Beyond the Timescape

Chapter 596: Crimson Mother’s Mortal Flesh

The sky above the Moonrite Region was like a permanent evening. Even at nighttime, there were no stars, no sun, and no moon. It was as if a black sheet had been spread over the dome of heaven, covering all living things and obstructing the eyesight of all beings.

Right now, undetectable ripples flowed through that night sky. Within those ripples was a huge artificial sun. It was none other than Little Roundy.

The Heir Apparent had declined to use Wu Jianwu’s bear as a mount, so the Captain ended up taking out Little Roundy instead.

The Heir Apparent was actually quite pleased with the artificial sun. With the wave of his hand, he concealed it with invisibility, and as a group, they sped in the direction of the Bitter Life Mountains.

The atmosphere was tense inside the sun.

Ning Yan sat still, his back straight, but unable to refrain from trembling. Despite being in pain from head to toe, he had been shaking for the better part of a day now. Like a mortal facing a tiger, he simply couldn’t calm his heart and mind as he sat there.

Wu Jianwu was in a similar state. He hardly dared to breathe too loudly.

Li Youfei was even more on edge. After coming to his own conclusion about the cultivation base of this ‘grandpa,’ his apprehension and terror turned into beads of sweat that rolled down him constantly. He could hardly breathe. The suffocating feeling filled him with even more reverence for Xu Qing than before. In fact, that reverence had reached a peak level that seemed difficult to surpass.

In his mind, this grandmaster truly was a grandmaster. Not only did he have a mysterious background and accomplish unimaginable things, but also, he was acquainted with Smoldering Gods.... Li Youfei had heard of that cultivation level before, but during his entire life, had never seen a dead one, let alone a living one. Truth be told, he hadn’t even seen a scrap of hair from such a being. As he thought about that, he couldn’t help but glance at Xu Qing.

Xu Qing was currently sitting next to the Heir Apparent. Few people would dare to sit in a position like that, and in reality, Xu Qing hadn’t intended to. But the Heir Apparent had beckoned him over.

As a result, Xu Qing had no choice but to steel himself and sit down there.

As for the Captain... he was one of those ‘few people,’ so he did dare to sit there. He fanned the Heir Apparent nonstop and hadn’t let up with his fawning behavior. “How’s the airflow, grandpa? Okay? Would you like more?”

The Heir Apparent grunted an affirmative response.

The Captain immediately started waving the fan a bit harder.

Xu Qing’s hair stirred as he sat next to the Heir Apparent. He understood exactly why the Captain was working so hard, and even cast him an encouraging look. The Captain saw that and waved the fan even harder.

The Heir Apparent was looking at the floor. The Captain, Ning Yan, and Wu Jianwu had lived in this sun for quite a while now. As was expected, the spot where three grown men had been camping out for such a long time was quite a mess. That was even more the case considering that Wu Jianwu had all his animals with him.

Noting what the Heir Apparent was looking at, the Captain opened his mouth to speak. Before he could, the trembling Ning Yan rushed forward with a rag to clean the floor.

The speed with which he acted prompted a profound gleam to appear in the Captain’s eyes.

Ning Yan wasn’t paying attention to the Captain, though. For all he knew, this ‘grandpa’ might be his future patron and supporter, the person to save him from the sea of suffering he wallowed in currently. As long as he served this new master well, it was entirely possible that the Captain might be too scared to cause problems for him. Thanks to his frantic efforts, the place was soon much cleaner.

The Heir Apparent looked pleased.

Thinking back to certain people he remembered, and how they looked in situations like this, Ning Yan quickly tucked his hands into the opposite sleeves and plastered a smile onto his face. [1]

“Grandpa, sir,” Ning Yan said, “if there’s anything you find displeasing, please just let your humble servant know. Your humble servant will immediately take care of it.”

The Heir Apparent looked at Ning Yan with a glimmer of reminiscence in his eyes, as if Ning Yan reminded him of an old friend. His expression softened.

“Your bloodline is fairly strong. If you keep working hard, there’s no limit to what you can do with it.”

Hearing that caused Ning Yan’s heart to swell with excitement, and he bowed deeply to the Heir Apparent.

Wu Jianwu noticed all of that and suddenly felt nervous. Before he could do anything, though, the parrot flew over and cautiously landed on the ‘grandpa’s’ knee. Wu Jianwu’s heart swelled with apprehension, and he wondered if the parrot was intentionally trying to get killed.

However, the Heir Apparent didn’t seem to mind. Looking at the parrot, he smiled. “Your bloodline is even more interesting.”

When the parrot realized that the Heir Apparent wasn’t shooing him away, he got a bit excited.

“When grandpa shows up, ya’ll are stinky schmears; call grandpa’s name and grandpa is here!”

The ridiculous poetry caused Wu Jianwu to inhale sharply, and start trembling inwardly at the fear that he might be implicated. However, the Heir Apparent just smiled again.

“Back in the day, your ancestor didn’t talk like an Ancient Emperor.”

Hearing that, the parrot gushed, “My ancestor is a stinky schmear! Grandpa’s the best! Grandpa’s the most awesome! Long live grandpa!”

The Heir Apparent grinned and petted the parrot’s bald head. He clearly liked the parrot.

The parrot looked profoundly deferential as he let the Heir Apparent pet him. Then he looked around until his gaze settled on Ning Yan.

“Hey! Little Ningy! Why isn’t this place spotless yet, huh? Are you blind or something? From now on, whenever grandpa is around, you’d better make sure this place is spick and span!”

Ning Yan looked at the parrot. The parrot looked back disdainfully.

Saying nothing, Ning Yan went back to scrubbing the floor.

When the parrot realized that Ning Yan wasn’t talking back, he got a bit more daring. Glaring at the Captain, he said, “And you. Niu what’s-your-name. What kind of fanning is that supposed to be? Haven’t eaten today or something? How weak! Also, why are we going so slow? You’re only using one hand to fan grandpa, so feel free to use your other hand to fan the flames and get this sun moving faster!”

The Captain stopped fanning and looked at the parrot.

The parrot glared at him derisively.

The Captain’s eyes narrowed and he opened his mouth to speak. Before he could, the Heir Apparent suddenly said, “You’re the one who came to the Heavenfire Sea back then.” [2]

The Captain’s heart suddenly started pounding. Shaking his head, he said, “That wasn’t me. Definitely not.”

The Heir Apparent looked deeply at the Captain but didn’t say anything further.

The Captain breathed an inner sigh of relief. Then he waved his left hand to produce a second fan. “You’re very perceptive, little parrot. Thanks for the reminder. I’ll speed things up, Grandpa.”

With that, he started fanning with both hands, and the sun sped up a bit. [3]

When the parrot saw Chen Erniu obeying and the Heir Apparent being so encouraging, he felt extremely proud, and got even braver. He felt like this was the pinnacle of bird life, and that it was his moment to shine. Therefore, he ordered his dad to come over and massage grandpa. Then he glared at Xu Qing and prepared to exact revenge.

“Now there’s you, Little Qingy. We’ve got a long trip ahead of us, so get up and do a little dance for us. Grandpa here needs some entertainment!”

Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu surreptitiously looked over to see what would happen. The Captain smiled mysteriously.

Meanwhile, no expression at all could be seen on Xu Qing’s face as he looked back at the parrot.

Sounding profoundly arrogant, the parrot said, “Hey, did you— ack!?”

Before the parrot could say anything else, it flopped onto the ground and coughed up a huge mouthful of blood.

“How’d you poison me?”

Xu Qing calmly ignored the parrot and turned to the Heir Apparent. Sounding very respectful, he said, “Senior, you mentioned earlier some information about the Red Moon Cathedral that relates to me. Sir, do you mind sharing some of the details?”

The Heir Apparent glanced at the parrot. Smiling, he reached out and stroked it gently. Then, a strange look appeared in his eyes as he turned his attention back to Xu Qing.

Xu Qing understood what the look in his eyes meant, so he said, “It’s a trump card my Master gave me. It’s a curse poison from a god.”

The Heir Apparent smiled enigmatically. Considering that he now looked like a kindly old man, his smile made him seem like an elderly person in the presence of younger family members.

Xu Qing made sure to keep a very respectful expression on his face.

A moment passed, and the Heir Apparent began to speak in a hoarse voice that filled the interior of the sun.

“You previously mentioned that we have a common enemy in Crimson Mother. I’m not sure what your Master’s plan is, but regardless, if you want to deal with Crimson Mother, the first step is to handle the Red Moon Cathedral. My most recent trip there was not just to deal with a personal grudge. I also wanted to see what sort of reserve powers Crimson Mother has given to the cathedral.”

The ears of Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu both perked up, and the Captain looked on, blinking.

“When we spoke before, the heavenly dao prevented you from hearing everything I said. But presumably you remember some of the things I told you. Crimson Mother, before reaching godly ascension, was killed by my father.”

Everyone present was visibly shaken by the words spoken by the Heir Apparent. That was especially true of Li Youfei. As a local, hearing this shocking information was enough to leave him reeling.

“The reserve power left to the Red Moon Cathedral by Crimson Mother is none other than the husk shē shed upon transforming from a mortal into a god! It contains raw power from the red moon, and it forms the nucleus of the cathedral. With it around, the cathedral cannot be destroyed.

“Anyone who gets too close to it will be absorbed. They’ll lose their identity and become a believer in Crimson Mother. Not even cultivators from the Red Moon Cathedral dare to touch it. All they can do is enshrine and worship it. The godchild can use it to seek instructions from Crimson Mother. However, because Crimson Mother is currently sleeping, it won’t work.

“The only person who can make it work... is you.”

As Xu Qing considered the words, the Captain’s eyebrows raised slightly. However, the Heir Apparent didn’t say anything further.

Days passed. Wu Jianwu, Ning Yan, and Li Youfei slowly got used to the presence of the Heir Apparent, but all of them were still very nervous and couldn’t relax.

The Heir Apparent cleansed the parrot of poison, who eventually got back into high spirits. The parrot was clearly afraid of Xu Qing, but had no qualms about being arrogant and bossy with everyone else. On many occasions, Ning Yan gritted his teeth in response to the parrot’s words. The Captain frequently smiled grimly. With the Heir Apparent present, no one dared to act out of turn. That said, the parrot wasn’t an idiot. When the Heir Apparent rested, he would stay very close by. There were never any chances to do anything to the parrot. However, the Captain wasn’t going to forget any of this.

When the Heir Apparent was resting, the Captain started doing something new. In Xu Qing’s presence, he would take out a mirror, go inside of it, and then come back out shortly after.

Every time he did that, he would look proudly at Xu Qing, hoping to see some surprise on his face.

Xu Qing never looked surprised. But the Captain didn’t give up, so Xu Qing eventually sighed inwardly and asked the question he knew the Captain wanted to hear.

“Eldest Brother, what have you been doing with that mirror?”

Hearing that, the Captain laughed heartily. At long last he’d gotten the reaction he’d hoped for. “Given how much time you spent in the Bitter Life Mountains, I bet you know exactly what I’ve been doing. You’re probably just so depressed that it took you a while to ask me. Am I right? Hahaha! You guessed correctly. I’ve joined the Moonrebel Congregation!”

Clasping Xu Qing’s shoulder and giving him a knowing smile, the Captain continued, “I get it, little Ah Qing. You probably tried the same thing in the Bitter Life Mountains, except you got stuck in the second subtest. With the red moon authority you have, there’s no way you’ll pass it. What a shame you can’t see the scenery there. Listen to this. Something really big happened in the Moonrebel Congregation recently. An alchemy grandmaster showed up!” Smiling mysteriously, he lowered his voice. “Nobody knows where this grandmaster came from. But guess what? Thanks to my hard work, I actually became friends with him.”

Xu Qing hesitated briefly, wondering if the Captain was actually talking about himself. He was about to ask for clarification when the Captain proudly kept talking.

“But let’s not get into that. In a bit, I’ll tell you some stories about me and the grandmaster. The reason I bring this up is that I accepted a mission from the Moonrebel Congregation. For the past few days, I’ve been working on completing that mission. The reward is going to be amazing when I do. And with grandpa here, we have nothing to be afraid of, so I’ve been working even harder than normal!”

Xu Qing was familiar with the way the Captain always tried to take advantage of every asset available, so he wasn’t surprised by any of this.

“What mission?” he asked.

Speaking in a near-whisper, the Captain answered, “There’s an unlucky cultivator from the Moonrebel Congregation who cultivates some technique called the Ultimate Poison Resistance Body. However, he actually ended up being severely poisoned and had to go into seclusion. He hasn’t even moved since then.

“That cultivator is desperate for a way to dispel the poison. He’s basically on his deathbed. It’s so bad that he went so far as to reveal his actual location, and issued a mission to ask for help.”

1. Ning Yan is obviously acting like a palace servant, or the servant of a rich person. Putting the hands into the sleeves is how they would look when standing by waiting for orders. It looks like this. ☜

2. The Heir Apparent is referring to what he mentioned back in chapter 560.2, about another person who came to see him when he was in the coffin at the bottom of the Heavenfire Sea. There are other references to that conversation in this chapter, so you can use this same link if you want to check back. ☜

3. Obviously I don’t need to explain that fanning flames will make them burn higher. For me, the image of someone literally using a fan to stoke flames is a very Chinese thing. Back in China, it’s common to see street meat vendors fanning their grills (assuming the grills use charcoal or wood). Sometimes you also see the same thing in restaurants when they cook meat tableside over open flame. Actually, now that I think about it, that practice is getting rarer. In the city where I lived, they banned such practices a year or two before I left China, with the intent of reducing air pollution. ☜