Beyond the Timescape

Chapter 593: Extracting Suns from the Ancient Yin Sacrifice River

The entire Moonrite Region was surrounded by the Yin Sacrifice River, with the exception of a mountain range in the northwest that connected to another region. The river was almost like a sealing mark that encircled the region and trapped all the living beings inside.

The area where Xu Qing had just arrived was in the southwest. There were unbroken chains of mountains here and not much vegetation. Because of being so close to the river, the wind brought with it an aroma of death and decay that filled the area.

However, the bizarre dialogue that the wind brought with it changed the dark and gloomy atmosphere into something a bit different than before. An odd expression appeared on Xu Qing’s face, all while Ling’er poked her head out of his sleeve.

“What are they doing, Big Bro Xu Qing?” Ling’er then covered her face with the hem of Xu Qing’s sleeve.

Li Youfei had been wondering this whole time where they were going. Being so close to the Yin Sacrifice River, and hearing the voices carried to them, he also had a strange, uneasy expression on his face, and he even backed up a few steps. Although it seemed unlikely, he couldn’t help but wonder if this all had something to do with why Xu Qing had given him all of those painquelling lozenges, and maybe even his reason for refusing that clay fox.

No, it can’t be... Li Youfei thought, trembling in the depths of his being.

Xu Qing had no way of understanding why Li Youfei was so apprehensive.

There were warding spells here. Not only did they provide the concealment of invisibility, but also, they isolated this area and cut off both sound and sight.

Now that Xu Qing was close enough, he could tell that the Captain had used his blood to set all of this up to allow for Xu Qing to be able to enter without any trouble. Looking thoughtful, Xu Qing took a few steps forward, squatted down, and put his hand on the ground. He could sense that he was right on top of one of the warding spell eyes. Brushing the sand aside, he revealed an eye, which looked at him and blinked a few times. There were other similar eyes in the area. There were also blue worms wriggling in the sand. The area in question was a good 500 kilometers wide.

When Li Youfei saw all of that, he shivered as if facing a powerful enemy. To him, this area seemed far more gruish than the white wind in the desert.

Meanwhile, Xu Qing was already speculating about what was going on.

When we parted last, Eldest Brother said he had a ‘small job’ to handle.... What exactly is he doing that requires warding spells covering a 500-kilometer area? [1]

As he pondered that, the eyes and worms stirred, emanating emotional fluctuations. At the same time, the Captain’s voice rang out.

“Hahaha! You’re here, little Ah Qing! Hurry over here and help pull!”

Xu Qing still had a strange expression on his face, but without the slightest hesitation, he hurried forward. As he did, the eyes and worms parted to make a path for him.

As he proceeded, the vicious dialogue and the panting grew clearer. After less time passed than it takes half an incense stick to burn, he experienced a sensation similar to passing through a curtain of water. Then everything became clear.

The first thing that attracted his attention was a colossal object on the river bank. It was a huge structure shaped like a door frame, crafted from bronze-colored stone. It was fully 9,000 meters tall and 3,000 meters wide. It loomed over the riverbank like an ancient giant, emanating pressure that was both shocking and majestic. Xu Qing saw innumerable ancient magical symbols covering it, and just looking at it left him feeling shaken.

Inside of the door frame, there wasn’t an actual door. Instead, it was a massive object formed of concentric rings of black metal. The rings on the top and bottom were the smallest, with those in the middle being the largest. It almost looked like a huge spring. It was mottled with rust, and some parts of it dripped with red river water. Apparently, it had been submerged in the river for a very long time.

Xu Qing couldn’t even begin to guess what he was looking at. Looking off to the side, he saw the Captain, Wu Jianwu, and Ning Yan, lined up in a row.

The Captain was in the front, holding a vine, bent over and gasping for breath as he pulled as hard as possible. Behind him was Wu Jianwu and a host of his children, all of them similarly pulling on the vine. Ning Yan was last in line, sitting on the ground with his legs splayed and his feet in the sand, moaning and howling as he tugged on the vine coming from his belly.

“Don’t! It’s really gonna break....”

The vine extended from his belly all the way into the Yin Sacrifice River up ahead.

As all of them pulled, the river water seethed. It was just barely possible to see some massive, circular object underneath the water, slowly being pulled up.

“Hurry up and help, little Ah Qing!” the Captain yelled, sweat pouring down his face as he pulled hard on the vine.

Wu Jianwu also gasped for breath as he looked over at Xu Qing.

Sounding helpless and hopeless, Ning Yan howled, “Help me, Biggest Bro....”

Meanwhile, a streak of light shot away from Xu Qing. It was the parrot. The host of tiny, new feathers that were starting to grow out on him made him look extremely ugly. It took only a moment for him to land on Wu Jianwu’s shoulder. Looking like a child who had just escaped the clutches of a fiendish devil, he started crying.

“Daddy, I thought I would never see you again!”

However, before he could go into detail about everything he’d gone through, his daddy knocked him to the side with his head and shouted, “Grab the rope and pull!”

The parrot was both stunned and indignant at how horrible the world was. However, since his daddy had told him to do something, he had no choice. Just like the hapless Ning Yan, he had to start pulling as hard as he could.

Although Xu Qing had some misgivings, he walked over to the Captain, grabbed the vine, and pulled.

Li Youfei hurried to help as well, flashing a smile at Wu Jianwu, looking curiously at Ning Yan, and glancing at the Captain, all while trying to figure out which of the three ranked highest in seniority.

With their help, there was a lot more pulling power. The water seethed, and rumbling sounds rang out as a huge circular ring appeared at the edge of the river.

“What is that thing, Eldest Brother?” Xu Qing asked as he pulled.

The Captain took a few gasping breaths, but couldn’t hold back from proudly saying, “You certainly took your time getting here, little Ah Qing. But that’s fine. There’s still time. See that big door frame behind us? Hahaha! Wanna guess what it is?”

Xu Qing shook his head and looked puzzled.

Upon noticing Xu Qing’s facial expression, the Captain laughed heartily.

“It’s a sun! The Moonrite Region used to have nine artificial suns, but three of them fell from the sky. You know about that, right? Well, that door frame is one of those suns that perished! And what we’re pulling on is another of the three fallen suns. This is the small job I came here to handle. In spring, I planted the seed. Now it’s autumn, and the time has come to harvest three suns!”

As a matter of fact, the Captain had tracked down all three of those ancient fallen suns in a past life, and had even gone so far as to repair them. Then he hid them in the Yin Sacrifice River.

Xu Qing, meanwhile, was shaken, and couldn’t help but look back at the huge door. Never could he have imagined that the thing was actually an artificial sun.

“It’s all thanks to Ning Yan. Hahaha! I knew it from the very beginning. The little punk does have an amazing bloodline. After I put that vine into him, then blessed it, it’s able to resist the corroding effects of the Yin Sacrifice River.”

The Captain tugged hard on the vine. Further back, Ning Yan heard the Captain’s words, and an angry look appeared on his face. By now, he regretted nothing more in life than his decision to go to Sea-Sealing County. If he hadn’t gone to Sea-Sealing County, he would never have gotten to know Chen Erniu. And if he didn’t get to know Chen Erniu, then he would have avoided a lot of misery. That couldn’t be truer of the current moment. Inside, he was trembling with fear at the thought of Xu Qing’s grip faltering, which could easily result in himself getting dragged into the river. That said, on his adventures with Chen Erniu, he had eaten a lot of very interesting things, and was now on the verge of breaking into the Nascent Soul level....

“Everybody, crank it up!” the Captain shouted.

They pulled harder. Water sprayed everywhere as the huge item finally broke the surface and neared the shore.

It was massive, being over 9,000 meters tall. And it radiated immense pressure. As it got closer, Xu Qing was finally able to see clearly what it looked like. It was a massive ring, and though it was covered with red water, he could tell that it was actually the color white. Most gruish of all was that the middle part of the huge ring was filled with countless person-shaped statues. They were standing on the ring itself, hands clasped with each other to form an inner ring. However, the ring they formed wasn’t complete. Xu Qing could see that there was one statue missing, creating a gap.

“Little Roundy, get out here and pull your dad!” the Captain shouted. Taking out the artificial sun he’d taken from the Lonesuns, he added it to the effort. As water blasted everywhere with mountain-toppling, sea-draining force, the huge ring slowly got closer and closer. About an hour later, they finally managed to pull it out.

When it landed with a massive thump on the shore, Ning Yan sagged to the ground. Wu Jianwu did the same. In contrast, the Captain, despite looking exhausted, ran over and ran his hands over the surface of the ring, his eyes shining fanatically.

“Little Ah Qing, do you know this thing's name? It’s Big Roundy!”

Xu Qing approached and looked at the massive ring. He couldn’t help but feel admiration for whatever species it was that created this thing.

“Help me push it over to Big Boxy, little Ah Qing.”

The Captain excitedly started pushing, and Xu Qing joined. Together, they managed to roll the gigantic ring across the sand to a spot right next to the huge door frame. There, they dropped down and sat on the riverbank, huffing and puffing.

Xu Qing looked at the two colossal items. He sighed. “Eldest Brother, are you sure this is the ‘small job’ you mentioned?”

The Captain laughed heartily and threw his arm around Xu Qing’s shoulders.

“Of course it’s a small job. Once we’re finished here, it’s off to the Bitter Life Mountains. And that’s where... we’ll do something really big! By the way, little Ah Qing, how did things work out for you over there?”

“Alright,” Xu Qing replied. “I opened a little medicine shop.”

“Medicine shop?” the Captain said, his eyes glittering. “Not bad! I bet you need a shopkeeper, don’t you?”

Ling’er poked her head out. “No, we don’t!”

The Captain chuckled, looked at Xu Qing and Ling’er, and then nodded knowingly. Clearing his throat, he continued, “Forget about that for now. There’s still a big fellow at the bottom of the river. Let’s rest up, then we’ll start pulling again. Let me tell you, little Ah Qing, this last one is not going to be simple! It’s the very first artificial sun created in the Moonrite Region. There’s even a story that says it comes from the time of the Imperial Sovereign.”

Off to the side by Wu Jianwu was Li Youfei, who was feeling shaken to the core. Being a native of the Moonrite Region, he obviously knew about the artificial suns. To have personally seen one dragged out into the open was something outright shocking.

Are all of the grandmaster’s friends this terrifying?

They rested for a bit, but not long enough for Li Youfei to overcome his shock.

At that point, the Captain stood. Heading toward Ning Yan, he excitedly called, “Time to get to work, everybody! This is the last fellow to pull out. Let’s go!”

As Ning Yan looked pleadingly at the Captain, the Captain patted his shoulder.

“This is the last one, Big Ningning. I promise you, we’ll get that thing I said I would get for you. It’ll definitely push your bloodline so high it’ll surpass your own father’s!”

Ning Yan looked back at the Captain suspiciously.

Grinning enigmatically, the Captain grabbed Ning Yan’s vine and tossed it into the river.

Xu Qing still felt a bit apprehensive, but he walked over to join the Captain nonetheless.

The Captain laughed heartily. Feeling warmth in his heart, he said, “You’re the best, little Junior Brother. You really do care about your Eldest Brother. Earlier, Ningning and Jianjian just watched while I jumped in the river. Neither of them came with me! Alright, let’s do it!”

With that, the Captain ran forward and jumped into the river. Xu Qing followed. Both of them unleashed the power of their cultivation base to fight back against the power of the water as they dropped down toward the bottom of the river. The Captain’s method of protecting himself involved blue light shining all around him. Xu Qing did things a bit more simply. He just sent out the power of the violet moon. And thus, the two of them sped downward.

The river was dark, and the blood-red color grew deeper as they went down. There were corpses everywhere.

Xu Qing saw the rotting corpse of a girl floating by, eyes open. Ignoring it, he continued down.

There were terrifying entities in the river, but the Captain’s blue light and Xu Qing’s violet moon authority cowed them. None of them dared launch an attack.

Time slipped by slowly but surely. With the Captain guiding it, Ning Yan’s vine extended down with them as they neared the bottom of the river. It was hard to say how much time passed. Eventually, a huge sphere appeared below, many thousands of meters in size. It was in bad shape, with lots of damage, as if it had gone through a battle. Its rusty surface added to the extremely ancient feeling it imparted.

Anyone who looked at it would feel a sense of decay thanks to the countless years it had witnessed. This was indeed the very first artificial sun that the Imperial Sovereign had created for the Moonrite Region.

“We’re here!” the Captain said to Xu Qing via hand signs. With Xu Qing to keep an eye on the area, the Captain neared the huge sphere with the vine in hand.

Xu Qing kept watch vigilantly.

***

Unbeknownst to Xu Qing and the Captain, there was someone seated cross-legged in the ancient, rusty sphere! He was gaunt and wizened, and wore a brown robe. His skin was covered with countless veins that vaguely resembled mountain ranges. Long gray hair floated around him, which slowly became deceased souls that drifted in the sphere.

As the Captain and Xu Qing neared the sphere, he opened his eyes, and they shone with blue light that could shock the soul.

He was none other than the Heir Apparent! As he looked out of the sphere, a strange expression appeared on his face.

1. The Captain mentioned the ‘small job’ in chapter 579.1. ☜