Beyond the Timescape

Chapter 482: Don’t Flip Out In Front of the Yama King

The Smokewights surrounding the leaf ship didn’t respond to the green-robed cultivator’s question. Completely ignoring the leaf ship’s defenses, they floated aboard and started circulating among the passengers. The cultivators looked around with varying facial expressions. Some of the Smokewights approached Xu Qing and circled around him a few times, their vicious faces just barely visible in the smoke as they inspected him. A moment passed, and the Smokewights left the ship. Returning to the puppets, they gathered in front of the centermost puppet and kowtowed.

“Exalted one, of the thirty-five cultivators, six have suspicious auras.”

The expressions of the passengers flickered when they heard that.

Before anyone could do anything, the puppets’ eyes glowed even more brightly with a red color. It was especially evident in the center most puppet. In fact, it was so bright the entire leaf ship looked like it was the color of blood.

“Kill them,” the puppet said in a cold voice. In response, the Smokewights rose into the air and transformed into six huge faces that shot toward the leaf ship.

Battle prowess equivalent to six heavenly palaces erupted from the six vicious faces. In any location, battle prowess of that caliber would be considered the backbone of a species. And that was more the case considering there were no Spirit Trove or Void Returning cultivators in Sea-Sealing County right now. The most powerful were Nascent Soul experts, but people like that would be stationed in their sect or species headquarters. As a result, Gold Core was the highest level of battle prowess that could be found out and about.

The six faces rushed toward six individual cultivators. Three of them were lone travelers. Two were members of the group of eight. And one of them was one of the green-robed members of the consortium.

Rumbling booms echoed out as the six cultivators fought back. But the red light shining from the puppets weakened them, such that the six Smokewights easily devoured five of them. The final individual fled. But before he could get far, the center most puppet blurred into motion. Chasing after him, the puppet unleashed a palm strike that caused everything to shake. The fleeing cultivator screamed, then exploded.

Pseudo-Nascent Soul, Xu Qing thought.

He had been able to tell from the beginning that the six faces were not individual Smokewights. They were formed by numerous Smokewights merged together. As for the eight puppets, the center most puppet had pseudo-Nascent Soul battle prowess, while the others were at the level of seven or eight heavenly palaces. That level of battle prowess was on par with the Holytide Black Guard.

These must be elites among the Smokewights.

Xu Qing stifled his killing intent, as he didn’t want to reveal himself right after he had just arrived in the prefecture. He sat in place coolly. That said, he had already released his taboo poison, and was ready to activate it at a moment’s notice.

As Xu Qing sat there in concealment, the six faces hovered above, scanning the crowd of passengers.

Every cultivator on the leaf ship was breathing heavily and looked furious. That included the two cultivators from the Dawnluster Consortium. They were obviously enraged that their compatriot had just been killed. However, they didn’t dare say anything.

“Exalted one, the magical device reading... hasn’t weakened. There’s still someone suspicious onboard.”

The puppet with pseudo-Nascent Soul battle prowess just hovered there for a moment.

“Kill them all.”

“Yes, sir!”

When the cultivators on the leaf ship heard that, their faces fell. All at once, they burst into motion. Even the green-robed cultivators fled at top speed. Please visit fr𝐞𝐞w𝒏.𝒸𝑜𝔪 website to read fastest update

None of them moved quickly enough. The six faces broke apart, turning into twelve faces, each of which had five-palace battle prowess. As they shot in pursuit of the passengers, the puppets also took motion, with the exception being the pseudo-Nascent Soul puppet.

The puppets with seven- and eight-palace battle prowess could easily slaughter random cultivators like this. In the blink of an eye, miserable shrieks rang out everywhere.

As for the gray smoke, it distorted to reveal a face that glared at Xu Qing without saying a word.

Not wanting to waste words, Xu Qing released his taboo poison. The face instantly started screaming shrilly, which in turn caused the other captive Smokewights to tremble. Moments later, the gray smoke was destroyed in body and soul. Xu Qing moved on to the second Smokewight. Voice calm, he asked the same question.

The Smokewight hesitated.

Xu Qing tossed the smoke to the shadow.

“Eat.”

The shadow excitedly opened its mouth and devoured the smoke. Then it made deliberately loud chewing sounds that were laced with the screams of the Smokewight. The other Smokewights now looked at Xu Qing as if he were a Yama King from the Yellow Springs.

Xu Qing grabbed the third Smokewight. This time, before he could even ask a question, the gray Smokewight blurted, “Our leaders gave us a mission. We’re just supposed to look for people who seem suspicious. And we kill them. We’re not supposed to let them get anywhere near the depths of Daybreak Prefecture.

“The inspection method relates to their aura.... We can detect human blood in a cultivator’s aura. Even if it’s a tiny fraction, we can still find it.”

Xu Qing was stunned. Off to the side, the stone lion, the head, and Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior all looked instinctively at Xu Qing. From what they remembered, the Smokewights hadn’t initially detected Xu Qing.

Xu Qing considered the development. After interrogating the other gray Smokewights, he came to the conclusion that it was as the first had said. They were on a mission and didn’t know much in the way of details. Even torture produced the same answers.

After a while, Xu Qing turned his attention to the last Smokewight, which was the white smoke from the pseudo-Nascent Soul puppet. The young woman was conscious again, and when Xu Qing focused on her, she trembled and her eyes went wide.

“I don’t know anything else....”

Xu Qing waved his hand and was about to ask Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior to interrogate her when the shadow suddenly let loose fluctuations of longing, as if to impart to Xu Qing that it could do just as good a job as the patriarch.

Xu Qing thought for a moment, then tossed the white smoke to the shadow.

“I want answers,” he said.

The shadow looked excited, while the patriarch looked shaken. The latter felt a sense of intense crisis. Meanwhile, the shadow opened its mouth and gobbled up the young woman.

It was impossible to say what torment the shadow inflicted, but after enough time passed for half an incense stick to burn, the shadow spat out the white smoke. The young woman looked completely terrified, to the point where she had almost lost her mind. As she trembled, she blurted, “I’ll talk. I’ll talk! The human Marquis Yao came to our species and entrusted us with—”

All of a sudden, the young woman’s words activated a secret warding spell within her. Before she could finish speaking, she violently exploded. Smoke scattered everywhere.

Xu Qing felt ripples of shock flowing through him. It took about ten breaths of time for him to calm himself. The young woman was gone.

Marquis Yao?

After a bit more time, he put the matter aside and patted his hand onto the surface of the leaf ship.

“We need to get to Mount Daybreak. Time is of the essence.”

The leaf ship vibrated, and the four trembling legs started moving it forward.

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