Beyond the Timescape

Chapter 1170: The Square and the Compass

Lightning and thunder went wild as Sir Star Ring shot through the air in the form of Fourth True Monarch. He pierced through heaven and earth like a spear, moving with mountain-toppling, sea-draining momentum….

Nothing could block his path! Amidst intense rumbling sounds, he smashed through the outer wall of the building that contained the sword furnace. As the rubble rained down and rain fell… he landed right next to the furnace! He was standing right in front of Xu Qing! His incredible momentum caused a virtual tempest to whip up around him.

Xu Qing’s garments flapped, and his hair whipped about. But he stood as firm as a mountain, not taking even a single step backward.

His expression remained the same as ever as he looked coolly at Sir Star Ring. “You seem to be in a good mood tonight, Elder Brother Fourth.”

“As I expected, it’s you!” replied Sir Star Ring, a complicated look in his eyes.

Endless bolts of lightning flowed across his entire body, eventually streaming down his legs to spread out into the surroundings. As for his eyes… when they locked onto Xu Qing, all traces of doubt within him were wiped out. As his thoughts went wild, his expression became incomparably grim, and massive killing intent built up within him.

“It’s truly a surprise you hid yourself so well…” he said, taking a step toward Xu Qing. “You were the one who spread those rumors! I set up the situation with Sir Vilespirit to try to draw you out, but you sent the fox maiden in your stead.”

He took another step forward. “I arranged for Yuanshan Su to interfere, but thanks to your alliance with Sir Vilespirit, you got her a new status, and my efforts to drive her away failed. After I blew everyone’s cover, you made sure Sir Vilespirit’s betrayal worked. Then… you cowed Yuanshan Su, helped Li Mengtu succeed, got Sir Vilespirit to kill himself, and sent Li the Chosen to block my path.

“I have to admit that you’re very, very clever! You have an identity that makes you impervious to everyone. And that indicates that I have no way of winning this war. After all, if I make a move here… it will cause waves! I suppose that was a factor in your plans.”

Sir Star Ring took a third step forward. He was fully aware that because of the identities held by himself and his opponent, there was no historical basis for them to fight. If he started a fight, it would cause the very waves he was trying to prevent. And protracted fighting would lead to injuries that would make the waves even bigger.

“But… I still have an option other than losing!” When he took his fourth step, his energy surged. Thunderous rumblings surrounded him as a terrifying aura erupted from him. Eyes burning with killing intent, he shot toward Xu Qing!

His way of not losing was to drive Xu Qing’s consciousness out! If he did that, then even though he would fail to maintain order, at least he could get rid of his opponent, and thus, not lose to him. Afterward, there was always the possibility he could smooth everything out! After all, the wedding day was the most important event of this fourth world space-time!

As his voice rang out and his energy surged, he shot forward, all while tens of thousands of chains made of canon swept out around him. They filled heaven and earth with dazzling light, causing the dark sky over the sword furnace to turn as bright as day. It even outshone the lightning, causing everything to dim in relation to the pure order.

And yet, there was more. A host of spell formations rumbled into being behind Sir Star Ring. There were nine layers, each layer complex and majestic, and all of them shining with a different color of light.

There were a total of seven colors, plus black and white. Nine colors. Nine formations. As they spun, they emanated a terrifying pressure that could shake heaven and earth. That force, along with the tens of thousands of chains, and Fourth True Monarch’s strength, was all closing in directly on Xu Qing. When Sir Star Ring attacked… he didn’t hold anything back!

Inside the sword furnace, Hordeslayer and Rampart, who were still reeling from Xu Qing’s words, could sense the dramatic events outside.

“It doesn’t matter if Young Lord Aurora is an outsider like us….”

“Right now, this is the best opportunity we could have!”

“We should take advantage of their fighting to try to form the immortal swords!”

“Whatever happens here beyond that has nothing to do with us. Even if they destroy space-time and throw everything into chaos, it won’t have any karmic connection to us!”

“We’re going to get our fourth world good fortune without any hitch at all!”

Hordeslayer and Rampart took advantage of the moment, holding back none of their strength as they tried to catalyze the immortal swords into being as quickly as possible. In the blink of an eye, sword energy raged within the furnace. The immortal swords were about to come into the world!

Xu Qing’s eyes glittered as he saw what was happening to the sword furnace. He knew instantly that they were taking advantage of his fight with Sir Star Ring to form the swords early and avoid karma.

He also knew that if this was happening in the real world, there was no way he could fight Sir Star Ring. Sir Star Ring was number one among the Shining Stars, and had gained enlightenment of his own mighty and mysterious canon. What was more, he was at the absolute peak of Imperial Sovereign, and was half a step into the Grand Emperor level. He had even defeated an actual Grand Emperor in combat….

But this was the fourth world. The body of Xu Qing’s host could make up for the weakness of his actual cultivation base. And even if Sir Star Ring took advantage of Fourth True Monarch’s body to unleash power superior to his own, the reality was that the space-time waves in the fourth world were a weapon for Xu Qing. The fourth world was really the best battlefield for him at the moment. What was more… his host’s status could also be used as a weapon.

Therefore, Xu Qing waved his hand, and an invisible space-time tempest immediately rumbled out explosively.

As a result, the incoming chains started to blur.

Then Xu Qing waved his hand again, and space-time sand floated out, surrounding him and causing him to fuse into space-time. He immediately became blurry.

“You set things up ingeniously. But you’re still lacking because… you’re too weak!” Sir Star Ring kept his eyes on Xu Qing as he pointed a finger up into the sky.

Instantly, the nine-layered spell formation began to spin rapidly, becoming a vortex out of which spewed an ancient aura. Next, a green stone stele began to emerge from the vortex, and the sensation of ancient time grew vastly more intense.

Unreadable text and magical symbols flowed across the surface of the stone stele, making it look infinitely mysterious. The chains of orders began to vibrate, all while explosively unleashing the power of order. Apparently, this stone stele was one of the origins of order!

Sir Star Ring had summoned it to be the heart of the spell formation. Then he pushed his hand in Xu Qing’s direction.

“Be expelled by order!”

Wild colors flashed in heaven and earth. Winds screamed. The green stone stele rumbled loudly. And as the vortex of the formation spun, the mightiness of the aura raged out, along with an expelling will that crushed down on Xu Qing. It looked like the space-time waves were about to disperse.

Not even Xu Qing, fused as he was with space-time, could hide himself from them. He was on the verge of being totally crushed. Then Xu Qing looked up.

“Elder Brother Fourth, just you coming here was too much…. You’ve already entered into my chaotic sea of space-time.”

As the words left his mouth, he gently waved his hand. The sand of time in the area was swept about, causing the sand to disperse through heaven and earth. The friction of the sand rubbing against itself and floating about caused one timeline after another to appear. They were timelines of chaos.

It wasn’t just about time flowing faster, being reversed, or stopping. There was something more profound going on. It was like a formless river that was everywhere at the same time. And yet it wasn’t set rigidly in one place. The power of the outside world, or alterations, could bring about different transformations.

A good example was the Desert of Time, which was the manifestation of the life essence treasure of Immortal Lord Aurora’s wife. What it revealed was subsidiary branches of time.

“Any who enters my chaotic sea will sustain the effects of time,” Xu Qing said, his eyes turning cold. “Your every movement will create chaotic timelines. You will be hit by countless timelines, causing you to either die or go insane! Enter the sea and find bitterness. Experience tribulation. Time comes to cease. It is… Infinite Timelessness!”[1]

As his voice echoed out, all of the chains present, all of the symbols in the spell formation, the green stone stele, and Fourth True Monarch’s body… were hit by the spreading space-time sand, whereupon countless timelines appeared. All were wrapped up. And then, the chains, the spell formation, the stone stele, and Fourth True Monarch began to ripple, distort, and blur.

The chaotic sea of space-time erupted. Chaos was being used to counter order!

Sir Star Ring looked at the countless timelines covering him within the sea of chaos, and his eyes sharpened.

“So this is how you’re breaking order…. If this was happening in real life, it would cause me some trouble. But do you know why I chose to possess Fourth True Monarch?”

Sir Star Ring lifted his foot, and when he stepped forward, ripples flowed across the sea of space-time chaos. But when ripples appeared on a sea of chaos, those ripples represented order!

“It’s because Fourth True Monarch was the original founder of the Star Ring Pagoda! Though he perished in the catastrophe that befell the immortal place, the Order Pagoda was built outside of the palace. It continued on after that, until it was eventually renamed the Star Ring Pagoda!

“I inherited the name Star Ring, and I gained enlightenment of order. Therefore… I am completely in unison with Fourth True Monarch here, and I can unleash Fourth True Monarch’s essence of order!”

Sir Star Ring’s eyes suddenly shone as if with starlight. Astonishingly, his eyes seemed to contain twin seas of stars! Each sea of stars contained millions upon millions of heavenly bodies, and all of them were shining brightly and arranged in a specific sequence….

Then a majestic voice echoed in heaven and earth.

“Order is another word for rules. Without rules, nothing can be accomplished. But the word ‘rules’ is made from two characters. The first is the character for the compass. The second is the character for the carpenter’s square.

“As they say, you can lay the square down to measure a piece of rope, or stand it upright to measure height. Invert the square and you can measure depths, or place it vertically to measure distance. Bend it to measure something circular, flatten it to measure something flat.”[2]

As the words were spoken, they formed a dao resonance. At the same time, the sea of stars in Sir Star Ring’s left eye rearranged themselves into the shape of a carpenter’s square! Within his right eye, the stars took the shape of a measuring compass!

This was… using the square to set life and death, while using the compass to depict reincarnation!

1. This dialogue is almost exactly the same as what was said in chapter 1117. ☜

2. The saying “without rules, nothing can be accomplished” is from the Mencius. Because it’s a famous saying from real life, I want to keep the common translation. But there is some significant wordplay to address. Much of it I conveyed by spelling things out more overtly than in Chinese. But some elements require additional explanation. The second part of the saying from the Mencius, which is generally rendered as “nothing can be accomplished,” is more literally “cannot form the fangyuan.” Fangyuan is made from two characters. One character means, among other things, “flat/square” while the other means “circular.” This combination of characters can mean different things, among them: circumference, neighborhood, surrounding area, radius, general area, etc. Add to that the fact that the square and circle have implications in Chinese mythology (specifically, I’m talking about the square from fangyuan, not the square from “carpenter’s square,” which is a different character altogether). This was something that caused a lot of trouble for me when I first started translating xianxia. Long story short, the square represents earth and the circle represents heaven. Given that, it kind of makes sense to think of the square and circle as representing “everything/anything,” as the combination essentially represents heaven and earth, in other words, everything. Readers of ISSTH might remember a scene very early in the novel when there was a section about the square and circle motif being inverted, which was said to be an inversion of the natural order of things. So this entire passage, and by extension the ability, has multiple levels of wordplay and meaning. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are some elements that didn’t occur to me about the symbology and whatnot. But at least now you get a general feeling for it. In the next chapter, the square and circle aspect will become important. ☜

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