Outside Of Time

472 Ghost Face on joss papers

As the stench assaulted his face, a cold light appeared in Xu Qing’s eyes. He quickly retreated. He didn’t want to waste time entangled with this zombie old man.

Now that he had the fragments, he didn’t want to stay any longer.

However, the zombie quickly chased after him. The baleful aura emitted by its body became increasingly dense. It was obvious that it wouldn’t rest until it died.

Xu Qing observed the zombie old man closely with a sharp glint in his eyes.

The feeling the other party gave him was somewhat similar to the Sea Corpse Race. However, its joints weren’t agile, but the hardness and recovery ability of its body were even more exaggerated.

It also possessed some undying characteristics.

“There’s no heartbeat, no blood, and it lacks intelligence. It looks more like a mutated cultivator than a ferocious beast. Moreover, its body is filled with traces of time.”

“It doesn’t seem to have any spiritual energy, but its aura and the wind it stirs contain poison. This poison belongs to the category of corpse poison and mainly has the effect of rotting.”

“Its body is powerful and its combat strength is at the four palaces. Coupled with its recovery power and undying characteristic, it’s infinitely close to the five palaces.”

Xu Qing’s body swayed. When he dodged the zombie old man’s pounce again, he had already analyzed the other party thoroughly.

“Its speed is slightly slower than mine. If I use the Poison Restriction, I can kill it. However, this is a little wasteful.”

“Its poison isn’t bad, and its fingernails look like very good refining materials.”

“If I can find the source of its regeneration, its value will be even greater. My time won’t be wasted in vain.”

While Xu Qing was analyzing inwardly, the zombie old man was becoming irritable because it couldn’t touch Xu Qing. It suddenly opened its mouth and spat at Xu Qing.

A black fog churned out of his mouth and rapidly enveloped Xu Qing.

“I’ll suppress it first and take its parts out one by one.” Xu Qing made a decision. Although his figure was drowned by the poison mist, at the next instant, the poison mist suddenly exploded in all directions.

A shocking aura erupted from within, causing the poison mist to seem to be swept away by a violent wind. As it rapidly spread out, an afterimage moved out of the poison mist.

The figure’s speed exceeded the limit that could be seen by the naked eye and even surpassed the perception of the zombie old man. It only noticed that the poison mist had exploded. In the next breath, its body let out a boom and was suddenly blasted back by a huge force that came from its front.

It collided with the wall of the deep pit thousands of feet away.

The mud wall shook and the zombie old man’s body caved in. Just as it was about to struggle, a black palm landed on its face and pressed down fiercely.

With another boom, its head was completely pressed against the wall. No matter how it struggled, it was useless.

It was also at this moment that the owner of the black palm appeared beside the zombie old man.

It was a pitch-black figure. Its clothes, skin, and everything else were black.

At that moment, the black color rapidly gathered between the figure’s glabella and finally transformed into an eye, revealing the true appearance of the figure. It was none other than Xu Qing.

After fusing with the shadow, Xu Qing lost the ability to cast spells. However, in exchange, he gained extreme physical power. His physical combat strength surpassed the four Heavenly Palaces and reached the peak of the five palaces.

In his eyes, the speed of the zombie old man was extremely slow. He expressionlessly lifted his right hand and grabbed the zombie old man’s fingers. With a cracking sound, he broke his ten pitch-black and sharp fingernails one by one.

After some thought, his right index finger landed on the zombie’s neck and slowly slid down, as though he was searching. Finally, it stopped at the zombie’s chest and suddenly penetrated it.

Very soon, he dug out a fist-sized black fog.

This ball of fog contained dense corpse poison.

After doing this, Xu Qing searched again, wanting to find the source of the zombie’s regeneration.

However, at this moment, after losing the black fog, the trembling zombie suddenly paused and instantly rotted, turning into black blood that flowed down the sunken wall of the deep pit.

When Xu Qing saw this scene, the shadow eye on his glabella spread out and covered his entire body. After it covered him again, it transformed into the appearance of a coffin and Xu Qing’s figure walked out.

“This black fog doesn’t only contain poison but also the strange power that supports the existence of this zombie?” Xu Qing fell into deep thought. He kept the fingernails and the black fog and continued forward.

The surroundings became increasingly pitch-black, the stench grew increasingly strong, and the cold feeling grew even more intense. In the silence, only the faintly discernible sounds of singing continued to ring out.

It was filled with resentment, despair, etherealism, and mournfulness.

This sound continued to invade Xu Qing’s entire body, causing him to feel increasingly uncomfortable. Moreover, he couldn’t block out the sound.

He landed on a protruding rock wall and he lowered his head to look at the darkness below.

“How deep is this place?” Xu Qing mumbled and continued to fall. After more than an hour, his figure suddenly paused and his pupils contracted as he looked down.

Hundreds of feet below, Xu Qing saw dozens of corpses floating in the air.

One of them was a small sect cultivator who had reached 10,000 feet on the Absolute Beginning Separation Pillar.

However, it wasn’t the youth who attacked Xu Qing but another youth.

As for the other corpses, Xu Qing saw cultivators of the Eight Sects Alliance and disciples of the Grand Affairs Immortal Sect among them.

These people had all died here. The strange thing was… their faces were covered in yellow joss papers.

The faces under the joss papers were green and filled with malevolence, as though they had experienced extreme pain before they died. There were even a few people who were holding teleportation jade slips in their hands. It was as though the accident happened too suddenly and they didn’t have time to teleport.

On the mud walls around them, dozens of Absolute Beginning Separation Pillar fragments were shining. Xu Qing could even imagine that there were definitely other fragments in the storage bags of these people.

After all, these people were the first to leave after they entered the deep pit.

However, Xu Qing didn’t act rashly. On one hand, everything looked like a trap. On the other hand, there were joss papers fluttering around these corpses.

They flew around like yellow paper butterflies, moving up and down with the air emitted by the deep pit below.

Just as Xu Qing was staring at it, these yellow joss papers suddenly stopped in the air and rose in unison. They were like ghost faces as they looked at the place Xu Qing was at.

Being watched by so many joss papers was enough to make one’s hair stand on end.

A sharp glint flashed in Xu Qing’s eyes. The joss papers whistled through the air in unison and headed straight for him. There were even waves of joyous sounds coming from the joss papers.

These laughter revealed bizarreness and even greed. It was as though they yearned for flesh and blood and souls. They were extremely fast and got close almost instantly.

The instant they got close, Xu Qing lifted his right hand and pressed down.

With this push, the power of his three Heavenly Palaces erupted. The Golden Crow manifested behind him and let out a hiss. It flapped its wings and stirred up flames that swept in all directions, wanting to burn these joss papers.

...

The joss papers were instantly thrown back and couldn’t get close. However, not only did the strange laughter not disappear, but it also became clearer.

Immediately after, these joss papers actually gathered together and formed a huge paper cicada.

The wings were also formed from joss paper. The paper cicada spread its wings and fluttered rapidly, emitting a buzzing sound. The laughter from the joss papers also became a voice that echoed with the help of the flapping of its wings.

“You, are you hungry? Do you want to eat me?”

This sound was sinister and ear-piercing. When this sound wave reached Xu Qing, it actually caused the flames in Xu Qing’s surroundings to tumble back.

This paper cicada took the opportunity to move toward Xu Qing. Countless ghost faces appeared on its body, all of them revealing greed and desire.

“Eat me, eat me, eat me…”

The sounds were densely packed and continued to echo, rushing into Xu Qing’s mind like invisible spikes.

A cold glint appeared in Xu Qing’s eyes. Just as he was about to attack, his expression suddenly darkened and he retreated abruptly.

Almost at the instant he retreated, the mud wall of the deep pit at the side suddenly blurred. A huge centipede that was 100 feet wide directly passed through the mud wall of the deep pit. Its target wasn’t Xu Qing but… the paper cicada that was emitting the demonic sound.

This centipede looked sinister and emitted a strong stench of rotting. Its body was translucent and seemed illusory.

...

Its speed was so fast that in the blink of an eye, the huge centipede bit the paper cicada and arrived at the other end of the mud wall of the deep pit. Its body twisted as it lay there, biting and swallowing the cicada with all its might.

There was a figure sitting on the back of the centipede. It was a woman. Her lower body had fused into the centipede and seemed to have grown together.

Her exposed upper body was naked and her long black hair covered her body.

She was holding a comb. As she combed her hair, she burped and spat out a piece of joss papers that hadn’t been digested. She turned her body and looked in Xu Qing’s direction. She then lifted the joss papers and smiled.

“It’s very delicious. Aren’t you eating it?”

Xu Qing was vigilant. This scene was too bizarre. He had a faint feeling that the other party wasn’t talking to him but was looking behind him.

Behind him, a black coffin rose, emitting waves of ominous aura.

That was the shadow appearing on its own after being stimulated. A large number of eyes appeared on it and stared fixedly at the joss papers in the woman’s hand, blinking continuously.

“What do you mean by blinking? Are you looking at this?” The woman on the centipede looked at the joss papers in her hand.

However, at this moment, a strange thing happened. A ghost face suddenly appeared on the joss papers in the woman’s hand and smiled at the woman.

“Are you full?”

As soon as it finished speaking, the centipede that the woman was in trembled. Countless joss papers could be seen with the naked eye. These joss papers filled the centipede’s entire body, causing it to instantly lose its translucent state and turn into a paper centipede.

At that moment, ghost faces appeared on all the joss papers. They laughed one after another and said the same thing.

“Are you full?”