Beyond the Timescape

Chapter 91: Killing to Seize Treasures

Given the Departed Path Sect’s sheer size and power, they wouldn’t dispatch a squad merely for Spirit Stones. Mortal desires had long been sacrificed upon the altar of their grand mission.

They were here on orders. Their sole objective: to retrieve the lizard molt imbued with a trace of divinity!

The instant the molt surfaced, the eight Departed Path Sect cultivators rose as one. A suffocating, murderous aura erupted from them. Emitting the explosive energy fluctuations of Qi Condensation Grand Perfection, they dove straight into the basin.

They crossed the distance in a heartbeat.

More terrifying than their speed was their eerie synchronization. Though eight individuals, they moved as a single, cohesive entity. Their footsteps fell in perfect unison, transforming them into a flawlessly honed, eight-pronged blade thrusting into the fray.

The Rogue Cultivators caught in their path had no time to evade. The moment the formation struck, they were crushed—torn apart like fragile weeds caught in a raging flood.

This brutal display of power instantly drew the attention of the Sea Ghost cultivators, who had been stalking them from the shadows. Cold, murderous intent flared in their eyes.

During the initial scramble for the two Foundation Establishment mid-stage lizard molts, Sea Ghost had held seven or eight members in reserve. Now, this hidden vanguard surged forward, every single one of them radiating the oppressive aura of Grand Perfection.

Leading them was a burly man with a malevolent, spectral visage tattooed across his chest. His energy dwarfed the rest, carrying the faint but undeniable pressure of true Foundation Establishment intent.

In an instant, the two factions collided in the basin, triggering a shockwave of deafening explosions. A cold glint flashed in Xu Qing’s eyes. Unleashing his cultivation base, he shot into the chaos.

Xu Qing didn’t care that the old man from Banquan Road had snatched the first lizard molt. Unless the old bastard planned to permanently exile himself from Seven Blood Eyes, he would eventually return.

And if he dared to swallow Xu Qing’s share… Xu Qing would pry it from his dead hands, with interest.

For now, he ignored the thief. Without uttering a word, Xu Qing tore through the air, diving right into the crossfire between the Departed Path Sect and Sea Ghost. Clenching his fists, he pushed his qi and blood to their absolute limits.

The phantom of the Ba materialized behind him with unprecedented clarity. The towering, cracked figure pulsed with a fiery, molten-red glow, as if magma flowed beneath its skin.

Fueled by a violent aura that utterly eclipsed the Qi Condensation realm, Xu Qing unleashed two devastating punches the exact moment he hit the battleground.

Boom!

One strike slammed into the Departed Path Sect, the other into Sea Ghost.

Having bided his time, Xu Qing now erupted with his full, unbridled combat power. The sheer force of his impact sent a deafening roar through the basin, whipping the surrounding air into a violent tempest.

Caught in the gale, the Sea Ghost cultivators paled. The eight members of the Departed Path Sect were forced back, their eyes locking onto Xu Qing.

“Courting death!”

“Seven Blood Eyes…”

Before the echoes of their shouts faded, both factions attacked simultaneously. Even as they battered each other, they seamlessly redirected a portion of their lethal techniques to suppress Xu Qing, forming a barrier to prevent him from reaching the three divine lizard molts floating in the center.

But they had underestimated Xu Qing’s utter ruthlessness.

For a boy forged in the slums and tempered in the blood of the Scavenger Camp, plundering was second nature.

Murderous intent flooded his eyes. With a sweeping gesture, suspended droplets of water materialized around him, shooting outward like a barrage of crystalline bullets.

Under the cover of this torrential barrage, Xu Qing launched himself into a Sea Ghost non-human. The sickening crunch of bone was swallowed by the roar of the tempest. In a single, fluid motion, his dagger gutted the creature, painting the air with boiling blood.

He didn’t pause. Pivoting sharply, he buried his fist into the chest of a Departed Path Sect cultivator lunging from behind. The wet, cracking sound of a shattered ribcage rang out.

Soaked in fresh blood, his Daoist robe clung to him. Beneath it, his delicate, youthful face remained an absolute mask of frigid apathy.

Two lives extinguished in the blink of an eye. Without a sliver of hesitation, his left hand blurred into a spell seal. The Ba shadow threw back its head and roared. Instantly, the scattered water droplets transmuted into volatile oil and spontaneously combusted, transforming into a torrential rain of flaming arrows that carpet-bombed the battlefield.

Cast by the hellfire, the cultivators’ shadows warped and danced upon the ground like frenzied demons. In the chaotic flicker of light and dark, no one noticed a single, thread-like shadow slithering through the carnage, making a beeline for the lizard molts.

Using the expanding inferno as cover, Xu Qing violently launched himself backward. In that precise second, right beneath the highly contested lizard molts, the creeping shadow lunged from the earth, enveloping the prizes.

Simultaneously, the space beside the molts warped. The old man from Banquan Road materialized out of thin air, his eyes burning with fanatic greed. Hoping to exploit the fiery distraction Xu Qing had created, his withered hand clawed toward the treasure.

But he was a fraction of a second too late. The shadow swallowed them whole.

“Damn it!” The old man cursed, clutching a fistful of empty air before rapidly retreating. The surrounding cultivators spotted him instantly. Blinded by fury, they abandoned Xu Qing and swarmed the old man like bloodthirsty locusts.

Xu Qing’s expression remained deadpan. Capitalizing on the diversion, he melted into the perimeter, stealthily retrieving the molts his shadow had smuggled back to him, and bolted for the base of the mountain.

He was just about to breach the edge of the basin when the fleeing old man suddenly bellowed at the top of his lungs.

“It wasn’t me! Look, I only have this one Storage Bag on me! See for yourselves!” The old man from Banquan Road violently tore his Storage Bag from his waist and hurled it like a cannonball straight at Xu Qing.

“Kid, everything is inside! Keep it safe!”

The old man was a truly shameless bastard. Knowing his words wouldn’t placate the enraged mob, he detonated his spiritual energy, shredding his own robes to confetti. Clad in nothing but his underpants, he spun in a circle to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was completely empty-handed.

Then, in a flash, he snatched the large snake watching from the sidelines and scrambled down the mountain.

Few bought his theatrical display, yet some still chased after him. The main forces of Sea Ghost and the Departed Path Sect, however, were not fools. As they dashed past Xu Qing’s position, they abruptly pivoted, locking their lethal intents squarely onto him.

“Your little tricks are useless!” one of them sneered. “Others might be blind to the lizard molt’s aura, but to me, it burns like a torch in the dead of night!”

“Hand over the lizard molt!”

Lethal spells rained down from both sides, striking with the speed and devastation of a thunderbolt.

Xu Qing vaulted backward, narrowly dodging the combined bombardment. A frigid killing intent surfaced in his eyes. He didn’t even spare a glance for the Storage Bag the old man had thrown; he highly doubted that miserly bastard would willingly toss away anything of value.

He hadn’t genuinely expected to fool every cultivator here. The old man’s antics had merely been a convenient, albeit slim, chance at a clean getaway.

Since he was exposed, there was no need to hold back. With murder blazing in his eyes, his hands formed a rapid sequence of seals and thrust forward. A blue talisman treasure instantly materialized before him.

He flooded it with spiritual energy. The talisman activated, rapidly expanding into a colossal statue.

It was a three-headed, six-armed effigy—the idol of a non-human god of death. Radiating a bone-chilling aura of decay, it crashed down onto the advancing forces of Sea Ghost and the Departed Path Sect.

Looted from the slain mermaid youth, this talisman had barely been used; the Foundation Establishment strike sealed within was still fiercely potent. As it descended, the cultivators from both factions were forced to detonate their own talisman treasures in a desperate bid to counter it.

A catastrophic shockwave tore through the basin, ripping up the earth and violently throwing both sides backward.

Xu Qing was strong, but he was vastly outnumbered. A trickle of blood leaked from the corner of his mouth, though the Purple Crystal in his chest pulsed instantly, knitting his internal injuries shut the moment they formed.

His dark eyes deepened into an abyss as he swept his gaze over the surrounding mob.

Slowly, he licked his lips. The blood was metallic and sharp—a deeply familiar taste. It tasted like the slums. It tasted like the Scavenger Camp.

He despised complications. He had the lizard molts, and these people refused to let him walk away. The solution was remarkably simple.

I’ll just kill them all, he murmured inwardly.

Even unspoken, the sheer density of his murderous intent caused an involuntary shudder to ripple through the surrounding cultivators.

They were no strangers to ruthless killers, but the dead, hollow stare of this Seven Blood Eyes youth made their hearts skip a beat. Still, the intoxicating lure of the divine lizard molt anchored them in place. The majority refused to retreat.

Only a handful of non-human Rogue Cultivators, who had witnessed Xu Qing’s brutality from the start, truly understood the monster they were facing. They hung back on the periphery, unwilling to blindly rush in, waiting like vultures for an opening.

Among these cautious few were the straw-cloaked non-human and the burly man with the elephant trunk.

The standoff shattered. The Departed Path Sect struck first. Having already lost a comrade, the remaining seven attacked in perfect, deadly unison. Spears materialized in their grips as a tidal wave of bloodlust crashed down upon Xu Qing.

Sea Ghost surged forward, followed closely by a pack of opportunistic non-human Rogue Cultivators.

Suddenly, a bloodcurdling scream pierced the charge. One of the vanguards violently spasmed. His skin turned a sickening blackish-blue as he vomited a fountain of coagulated, black blood before collapsing into a lifeless heap.

“Poison!”

He wasn’t the only one. In the blink of an eye, seven or eight more cultivators began hemorrhaging black blood from their seven orifices. As panic gripped the mob, Xu Qing moved.

He was a blur. Closing the distance to the Departed Path Sect in an instant, his right hand whipped out his dagger to deflect a vicious spear thrust. Slipping past the weapon’s guard, he flicked his wrist. The dagger shot from his grip, burying itself hilt-deep into the throat of the man beside him.

As arterial spray painted the air, Xu Qing’s hand dropped to his leather bag, drawing a black iron spike. Completely abandoning any thought of retreat, he threw himself directly into the teeth of the swarming horde, forcing them into brutal, close-quarters combat.

Amidst the relentless detonations, the Ba shadow roared into the heavens. The raging sea of fire expanded, supercharging Xu Qing’s already monstrous physical strength.

The mountaintop basin had become a meat grinder of pure slaughter!

At the same time, miles away, guided by the distant rumble of explosions, the old man finally shook off his remaining pursuers. Still carrying the massive snake, he glanced back at the fiery peak and spat a string of vicious curses.

“You little bastard! You were the one who took it!”

Swearing violently, he pushed his speed to the absolute limit. The large snake in his arms writhed in protest, issuing urgent, gurgling hisses as if desperate to slither back and help.

The old man scowled, glaring down at it.

“That damned kid is a cunning little demon, you silly girl.”

With a swift chop to its head, he knocked the snake unconscious. Hoisting the limp beast over his shoulder, he bolted. He soon hit the coastline and, without bothering to secure a boat, plunged directly into the dark ocean, vanishing beneath the waves.