Beyond the Timescape

Chapter 1106: Shyster v. Shyster

About 450,000 kilometers away from Xu Qing in his cave, a young man in a bright yellow robe was flying through the sky underneath the crimson aurora. He was moving with such incredible speed that it wasn’t possible to track him with the naked eye. He was clearly heading right toward Xu Qing.

His cultivation base was very close to the mid Imperial Sovereign level, but he contained all of his power so that it didn’t go farther than 300 meters away from him. And as he sped along, his power built up to greater heights within that area. He had plain facial features, as well as a faint birthmark on the right side of his face, which gave him a bizarre and gruish appearance.

The crafty look in his eyes made it clear that he wasn’t a simpleton.

Not moving at all? How interesting… It’s possible this guy didn’t notice me. Maybe he just activated his permission medallion. Either that, or he’s trying to be clever and has set up some kind of trap! Of course, the third possibility is that he’s just really confident….

As the young man considered the possibilities, he sped onward, not slowing down a bit.

It doesn’t matter. I’m not afraid of traps! And if it’s the third possibility, well, I still have options to work with.

The young man lifted his hand to produce a special dimensional ring of holding that he himself had crafted. It was one of a pair. He threw it down. Beneath him was a swamp. The ring fell down and immediately sank into the swamp.

His action seemed casual and even random. And he didn’t waste any time doing it. An instant later, and he had sped past, leaving that location behind.

Normally speaking, a ring of holding would have a dimensional holding space inside, with the body of the ring serving as the gateway leading inside. And most of the time, there was only one gateway leading into a holding dimension.

But this young man had created two. That second gate was a secret that no one else knew about. In fact, anyone who had learned the secret had ended up being killed by him.

As the young man sped along, his killing intent grew stronger. Time itself seemed to sense the killing intent and the anxiety, and flew past. He got closer and closer to Xu Qing.

350,000 kilometers. 250,000. 150,000….

Soon he was 50,000 kilometers away!

At that point, the young man, who had already been going incredibly fast, suddenly accelerated. He had decided that, regardless of which possibility in his analysis was correct, he would proceed according to plan.

And that plan had been to get within 50,000 kilometers, which was the range of a newly-activated permission medallion. And at that point, he would move with such incredible speed that his opponent wouldn’t have any chance to react.

***

The sky above Xu Qing’s cave trembled. Rumbling sounds echoed out, and blue light suddenly filled the area. It was so bright that it supplanted the light of the red aurora. And then a gigantic stone hammer appeared out of nowhere.

It was simple and unadorned, and pulsed with a great ancientness, as if it had been around for an extremely long time. The moment it appeared, there was no delay at all. It instantly smashed down onto the mountain. Heaven and earth shook violently as a blue shockwave rolled out in all directions, smashing everything it hit.

The hammer was not corporeal. When it smashed down, it actually passed through the mountain itself and into the cave, right toward the head of Xu Qing, who sat there looking up. It moved with shocking speed and came with devastating momentum.

In the time it takes a spark to fly off a piece of flint, and without giving Xu Qing the slightest chance to react, it smashed down.

And then, even as the hammer fell, the young man with the birthmark followed with terrifying speed. His killing intent roiled out with shocking ferocity.

At that moment of danger, Xu Qing’s expression flickered, and he quickly performed a double-handed incantation gesture. Instantly, the surrounding spell formations activated.

Forty-nine taboo formations flared to life, as well as hundreds of thousands of other formations, creating innumerable threads of light that became a closed fist. It shot upward to meet the hammer. The impact shook everything in the area.

The mountain was incinerated into ash. The surrounding lands were instantly turned into rubble. Even the air rippled and distorted as spatial rifts were ripped open. The fist of hundreds of thousands of formations ultimately proved too weak, and it shattered.

However, thanks to the power of the taboo formations, and of the explosion itself, the hammer was blocked, and it even moved backward a bit.

Unfortunately, the force of the blow was still difficult for Xu Qing to deal with. His face was pale, and he was shaking from head to toe. Clearly, he was unable to deal with this level of attack, as he took advantage of the moment to flee.

Before he could, the young man behind the hammer looked over, and a dao lineament stirred in his eye as he waved a hand. In the blink of an eye, a massive wind kicked up! His authority was that of wind. A heavenly gale descended, becoming a huge tempest that whipped about everywhere, locking down the entire area.

Xu Qing’s path of escape was blocked.

Within the tempest could be heard countless howling sounds, as if a magnificent army with thousands of men and horses were in it, charging right toward Xu Qing.

Up above, the young man with the birthmark seethed with killing intent as he shot in Xu Qing’s direction.

Madness burned in Xu Qing’s eyes now that he couldn’t flee. Throwing caution to the wind, he waved his hand. The authority of erasure erupted, clashing with the authority of wind. Next, Xu Qing rose up into the air, performing incantation gestures one after another to release magical techniques and divine abilities. He and the young man instantly started fighting.

Booms rang out constantly.

Xu Qing seemed to be going completely mad. He appeared to be desperate, and was putting everything on the line, hardly even paying attention to his own safety as he tried to push his opponent backward. It took only a short moment for deafening booms to fill the air.

Unfortunately, there was a clear disparity. After only about ten breaths of time, Xu Qing shivered as the young man’s palm clamped down onto the top of his head. Without giving Xu Qing any chance to do anything, and without even saying a word, the young man viciously clamped his hand down.

A pop rang out as Xu Qing’s head exploded. The moment it happened, Xu Qing unhesitatingly self-detonated, blocking his opponent and sending his soul fleeing off into the distance.

Rumbling booms again echoed out. The power of the self-detonation created a terrifying vortex, and yet, the young man with the birthmark just laughed coldly. Astonishingly, the aura of another dao lineament surged within him, creating a sea of flames.

He had two types of authority. One was wind, the other was fire.

This young man fought in a completely different way than the spirit mine guardian or the man from the city earlier. He led with his authority and his trump cards. The sea of flames raged, completely devouring the vortex created by the self-detonation. It seemed it was only going to take a moment to resolve the entire situation. The fire merged with the wind, then swelled outward to block the path of Xu Qing’s fleeing soul, then destroy it.

But then…!

Down underground, the real Xu Qing opened his eyes.

The figure from the crystalline treasure tree looked exactly like him, even down to the aura. It could even produce a soul. Although it was fake, it would be hard for anyone to notice the difference, especially in a short time. After getting his opponent to use his authority of fire, he created a big opening.

Xu Qing’s eyes flashed with cold light. The authority of the five elements erupted. The lands that had been reduced to ashes churned, and the power of the lands converged. Land-shaking, mountain-rocking force surged. The soil became like a sea, whipped up by the wind to crush the young man’s fire authority.

And then, Xu Qing’s five elements flame appeared in the sky, spreading out like heavenly fire. Countless streams of water vapor formed, and within each one was an image of Xu Qing. The power of wood swirled as innumerable wooden sword sheaths filled the area. Inside of each sheath was the power of metal. Five elements authorities were on full display, deadly and terrifying.

But Xu Qing still wasn’t content. Without any hesitation, he burned the life essence incense. Incense smoke swirled up, filling with the power to burn life.

As the five elements authority raged, Xu Qing decisively emerged from the ground. Moving with stone-shattering momentum, he hefted The Emperor’s Sword and shot toward the young man with the birthmark. All of this takes some time to describe, but happened in the twinkling of an eye.

Xu Qing sent out a thought to Little Shadow, who sent pure darkness spreading out, all while taking control of all the shadows cast by the aurora. This was the deadly trap Xu Qing had laid.

The young man with the birthmark reacted with visible shock. Falling back, he sent his authorities of wind and fire out, all while calling on some of his magical treasures. He also used some divine abilities to try to escape.

Clearly, he was too slow. Though he had deduced that this whole thing could be a trap, he didn’t realize that the projection from the crystalline treasure tree was fake. And that had determined how everything turned out.

The five elements were raging; the land bolstered the body, the sea of flames eradicated magic, the shine of metal hastened the soul; the power of wood ended life; water vapor was deadly! The shadow entrapped. One sword destroyed.

A boom rang out far and wide. The young man exploded, becoming a cloud of gore plus a ring of holding.

The fight was over.

Little Shadow seemed extremely excited and sent out a lot of emotional fluctuations. It then rushed over to grab up the chunks of flesh and the ring and bring them to Xu Qing.

Except… Xu Qing’s face had turned grim. With the wave of his hand, he stopped Little Shadow from reaching the chunks of flesh and the ring.

Little Shadow was stunned.

Xu Qing’s eyes were glittering coldly, the reason being that he had not sensed his opponent’s authority rushing toward him, nor had he detected any change to his permission medallion. His opponent wasn’t actually dead!

His senses were telling him that the other medallion was so close it was almost overlapping with him. Because of that, he wasn’t able to assess his opponent very accurately. To do so, he would have to go some distance away.

As that thought ran through his head, he suddenly waved his hand. All of a sudden, ripples flowed as the surroundings became a surface of water.

Heaven and earth became a well. It was none other than Fishing the Moon in the Well.

Xu Qing had acted with incredible decisiveness to use Fishing the Moon in the Well on the surroundings. His decisive reaction brought results.

The instant he used the technique, reflections appeared! On the surface of the water it was now possible to see the magical techniques and authorities that Xu Qing had used moments ago.

They were the reflections Xu Qing had selected. In addition, in the location where the ring of holding and the chunks of flesh were, it was possible to see the reflections of the various magical techniques, as well as the authorities of wind and fire. It was even possible to see the items in the ring of holding’s dimension.

That was when Xu Qing saw something very unusual! The ring of holding had two gateways!

What was more, he was astonished to find that there was a shadowy figure stuck up against the wall of the ring of holding’s dimensional space. Or had it been stuck there by someone…?

As Xu Qing studied it, he realized there was only one word that could properly describe it. It was glued to the wall!

The shadowy figure looked like it was glued on the wall of the dimensional space, in a clever way that would make it almost impossible to ever see. Moments before, it had been moving.

Because Fishing the Moon in the Well caused all things to go still, it was being affected. However, because it had the power of an Imperial Sovereign, it wasn’t rendered completely motionless, and was still moving very slowly.

The scene caused Xu Qing’s gaze to harden. It only took a moment to deduce that he was looking at his opponent’s true form! What he had killed was only a clone! His opponent had not noticed that the projection from the crystalline treasure tree was fake. But Xu Qing had also failed to realize that he wasn’t fighting his opponent’s true form. Both of them had used similar methods to try to deceive the other.

As for the enemy’s true form, it was very close by, and was thus able to use the overlapping effects of the permission medallions to hide. Beyond that, he had glued himself to the wall of the ring of holding’s dimensional space, making it even more difficult to detect him. Because of that method, he was almost part of the wall within the ring. To some extent, he was in between the illusory and the corporeal. An outside force would have a hard time affecting him.

Xu Qing had no idea how he was able to do this. But right now wasn’t the time to sit around contemplating it. Without any hesitation, he once again unleashed the previous magical techniques within the confines of Fishing the Moon in the Well.

“I don’t care if you are hiding. I can still hurt you in your hiding place!”

Fishing the Moon in the Well was fundamentally a spatial manipulation magic. Maybe he was glued to the wall. Maybe he was really part of it. But the power of Fishing the Moon in the Well could still affect him!

Xu Qing’s magical techniques and authorities erupted within Fishing the Moon in the Well. This time, his target was that shadowy figure! In the blink of an eye, everything exploded.

***

Over 450,000 kilometers away in the swamp, the other ring of holding the young man had thrown down suddenly flashed. A figure appeared within it. It was the same young man with the birthmark. This time, his face was very pale. After emerging, he coughed up a massive mouthful of blood, then looked back in Xu Qing’s direction. His expression was very serious.

He had the authorities of wind and fire. Two authorities made him chosen, but he wasn’t satisfied with that. Unfortunately, his aptitude made it impossible for him to form a third type of authority.

Therefore, he had found a new way. Using a unique item with a rare spatial function, plus the power of his flame authority to temper it, he added some immortal serum. The serum would remain inside until he needed it. Then he could use his wind authority to scatter the immortal serum.

As a result, the serum would harden a bit and turn into something like a glue.

After developing this technique, he would use it in dangerous fights. He could take his true form and glue it onto the wall of the dimensional space in his ring of holding. As a result, he actually became part of the dimension. It was a great concealment method. And oftentimes, an opponent would think they had killed him, then pick up his ring of holding afterward, only for him to jump out and surprise them. It had always worked.

Unfortunately, in the Immortal Capital’s Trial of the Hunt, anyone who died would have their permission medallion absorbed by the person who killed them. That created a bit of a flaw in his technique.

The damned rules of the Trial of the Hunt messed everything up. However, it’s surprising that this guy figured out everything so fast, and thus prevented me from launching my sneak attack. He’s no one to take lightly. And he even figured out a way to injure my true form. And then there’s his authority….

The young man’s eyes narrowed.

The fact that he laid such a careful trap shows that he’s clever. And his authority makes it clear he has aptitude. He acts decisively as well. All of that indicates… that this guy is an uncharacteristically extraordinary chosen! I bet he was hiding his true cultivation base level.

Heart pounding with lingering fear, he decided to just leave. It wasn’t worth it to get involved in a life-or-death struggle with a person like this in the second round. Besides, having been injured, he wasn’t in top shape now. He needed to find a place to treat his injuries.

I need to make sure he’s not following me….

The young man sighed and turned to leave. However, that was when his expression flickered and he took out a messaging device. After looking at it, his eyes flashed.

After some thought, he sent a response. “I just ran into a guy that matches that description. He could be the one you want.”

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