”

“Li Shitao? That’s a nice-sounding name. Um... is she hot?”

Looking surprised, Xu Qing nodded and said, “She’s alright.”

The Captain’s eyes lit up, but he quickly got them under control. Standing, he clasped his hands behind his back and sighed. “Little Junior Brother... as your Eldest Brother, I’ve already lived alone in the world for twenty-six years now, which is a bit excessive.” He turned and looked at Xu Qing.

Xu Qing hesitated. “We cultivators really should live alone in the world.”

Sounding very somber, the Captain said, “We cultivators should live according to the following maxim: between love, law, wealth, and land, the wise view love as supremely grand!”

Xu Qing was doubtful. “Not a boulder blocking our path forward? A mountain?”

“If you don’t understand that mountain, how can you ever scale it?” the Captain replied confidently.

“Not a fetter preventing us from wielding our sword? A hell?” Xu Qing looked at the Captain.

Looking very wistful, the Captain gazed through the window of the sword pavilion at the world outside. He sighed softly. “I will sacrifice myself to hell to spare everyone else that torment.”

Xu Qing looked at the Captain and noted his complete lack of embarrassment.

A long moment passed, and then Xu Qing sighed and nodded.

“Captain, you really do need to start eating more grapefruit.” [1]

The Captain’s face lit up. Seemingly unconcerned at all about Xu Qing yet again mentioning grapefruit, he hurried to Xu Qing’s side. Eyebrows dancing up and down, he handed him three big apples.

“My love for you has not been in vain, little Junior Brother. Ahem. So, I’ll wait for an update.” With that, the Captain hurried away looking thrilled.

Xu Qing watched thoughtfully as he left. Though the Captain ended up completely contradicting himself, Xu Qing actually thought that his initial assessment had a lot of merit.

“Only with a calm heart can one be truly strong.” Closing his eyes, he completely cleared his heart of extraneous thoughts and started meditating.

In the blink of an eye, four days passed.

During that time, Xu Qing worked hard to purify his thoughts. He purged himself of anything that would disturb his calmness, and got himself back into the same mindset as when he first arrived in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. He also immersed himself in getting used to the natural and magical laws of the minor world. Late at night on the fourth day, he successfully reached the point of being able to last for 2,000 breaths of time.

Now I can give it a shot.

He didn’t end his shift and go home. Instead, he rested for a short time on Level 90, then once again entered the world in the mural. Once in the void, he followed the familiar path to the dome, then passed through it to appear above the clouds in the minor world. Immense pressure weighed down on him, like an entire mountain range crushing down from above.

He shivered as cracking and popping sounds echoed out from inside. However, his facial expression didn’t change. This was exactly the same way he normally trained here. He was already completely familiar with the mountain-like weight of the natural laws. He moved forward without hesitation, carrying the weight of mountains with him. With every step he took, intense rumbling sounds echoed out, like boulders falling down a mountain. Wild colors flashed in heaven and earth, and intense winds swept back and forth.

It was a shocking scene. The reason for it was that Xu Qing wasn’t able to lift something heavy as if it were light. Because he bore the laws of the world, his every movement would cause dramatic transformations around him.

When he passed, lightning crashed and the clouds seethed in dramatic fashion. As he proceeded, the nonhumans hidden in the area looked out in shock.

Though they knew that it was because he couldn’t lift something heavy as if it were light, that just illustrated how exceedingly dangerous he was. After all, considering he couldn’t control the laws, it meant their effects would spread uncontrollably....

That was exactly what was happening. The moment he appeared in the air, the weather around him fluctuated dramatically. Sometimes there was acid rain, sometimes lightning, sometimes tempests.... The earth beneath his feet was also affected. Sometimes plains became mountains, or mountains became rivers. Everything was completely unstable, and only went back to normal after he was gone. The inmates who got caught up in it all... were very unlucky.

Looking down, Xu Qing noticed hordes of inmates pouring out of hiding places, terror on their faces as they fled this way and that.

Some, who had already lost too many memories by dying too many times, actually ran in his direction in the hope of being killed directly by the natural laws. If they were killed in that way, they wouldn’t experience the Reset. Because of that, they thought of that type of death as a release.

Frowning, Xu Qing waved his hand and coolly said, “I hereby lock down the land and airspace in this part of the world.”

In response, the laws he was sustaining shivered, and then cracking sounds filled heaven and earth around him. Then, streams of natural laws swept out from the living things in the area, and then stitched together around Xu Qing as they created new natural laws.

The people who had been rushing in his direction to kill themselves were repelled, and had no chance to run or fly closer.

When Xu Qing left the area, everything went back to normal. Having done that, Xu Qing calculated the time. Realizing he couldn’t afford any unnecessary delays, he gritted his teeth and rushed forward. As he moved, more cracking sounds emanated from within him. Also, the laws around him caused the ground below to seemingly shrink, allowing him to move even faster.

Before long, he reached the vast plain where the Demi-Immortals were located.

This was the first task he had planned for this trip into the minor world.

Upon arriving, he immediately changed the natural laws in the area. Then he made a grasping gesture, causing two of the Nascent Soul Demi-Immortals to fly up into the air to him. Then he sped off into the distance.

After finding a location with no one else present, he used the same tactics he used on the Unit D Demi-Immortal inmates. After he’d inserted mutagen into both of them, he paused for thought.

If their memories aren’t erased, then it means their chances of being turned into immortal puppets are reduced.... That said, Demi-Immortals aren’t idiots. If some of their people suddenly show up with no memories after three hundred years of that never happening, they’ll be suspicious. I can’t push it too far, or be too dramatic.

After some more thought, he took one of the unconscious Demi-Immortals back to the plain. The other, he tossed into the wilderness some distance away.

I’ll come back frequently to keep an eye on them. If the Demi-Immortal in the other location ends up losing memories, I can bring him back. That way he’ll only experience a bit of memory loss.

He was just about to move on to the second task he had in mind when, all of a sudden, he looked over his shoulder.

Someone had suddenly appeared about 1,500 meters behind him! From his uniform, he was obviously a Unit C jailer. He looked coldly at Xu Qing, and then at the Demi-Immortal down in the wilderness. His eyes shone with mysterious light.

“What are you doing?”

Based on the cultivation base fluctuations coming from this Unit C jailer, Xu Qing could tell that he was in the Nascent Soul level. He remembered seeing this jailer before, though he’d never spoken to him. In response to the question, Xu Qing looked down at the wilderness below, then put an apologetic look onto his face.

“It’s a little experiment.”

The jailer looked coldly at Xu Qing for a long moment, then back down at the Demi-Immortal, who was about to regain consciousness.

“I’m in charge of this land here. You should have said something to me ahead of time. The governor’s orders state that Demi-Immortals are exempt from the pain of memory loss.... this has to be a one-time thing.”

With that, he turned and left. He did nothing to interfere.

He and Xu Qing were both jailers. And though Xu Qing wasn’t in the Nascent Soul level, he had the same level of authority. What he was doing was something of a rules violation, but he wasn’t doing anything excessive, and even went to the trouble of being visibly apologetic. As a result, the other jailer wasn’t inclined to do anything further.

Xu Qing knew he had been careless, and that he really had no justification for his actions. Normally speaking, he would never have made such a mistake. After all, he had never slipped up in Unit D. But this was his first time on patrol, and he was working on a severe time limit. Because of that, it had skipped his mind to check who was in charge of this part of the minor world.

“Guilty as charged,” Xu Qing said to the jailer, clasping his hands respectfully.

The jailer didn’t look back, but he waved his hand dismissively. He obviously wasn’t as annoyed as he was before.

When he was gone, Xu Qing also left. The second task he had in mind was to find the three Nightshades, both to observe them and also leave his mark on them. However, now he had something else in mind. Flying back up into the sky, he left the minor world.

After he was free from the laws, he breathed a long sigh of relief. Then he went back into the Corrections Division. The first thing he did was go find Ghost Hand, to report about how he’d dealt with the natural laws and gone on patrol.

In one corner of Level 90, Ghost Hand sat in a rocking chair, a jug of alcohol in hand. When he heard Xu Qing’s report he looked up and said, “That fast?”

Ghost Hand didn’t hide his surprise. He quickly performed an incantation gesture and pointed out, causing the mural to shine with soft light. Then the images shifted, changing to Xu Qing on patrol. It was in the moment he had just arrived, and not when he was dealing with the Demi-Immortals.

“Not bad, boy. Good job!” Ghost Hand waved his hand and the mural went back to normal. Then he tossed an identity medallion to Xu Qing. “You’ll be in charge of East District 13.”

“Yes, sir,” Xu Qing said. After a moment of thought, he quietly continued, “Your humble servant needs to report something. I moved one of the Demi-Immortals to a different location in the minor world. It’s an experiment I need to run....”

“That’s not a big deal,” Ghost Hand said, chuckling sarcastically. Obviously, Ghost Hand was already aware of the situation. Being in charge, he knew exactly what happened in the minor world. What was more, he knew that the jailers under his command weren’t naive fools, and would occasionally engage in personal projects and matters. But when all was said and done, they were all swordsages, and they wouldn’t do anything outright evil. As a result, he would usually look the other way in such circumstances.

After all, even he was no exception. What was more, he was clearly pleased that Xu Qing had taken the initiative to explain himself.

Seeing that, Xu Qing knew he had made the right decision. There were some things that weren’t worth trying to hide, and if you did, would result in more unwanted scrutiny. With that thought in mind, he said one more thing.

“Senior, I really want to observe those other Nightshades.”

Ghost Hand laughed heartily. Pointing to the identity medallion he’d just given, he said, “Back during the lecture, I could tell you were interested. You can feel free to observe anything in the area you oversee.”

Surprised, Xu Qing clasped hands and bowed deeply to Ghost Hand. Then he left.

Ghost Hand sipped some alcohol as he watched Xu Qing leaving. He really did approve of Xu Qing. Whether it was the way he’d poisoned Ailing Ghost, the extent of his powers of understanding, or his politeness, all were unusual. What was more, he was only in the Gold Core level, yet qualified to go on patrol alone. All of that went to show how extraordinary Xu Qing was.

Beyond all that, there was his 30,000-meter pillar of light and the fact that he was assigned to D-132. The latter... was the most significant of all. That was why Ghost Hand put the Nightshades into the area that Xu Qing was in charge of. If he’d put the Nightshades in with another jailer, all the other jailers would have started speculating about his choice. After all, Nightshades were rare enough that everyone was interested in them.

But giving them to someone with a 30,000-meter pillar of light would forestall much of that speculation. What was more, it would help ensure that Xu Qing became well-known among the other jailers.

You need to work hard, boy. East District 13 really got lucky today. Taking a swig of alcohol, he rocked in the chair and hummed a little tune.

1. The last grapefruit comment was in chapter 279. ☜

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