Beyond the Timescape

Chapter 47: Seven Blood Eyes

August. The End of Heat.

The scorching sun continued to relentlessly bake the earth, riding the warm currents of the wind. Yet, as the solar cycle shifted, the suffocating summer heat inevitably approached its twilight. Soon, the sun could only stare down from the firmament, waiting for the wild geese to migrate, the swallows to return, and the autumn frost of White Dew to set in.

From its high vantage point, the sun possessed an unobstructed view of the colossal landmass surrounded by the Endless Sea.

The entirety of the South Phoenix Continent was, in fact, a massive island.

It formed a tilted ellipse, bisected down the middle by a sprawling, dragon-like spine of stone known as the Truth Mountain Range.

The territory west of the mountains accounted for a full seventy percent of the continent’s landmass. This was the Phoenix Forbidden Zone—the most catastrophic hazard zone in the South Phoenix Continent. It was a realm of pitch-black jungles, buried ancient ruins, perpetual fog, and hyper-lethal mutated beasts. The Mutagen density there was apocalyptic.

The remaining thirty percent of the continent, lying east of the mountain range, was the designated habitat of the human race.

At the exact northern terminus of the Truth Mountain Range, where the rock met the ocean, sat a geopolitical anomaly.

This location bordered the Phoenix Forbidden Zone to the west, human territory to the east, the Endless Sea to the north, and the Truth Mountain Range to the south.

This unparalleled strategic geography made it the premier mega-port of the South Phoenix Continent. Endless fleets of colossal cargo vessels navigated its waters, facilitating trade between neighboring islands and the distant Wanggu Continent.

A location possessing such massive economic and military value could not be held by a standard faction. This was the seat of power for the Seven Blood Eyes.

Viewed from afar, the port city was a sprawling metropolis divided into seven massive districts, with the harbor occupying just one. It was a terrifyingly vast, industrialized behemoth.

This was the main city of the Seven Blood Eyes Sect.

Looming adjacent to the metropolis were seven towering mountain peaks at the tail end of the Truth Mountain Range. At the summit of each peak rested a hundred-zhang-wide, monolithic statue of an eye. Though their colors varied, they all radiated a piercing, oppressive light.

Day and night, these monolithic eyes projected a blinding radiance, interlocking to form a catastrophic defensive Formation that locked down the entire region.

They stared down at the earth like the cold, calculating pupils of an apex predator. The sheer psychological pressure they exerted was enough to crush the spirit of anyone who looked upon them.

This was the origin of the name: Seven Blood Eyes.

The sprawling port city, combined with the seven peaks, constituted the Sect’s entire headquarters. The First Peak in the distance and the Seventh Peak closest to the city stood the tallest, like twin titans enforcing the Sect’s absolute monopoly over the region.

Even within the thirty percent of the continent designated for humanity, the wilderness remained a meat-grinder. The wastelands were saturated with Mutagen and crawling with mutated beasts and desperate, bloodthirsty fugitives.

While the beasts outside the forbidden zones were slightly less lethal, stepping outside a city’s reinforced walls was still a gamble with death. Encountering desperate, lawless Rogue Cultivators in the unregulated wilds was often a fate worse than dying.

Therefore, a secure, functional city was the ultimate commodity for the vast majority of the human population.

The main city of the Seven Blood Eyes was the premium asset of the South Phoenix Continent. Beyond its staggering economic prosperity, the overarching Formation physically filtered out Mutagen, extending the lifespans of its residents far beyond the continental average.

Gaining entry to the Seven Blood Eyes was a universally coveted dream.

Countless immigrants flooded its gates, desperate to secure a future. Yet, the governing laws of the main city were draconian. The Sect operated like an invisible whip, violently flaying the weak and bankrupt.

The name of that whip was survival of the fittest.

Right now, in the central transit hub of the Seven Blood Eyes port, three colossal teleportation Formations flashed with blinding, rhythmic light.

Arranged in a triangular grid, they processed a ceaseless influx of human traffic.

Inside the third Formation, the spatial distortion settled, depositing a solitary youth onto the platform.

He wore a dark, battered leather tunic and loose trousers bound at the ankles with coarse straw rope. His clothes were stiff with dried blood. His hair was a matted mess, and his face was smeared with grime.

Yet, beneath the filth, his eyes were as piercing and cold as winter stars.

The moment his boots hit the stone, the chaotic roar of the crowds and the crashing ocean waves hit him. A hot, humid, and sticky sea breeze washed over his body.

A profound sense of total alienation flooded the youth’s mind.

It was Xu Qing, having just teleported from Lujiao City.

“I’ve arrived…”

Massaging his temples to combat the spatial vertigo, Xu Qing stepped off the transit pad. He immediately began auditing his surroundings.

The logistics here were brutally efficient.

Heavily armored guards locked down the perimeter. Massive, winding queues spilled out from each teleportation array. The lines were packed with men, women, heavily burdened caravans, and merchants.

Every face in the crowd carried a desperate hunger to secure residency in the mega-city. Given the extortionate cost of the teleportation fee, their desperation was absolute.

Completing his initial threat assessment, Xu Qing merged into the exodus heading for the exit checkpoints.

Unlike Lujiao City, exiting the transit hub required a strict security audit. Waiting in line, Xu Qing took in the horizon. In the distance, the black expanse of the Endless Sea stretched into the void.

In the opposite direction, silhouetted against the setting sun, the seven mountain peaks pierced the sky. The massive eye statues atop them emitted energy signatures so dense they seemed to tether the earth to the firmament, generating a colossal, swirling atmospheric vortex over the peaks.

Deep within that spiraling cloud cover, the faint, shifting outline of an unfathomable beast glided through the mist, radiating a sacred, terrifying Pressure that dominated the landscape.

The sheer scale of it shook Xu Qing’s core.

He only tore his gaze away when the immigrant in front of him finished their audit, received a clearance jade slip, and moved on. Taking a slow breath, Xu Qing stepped up to the booth.

“Present your travel permit and declare your operational intent.”

A small desk separated them. Behind it sat a male and female inspector.

The man was sharply dressed in a gray robe. He rested with his eyes closed, though his latent spiritual energy fluctuations were highly refined.

The woman, also in a gray Daoist robe, looked no older than nineteen. She had delicate features, pale skin, and striking, starlit eyes that could easily disarm a mark.

She was the one addressing Xu Qing.

She glanced at him with absolute bureaucratic apathy, completely unbothered by his bloodstained, filthy appearance. She had processed thousands of expendable scavengers just like him. Without waiting for a verbal response, she readied a jade slip to log his data.

Xu Qing ran a rapid diagnostic on her spiritual fluctuations. Her cultivation wasn’t overwhelming, yet his survival instincts registered a distinct, underlying threat.

Calculating that he could successfully sever her neck if it came to a lethal exchange, Xu Qing calmly retrieved the token from his leather pouch and slid it across the desk.

“Hmm?” The woman’s eyes widened a fraction. She picked up the token, authenticated it, and slid it back. The apathy vanished, replaced by a deep, evaluating stare.

“So it’s a Junior Brother seeking Novice entry to the Sect. I wish you… a highly profitable tenure at the Seven Blood Eyes.”

The corporate phrasing caught Xu Qing’s attention. He secured the token, noting the jade slip still resting in her hand.

“You don’t need a standard civilian contribution jade slip. That token is your clearance,” she explained briskly. “A word of advice: pass the Novice test immediately. The faster you adapt to the Seven Blood Eyes’ economy, the better your odds of survival.”

Having delivered the data, the woman immediately dismissed him from her attention.

Xu Qing absorbed the intel. Leaving the checkpoint, he noticed the immigrants behind him staring at his back with thinly veiled envy.

He looked down, his thumb tracing the cold metal of the token.

Once Xu Qing was out of earshot, the male inspector finally opened his eyes and chuckled cynically.

“Since when do you hand out free advice and blessings to the fresh meat?”

“He’s holding a Seventh Peak token,” the woman replied flatly, gesturing for the next immigrant. “It’s only a white-tier clearance, but market volatility is unpredictable. A single sentence costs me zero Contribution Points. If his stock rises, I’ve secured a cheap, low-risk investment.”

“There’s no future there,” the man scoffed, stretching his fingers. “He’s clearly a slum-rat scavenger. A white token doesn’t guarantee a return on investment. The odds of him even clearing the Novice test are abysmal. Even if he gets the disciple status, the daily tax is thirty spirit coins, plus extortionate overhead for cultivation resources. I bet he defaults within the fiscal quarter. He’ll either be exiled, or—pop—liquidated.”

The man mimed crushing something in his fist.

Their voices were swallowed by the ambient noise. Xu Qing was already gone.

He cleared the transit zone and stepped onto the city streets.

A wave of profound culture shock washed over him. The prosperity was sickening.

Bathed in the dying light of dusk, every single building on the street rivaled the opulence of the City Lord’s estate in his former slum. Blue-tiled roofs, pristine paving stones, and manicured flora kept the environment immaculately clean.

The pedestrian traffic was incredibly dense. Everyone wore pristine silk; rough linen was virtually non-existent. Yet, every face was an identical mask of cold, hurried indifference. Time was money, and no one wasted it.

As the sun sank lower, thousands of streetlamps flared to life, illuminating the district with the brilliance of high noon. Strangely, despite the lights, the residential estates remained dead silent.

Further down, a small boat drifted along a decorative canal. A veiled woman in Daoist robes stood on the deck, casually tossing high-grade Pills into the water. Hundreds of expensive, shimmering fish swarmed the surface to feed, breaking the water in the fading light.

On the banks, dozens of well-dressed young men violently threw themselves into the canal, physically brawling with the fish to snatch the discarded Pills. It was a grotesque, degrading display of wealth and desperation.

The sheer extravagance put Xu Qing on high alert.

This city was lightyears away from the Scavenger Camp or his ruined slum.

But one metric remained exactly the same.

Beneath the scent of expensive incense and sea salt, Xu Qing’s highly trained olfactory senses detected a faint, metallic undertone.

It was the smell of fresh blood. The exact same scent that stained the alleys of the Scavenger Camp.

Xu Qing’s eyes went dead. His paranoia spiked.

Drifting down the street, he avoided the illuminated center of the thoroughfare, instinctively hugging the deep shadows along the walls.

He needed to secure a base of operations—an inn. The ambient scent of blood made loitering on the streets a tactical error.

He had zero interest in investigating the source of the bloodshed. His only objective was to clear the Novice test, embed himself within the Seven Blood Eyes, and leverage their jurisdiction to permanently cancel the Vajra Sect’s kill orders.

As twilight completely surrendered to nightfall, Xu Qing’s gaze grew increasingly predatory. He still hadn’t found a viable inn.

With the darkness, the mega-city underwent a terrifying shift. The ambient noise flatlined. Pedestrians practically sprinted to their destinations.

Millions of lights remained on, but every single door and shutter slammed shut. The residential blocks and commercial districts locked down, plunging into a breathless, terrified silence.

The moment the final ray of sunlight vanished, the streets were entirely devoid of human life.

It was a curfew enforced by predators. Xu Qing narrowed his eyes, accelerating his pace through the shadows, auditing every building for an open inn.

An incense stick’s worth of time passed. Finally, he spotted a flickering vacancy sign in the distance.

He moved to approach, but a sudden kinetic disturbance down the street caught his attention.

A lone figure was sprinting frantically down the pitch-black, empty avenue. Seven or eight heavily armed men pursued her, laughing with sadistic glee.

“Keep running! Let’s see how far you get!”

“It’s been a while since someone had the absolute gall to hijack a target we already marked for Contribution Points!”

Xu Qing observed the data from the shadows. The fugitive was a woman. She was bleeding heavily, her gait erratic. Through her disheveled hair, he caught a glimpse of a pretty face twisted in feral desperation.

Xu Qing looked away. This was not his operation. He resumed his walk toward the inn.

Simultaneously, the fleeing woman spotted Xu Qing in the shadows. Her eyes darted rapidly. Making a split-second, highly unethical calculation, she screamed at the top of her lungs.

“I secured the Contribution Points! Why are you just standing there waiting for the handoff?! Run!”

Xu Qing stopped.

He slowly turned his head. His dead, freezing eyes locked onto the woman who had just attempted such a juvenile, suicidal frame-up. He visually audited the carotid artery on her neck, calculating the exact angle required to sever it.

The moment his gaze washed over her, the woman’s body violently seized.

It felt as though she had been plunged naked into a glacial lake. Her pupils shrank to pinpricks. Her heart hammered against her ribs, and a sheet of freezing sweat slicked her spine. The apocalyptic sense of lethal threat radiating from the boy in the shadows utterly dwarfed the danger of the eight mercenaries chasing her.

Realizing she had just tried to drag a sleeping leviathan into her mess, she panicked. Unable to retract her shout, she violently bit her tongue, instantly changing her trajectory to flee down a completely different alleyway.