Beyond the Timescape
Chapter 1180: The Ninth Extreme!

Chapter 1180: The Ninth Extreme!

The river water churned, sending a great spray of water out in all directions.

Xu Qing sat cross-legged on the surface as the ash from the fourth world dissipated around him. It was like falling snow.

However... the world had not been destroyed, nor had it disappeared. True, the buildings of the immortal palace, and everything around it, had vanished into nothing. But the world itself still existed.

And that was because of Xu Qing’s presence! As of now, Young Lord Aurora had ensured that the immortal palace belonged to him. He had the proper status to use it. He had achieved major success with his space-time, turning it into a manifestation of the River of Time, and thus maintaining the existence of the fourth world.

At the same time, Xu Qing understood that he could leave it at any time. With one thought, he could return to the third world if he wished. Whether it was the living third world, the painting that was the second world, or the single line that was the first world, he could descend to all of them easily.

That said... there were limitations in terms of going the opposite direction, in other words, up. Those limitations weren’t anything to do with status or identity, but rather, the level of his canon. Anyone with canon or a canon treasure could get into the fourth world. But the requirements for the fifth world were more stringent.

The canon had to be at a very high level, with its power of law immense. In other words, it required battle prowess equivalent to a Quasi-Immortal Grand Emperor. As of now, Xu Qing could sense that he was just on the cusp of being able to enter the fifth world.

I need to take my space-time to the next higher level. That will be when I can achieve a breakthrough. And that higher level will be my ninth extreme!

His eyes glittered brightly.

Xu Qing’s intuition was telling him that when his ninth extreme appeared, he would become a nine-world Smoldering God. In other words, the ninth extreme would allow him to step into that fifth world, a place reserved for either Grand Emperors or people whose canon had reached a certain level. Once he was there, he would be able to enter the fifth world, whereupon he was confident that he could...

Step into Imperial Sovereign and fight a Grand Emperor! As for my ninth extreme... after space-time is... parallelism....

The words spoken by Young Lord Aurora upon his departure were deeply moving to Xu Qing, and right now, they were like thunder rumbling in his mind. The sense of enlightenment that had begun when he heard them was now growing in intensity.

As Xu Qing sat on the River of Time, he eventually looked down at the water. He was looking at his reflection. He stared at it for a long time until... he closed his eyes.

In that instant, the reflected version of him opened his eyes! The reflection sank down toward the bottom of the river, toward the sand. Eventually, he disappeared.

Atop the river, Xu Qing sat cross-legged and unmoving.

***

Wind blew from off in the distance, bringing an immortal mist. The wind blew past the cultivators, across the immortal foyer and onto the stone stele.[1]

The stele was black, covered with moss and lichen, and seemed to emanate an extremely ancient feeling. Barely legible on the stele was writing describing the three paths leading into the immortal palace. Astonishingly, this was the entrance of the immortal palace. When cultivators came here, they had to pick their path inside.

Li Mengtu and Patriarch Diling had just arrived, along with another individual. Upon arriving at the immortal foyer, the vast majority of cultivators picked the path on the left. That was the first path, a misty little trail that seemed to be a different dimension compared to the foyer, as it was much darker. A light rain fell there, making the trail muddy.

The second path, which lay straight ahead, was much more choked with mist, although it was possible to see a bridge there. A person was slowly disappearing as he crossed the bridge away from them.

“That’s Sir Star Ring,” Li Mengtu said. “When we arrived a moment ago, I saw him walking in that direction. Which path are you planning to select, Brother Xu? If you take the trail, we can go in together.”

Patriarch Diling looked eagerly at Xu Qing to find out his plan. The person standing next to him was none other than Xu Qing!

Shockingly, he was back at the moment when the Fallen Immortal Moors had opened up, and they had just begun their journey into the immortal palace. Whether it was Li Mengtu or Patriarch Diling, they didn’t seem to think anything unusual was going on. It was as if they had no idea that they were actually in the past.

Put precisely, they had been here in another instance of space-time. Even more strange was that Xu Qing was behaving exactly as they were, as if this really was the first time he had been here. He was currently looking at the third path.

The trail. The bridge. The river.

“I think I’ll take the bridge.”

Patriarch Diling and Li Mengtu exchanged a glance.

Li Mengtu nodded, clasped hands and bowed to Xu Qing, then went to the trail on the left. Patriarch Diling seemed to want to say something, but was hesitating to do so. Ultimately, he bowed to Xu Qing and followed Li Mengtu on the trail. The two of them were soon gone.

Xu Qing was the only person left in the immortal foyer. As he stood there, he looked to the right.

After a moment of consideration, he looked away, then stepped toward the bridge.

Time passed.

Beyond the bridge was the second world. It was like a painting. Xu Qing experienced many things there, except... that he didn’t run into any sword-wielding imp. He ended up slumbering in the monster’s bucket. Eventually, some unknown disturbance caused the monster to howl with fury and empty the contents of his bucket. Xu Qing didn’t know what the disturbance was. However, he did manage to escape by the skin of his teeth.

In the third world, he ran into Li Mengtu. By teaming up, they managed to get identities in the fourth world. They entered together.

Xu Qing was not Young Lord Aurora. Instead, he was a guard at the Records Repository. He tried to change history and make some space-time waves. He succeeded to a degree, but never managed to make any big waves, as Sir Star Ring was there maintaining order.

When the wedding day came, catastrophe befell the immortal palace, just like it had historically speaking. The bubble in the starry sky popped, and everyone in the immortal palace disappeared, including Xu Qing.

He opened his eyes. He was seated cross-legged next to a tiny river. Off in the distance, as if separated by space-time, was another version of himself. That version stood next to a mighty river.

So that’s how it is....

The Xu Qing next to the stream closed his eyes.

The reflection continued to sink down. Soon... the same scene from before started to play out on the immortal foyer. Again, Xu Qing had no idea what was going on. Considering how dangerous the situation was, he decided that the safest thing would be to go with Li Mengtu and Patriarch Diling on the rainy trail.

Because of that, he didn’t experience any of the things he had experienced in the first or second world. He ended up getting into a conflict with Sir Vilespirit, which led to a bit of a grudge between them. He also befriended Zhou Zhengli. The two of them, along with Li Mengtu, worked together to get identities for the fourth world. Once in the fourth world, they experienced the drama of history.

When everything was over and the fourth world disappeared, Xu Qing opened his eyes and saw... two other versions of himself. He thought for a while and was stunned at what occurred to him.

So that’s how it is....

He closed his eyes next to the very, very tiny stream.

And yet, the reflection just kept going down. He encountered a series of currents and ripples. He became one Xu Qing after another, all in different space-times, but all at the entrance of the immortal palace. He made all sorts of choices. It was similar to his experience in the Desert of Time, when that primordial sand would shift in the wind and make different timelines. As a result, he experienced many things.

In fact, sometimes he even died! Those space-times became empty voids.

Some of the reflections solved problems in ways that Xu Qing normally didn’t. Murder. Massacre. Robbery. There was a lot of variety.

His experiences varied because of that. In some cases, he teamed up with Sir Vilespirit. Other times he worked with Hordeslayer and Rampart. There were times when he didn’t go to the fourth world at all. There were even instances in which Xu Qing became friends with Sir Star Ring, and helped him to maintain order.

After each experience ended, a new flow of water would appear outside, where Xu Qing remained seated cross-legged on the majestic river. More and more streams of water appeared around him. Some were big, some were small. Upon each one sat Xu Qing. They became a vast, densely packed host of rivers. There were countless versions of Xu Qing and countless rivers, filling the void.

Then the wind blew, and the primordial sand stirred, and the original version of Xu Qing opened his eyes.

“Unify!” he said softly.

All of the countless versions of Xu Qing opened their eyes... and looked at him! All of the gazes unified, and then... poured into him. Next, the countless rivers surged... and joined the original river!

The river water raged, and Xu Qing’s mind spun. It was as if his heart had opened up. His eyes were no longer obscured.

Countless egos became an id. Countless rivers became a great sea!

At that moment, the ninth extreme was born!

Extreme parallelism!

Everything shook dramatically as Xu Qing’s ninth world formed right in front of him. His cultivation base skyrocketed! He went from being an eight-world Smoldering God into being a nine-world Smoldering God. That was the ultimate limit for Smoldering Gods! His canon also broke through to a higher level!

As it happened, he rose to his feet atop the space-time sea. Looking off into the distance, he lifted his foot... and took a step!

His destination was a place that only people with Quasi-Immortal Grand Emperor battle prowess could enter. The fifth world. And that was where he could complete his breakthrough. When his foot dropped, everything blurred and distorted. Surpassing all shackles, he passed through the wall and entered... the fifth world!

A dazzlingly beautiful sight met his eyes. He saw vortexes, some large and some small, like galaxies or gruish eyes. They went on seemingly forever.

Despite how majestic it was, Xu Qing was able to see all the vortexes and all the details. And he was also able to perceive the fact that, in some of the vortexes, people sat cross-legged.

One of them was Sir Star Ring, but there were others he was not familiar with. Based on their auras, they were Quasi-Immortals. The people all had strange and dream-like images flowing around them.

It looked like Sir Star Ring was in the middle of a breakthrough. Sir Star Ring seemed to notice Xu Qing looking at him, as he opened his eyes. The moment he saw Xu Qing, his face filled with an uncontrollable incredulity.

“What are you doing here??”

1. “Wind blew from off in the distance...” and the things that happen after that are what happened starting in chapter 1139. ☜