Beyond the Timescape

Chapter 45: An Eye for an Eye

The arrival of the Fragmented Face of God acted as a cosmic catalyst, warping the very nature of growth and forcing all living things to mutate and adapt.

This forced evolution rendered the world cold and unforgiving.

The birth of the forbidden zones pushed that cruelty to its absolute extreme. Yet, as Xu Qing stared at the retreating figure in white, a memory of Captain Lei surfaced in his mind.

“Do you know why I offered to take you with me back in those city ruins? Not once, but twice?”

“Because I saw you cremating those corpses. The way the firelight caught your silhouette, making you look as though you were melting into the flames… it made me feel like I was witnessing a fleeting trace of warmth in this brutal world.”

Xu Qing remained silent.

Now, standing in the ruins, he felt that exact same trace of warmth Captain Lei had spoken of.

It emanated from the White-skirted Faceless Woman. It came from the grotesque mosaic of human souls writhing beneath her skin—faces that had just smiled at him, their tragic, collective whispers of “Thank you” echoing in his mind. It was a warmth born from humanity itself, a spark that even this cruel world could not extinguish.

After a long moment, Xu Qing bowed deeply once more.

Then he turned and sped toward the distant city wall.

…

Perhaps it was because he had thrown too many Black Pills earlier, saturating the area around the city lord’s mansion with Mutagen to a critical point. Like a flame in the darkness, it had drawn countless gazes and attention.

Or perhaps it was the karmic ties binding him to this city.

Whatever the reason, Xu Qing encountered little danger as he raced away, smoothly reaching the city wall.

Standing there, he looked back at the city shrouded in darkness. From afar, the sounds of roars and shrieks drifted to his ears. He gazed silently for a long while.

“I wonder when I’ll return next…” Xu Qing murmured, giving the dark city one last look before turning and leaping off the wall, vanishing into the night.

To increase his speed, he took out the flight talisman he had acquired. Sticking it to his leg, he channeled his spiritual energy into it. His speed exploded, and he shot into the air.

He soared through the sky, the wind whipping against his face. The sudden burst of speed and the sensation of flight were unfamiliar and uncomfortable, especially since this was his first time flying.

The feeling of soaring through the sky, looking down at the world beneath his feet, left Xu Qing somewhat dazed.

He felt like one of the lucky birds that had survived the opening of the gods’ eyes, spreading its wings across the heavens.

“So this is what it feels like for birds to fly,” Xu Qing murmured, struggling to control his body.

But with his Sea Mountain Technique at the seventh layer, his body was perfectly under his control. He quickly adapted to this airborne state.

Combining his innate speed and strength, he occasionally landed and kicked off forcefully, or punched backward mid-air to propel himself even faster.

From a distance, he looked like a streak of light, shooting across the sky above the forbidden zone.

Others would have had to worry about Mutagen seeping in, but Xu Qing had no such concerns. Thus, he could continuously increase his speed.

Before long, he saw the edge of the forbidden zone in the distance. With a final burst, he shot out of the forbidden zone.

The moment he emerged, a warm breeze washed over him, dispelling the forbidden zone’s chill.

Hovering in mid-air, Xu Qing fell silent. He looked toward Lujiao City, then swept his gaze over another direction.

His half-year at the Scavenger Camp had taught him much about this region. He knew the names and locations of many nearby cities, including the mountain gate of the Vajra Sect.

Though dawn had not yet broken, the moonlight illuminated the land, revealing the faint outlines of distant mountains.

Xu Qing’s eyes shifted several times between Lujiao City and the direction of the Vajra Sect.

“I’m not satisfied,” Xu Qing murmured.

He didn’t know what would become of the Vajra Sect’s Patriarch, trapped in the ruined city.

But Xu Qing felt it was unlikely the Patriarch would perish. However, he would undoubtedly beharrowing, disheveled state and severely injured, and escaping quickly was probably impossible.

If he headed to Lujiao City now, everything would likely go smoothly. But leaving just like that felt deeply uncomfortable to him.

After a few breaths of silence, a cold glint flashed in the young man’s eyes. His body swayed as he unleashed his full speed. With the flight talisman radiating intense fluctuations, he shot straight toward… the Vajra Sect.

Xu Qing had chosen not to go to Lujiao City immediately. He was going to the Vajra Sect.

He planned to take advantage of the Vajra Sect’s current unprecedented weakness—with their Patriarch trapped and two Elders dead—to properly return the favor for their relentless pursuit.

This was Xu Qing’s nature.

Others might have chosen to flee immediately, but Xu Qing’s experiences from childhood had taught him that potential threats must be eliminated.

Even if a threat was beyond his ability to resolve quickly, he had to make the other party suffer as much as possible.

Only when that suffering reached a certain level could it become a deterrent.

This was the law of survival in the slums, the law of the scavengers. Whether it was the law of this chaotic era, Xu Qing didn’t know, but it was his law.

And killing two Elders, in Xu Qing’s view, was not deterrent enough.

As he raced onward, Xu Qing drew closer and closer to the Vajra Sect. By the time the first rays of the sun rose, bathing the land in light, he could see his destination in the distance.

The Vajra Sect’s mountain gate!

The Vajra Sect was built on a mountain peak, with structures winding around the slopes. The main hall at the summit seemed to radiate a faint glow in the sunlight, appearing majestic from afar.

However, most of the sect’s cultivators were still out searching and had not returned. Thus, only a few disciples remained at the mountain gate, their figures occasionally visible in the early morning.

They wore expressions of arrogance, as if merely being here granted them supreme status. Near the mountain gate’s arched bridge, three or five disciples were chatting and laughing.

Their conversation mostly revolved around the Patriarch’s search for a child, with many expressing the view that the Patriarch was making a mountain out of a molehill.

Others were in their quarters, meditating and cultivating.

Meanwhile, the Vajra Sect’s Sect Leader sat in the main hall, calmly reviewing an account ledger detailing tributes from nearby cities and camps.

In his heart, he shared the disciples’ sentiment, feeling somewhat dismissive of the Patriarch’s expedition.

“Just a scavenger. Even if he has some skill, two Elders should be more than enough to handle him. The Patriarch really didn’t need to go personally, leaving the sect nearly empty.”

The Vajra Sect’s Sect Leader shook his head, thinking there was nothing to be done. No one dared defy the Patriarch’s orders.

Just as the entire sect was in this state of laxity, Xu Qing hovered high in the sky, unnoticed. He looked down coldly.

First, he gauged the wind’s direction. Then he circled around to a downwind position, measuring the wind speed and its diffusion range.

Finally, he chose a spot. Without giving the Vajra Sect cultivators any chance to react, he took out large quantities of poison powder and began scattering it handful by handful, his expression impassive.

Xu Qing carried a vast amount of poison powder. He now used 80% of it.

Mixed together, the toxicity of so much poison powder was staggering. Carried by the wind, it began drifting toward the Vajra Sect.

Xu Qing did not attack immediately. He waited.

Time passed. With so much poison powder dispersing in the wind, the sky gradually took on a tint, turning into a faintly black wind. At that moment, a cold glint flashed in Xu Qing’s eyes.

“Almost time.”

The appearance of the black wind quickly caught the attention of the Vajra Sect cultivators.

The first to notice were the disciples chatting by the mountain gate. They looked up in surprise at the black wind, momentarily stunned.

“What is that?”

But in the next instant, as a wisp of black wind drifted past a distant tree, causing it to wither instantly, the disciples’ expressions changed dramatically.

“Poison!!”

As their cries echoed, more disciples within the sect noticed and were shaken. Figures rushed out from the sect, their expressions shifting as they prepared to use techniques to disperse the poisonous wind.

But at that moment, Xu Qing’s figure suddenly shot down from the sky. Moving with lightning speed, he streaked like thunder directly toward the Vajra Sect’s mountain gate.

From a distance, he looked like a bolt of heavenly lightning descending upon the mortal world, crashing straight into the Vajra Sect.

Amid the shocked anger of the Vajra Sect cultivators and the echoing alarm bells throughout the sect, a deafening roar spread in all directions as Xu Qing landed.

He landed precisely on the mountainside of the Vajra Sect.

The ground cracked with a loud crash, fissures spreading out. Xu Qing looked up sharply, his eyes filled with intense killing intent, and charged straight at the numerous Vajra Sect cultivators ahead, their faces filled with terror.

Explosions erupted.

Xu Qing attacked swiftly and with astonishing speed. Wherever he passed, screams rang out and corpses fell.

But even with few disciples in the sect, there were still numbers.

Soon, amid roars of fury, figures converged from all directions, charging straight at Xu Qing.

“Enemy attack!”

“Damn it, someone actually dares to attack our Vajra Sect!”

“Kill him!!”

Meanwhile, the Vajra Sect’s Sect Leader in the main hall immediately sensed the disturbance. In shock and anger, he rushed out, witnessing the chaos in the sect and the spreading poisonous wind.

“All disciples, take antidote pills immediately and disperse the poisonous wind!” His expression changed abruptly as he swiftly issued orders to the sect.

At the same time, he locked onto the source of the commotion on the mountainside, his eyes filled with cold intent as he charged toward it.

However, Xu Qing moved with incredible speed. He did not engage the Vajra Sect disciples in prolonged combat. Instead, he weaved through them, tossing out Black Pills one after another.

Some Black Pills landed on the ground, others were still in mid-air, but they all exploded simultaneously, forming vortices that attracted Mutagen. The Mutagen, ever-present in the world, seemed to come alive, instantly drawn to the vortices.

“Mutagen!!” The Vajra Sect disciples who had been about to charge forward, upon sensing this, all paled and instinctively retreated. But a few were caught in the center of the vortices, their bodies rapidly turning bluish-black under the dense Mutagen.

“How dare you!!” A furious roar erupted from the direction of the main hall on the mountaintop. The Vajra Sect’s Sect Leader arrived abruptly.

His cultivation at the Grand Perfection of the Qi Condensation realm surpassed that of the Elders Xu Qing had killed. He was the second strongest in the Vajra Sect after the Patriarch.

Now, his golden robes billowed, his face was dark, and his eyes blazed with killing intent. But upon seeing Xu Qing’s scavenger attire and youthful appearance, his entire body trembled.

“It’s you!” He didn’t need to guess; the answer was already in his heart.

And as that answer surfaced, a tidal wave of shock surged within the Vajra Sect’s Sect Leader.