Beyond the Timescape

Chapter 775: Xeno-Immortal Body

The schoolmaster of the Xeno-Immortal School was still giving a steady stream of details about their cultivation methods. He was clearly very passionate about it. It seemed as if he had imagined moments like these many times, but had rarely had a chance to make them reality. Now, with Xu Qing here, he could be a real teacher again.

“Years ago,” the schoolmaster continued proudly, “Patriarch Li Xuanfeng was the type of chosen that only comes along once in a thousand years. In only one month, he gained enlightenment of 13 soul threads! He’s the one that truly set the standard for the Xeno-Immortal School!”

The other student was, very uncharacteristically, not contradicting anything the schoolmaster said, and instead just offered a few sighs now and then. Clearly, though he had been tricked into joining the Xeno-Immortal School in its time of decline, he clearly approved and cared for the school.

“And then there was Patriarch Chen Daoze, who was also incredible. A few thousand years ago, he was a very rare and elite expert. In one month, he gained enlightenment of 19 soul threads!” Sounding very sincere, the schoolmaster looked at Xu Qing and continued, “Therefore, you need to work hard. Focus on your cultivation. If you can make at least 10 soul threads in a month, then you could well be the future schoolmaster of the Xeno-Immortal School!”

With that, the schoolmaster clasped Xu Qing on the shoulder, then took out some more jade slips and stuffed them into his hands. Then the schoolmaster left to organize some of the other jade slips piled up in the tower.

Xu Qing stood there feeling a bit hesitant. He could see that there were definitely about 10,000 soul threads in his sea of consciousness. Given what the schoolmaster had just told him, he got the feeling something unusual was going on.

When the other student saw Xu Qing just standing there, he walked over. Sighing, he said, “What’s wrong? Did his speech get you all riled up? You listen to me. Ignore his nonsense. When me and the other two students joined, he said the same thing. Every single word. The same. I tried to warn you last time, but you just wouldn’t listen to me. Well, what’s done is done. You’re a conclave student now.... And that means you’re thoroughly tied to the Xeno-Immortal School going forward.”

The student’s eyes glittered with sympathy. “But now that you’re here, there’s no room for regrets. Going forward, stick with me. With you on board, we can finally start putting out our tabloid more often.”

Xu Qing looked at the student. Being curious, he asked, “What tabloid?”

“As you know, there are a lot of schools of thought in the Imperial University. And there are always things going on. Understanding all of that can be very time-consuming, so tabloids have become a common thing here.

“They usually talk about decisions made by the schools of thought, the things their well-known students are up to, et cetera. Because the Xeno-Immortal Enquirer is one of the oldest tabloids, and also because we’re in a good location in the university, we actually have a very large distribution, even though we don’t have a great reputation. Because we mostly report on gossip and things like that, we’re actually quite popular.”

The student was obviously very proud of the Xeno-Immortal Enquirer.

“It’s just a little business run by me and the bros. Now, come with me, I’ll show you the ropes.”

With that, he dragged Xu Qing further into the white tower, to a location filled with a lot of blank jade slips. Those jade slips were the Xeno-Immortal Enquirer. The business basically involved putting sensational news into the jade slips and then selling them. The stories, of course, all came from anonymous sources.

Xu Qing picked up one of the completed Xeno-Immortal Enquirers and scanned it.

“Last night people heard screaming coming from inside the God-Merging School. If you want to know who was making a demon in the middle of the night there, pick up the latest copy of the Xeno-Immortal Enquirer!”

“She is the schoolmaster of the Plants and Vegetation School!”

“Do you want to know the true identity of Dustcloud from the Myriad Magics School? Years of reporting have finally uncovered the truth!”

“Xu Qing from the Holytide Region has joined the Imperial University! Do you want to know which school he picked? Read all the details of our undercover reporting!”

Xu Qing said nothing as he looked through the jade slip.

The student chuckled. “What do you think? Is the Xeno-Immortal Enquirer interesting or what?”

“It’s great,” Xu Qing replied calmly. The reality was that he didn’t have any negative feelings at all about this place. As the saying went, when you enter a village, follow local customs. Since he was a member of the Xeno-Immortal School now, he had no reason not to help this new Elder Brother to get his tabloids ready. And thus, they got to work imprinting the latest edition.

The schoolmaster came to check on them a few times. Seeing that Xu Qing was already involved with the tabloid caused him to sigh. However, he didn’t interfere or say anything.

Time passed. Around evening time, Xu Qing left the Xeno-Immortal School.

Snow was still falling outside as he made his way back to the mansion, all while thinking about the new techniques. Once he was back, he sat down cross-legged to meditate.

The techniques of the Xeno-Immortal School involve extracting soul power and then using a special spell formation to make soul threads. The soul requirements are high. If you extract too much, you could destroy your soul. These techniques are virtually suicidal.

That’s one reason why they take so long to cultivate. On the one hand, you have to do the cultivation, but at the same time, you have to nourish your soul. And then there’s the soul thread count....

Xu Qing took out the jade slip with the information about godly entities and looked through it. As far as he was concerned, the godly entities in the jade slip were mostly average. After all, he had seen more than his fair share of actual gods, let alone just godly entities.

The reason why he had been able to instantly form 10,000 soul threads became clear to Xu Qing during the day when he was working on the Xeno-Immortal Enquirer.

I have godsource. The Xeno-Immortal School’s techniques are, in the final analysis, an imitation of godsource techniques. And it’s also an imitation to use one’s soul threads to weave the image of a godly entity.

This type of method actually adds the characteristics of godsource to the soul. Then, you manifest it almost like a suit of armor.... With a single thought, you can change everything about your body. That’s why they have the saying: the Summer Immortal’s lone thought brings the immortal body into play.

If I cultivate this to the limit, then theoretically speaking, it should be possible to, bit by bit, take a godly entity and weave an actual god.... I already have godsource, so I don’t need to imitate it. With a single thought, I can produce a whole bunch of soul threads. And every single one is a manifestation of godsource.

Xu Qing’s eyes glittered as he realized that his previous speculations were correct. His god states and the Xeno-Immortal School techniques really were different methods that led to the same result. That said, the body formed by the Xeno-Immortal School was fundamentally the manifestation of cultivator energy. And if you looked closely, you would see the evidence of the soul threads. When in a god state, the pressure emanated by his godliness, though it seemed integrated, was actually something illusory turned corporeal. He could sense that very obvious difference.

What was more, there were all sorts of cultivation techniques among humans. When you added in the countless years that gods had been around, it was a given that there had been a lot of research done into godly entities and how to use them. Therefore, it was no surprise something had come along that was very similar to Xu Qing’s god states.

That said, deeper research would reveal some big differences on a substructural level with most of them. It was only the Xeno-Immortal School... that was similar substructurally.

In that case, these Xeno-Immortal School techniques should be able to improve my control over my god states.

Xu Qing’s eyes glittered brightly.

In the past, my god states are manifested by means of my god troves. But if I could empty the godsource from my third god trove and turn it into soul threads, then use the Xeno-Immortal School’s soul-weaving techniques, I could probably complete my third-level god state....

Theoretically, I could bypass whatever deficiencies exist for my god states, especially the third one.... And the reason is that I wouldn’t be supporting them with the god troves, but rather, the weaved godsource.

At the same time, I wouldn’t be limited to a third state. I could possibly weave a fourth state. As long as I have enough soul threads, a mere thought could lead to unlimited results!

Xu Qing closed his eyes, performed a double-handed incantation gesture, and then used the Xeno-Immortal School techniques to start making soul threads. In the blink of an eye, his first god trove appeared behind him. Threads of godsource emerged, flying into Xu Qing’s sea of consciousness, where they began to amass.

Before long, there were about 100,000 of them.

Gotta keep going!

Xu Qing’s second god trove appeared, and the threads of godsource emerged.

130,000. 180,000. 250,000.... Ultimately, a total of 300,000 soul threads appeared.

It took effort for Xu Qing to manipulate so many godsource soul threads, but he knew that it was because he still wasn’t very good at using the Xeno-Immortal School’s weaving techniques.

At a certain point, he stopped to consult the information from the Xeno-Immortal School. Then he started again.

Although he still needed a lot of practice, his godsource soul threads were so numerous that a succession of terrifying figures that pulsed with godliness appeared around him. If the students from the Xeno-Immortal School were here to see what was happening, they would be stunned. After all, as far as they were concerned, being able to form godly entities was something completely theoretical. Yet Xu Qing was actually doing it.

Every single one was extremely realistic, and emanated terrifying pressure that surpassed what should have been possible for godly entities.

But Xu Qing wasn’t content. As far as he was concerned, this was just good practice. He continued to use the soul threads to form godly entities for a time. Then he sent out a single thought that caused them all to collapse. They turned back into 300,000 soul threads, which converged back inside him.

Then Xu Qing thought about his first-level god state and tried to form it.

Given his understanding of it, and his current level of familiarity with the soul-weaving techniques, he quickly entered the first-level god state. As he stood in the private chamber, terrifying pressure rolled out. However, the pressure was different from when he used his first-level god state in the usual way.

It contained the feeling of a god, but also, the characteristics of the Xeno-Immortal School. Most importantly, Xu Qing found that he could ignite it with a single thought. By turning it into a blast of power, he could break through shackles and obstacles, and thus further his cultivation base. That realization caused him to breathe heavily as his eyes snapped open.

The Xeno-Immortal School really does have unusual techniques compared to everyone else! Although they seem to be about weaving soul threads or godliness, that’s only the surface. In reality, they’re even more terrifying....

They can take the essence of a god and use it to break through to higher levels! By igniting the image of a god in a timely fashion, it can be turned into a shocking power that can blast through the obstacles that severed the path of immortals. This is a brand new path that borrows from gods to reach immortal ascension. So this is what a Xeno-Immortal is.

It was around that time that Xu Qing heard someone knocking on his private meditation chamber.

“What are you up to, little Junior Brother? It’s a windy, snowy night. Very cold. In that case... it’s perfect for a little activity I have planned. I need someone to help me keep an eye on the wind. Any chance you’re available?”