Beyond the Timescape

Chapter 1176: The Person I Miss

Love can be both moving and confusing. Countless men and women dream of finding that one special person that will stay by their side through every phase of their life. It is just like the ancient wedding vow: the lovebirds sing in harmony, they stay together forever, they grow old together, and they share life and death.[1]

But sometimes karma plays out in a different way, and despite a sacred promise being made, love letters become very hard to send.[2]

There are always going to be people who live lives full of lamentation and regret. And thus, there came to be a woman who spent millions upon millions of years traversing the God Blood River as a ferry pilot, but clad in a red wedding dress. And thus, there came to be an imp who devolved into desolate madness, who hid his bitterness beneath laughter and cursing.

***

There are few happy couples amongst immortals. In the vast majority of cases, their love becomes a whirlpool of bitterness and struggle. The regrets that come with unrequited love become like stars in the sky that can be seen but not touched, beautiful but sad.

I can only stand in the immortal palace in the timescape, and look at the same old embroidered curtains, musing that there is a person missing. I think back to that day years ago, and how her face was flush in the reflection of the peach blossoms…. And I sigh, thinking about the person I miss, who is oh so far away.

There is bitterness entrenched deeply within me. It goes without saying who that person is, and how things turned out.

A bitter east wind blows, and our happiness is cut short. My mind is steeped in sorrow and gloom.

This is wrong, wrong, wrong.

Peach blossoms fall, and lie idle on the pond and pavilion. We still have our sacred promise, but even a love letter is hard to send.

We have nothing, nothing, nothing.[3]

But… the two ends of the timescape river connect to each other. The road of reincarnation creates an endless loop. If you refuse to forget someone, they’ll eventually speak to you once more. And thus, those words caused waves to flow across the surface of the river of blood.

“You came back….”

She had gone, leaving behind only the peach blossoms laughing in the spring breeze. The scenery stayed the same, but it was empty and meaningless.

Then the spring breeze picked up, and a person stepped out of those memories.

They had waited millions upon millions of years, and were now being reunited beyond the timescape.

On the edge of one small section of time, on this day, Xu Qing was able to tread the timescape and help them continue what had been interrupted.

***

Looking at the young lord, Immortal Fairy Spirit Phoenix softly said, “Over the years, I constantly wondered… if it was fate that I had met someone who touched my heart. Was it a blessing?”

The wind of time was a tempest on the outside. A vortex. But inside… it gently stirred Spirit Phoenix’s hair as she gave voice to her longing. Glittering space-time sand dropped down, surrounding Young Lord Aurora and Spirit Phoenix. From a distance, it was possible to see waves surging around them, almost like a dream.

“The last time this happened,” Spirit Phoenix said, “we didn’t complete the wedding ceremony…. Catastrophe struck, and my father came to take both of us away.

“Because we had not truly become husband and wife, and my name was not written on the marriage contract, you refused to leave with my father. I know why. You didn’t want to drag me into what was happening. Instead, you chose… to stay here and help your father settle his debt. And I chose… to be punished on the river of blood, to help you atone for your crimes.

“So does today count as us completing the ceremony and putting my name on the marriage contract? Does it count as making everything official?” Spirit Phoenix sighed. “The debt has been settled. The crimes have been atoned for… Can we go home now?”

Young Lord Aurora said nothing.

The space-time waves were stronger than ever. They were whipping into a vortex, filling the immortal palace with deafening rumbling sounds. And they were bringing more and more space-time sand.

It surrounded the two of them, gradually accumulating to again form an hourglass that existed beyond the timescape. The limit was not fifteen minutes. There was enough sand to last… for two hours. That was the limit in this reflection of space-time.

Young Lord Aurora didn’t answer Spirit Phoenix’s question. He looked up… in the direction of his father, Immortal Lord Aurora. When he did that, the fifteen minutes that Xu Qing had bought for him… ended.

Rumbling sounds filled heaven and earth. All of the living beings who had frozen in place earlier… went back to normal. The cheering and laughter resumed. It was as if no one had noticed that some extra time had been bought.

The sky was still distorted. The sun and moon were dark. The workings of heaven were at a peak level of chaos. Everything was about to change dramatically!

And then a white light spread out that illuminated the entirety of the Fifth Star Ring. It was like the spreading of an entire sea! The Aurora Epoch arrived, late by fifteen minutes.

A boundlessly mighty force converged, pouring into Immortal Lord Aurora’s life force, and transforming into an imperial robe that draped about him.

Countless people looked on as Aurora put on an imperial crown. Immortal Lord Aurora was ascending the throne! In this next epoch, he was taking over as the ruler of the Fifth Star Ring! The sun and moon, which had reached the epitome of darkness, now blazed with light. Their dazzling brightness shone infinitely.

Then Immortal Lord Aurora’s gaze swept through the world before coming to rest on his son. His eyes were full of warmth, blessing, and… departure. He lifted his foot and stepped… up into the sky.

He strode through the dome of heaven to the sun and moon. The moment he took over as the lord of the star ring, a boundlessly mighty force converged on him, and his hand became infinitely large. It covered the sky, piercing through the highest heavens to reach the sun and moon. The hand pierced through something like a bubble before grabbing the sun and moon!!

Heaven and earth became pitch black. Sunlight and moonlight disappeared, and Aurora’s own light became gloom.

The entire Fifth Star Ring was now without any light! And then Immortal Lord Aurora squeezed down on the sun and moon in his hand, and they were pulled inside of him. It happened very smoothly. The sun and moon merged into him as smoothly as water flowing down a pipe!

And that was because, back when the workings of heaven went into chaos, he had taken away the name of the sun and moon. No one even realized that they had forgotten those names. He had taken the names of the sun and moon and hidden them within the name of his son.

Mi Ming. Seek Brightness.

Seek for what is not seen. The sun and moon are the brightness. That was the meaning of Mi Ming![4]

“Going forward,” Aurora said softly, “you will be the sun and moon of the Fifth Star Ring. You will have boundless light that can never be defiled. The will of the gods is laid bare, and you can be forever free from the godbane! Ming’er, this… is my wedding gift to you. Go now… and live the life you want to live.”

As he looked out at the pitch-black heaven and earth, black smoke exploded from within him and spread out everywhere. At the same time, his voice echoed out into the Fifth Star Ring.

“Of the seven colors in the world, I chose the red! It will become part of my aurora, turning it crimson! Henceforth… I convert to the dao of gods! I hereby change my canon into godhood!”[5]

His voice echoed in the ears of all living beings. It exploded into countless hearts and minds. And then… he extracted the infinite red color and fused it with his light.

It became… a crimson red aurora! It was a mountain-toppling, sea-draining aurora that could crush anything in its path. As it spread out through the canopy of heaven, covering all beings…. It replaced the sky! Going into the future, that crimson aurora would be the only source of light in the sky for the people of the Fifth Star Ring!

However, there was something strange and gruish. A change this drastic had never occurred in the Fifth Star Ring, this land of cultivators. After all, it was something that would affect all living beings. And yet everyone in the immortal palace, even Fourth True Monarch, was smiling.

The dancing continued. The celebration went on. The laughter and chatting did not cease. Apparently, none of them realized what was happening in the outside world. That scene, coupled with the dramatic change in the dome of heaven, was extremely jarring.

When Xu Qing realized what was happening, he looked up at the familiar red aurora, and his mind felt like it was spinning.

Is this what really happened? But why did the Immortal Lord do this? And why… is everyone here acting like this? Also… what is Young Lord Aurora trying to accomplish…?

Gradually, his racing thoughts began to form an answer. Even as it occurred to him, Immortal Lord Aurora spoke again, his voice ringing through the sky. This time, he sounded even more aggressive than before!

“Did you hear that, Immortal Paragon?”

As his voice boomed like thunder through the red sky, the response came in the form of an ancient sigh. It came from the dome of heaven, from the land, from the air, from the inanimate objects, from the living things. It came from every corner of the Fifth Star Ring…. It turned into a most ancient voice, resonating everywhere, causing the sky to distort, driving away the aurora, and revealing a glittering starry sky.

The starry sky was also distorted. Countless heavenly bodies rippled, as if they were a host of bubbles, all of them different sizes.

All were different colors, but there were none that were red. There were infinite bubbles, and yet all of them contained various scenes. If you put all the scenes together like a puzzle, they would form… the entirety of the Fifth Star Ring!

An ancient hand appeared along with the sigh. Extending two fingers, the hand reached through the starry sky and touched one of the bubbles.

The bubble popped. It was destroyed. In an instant, the immortal palace was wiped out of existence just like that bubble. All things and all beings were reduced to ashes. It didn’t matter the level of their cultivation base. None could fight back or resist. They dissipated.

Fourth True Monarch. The grand elder. Everyone, even the cultivators who served as hosts to the outsiders. Only Young Lord Aurora and Immortal Fairy Spirit Phoenix remained amidst the crumbling ruins. They were real, living beings!

Up above, Immortal Lord Aurora disappeared. However, his boundless red light converged on him and then shot up into the canopy of heaven. It appeared in the starry sky amidst the countless bubbles, where… it began to fight the ancient hand. Down below in the destruction and ruins, the young lord maintained silence.

He looked at the figure in the starry sky, and then he prepared to take a step forward. He had assumed all along he could do this. After all, he had planned for this moment for millions upon millions of years. The moment he had longed for that entire time was now upon him. He had assumed that he would be able to make the choice.

Except… he couldn’t help but look at Spirit Phoenix, whose hand he held, and who was holding his hand tightly. He knew that she was still waiting for an answer.

She had been waiting for that answer for millions upon millions of years. He could envision her on the God Blood River, piloting a little boat, clad in a woven rush raincoat. And beneath that raincoat was a wedding dress. Wind blew and rain fell. Time passed. Year after year….

Compared to that, all of his talking points seemed meaningless. He couldn’t bring himself to say them. He didn’t have the strength to step forward. He knew that he owed her far, far too much….

After a long moment of silence, he took a deep breath and suppressed the obsession that had driven him for millions upon millions of years. Reaching out, he tucked a stray hair behind Spirit Phoenix’s ear.

“Let’s go home…” he said softly.

Spirit Phoenix had been waiting for him to say that for too many years to count. It had finally happened. She was almost in a daze as she looked at that familiar face from her memories, that person who she could never possibly forget. Tears flowed down her face. She squeezed down tighter on his hand.

And finally, she said, “I know that you can never understand or forgive the Immortal Paragon…. I understand that you want to uncover all the secrets, and find out why this happened. And I know more than anything that you did all of this… to save your father.

“You didn’t set this up for me…. That hourglass creates two hours that exist beyond the timescape. You want to use it to go back to real history, not just a reflection. You want to go back and try to change what happened! But you’re willing to give that up for me. In that case….”

Spirit Phoenix looked at the man she loved, and then she reached toward the hourglass floating off to the side. She grasped it between her fingers, and a popping sound rang out as the hourglass broke open. Countless grains of space-time sand spilled out, forming… a space-time door that led back to real history!

Young Lord Aurora was shaken to the core.

Standing in front of the door, Immortal Fairy Spirit Phoenix said, “I’ll go with you. Let’s… either live or die together.”

1. As far as I can tell, this wedding vow is made up by the author, although it contains some idioms and terms that are common in traditional Chinese wedding vows. I could be wrong. I tend to check these things to see if the poetic sayings are from real-life poems, songs, etc. In this case, nothing popped up right away, so if it is a real-life ancient wedding vow, I think it’s relatively obscure. ☜

2. In this line, the author alludes to a poem by Southern Song Dynasty poet Lu You. Like I’ve said before, I prefer to use existing translations of poetry if they exist and are good quality, and in this case, I found a great translation of the poem by Jean Yuan. The original line in the translation is: “We still have our sacred promise, but even a love letter is hard to send.” The poem is called Phoenix Hairpin. In this case, the translator has a literal translation, a more poetic translation, as well as background information on the poem. If you’re interested, I suggest going to the translator’s website to check out the poem (it’s at the bottom of the page). ☜

3. This is a much longer excerpt from the same poem referenced above. ☜

4. Just a reminder that the character Ming/brightness is made up of the two characters for sun and moon…. ☜

5. The last thing he says is somewhat vague in Chinese, and does not actually say godhood. It uses one of the characters from the terms I’ve been translating as personhood and godhood, and based on the context here and later, it seems clear that the implication is that it’s related to gods and godhood. ☜