Beyond the Timescape

Chapter 1209: God Fodder

Xu Qing was like a shooting star zipping through the starry sky, leaving behind a wake of distortions. The ripples of his passage were a result of his cultivation base, as well as the might of his immortal embryo.

In some respects, it was similar to the gods. It was just what happened when cultivation reached a certain level. Just as there were many ways for the weak to be vulnerable, the strength of the powerful was often a convergence.

Xu Qing had his destination locked in, but wasn’t going all out in terms of speed. He was taking time to study his immortal embryo, but at the same time, he was paying attention to the universe around him, this new heaven beyond heaven.

The events at the Fallen Immortal Moors were only a reflection of history…. And yet… the effects of Hordeslayer and Rampart acknowledging me as owner spread into the real world. Li Mengtu’s poison canon also gained something of an origin…. And in the Inkland, Starfire summoned a manifestation of the Hundred Flowers Palace.

It all goes to show that though the events in the reflection of history didn’t change anything in the real world, they did have some effect.

What’s more, I was given command over the Aurora Immortal Palace there! The immortal palace is the most integral aspect of a heaven beyond heaven. The most paramount location. That’s why the Aurora Immortal Palace only appears when there’s a spirit tide. The real immortal palace is most likely in this very heaven beyond heaven. If I call on my command of the immortal palace in this heaven beyond heaven….

Xu Qing’s eyes glittered, and his heart raced with curiosity. As he proceeded along, he sent out his divine will to try to find the immortal palace. It didn’t work. Perhaps it was because too much time had passed, or perhaps it was because the immortal palace had sunk into ruin. Eventually, he sighed and abandoned such attempts.

His destination was Prison A29. It was the biggest god prison in the Helioterra Universe, and it was also where the largest portion of ringsource came from.

As the captain of an Acquisitioner squad, it was only natural that he was able to take the biggest slice of cake. He wasn’t concerned with whatever danger his so-called subordinates got into. Nor was he concerned with where they got ringsource in the Helioterra Universe. Whether it was from god prisons or nonhumans, it didn’t matter to him.

If they ran into obstacles trying to collect ringsource, or got into conflicts with nonhumans, others would step in, if for no other reason than to get more ringsource for their own collections. Unless things really got out of hand, Xu Qing didn’t have any intention of interfering with anyone. He was completely and utterly focused on one thing.

I need to collect ringsource and upgrade my immortal embryo!

Eyes sparkling, and heart full of determination, he accelerated. He even took advantage of some teleportation portals he encountered. In that manner, he spent about ten days going halfway across the Helioterra Universe. That was when he reached his destination.

It was a red starry sky. The red color didn’t come from starlight. Rather, it came from a shockingly enormous red kelp plant! It had nineteen leaves, each of which was so long that it could wrap around a planet.

The nineteen leaves all met at the base, which was where a network of fine roots grew downward. The roots surrounded and were embedded into a huge sun, from which they constantly extracted nutrients.

Xu Qing looked at the kelp plant, his eyes shining.

A plant growing in the starry sky…. I wonder if my god vine could eventually grow into something like this.

Xu Qing cast his senses into the Sageheaven Pagoda, and the god vine that was part of it. The god vine was asleep, but based on its aura, it seemed like it would be able to wake up fairly soon.

Xu Qing looked back at the kelp plant. As he looked at it more closely, he realized that upon the nineteen leaves were spots of various sizes.

Each spot is a minor world. They’re all prison blocks! And the biggest prison block of all is in that sun.

As Xu Qing studied the kelp, it flickered with red light, and then a terrifying stream of divine will spread out from it. It locked onto Xu Qing, and it was so terrifying that it felt like he was dealing with an immortal.

Xu Qing’s eyes hardened. He could tell that this red kelp was not the prison. It was responsible for keeping the prison in check. He took out his Acquisitioner medallion, as well as his mission jade slip.

“I’m here on a mission from the Nineshores Heaven to collect ringsource!”

The divine will from the red kelp swept around Xu Qing and examined the medallion and jade slip. A moment later, it seemed to make a decision. The divine will retracted slowly, and one of the leaves slowly drifted up to Xu Qing.

He looked at the leaf, and then looked at the sun surrounded by the kelp plant’s roots. After considering the situation momentarily, he stepped onto the leaf and raced toward one of the spots on it. The spot grew larger and larger from his perspective, until it was a world. He pierced through the barriers of the world, and then rumbling sounds echoed out.

He landed on black soil. Everything was rotten and full of death as far as the eye could see. There was no wind, no spirit, no mutagen. Everything was barren and deathly. He studied his surroundings, looked down at the ground, and then, without an expression on his face, stomped his foot down.

“Wake up!” he said coolly. Rumbling sounds echoed out as a wind picked up, spirit filled the world, and mutagen turned into a tempest. It kicked up black soil in all directions, causing it to fill the sky, and obscuring Xu Qing himself.

If you could stand at a very high vantage point and looked down at that exact moment, you would clearly see… that there was a huge line on the surface of the ground. And that line was currently rising up, lifting the soil like a wave in the sea. And then the line parted, revealing an enormous, bloodshot eye. Īts eye had opened!

The black ground had merely been covering that eye, and once Xu Qing had stepped down, the eye had no choice but to open. As the tempest raged around Xu Qing, he stood unmoving, right on top of the pupil of the eye!

Īt looked at Xu Qing coldly, without happiness or anger.

“Inferior species. Slave.”

Xu Qing’s facial expression remained the same as usual. This was the eye of a Flawless God.

“You’re Flawless… relatively speaking,” Xu Qing said calmly to the eye of the god beneath his feet. Long ago, Xu Qing had encountered similar eyes back in the Revered Ancient mainland. [1]

Every eye he had seen had caused him to tremble as mutagen assailed him. In some cases, the gaze of such eyes made it feel like his flesh and blood were independent entities that wanted to separate from him. That was the result of the vast disparity in the levels of life force involved.

But right now, his gaze was calm and unruffled. In fact, the eye of the god seemed to be contorting and becoming increasingly bloodshot. This god was not like īt had been in the past. And even where īt was at īts peak, īt would still react similarly to Xu Qing.

Xu Qing lifted his hand to reveal his Acquisitioner’s medallion. The medallion served to confirm his status, and the rights that came with it. It also had the unique function of being able to extract ringsource. He held out the medallion and pushed it down in front of him.

The god’s eye contorted with greater intensity, and a sound like a howl rose up. Golden ringsource began to seep out of the eye. Every strand that was extracted caused immeasurable pain to the god’s eye. Eventually, after forty-nine strands had been extracted, the god’s eye became as gray as ash. That was the limit. The eye twitched as it began to close, to return to a state of slumber.

Xu Qing frowned.

That’s not very much.

The ringsource he had collected was hardly larger than the fist of an infant. It wasn’t nearly as pure as the ringsource he had collected from the Inkland. Naturally speaking, he would need far more than this to be able to make use of it.

With that thought in mind, his eyes flashed coldly. Then, instead of putting away his identity medallion, he pushed it down toward the closing eye of the god! It hit the eye just as the eyelids were about to meet!

The eye snapped open, and this time īt emanated a different type of fluctuation. It was the terror that intelligent beings experienced in the face of death! The terror didn’t last for long. Xu Qing held nothing back to extract many more golden threads from the eye.

This wasn’t just ringsource. This was pure life force! A cry of anguish echoed out for a time, before vanishing…. And then the eye of the god collapsed into ash, having been completely destroyed. Īts death caused even more ringsource to appear.

Because of all the ringsource, Xu Qing could sense the mark of Starfire on his arm trembling. Xu Qing took a strand of ringsource and put it above the mark.

“Want it?” he asked.

Starfire ceased trembling, and then a gravitational force sprang out of the mark. The ringsource was sucked in, and then Xu Qing heard a silken voice speaking in his mind.

“Thank you, Young Lord. You’re truly amazing.”

Face expressionless, Xu Qing hovered in place and began to absorb the ringsource. As the ringsource entered him, his immortal embryo glittered, and its aura improved. Eventually, Xu Qing’s eyes shone and he licked his lips.

Not enough, by far. I need much, much more….

Xu Qing burst into motion as he went to another minor world.

In that manner, time passed.

Xu Qing went to one minor world after another on the leaf. In every one, a god died to provide ringsource. And thus, his immortal embryo began to shine more and more brightly.

As far as Xu Qing was concerned, there was no advantage in leaving the gods alive. The mission jade slip had not left any instructions to do so. He collected every scrap that was available, keeping some aside for the mission, and taking the rest for himself.

Meanwhile, the other ascendees were in other locations doing their best to collect ringsource in whatever ways they could. Some they kept for the mission, but the rest… they used for their personal cultivation. Looking at them from a different perspective, they really did seem like jackals.

1. Some of the eyes Xu Qing encountered were in chapters 49, 369, 524.2, and 838. I believe there were others. These were just the first three I was able to easily find. ☜