Beyond the Timescape

Chapter 974: Natural Sounds Welcome the Moon (1)

Guru Eastnether’s words drifted out over the formation.

To Xu Qing, the raspy sound of her voice seemed to carry with it the passage of ancient time. Her explanation of countless ghosts haunting the night was definitely more detailed than what he’d learned before. Combined with what he could observe with his god perception, Xu Qing was certain... that the delicate but rotting hand was most likely the hand of the musician who had played Natural Sounds Welcome the Moon in the golden crow’s palace. It was also critical to finding the dragon chariot.

But why is Yanyan tangled up with it...?

Xu Qing looked at Yanyan. Her special constitution ensured that her body was free from mutagen. However, Xu Qing couldn’t quite figure out what about her constitution produced that result.

I bet Master could. After he’s out of seclusion, I’ll ask him. Maybe he already knows why Yanyan’s constitution is special.

After some thought, a look of determination settled on his face. Regardless of the reason, dealing with the hand would resolve the karma that had come to exist with it and Yanyan. That was the most important thing to deal with right now.

Therefore, he didn’t hesitate about what to do next. All of a sudden, the ruins in that dark section of the sea floor with innumerable evil ghosts... suddenly went silent. It wasn’t that the ghosts had ceased their howling. Instead, Xu Qing had taken away all the sound from that area!

It became his power, his killing intent, and his weapon! It turned into a gruish attack that he sent with crushing force toward the delicate hand. The noiseless seafloor went wild, as if it had been struck by a tempest. Terrifying mightiness surged from the seafloor to the surface, causing huge waves to break out.

And yet, there was no noise. There was a new master controlling all the sound in the area. The godly authority of sound was fully unleashed.

But as the strange scene developed, the eye on the hand snapped open. The pupil was crimson and radiated endless ferocity. At the same time, the fingers started moving even more frantically as if to pluck the strings of a musical instrument. Something similar to the godly authority of sound erupted from the hand.

This was different from any of the godly entities Xu Qing had encountered before. Normally speaking, godly entities had godliness and godsource, but no godly authority. In fact, of all the godly entities Xu Qing had killed recently in the Forbidden Sea, he hadn’t seen any godly authority at all. But, contrary to expectation, this severed hand did have godly authority!

An instant later, the evil ghosts whose sound Xu Qing had taken all shivered. Then, they recovered from their previous state, and the quiet seafloor suddenly exploded with the sound of piercing, ghostly shrieks. And that turned into a power that slammed into the attack Xu Qing had just unleashed.

Explosive sound swept out across the seafloor, but then, only a moment later, everything went silent again. The sound went back and forth in that manner. Everything got loud, then everything went completely silent, as the hand and Xu Qing struggled back and forth.

It was the same with the evil ghosts. Their screaming came and went in jerks and fits.

This was a battle over godly authority!

Godly battles like this were rare, and when they did occur among gods, they usually ended only with the death of one party. When two gods encountered each other who had the same type of godly authority, then the result would be a struggle over that authority.

And in this case, that struggle was over the sound of the evil ghosts. As the fighting went back and forth, many of the evil ghosts couldn’t sustain the force, and exploded.

Overall, the power of the sound seized by Xu Qing was increasing. His godly authority had been acquired in an orthodox way, partly by enlightenment and partly because of the vestige in his fleshly body’s void soil. In terms of personhood, it was at the peak. As a result, he had the advantage in this struggle.

However, though Xu Qing had the upper hand, the delicate hand’s eye, seeing that it was in a deadly situation, grew more vicious. Then veins snaked out from the blood-red pupil, filling the area around it until a blood-red tear formed.

When the tear appeared, the surrounding evil ghosts shivered, turned, and focused on Xu Qing. Then, without any pause, and without any concern that some of them instantly self-detonated as a result, they howled madly. But, just like that, the sound was taken away.

Yet again, noiselessness turned into noise, and a soundwave erupted from the blood-red tear. It turned into a blood-colored meteor that shot from the seafloor through the water, out of the surface, and toward Xu Qing in Eastnether Isle. The entire island started shaking as a result.

After having done that, the vicious eye seemed to weaken. Spinning, it swept up the thousands and thousands of surrounding ghosts and prepared to flee into the depths of the sea.

The cultivators on Eastnether Isle saw the blood-colored meteor rocketing toward them, and were rocked down to the level of their souls. Sir Bloodsmelter and Guru Eastnether had it a bit better off, but they were still shaken internally.

Xu Qing looked up at the meteor. This counter attack was by no means unexpected. Given what he knew about this severed hand, he had been prepared all along to deal with the authority of sound. After all, this hand once belonged to a musician of the sun. He had no idea why the hand of this musician survived the arrival of the broken face, nor who was controlling its will. Was it the will of the original musician, or was it some other discarnate will that had taken over?

Regardless, he had been waiting for the counterattack. He stepped up into the air, and an instant later was in front of the blood-colored meteor. There, he extended his right hand toward the night sky. There was no sun in that sky.

But that didn’t mean there was no sun in existence. It just meant that the sun that covered this area wasn’t around. In Revered Ancient, there was always a sun shining somewhere.

The Profound Sun Immortal Light Magic was capable of taking the light of more than just the sun above the head of the person using the technique. An instant later, drifting bits of dawn light floated through the night to gather around Xu Qing. The night turned bright.

Xu Qing was like an early morning sun, hovering between heaven and earth, casting light out into the cosmos. Extending his hand, he pushed toward the blood-colored meteor.

Blinding light ripped apart the night and the meteor. They were erased. Xu Qing devoured the darkness. He devoured the blood-colored light. Then, scintillating light surrounded him as he shot down into the Forbidden Sea.

The cultivators on Eastnether Isle who saw this happen were shaken to the core of their being. To them, it looked as if an actual sun had dropped into the sea. It was like a legend playing out in real life!

“The golden crow perished,” Guru Eastnether said quietly, “and the countless movements became sinister. You and I both know that the legend is probably true. Given what we just saw... I’d say it’s absolutely certain it did. And this Xu Qing... I just have to wonder how strong he’ll get eventually.”

Sir Bloodsmelter cleared his throat. “I’m not sure how strong he’ll get. But what won’t change throughout all the eons is that... he’s my grand-apprentice!”

Guru Eastnether looked quietly at Yanyan, whose infatuated eyes were fixed on the spot where Xu Qing had just disappeared. Then she said, “You haven’t visited with your grand-apprentice very often. Next time you’re here, why not invite him back...?”

The sky over Eastnether Isle was once again dark, with only a bit of flickering moonlight illuminating the scene below. There was also a bit of shimmering light coming from the water below, although it soon faded away.

***

Xu Qing was in the form of a sun as he sped along the seafloor, casting light in all directions. He was pursuing the severed hand! Along the way, he converted all sound into speed. There was a moon just barely visible in the sky, and perhaps because of his influence, it was violet, causing violet moonlight to shine down into the water.

Numerous vicious sea beasts who were too slow to get out of the way exploded. Their blood also boosted his speed. Sadly, it was a day of misfortune for those beasts.

It was also a day of misfortune for the hand and the ghosts that Xu Qing pursued. However, what was misfortune for them was good fortune for Xu Qing. He continued to accelerate.

Enough time passed for an incense stick to burn. Then, in a location on the seafloor covered by black, encompassing seaweed, the fleeing hand experienced doomsday. Dazzling brightness filled the area. Rumbling sounds could be heard as immortal light spread everywhere, filled with good fortune and the effects of the blood.

Then Xu Qing stepped onto the scene, right into the path of the hand and the ghosts. The Undying Emperor’s Fist gave rise to a tempest on the seafloor, bolstered by the same gruish attack as before. At the same time, the violet moonlight that reached the seafloor became like a sealing power.

However, the severed hand was extraordinary. In that moment of incredible danger, its eye turned ruthless and cold, and the fingers began to pluck invisible musical strings. Around it, the countless ghosts went mad and began devouring each other. In an instant, the thousands of evil ghosts ravenously reduced their own number down to... exactly one hundred![1]

The appearance of the one hundred ghosts also changed. They became more vicious as they arrayed themselves in an orderly fashion and began to howl in a way that was unlike what Xu Qing had heard before. It was the same sound from “countless ghosts haunting the night,” but it was more complete!

The moment the sound spread out, the ocean turned cold and sinister. Xu Qing’s violet moon godly authority shivered and began to move in that direction, as if the song had an indescribable power over the moon.

Then, gradually, an image appeared within the ghostly sound. A rotting moon began to rise up from the seafloor, upon which was visible a face….

1. When the “countless ghosts haunt the night” appeared about 900 chapters ago, this chapter was not written. And thus we have another wordplay that I was unaware of. Literally, the Chinese is “one hundred ghosts haunt the night.” However, because the descriptions earlier in the story specifically said there were “countless” ghosts, I interpreted the “one hundred” character in that way. That character can indeed be interpreted to mean a large, unknown number. Even in the last chapter and this one, it uses the specific term for “innumerable, uncountable” to describe how many ghosts there are. It also uses the more specific term “thousands.” Now we have this part, in which there is a play on words with “one hundred.” If I had known about this back in the beginning of the story, I’m not sure what I would have done. That said, I’m going to keep it as is. Just know that there is some wordplay here between the “hundred” and “countless.” ☜