Beyond the Timescape

Chapter 633: A Cup of Yellow Springs Water to Bring Back the God Decapitation Altar

Patriarch Wind Guardian bowed his head and said, “Heed the godly orders!”

No outsider knew the details. But all Wind Guardians knew who they exercised faith in. It was a specific god. That god had given them life, and had also given them their mission. And thanks to the soul fluctuations they could sense, they knew for a certainty that the god in question... was right in front of them.

It wasn’t their place to consider why the god was in this specific form, or seemed limited in power. Gods were gods. Hē could create myriad things and take myriad forms.

As the words left the patriarch’s mouth, he settled down cross-legged and closed his eyes. Reaching out with his right hand, he pushed the small circle on his forehead. Soul fluctuations pulsed off him and merged into the black wind.

At the same time, chanting drifted out of the Captain’s mouth.

“Heaven and earth coexist, the black wind burns the god on cue; assimilate the nine daos, form that which is real and true!

“The dark altar is not covered, memories of the sea given berth; the soul is one, connected to the origin of heaven and earth!”

His voice seemed ancient, and full of a mysterious will. The moment it echoed out, the entire Greenhair Badlands seemed to react. The lands shook, countless particles of sand leaped into the air, quivering. Lightning crashed in the dome of heaven, sending out countless booms of thunder. The entire desert was stirred up.

However, the chanting didn’t stop because of all that. It continued, repeated the same words over and over again. Patriarch Wind Guardian joined in the chanting, and eventually, all of the Wind Guardians reached up, touched their foreheads, and joined in. Their soul fluctuations spread out, entering the black wind and eventually turning it into a huge vortex.

The vortex spun, moving in the opposite direction as the 3,000-meter circle! One moved clockwise, the other moved counter-clockwise! As they spun, they formed an astonishing power that caused everything to rumble. The friction caused the memories hidden in the wind to gradually be perceived by the Wind Guardians.

As Xu Qing watched all of this play out, he felt like he was finally starting to understand more about his Eldest Brother’s past. But at the same time, he felt just as shaken as when he’d first experienced the sacrificial dance.

Eldest Brother really made a lot of preparations in his past lives.... Being the Grand Dancer was one of them. The Wind Guardian situation was another. And then there’s the fact that Grandpa Eighth and Grandma Fifth apparently recognized Eldest Brother. It seems likely that Eldest Brother is the one who went and visited the burial sites of all the Imperial Sovereign’s children.

Given what Xu Qing knew about Chen Erniu, it was likely that the ‘great individual’ he’d mentioned was none other than himself.

Then what about the other entity he mentioned...?

Then Xu Qing’s eyes narrowed as he thought back to when the Captain explained the story of the sacrificial dance in Mount Heavenly Ox. He’d mentioned a High God. [1]

High God....

Then Xu Qing thought about the legend of the Greenhair Badlands, and a simple explanation popped into his head.

As Xu Qing was lost in thought, the others, including Ning Yan, Wu Jianwu, and Li Youfei, all looked on with various expressions of shock. Although Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu had been along with the Captain on a lot of jobs, they were still starting to feel nervous. As for Li Youfei... ever since he had run into Xu Qing, he had experienced one thing after another that completely defied imagination. Even Nethersprite was paying close attention to what was happening, and seemed to be profoundly shocked.

As the vortexes spun in different directions, as the wind blew and the Wind Guardians’ memories mixed with it, images appeared. There were too many to count, and they seemed to contain anything and everything. They were also profoundly ancient. They were Wind Guardian memories, and thus, they were memories of the desert.

As the soul fluctuations rolled out, they became a sea of memories in the vortexes. The sea spread, filling the air, and swirling into nine specific locations below. Those nine locations were where the nine skulls rested. Those nine skulls were like bowls that seemed capable of containing anything and everything.

In that manner, time passed. The sea of memories continued to flow.

When the eighth hour arrived, the nine skulls were full of something that resembled a liquid. It was memory elixir. It existed in a state between what was true and what was illusory. It was occasionally white, and occasionally black. It was extremely strange.

As Xu Qing looked at it, he realized that the memory elixir contained a bit of the aura of a god.

At that point, the officiator of the ceremony, the Captain, performed a double-handed incantation gesture and then waved his hand. Instantly, the nine daggers inside the 3,000-meter circle flared with lightning-like light.

“Stop!”

His voice echoed like thunder, causing the nine daggers to plunge down into the nine skull bowls, stabbing right into the memory elixir.

Black and white mixed together, turning gray! Within the gray liquid a miniature image appeared.

It was a long, straight mountain range. It stretched in the darkness, illuminated by lightning. On either side of the mountains was a pitch-black abyss seemingly full of hidden wretches and devils. Because of the ripples on the surface of the water, it was hard to make out any details clearly.

As Xu Qing and the others looked on, they all realized what they were seeing. It was... the Imperial Sovereign’s Land of God Decapitation, hidden in the wind.

Meanwhile, the four Wind Guardians who had all been born on special days sent a drop of blood out of their foreheads. The drops of blood then floated through the air toward the Captain. They were a part of the key needed to unlock the memories.

The other part came from the Captain. He bit his finger, causing a drop of blood to emerge. However, this drop of blood wasn’t ordinary. Its color... was blue. The moment it appeared, the five drops of blood merged, then split apart into nine sections that shot into the nine skull bowls. The moment that happened, the wind reached its ninth hour of blowing.

“Let’s... go in!”

Laughing heartily, the Captain grabbed one of the bowls, lifted it up, and drank the liquid. His body blurred as he then stepped into the wind and vanished.

Without the slightest hesitation, Xu Qing did the same. The others gritted their teeth and, each with their own reasons, picked up a bowl and drank. It didn’t take long for all of them to blur away just like the Captain.

The Greenhair Badlands looked the same as usual. As the black wind blew, the sea of memories spread out to cover everything.

Xu Qing and the others had already reappeared in the same spots where they had drunk from the bowls. They did not stand anywhere that was real. Nor was it an illusion. It existed on the thin line between those two, where memories were beyond mysterious and beyond wondrous.

However, when things became clear around them, the surroundings looked very different than anyone had expected.

First of all, the world around them wasn’t pitch black. Instead, warm light spread out everywhere. The light came from numerous floating lanterns. There were far too many of them to count, and their combined light illuminated the world. Every lantern was made from skin. Perhaps they seemed unusually sinister because of the ghost faces painted on their surface. Some of those faces cried, others laughed. Some were furious, while others were surprised. They were extremely lifelike, almost as if they were crafted from human skin. Thanks to the glow from the lanterns, the long, straight mountain range was now plainly visible to Xu Qing. It was almost like a blade, with the top sloping together from either side. It was so long it seemed like it was connected to the canopy of heaven.

They were currently at the very beginning of the mountain range, standing on a circular altar that was covered with the cracks of time. It seemed ancient and even a bit decayed.

On either side of the mountains was a black abyss. The light of illumination couldn’t penetrate that darkness, from which occasionally echoed anguished howls, and a sound like claws scraping against stone. It seemed that the abyss beneath the mountain was filled with terrifying entities that were trying to climb up.

The sky was just as dark. The light couldn’t illuminate it. However, it was possible to see an enormous rift that separated the canopy of heaven, like a ghastly scar. Thunderous rumblings emerged from that rift. Every once in a while, a blue bolt of lightning would shoot across the sky.

This place was incredibly strange. Everyone looked around with serious facial expressions. Nethersprite was completely on guard. Whether it was the lanterns of human skin or the terrifying aura from the abyss, she was sensing extreme danger.

The Captain seemed to understand this place well. As he stood at the head of the group, he explained, “The skin lanterns are formed from the villains killed by the Imperial Sovereign. They hate all living beings. If they touch you, you’ll instantly turn into a skin lantern yourself. The abyss contains manifestations of Crimson Mother’s rancorous energy. Their wicked nature makes it so that they view anyone who travels these mountains as enemies.”

The Captain looked over his shoulder at Xu Qing. He smiled. “Welcome, little Junior Brother, to... a large-scale magical film studio. In a moment, you’re going to see something that happened many, many years ago. A heaven-shaking, earth-shattering event. And what we need to do is simply pass through here.” [2]

The Captain extended his hand to point to the rift in the sky. “Once we get there, we can start filming. In terms of the name, I’ve already thought of a good one. It’s going to be called... God Decapitation! I’ll explain about the contents a bit later on. But don’t worry... everyone here will have a role to play.”

The Captain’s eyebrows danced up and down as he extended his hand to reveal some blue candles. He gave out one candle to everyone. Xu Qing took one of them. It felt greasy and smelled of blood. Before he could even guess about what it was, he noticed the complex facial expressions on Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu. They looked like they wanted to throw up.[3]

“By lighting these candles, we can safely proceed through the mountains. However, the caveat is... you can’t let the candle go out.”

The Captain exhaled onto the candle he held, and it lit up. Black smoke billowed out from inside, surrounding him as he started walking into the mountains.

Xu Qing nodded. He exhaled on his candle, and the black smoke surrounded him. He followed the Captain. The others did the same, and before long, they were making their way through the mountains.

“Remember, the candles cannot go out...” the Captain warned from up ahead.

From a distance, it was possible to see six clouds of smoke covering six figures, each of them only a few meters apart as they proceeded through the mountains. The lanterns of human skin swayed. Howls erupted from the abyss on either side of the mountain, accompanied by the sound of claws scraping on rock.

1. The Captain mentioned the High God in chapter 578. ☜

2. Since I’m sure some readers will question why I’m using the word “film,” it’s because the language here is very modern. The author did go back and forth between a couple different terms when it comes to this particular aspect of the story, and I’m standardizing them to avoid confusion. When I read this part for the first time, I was initially confused by what was happening, and only understood it later as events played out. So another factor in the translation choice is making the story easy to understand in English. In any case, the words make you think of modern film and broadcast productions, thus my translation choice. Let’s not forget that the cultivators in this story can send instant voice messages like we do on smartphones, or take take souvenir photos with jade slips.... ☜

3. Don’t forget that the Captain just extracted his own blood, and it was blue.... ☜