Beyond the Timescape

Chapter 436: Acquiring the Dao; Bluegreen Dragon Rises (part 2)

Chapter 436: Acquiring the Dao; Bluegreen Dragon Rises (part 2)

Xu Qing stopped walking and looked over to see Kong Xianglong standing there with his head bowed.

The palace lord stood in front of him, his expression stern as he berated Kong Xianglong coldly.

“Other people might think you’re spectacular and amazing, but the fact remains that you don’t respect our swordsage rules. How many times have you been late or absent from work because you were off taking care of personal matters? If you keep doing this, then eventually you’re going to get yourself in really big trouble. Understand?”

This time, the palace lord didn’t just seem like he was being strict. He actually seemed angry.

“The Swordsage Palace doesn’t raise greenhouse flowers. And we don’t need people who ignore the rules. Do you really think that just because you’re clever, you have the right to go around breaking the law all the time...?”

Xu Qing realized what was happening. Kong Xianglong must have brought some criminals to hand over for incarceration, only to have the palace lord find out he had been acting for personal reasons. It looked to Xu Qing like Kong Xianglong was probably going to have to spend some more time behind bars.

Why’s the palace lord always giving Big Bro Kong such a hard time?

Xu Qing was a bit surprised at this turn of events, but at the same time, could tell that the palace lord was obviously in a foul mood, so he ducked his head and continued toward Level 10.

However, before he could start walking down, he heard Kong Xianglong uncharacteristically talking back to the palace lord.

“I wasn’t breaking any laws! I finished the mission and also handed over all the goods. It just took me a couple extra days. The victims were barely clinging to life. Don’t tell me I should have just let them die instead of saving them??”

“How impudent!” the palace lord said, giving a cold harrumph that echoed like heavenly thunder. The other jailers in the area were surprised, and even Xu Qing gasped and looked over his shoulder.

Kong Xianglong stood in place, his head held high. As for the palace lord, he seemed to be getting angrier, and his eyes shone with icy cold. “You think you’re hot stuff, don’t you? A real expert in talking back. Keep this up, and you might as well screw off to some village somewhere and live the life of a ‘hero’ there.”

Kong Xianglong trembled with rage, but after a moment, he bowed his head.

“Do you remember what I said to you when you became a swordsage?” the palace lord asked, looking very awe-inspiring.

Kong Xianglong answered the question in a loud voice. “Every swordsage is a sharp sword wielded for humankind as a whole. They should be ready to sacrifice their lives at any moment, all for humanity’s sake.”

The words were familiar to Xu Qing. Back when he went to Level 89 and met the palace lord for the first time, he had said exactly the same words. [1]

“I truly hope that you perish on the battlefield,” the palace lord said harshly, “not because of some vile conspiracy! Given your personality, it wouldn’t be hard for someone to set a trap for you. Jailers, lock him up. This time, he gets two months behind bars. And he doesn’t get any visitors during that time!”

The palace lord flicked his sleeve and turned to leave. As he passed Xu Qing, he glared at him and said, “What are you looking at? Did you figure out the secret of D-132 yet? Have you gained any enlightenment in Unit C? What are you standing around for?”

“Yes, sir!” Ducking his head, Xu Qing hurried on his way.

Before disappearing down the stairs, he glanced at Kong Xianglong and saw him looking over. Their gazes locked briefly, and both looked somewhat helpless.

Xu Qing looked away and hurried down to Level 90. Along the way, he thought about the palace lord’s strictness, and the things he’d said.

The palace lord knows I’m seeking enlightenment?

Xu Qing knew that the palace lord was responsible for the entire Corrections Division, so it didn’t seem a stretch of the imagination to assume he would know about what Xu Qing was doing. That said, there were so many things that went on in the Corrections Division on a daily basis that the palace lord would surely have to be paying special attention to him to realize what he was up to. With those thoughts on his mind, he reached Level 90. The first thing he noticed was Ghost Hand sitting there with some alcohol, smiling at him.

“Got chewed out by the palace lord, huh? I could hear him yelling all the way from down here.”

Xu Qing nodded. Truth be told, he felt a bit down at having unexpectedly been yelled at.

“That’s just how the ol’ palace lord is. He’s strict with everyone. Even himself. The more he curses you, the more it shows how much he cares.”

Xu Qing thought back to his speculation from moments ago.

“The palace lord has no apprentices, and his sons died in battle. That’s why he pays such close attention to swordsages with potential. That means both you and Kong Xianglong.” Sighing, Ghost Hand took a drink.

“His sons died in battle?” Xu Qing asked.

“Yeah. Most newbies don’t know that story, but I know. He had two sons, both swordsages with spectacular talent. One of them died while on a mission in Holytide territory. He actually killed himself to avoid capture. The other had a personal issue with someone who set a trap for him and killed him.”

Ghost Hand sighed and didn’t go into any more detail.

Xu Qing looked up at Level 89 for a moment. Then he clasped hands to Ghost Hand and stepped into the mural, and the minor world beyond.

He was in charge of East District 13, and he had already killed the convicts who met the standards for provoking heavenly tribulation. That said, a few days ago he made contact with some of the other Unit C jailers and made arrangements to trade some inmates.

Right now, he sat cross-legged atop a volcano, looking up into the sky as a heavenly saber appeared.

His expression was placid, as he was no longer as anxious as he was before. In that state of calm, he observed, he sought enlightenment, and he branded what he was seeing onto his heart and mind. The image of that saber had already formed many times within him. Every single time, it ended up collapsing.

Despite that, Xu Qing hadn’t given up.

About half a month later after repeated attempts to gain enlightenment, there were only a few more nonhuman inmates left among the group he had traded for.

Instead of forcing more inmates into cultivation base breakthroughs to provoke heavenly tribulation, Xu Qing sat cross-legged, mentally reviewing his memories, and also putting his right hand through the motions. Deep within him, he eventually produced a stable saber image, which he carefully protected and enhanced. It was a dry and boring process, much like the process of physically forging a blade.

Eventually, the blade glittered with bright light, indicating to Xu Qing that the process was over. Although he got the sense that this saber was astonishing, it wasn’t something that could sever daos, like he’d assumed it would be. Instead, it could sever the soul from the body.

Not exactly what I was expecting....

Instead of giving up, he continued to produce copies of that image in his sea of consciousness. He wanted to see if continuing to seek enlightenment in that way would do any good. The problem was that if a forging method was incorrect, but you worked quickly, the result could be passable. But if you spent a long time using an incorrect method, then the blade could end up as a lump of scrap metal.

Half a month later, after numerous attempts to seek enlightenment, the copies of the saber he formed in his sea of consciousness were still collapsing. Because of how much intense effort he had put into his work, when the sabers shattered, he would shake violently and cough up blood.

What’s going on...? he thought, dejected but also not ready to give up.

Success had not been this difficult to achieve with the Supreme Vastness Solitary Saber or the Ghost Emperor mountain. What was worse, he had definitely experienced the first stages of enlightenment, only to repeatedly fail in the end. It was as if he could easily get the outline of the saber into his mind, but once he tried to flesh out the image and brand it permanently, everything went bad.

Maybe I’m doing it the wrong way?

He sat there cross-legged, his eyes closed as he contemplated the situation.

After a while, he stopped trying to seek enlightenment of the saber itself. Instead, he thought back to the dao-severing blade hitting the inmates and destroying their dao foundation. He let the images fill his mind. After a while, a tremor passed through him and he opened his eyes.

I’m going down the wrong path!

All of my previous enlightenment worked because of the specific method I used. In both cases, either the soul or the body was the focus. For instance, the Supreme Vastness Solitary Saber slashes the body, while the Ghost Emperor mountain crushes the soul.

Neither involved enlightenment. Instead, I was copying something. Imitating it. This time, I need to seek true enlightenment.

Because this dao-severing saber is formed by natural laws, it’s not actually a saber of heavenly tribulation. Instead, it’s a saber of the heavenly dao!

If you examine it on a deep level, it’s actually using magical laws to sever the spirit energy in the cultivator’s body. Afterward, that spirit energy is influenced in such a way... that it’s not part of the cultivator anymore!

The point of this saber isn’t ‘severing.’ Instead, it’s used to remove spirit energy from a cultivator, then destroy itself!

This saber, or this dao, is actually... like a dharmic decree! [2]

Xu Qing’s eyes shone brightly.

A dharmic decree commanding the spirit energy to leave the cultivator? But how does it actually work?

The answer occurred to him shortly after.

If you think of spirit energy as being similar to mutagen, whose aura was the spirit energy...?

Xu Qing thought back to the four heavenly daos outside the minor world, whose eyes formed the sun and the moon, and who created the natural and magical laws.

Spirit energy comes from magical laws. And the magical laws come from the heavenly dao?

After being locked up for long periods of time in the minor world, inmates would be ‘invaded’ until they were inextricably linked to the minor world. Because of that, the magical laws of the minor world could dispel their cultivation base.

In other words, this saber is actually a dharmic decree that’s the manifestation of the magical laws of the dao of heaven! So, what is that heavenly dao?

After some more thought, he stood and left the minor world. Back outside in the void, he stopped and looked at the dome-like covering, and the four statues that were the heavenly daos. He eventually settled cross-legged in the void, sending his senses out. Seven days later, the feeling of enlightenment began to rise within him.

The four heavenly daos aren’t physical objects. They seem alive, but aren’t. They seem dead, but are not. Entities like that do not have wills of their own.

During the seven days that had passed, he also sent a message to Arch-Immortal Plumdark and got an explanation in response.

The answer made him think about the Revered Ancient mainland as a whole.

Based on his understanding, experts who could manipulate the magical laws of the Revered Ancient mainland could also create something like a saber of the heavenly dao. It would just be extremely difficult. That was because the heavenly dao in this minor world was controlled by the Swordsage Palace. The heavenly dao of Revered Ancient could not be controlled by any existing entity. It had no consciousness of its own, and was simply a manifestation of magical laws that acted on instinct.

All of a sudden, Xu Qing understood what the Spirit Trove realm was about.

He understood what Ghost Hand had mentioned about Spirit Trove requiring enlightenment of the dao of heaven. It was because one’s secret trove required a heavenly dao to be stable. Only a heavenly dao could sustain magical laws, and also issue commands to magical laws. Spirit Trove experts could take their own heavenly dao and magical laws and use them in Revered Ancient. Though they couldn’t do that for extended periods of time, it still made them incredibly powerful when they could. It was like the profound radiance state of Foundation Establishment.

After coming to understand these things, Xu Qing felt like he knew a lot more about that heavenly dao saber.

He also knew why he had failed so many times. It was because the saber contained magical laws. Magical laws were something that only Spirit Trove cultivators could control. And they used the heavenly dao within their secret troves as the carrier. That was why he had failed, and also why his copies never worked. He was missing a carrier for magical laws!

“Oh, so that’s how it is. A carrier...?”

He thought about his taboo poison core, his life lamps, his imperial-class techniques, and his violet moon.... At this point, he finally gave up. In the final analysis, all those things were external to him. There was only one thing that made sense to use. And that was... his bluegreen dragon.

His life essence bluegreen dragon!

The heavenly dao of my future secret trove!

It was something that truly belonged to him.

Xu Qing’s eyes shone brightly.