Beyond the Timescape

Chapter 33: Eternal Darkness

The Sea Mountain Technique was fundamentally an ordinary cultivation method. Its ability to filter Mutagen was mediocre at best.

Countless similar techniques circulated throughout the South Phoenix Continent, predominantly practiced by minor clans and insignificant factions.

Even if cultivated to Grand Perfection, it offered unimpressive combat prowess. The texts describing it were riddled with hyperbole.

The phrase “A Xiao can move mountains, a Kui can shift seas” was a prime example of such blatant exaggeration.

Yet, in Xu Qing’s hands, the Sea Mountain Technique erupted with unprecedented power—a level of might its original creator had likely never envisioned, let alone achieved.

At the fifth layer, his Xiao shadow rivaled the strength of ordinary practitioners at the sixth or seventh layer. Now, at the sixth layer, he had directly manifested a Kui shadow.

Though merely a nascent Kui, its raw power eclipsed the Xiao entirely.

It was easy to deduce that once Xu Qing pushed the Sea Mountain Technique to the seventh layer, this Kui shadow would undergo a complete metamorphosis.

For any other cultivator, the seventh layer marked the absolute limit of the Sea Mountain Technique.

For Xu Qing, the path stretched onward.

“According to the manual, a Kui shadow only forms at the tenth layer,” Xu Qing muttered, sitting cross-legged in the dim medicine room, a strange light flickering in his eyes. “And only after reaching Grand Perfection does it mature into its adult form.”

He analyzed his own progression. “At my current pace, the Kui shadow will mature at the seventh layer. What happens at the eighth? The ninth? The tenth? What about Grand Perfection?”

A fierce anticipation burned in his chest. He looked down at his hands.

He didn’t need to physically test his speed or strength this time. He could feel the violent currents of spiritual energy surging through his meridians, brewing an aura that dwarfed his power at the fifth layer.

The sheer magnitude of this newfound strength surprised even him.

The same applied to his speed. Xu Qing knew with absolute certainty that if he sprinted at full tilt right now, the wind itself would be his only resistance.

He wasn’t sure where he ranked among the scavengers in the camp anymore.

However, he knew one thing for certain: if he faced a spell-casting seventh-level Qi Condensation cultivator like the black-robed old man from a few days ago, he could slaughter them. Even if two attacked him simultaneously, they would die.

After a long moment, Xu Qing took a deep breath and stared at the floor.

Night had fallen. The room was pitch black, yet he could distinctly sense the presence of his shadow.

His breakthrough had seemingly catalyzed a change within the shadow, allowing it to gorge on even more Mutagen. The tether binding them felt tighter, more intricate.

In absolute silence, Xu Qing kept his gaze locked on the floor. Hours bled away. Outside, the sky gradually lightened. As the first rays of dawn pierced the cracks of the crude medicine room, the blurry silhouette beside Xu Qing sharpened into a distinct, pitch-black shadow.

The instant it fully materialized, Xu Qing’s eyes narrowed.

He had been waiting for this. With a single, focused thought, he watched his shadow writhe and distort.

Slowly, agonizingly, the shadow’s right arm lifted from the floor.

Xu Qing’s breathing grew heavy. He commanded the shadowy limb to slither across the ground. As it extended into a patch of darkness, the arm vanished, blending seamlessly into the gloom. Xu Qing remained perfectly still. He could still feel its exact position.

He guided the unseen hand toward the small wooden compartments. It crept up the wood and closed its incorporeal fingers around a stalk of medicinal herb.

The moment the shadow made contact, a dense wave of Mutagen flooded the plant. The vibrant herb instantly withered, turning a sickly, bruised bluish-black.

At that exact second, Xu Qing’s mental control snapped. A deafening roar echoed in his skull, and the extended shadow violently snapped back, returning to its normal shape.

It took a long while for Xu Qing to raise his head. His eyes were bloodshot, his skull throbbing as if it had been split open. He immediately closed his eyes and circulated his qi to stabilize his breathing.

An hour passed before the agonizing pressure in his head finally faded. He opened his eyes.

“Still too rigid,” he muttered.

He cast a deep, calculating look at the shadow before withdrawing his focus.

He wasn’t in a rush. At this rate of progression, total mastery was only a matter of time.

Once he achieved that, the shadow would become his most lethal, undetectable trump card.

After a brief rest, Xu Qing raised his hand and made a grasping motion. The mutated herb flew into his palm. He lowered his head, scrutinizing the corrupted veins of the plant.

“It’s identical to the herbs in the pharmacy that were corrupted when the deity opened its eyes.”

“So, the shadow’s ability is to inject Mutagen into whatever it touches?” Xu Qing murmured. He immediately began another round of experiments.

Two hours later, Xu Qing had mapped out the shadow’s basic parameters.

It didn’t passively leak Mutagen into everything it touched. The corruption only occurred when Xu Qing actively willed it.

If deployed in an ambush, this ability possessed terrifying lethality. Yet, Xu Qing never let his guard down around the shadow.

He pressed a hand against his chest, right over the spot where the Purple Crystal was embedded. He could feel the crystal radiating a faint, suppressive energy, acting as a shackle upon the shadow.

Eventually, Xu Qing looked away. He tossed the corrupted herb aside and inspected his storage compartments. Less than a tenth of his original stockpile remained; the rest had been reduced to a thick, toxic sludge pooling in his stone basin.

Staring at the basin, Xu Qing let out a quiet sigh.

Dumping it would be a waste. If weaponized correctly, this highly concentrated, blackened sludge could be deadly.

Working methodically, he scooped out the sludge and rolled it into small, dense spheres. He then coated each one with the sap of Seven-leaf Grass, creating a protective outer membrane.

By the time he finished, he had produced over a dozen Pills—vibrant green on the outside, harboring a core of pitch-black venom.

“I’ll call them Black Pills.” Xu Qing pocketed the lethal concoctions and stepped out of the medicine room. He needed to forage for more herbs and find a way to trap another Black Scale Wolf.

He had grown accustomed to using the wolves as test subjects for his poisons. Leaving the canyon behind, he moved like a phantom toward the temple complex. He didn’t linger at the ruins, bypassing them entirely to plunge deeper into the forbidden zone.

The deeper he went, the richer the flora became.

Xu Qing had ventured into these inner regions several times before. While he never strayed too far from his established routes, the hauls were always lucrative.

Meanwhile, shortly after Xu Qing vanished into the depths, a large procession slowly advanced through the outer fringes of the forbidden zone.

The group numbered over a hundred. A tight perimeter of heavily armed guards surrounded a core of young men and women. Among the escort were five or six middle-aged cultivators radiating formidable auras, their eyes scanning the dense foliage with hawkish vigilance.

The VIPs were the young men and women who had previously camped outside the scavenger settlement. They treated the excursion like a leisurely outing, their laughter and chatter echoing through the trees, devoid of any tension.

Their guide was Old Stone. The old scavenger wore a mask of weary resignation. He glanced repeatedly at the carefree youths, their relaxed demeanor making him sigh inwardly.

“This is the forbidden zone…” Old Stone thought, biting back his words. He knew no one would listen. These city-dwellers, who had only read about the dangers in books or heard tales, believed they understood the perils. In reality, they were utterly ignorant compared to scavengers who had survived the horrors firsthand.

“I just hope nothing goes wrong,” Old Stone prayed silently, his heart pounding with anxiety as he led the way, every sense on high alert.

Unnoticed by anyone, a beautiful young woman with long black hair, dressed in a cyan gown, stood among the youths. She chatted and laughed with a blue-robed young man fawning over her. As she did, her right hand subtly scattered a fine, colorless, odorless powder into the air.

The breeze carried the powder deeper into the forbidden zone. It acted as a catalyst, triggering subtle changes in the environment.

Xu Qing soon sensed these changes.

As he moved cautiously through the inner depths, he noticed a stark absence of mutated beasts.

He even spotted a lizard, its aura comparable to a sixth or seventh-level Qi Condensation cultivator. Normally aggressive, it now lay hidden in the mud, refusing to attack even as Xu Qing passed nearby, as if terrified of something outside.

This put Xu Qing on high alert. He scanned the surrounding jungle, a growing sense of unease coiling in his gut. After gathering a few more herbs, he decided to retreat.

Just as he was about to leave, an icy, bone-chilling aura erupted from the jungle’s deepest recesses. The aura exploded outward, instantly frosting the surrounding trees.

Xu Qing’s eyes narrowed. He dodged aside and looked up.

A swarm of semi-transparent jellyfish surged from the depths. Six massive ones led the charge, followed by hundreds of smaller ones. The entire horde soared through the air, hurtling toward the direction of the temple complex.

It was as if something there exerted an irresistible pull.

The moment Xu Qing saw them, the jellyfish swarm noticed him in return.

One of the large jellyfish paused mid-flight. It turned, its body covered in countless eyes on its tentacles. Most of those eyes snapped open, fixing their gaze on Xu Qing.

In that instant, a wave of deadly crisis erupted within Xu Qing. He felt every fiber of his flesh tremble. Behind him, his Kui shadow materialized abruptly, roaring soundlessly at the skyborne menace.

Xu Qing narrowed his eyes. He was no longer the weak third-level Qi Condensation cultivator who had been utterly helpless against such Pressure. Now, with his blood and qi boiling and his Kui shadow roaring defiance, the jellyfish staring at him seemed to hesitate.

Perhaps the pull from the temple complex was stronger. Or perhaps it sensed danger from Xu Qing. After a moment’s indecision, it turned and drifted away, rejoining the swarm.

Only after the jellyfish had vanished into the distance did Xu Qing let out a slow breath. He surveyed the forbidden zone. The entire place felt increasingly eerie. Without delay, he turned and sped away.

“Were they heading for the temple complex? Or somewhere beyond it? I hope it’s just a passing route and not the ruins themselves. Otherwise, I’ll have to take a long detour…”

As he raced through the jungle, his mind whirled with possibilities, but his speed never faltered.

Time passed. An hour later, distant rumbles reached his ears. Xu Qing leaped onto a treetop and gazed toward the temple complex.

He was still half an hour away, but he could make out the vague outline of the ruins.

The moment he looked, his expression darkened. His worst fear had materialized.

The jellyfish swarm hovered directly above the temple complex. Faint figures clashed with them amidst the echoing booms of battle.

The distance was too great to discern the combatants. After a moment’s thought, Xu Qing began creeping closer for a better view.

Meanwhile, within the temple complex, Old Stone trembled uncontrollably, his lips quivering in despair as he stared at the carnage around him.

Corpses littered the ground—the guards and attendants who had accompanied the young nobles.

The youths themselves had lost all their earlier arrogance. Pale-faced, wounded, and terrified, they huddled together in abject panic.

The remaining guards formed a protective ring, fighting a bloody retreat while fending off the relentless attacks of the hundreds of smaller jellyfish. In the sky above, the five or six middle-aged cultivators battled the massive jellyfish.

“How did this happen? How… Everything was fine just a moment ago…” Old Stone mumbled through chattering teeth as he stumbled along with the fleeing nobles.

But he was old and slow. After only a few steps, a small jellyfish slipped past the guards and lunged straight for him.

He had no time to dodge. In the next instant, the jellyfish passed through his body, plucking out his heart and swallowing it before darting toward the nobles.

Old Stone collapsed, his body convulsing uncontrollably.

Blood gushed from the gaping hole in his chest, pooling around him. More blood spilled from his mouth, a crimson tide drowning his final moments. In his fading mind, he whispered the last thought of his life.

“The qualification to enter the city… I’ll never afford it now…”

Old Stone lay still, his eyes wide open, his breath gone. The world before him faded into eternal darkness.