Beyond the Timescape

Chapter 435: The Original Saber of Supreme Vastness

Xu Qing once again entered the world inside the mural. As the laws weighed down on him, he took a deep breath and used the command medallion to find the way to East District 13. It was a rather large district that Ghost Hand had taken him through on his first tour. It didn’t take long to find. The terrain was volcanic, with lava flows crisscrossing the lands.

The three Nightshades were imprisoned in three different volcanoes. The light cast by the fiery volcanoes was similar enough to sunlight that the Nightshades experienced the same torment they would from being outside during the day.

Xu Qing flew past all three of them to get the lay of the land, then took one of the Nightshades out of the volcano to study. After about five hundred breaths of time had passed, his eyes glittered.

The aura of the red moon is much stronger on them compared to the Holytides....

As a matter of fact, back when Ghost Hand had given him private instruction on the Nightshades, Xu Qing had noticed that red moon aura in them. It came from their black blood. Today, he was finally able to confirm his previous observations.

That’s why the Holytides have the same aura. It’s because they have some of the Nightshades’ black blood flowing in their veins. Given this, I guess it means that the Nightshades worship that evil god with the hands covering the eyes, the same one I saw in the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pillar in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture.

He felt more on guard than ever, especially considering that the violet moon in his fourth heavenly palace had been formed by some of the aura he had stolen from that red moon.

“Nightshades....” he murmured. He felt confident in his suppositions so far, especially given what he knew about the Nightshades living in a land with no sun and only a moon.

Eventually, he settled his thoughts. Sending a divine will command to his shadow, he had it leave some shadow eyes on them for observation. At the same time, he also took some images and stored them on a jade slip. After some more thought, he decided it would be best if he allowed the Nightshades to communicate with each other. That might give him the chance to get more details from them. Therefore, he deposited all three Nightshades into the same volcano.

Next, he found a nonhuman inmate to test his Gruegloom Daoseizing Art on. He wanted to see if devouring nonhumans could improve his cultivation base. Unfortunately, though Xu Qing had more than enough battle prowess, because his fundamental cultivation base level was different, the Gruegloom Daoseizing Art wasn’t very effective.

In his mind, he realized it made sense to liken gold cores to candied fruits. It didn’t matter if the candied fruits were hard, because the outer layer was just crystallized sugar. Once that external coating melted, he could digest the fruit inside. But nascent souls were like fruits coated in iron. Obviously, that iron coating would make them much more difficult to digest.

It made sense to Xu Qing. After all, no matter how weak a Nascent Soul cultivator was, they were on a fundamentally higher level. A Gold Core technique simply wasn’t going to work very well under those circumstances.

It wasn’t as if there was literally no way to make it work. But the complications made it so that devouring gold cores just made more sense considering how convenient and fast the process was. Another possibility was that he was doing it the wrong way. Therefore, he decided that after he was able to stay in the minor world for longer, he would do some tests and see if changing his specific methods would yield better results.

At the moment, he had already reached his time limit and was preparing to leave. This was his second time in the minor world today, and he could only bear the massive weight of the natural laws for so long. Just as he was about to leave, wild colors flashed in heaven and earth off in the distance. The clouds transformed, becoming dark and oppressive. Thunder boomed, making it seem like there was a heavenly tribulation underway. A series of lightning bolts smashed into the ground, exploding the dirt and rock in a wide area.

Xu Qing’s eyes narrowed, as he didn’t see any natural laws at work.

Don’t tell me it’s the work of one of the other jailers.

He started moving, heading in the direction of the affected area.

From a distance, it looked like a massive storm swirling in the sky. As he got closer, he saw a figure in motion beneath the heavenly tribulation. It was a tall, burly nonhuman with blue skin and a solitary horn. He had one eye, and massive arms with nine fingers on each hand. His expression was one of anxiety and madness as he flew up toward the tribulation clouds. He really was trying to pass a tribulation!

All it took was a glance for Xu Qing to understand what was going on. There were no other jailers in the area, which meant that this dramatic event was being caused by the nonhuman.

He was obviously an extraordinary individual who had managed to push his cultivation base to the breakthrough point even while in this minor world. As a result, the natural laws of the minor world transformed into a crushing heavenly tribulation. It wasn’t something commonly seen in a minor world like this. What was more, based on everything he understood about this prison world, he was certain... that this nonhuman wouldn’t pass the tribulation.

If the laws of this place weren’t under the control of the Swordsage Palace, then he might have had a chance. But though Xu Qing had never personally witnessed a heavenly tribulation here, he knew that it would be mighty enough to shake heaven and earth. It seemed likely the nonhuman had picked this location because of the lack of any guards. And the inmate had obviously not anticipated Xu Qing showing up.

Senior Ghost Hand sent me here, so surely he knows what’s going on, right? As he pondered the situation, intense rumbling echoed out from the tribulation clouds.

Then, numerous bolts of lightning gathered, and instead of dropping onto the nonhuman, they converged above him. There beneath the clouds, the lightning bolts merged together into the shape of a saber. The blade of lightning flickered dazzlingly, and emitted rumbling sounds that filled heaven and earth.

A consummately mighty force appeared, filled with the natural laws of the minor world, the magical laws of heaven and earth, and the power of the dao of heaven. It was pulsing with a visible dao resonance!

A blade nimbus shimmered around it with blinding brightness, causing the rest of the world to grow dark, as if only this blade light existed in heaven and earth! A boundless might erupted, accompanied by an intense sound that pierced through the air, as the saber dropped toward the nonhuman. This was a true heavenly saber!

And it was slashing, not the body, but the dao!

The saber descended, slashing right through the nonhuman.

The blue-skinned nonhuman trembled, then let loose a howl of grief and anguish. Blood sprayed out of his mouth, as his Nascent Soul cultivation base couldn’t sustain the force, and directly exploded! His nascent soul was reduced to ashes. His heavenly palaces shattered. His life flames went out. His dao foundation crumbled. Every aspect of his cultivation base was destroyed!

“I refuse to accept this!!” he howled. Sadly, this was a minor world where the natural and magical laws limited his power. All he could do was fall to the ground as a mortal, having lost all of his cultivation.

Xu Qing wasn’t paying attention to the nonhuman or his howl of defiance. Instead, he landed on a nearby mountaintop and looked up into the heavenly lightning, his mind reeling. What he was staring at was the convergence of countless lightning bolts, shaped like a heavenly saber. The sight of that saber caused his mind to focus on one specific thing.

“That saber... that saber...” he murmured, shivering down to his core.

The change to his mental state caused transformations to the surroundings because of the natural laws. Clouds sprang into being above him, dropping acid rain, magnetic fields, and lightning bolts. It was the same in all the surrounding mountains. Everything beyond the mountains blurred as the surrounding terrain shifted between seas, plains, deserts, and volcanoes.

As for the nonhuman cultivator who had failed the tribulation, he was gone, whether dead or run away, it was impossible to say.

Xu Qing wasn’t paying attention to that. His full attention was focused on the saber formed by the heavenly tribulation. Though the saber had already faded from existence, Xu Qing could still see it clearly in his mind’s eye. That saber left him with the same feeling he experienced when he watched that statue in the Supreme Vastness daoist temple outside the scavenger basecamp in South Phoenix. The thought made him shiver from head to toe.

“Don’t tell me....”

It made complete sense to him that whatever consummate expert had originally created the Supreme Vastness Solitary Saber... might have done so after personally witnessing a dao-severing heavenly saber.

Of course, there were some differences.

The Supreme Vastness Solitary Saber was something cultivators could use. The saber he had just seen was a saber from a heavenly tribulation. On the one hand, they seemed like they had a shared origin. On the other hand, the tribulation saber had a dao resonance, and furthermore, had a different function. One could kill the body, the other could sever the dao.

If I could gain enlightenment of it, then combine it with my Supreme Vastness Solitary Saber....

Xu Qing’s eyes glittered.

He instinctively raised his right hand and mentally conjured the image he had just seen. Then he waved his right hand in the hopes of copying the dao-severing saber he had just seen formed from the natural laws of this minor world.

Unfortunately, even though Xu Qing had spectacular powers of understanding, there was no way he could succeed at something like that having only witnessed the event one time.

After a few dozen breaths of time passed, and the saber of lightning was completely gone, Xu Qing found the image of the saber in his mind fading away. Eventually, no matter how much he resisted the effects, the image vanished. He tried using his limited level of control to get the saber to appear again, but it didn’t work. Obviously that heavenly tribulation was beyond his authority and control.

However, Xu Qing was not the type of person to give up easily, so he closed his eyes to think deeply about the situation. It was similar to the time when he sought enlightenment of the Ghost Emperor mountain. He slowly tried to form the image of the saber in his mind and commit it to memory.

A few hundred breaths of time passed.

Xu Qing opened his eyes. They were bloodshot as he looked up to the clouds in what was now an ordinary sky. He sighed.

He had sought enlightenment... and had failed. One reason was that the heavenly saber only appeared for a moment. Another had to do with the effects of the minor world, which created a less-than-ideal environment. And then there was the high-level personhood of the heavenly saber. In some respects, it was like the original version of the Supreme Vastness Solitary Saber. Because of all those reasons, it just wasn’t possible for Xu Qing to succeed.

I was also rushing it too much.

After analyzing all the reasons for his failure, he had no choice but to sigh and leave the minor world.

Once outside, he slumped as a feeling of exhaustion swept over him. He always experienced that feeling when leaving the minor world. The reason was that his cultivation base really wasn’t up to task, and thus, sustaining the natural laws was a huge burden. He wasn’t thinking about that, though. Instead, his eyes glittered as he continued to analyze the situation.

If I want to gain enlightenment of that saber, I’m going to need to see it a few more times.... And I’ll need to do it in a more relaxed, but also completely focused, state. That’s the only way I’ll have a shot at gaining enlightenment.

He looked back down thoughtfully at the minor world.

I’ve currently mastered two saber moves from the Supreme Vastness Solitary Saber. If I can succeed with that dao-severing heavenly saber, then it could count as my third saber move.

Xu Qing thought about how he hadn’t really left the county capital since he arrived. He had not gone to search for any Supreme Vastness daoist temples, and thus, had not improved his Supreme Vastness Solitary Saber. As he knew, the vast majority of Supreme Vastness daoist temples actually wouldn’t help with enlightenment. After all, once someone succeeded in gaining enlightenment, the temple would need to sit idle for half of a sixty-year-cycle before new enlightenment could be gained from it.

That ensured that it was very difficult to build up multiple saber moves. You needed the right destined opportunity to find a time to gain enlightenment, either that, or find a temple where someone who had already gained enlightenment was dying.

Xu Qing thought about the matter all the way back to the Corrections Division.

I’m not going back to my sword pavilion yet!

Emerging from the mural, he looked back at the image of the minor world. Eyes flickering thoughtfully, he went into a far corner of Level 90 to do some breathing exercises.

Four hours later, after a number of jailers had come and gone in the minor world, Xu Qing’s violet crystal got him back to normal. Without any hesitation, he went back into the minor world yet again.

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