Beyond the Timescape

Chapter 878: Little Swallow in Lace

Xu Qing looked at the Captain. Earlier when he had arrived, he’d sensed that the Captain was lurking around. Then Sir Firedark searched the returnees with killing intent bubbling. And then there were the clues he’d personally uncovered in Hillworm Jungle in the Mountain and Sea Region.

All of it seemed to be pointing in one direction. His Eldest Brother definitely got into some heated conflict with Sir Firedark. And the one who came out on the short end of the stick was the latter....

It didn’t matter that Sir Firedark’s cultivation base was equivalent to the Smoldering God level, or that he had a terrifying reputation. Xu Qing knew that the Captain could deal with any challenge. What was more, Xu Qing didn’t care about learning Sir Firedark’s secrets. However, he could see how excited the Captain was to share this news, so he decided to play along. He nodded.

“What secret?”

The Captain’s eyes lit up and he licked his lips. Squatting down in front of Xu Qing, he instinctively looked left and right to check the surroundings before lowering his voice and saying, “Little Junior Brother, get this. Sir Firedark is a real gem!”

Xu Qing wasn’t sure what that meant. It was his first time hearing his Eldest Brother use the word ‘gem’ to describe someone. Coupled with the way the Captain was licking his lips... it certainly created a thought-provoking image.

Seeing Xu Qing’s reaction made the Captain even more excited to share his secrets. He chuckled, making him look even more sleazy than normal.

“You listen to me, little Ah Qing. Based on experiences from my past lives, I realized that this fellow Sir Firedark could be considered as valuable as a jewel to cultivators with certain proclivities. This person can either attack or defend, can advance or retreat freely, is capable of myriad transformations, and is impossible to defend against.” [1]

The Captain smacked his lips as if he were about to start drooling with desire.

Xu Qing was both surprised and confused to see such a look on the Captain’s face. The reality was that although Xu Qing had experienced a lot in life, when all was said and done, there were some areas of life in which he was very naive. That was why, in response to the Captain’s words, he found himself thinking about Sir Firedark and trying to remember the details of his aura or other special characteristics.

When the Captain saw that Xu Qing was confused, he blinked a few times. As he realized that this conversation was a lot of fun, he suddenly felt a bit more arrogant than before. Moments like this were when his little Junior Brother revealed how pure and simplistic he was. As the Eldest Brother, it wasn’t right to let his little Junior Brother go around with such a weakness. Clasping Xu Qing’s shoulder, he began to speak in the sincere and earnest tone of an older person teaching a lesson.

“You haven’t seen enough in life, little Junior Brother. Ah, whatever. I guess I should just spell it out directly. Sir Firedark....” The Captain paused dramatically. “Can be a man or a woman! It’s fantastic!”

The Captain licked his lips again.

His words slammed into Xu Qing’s ears like a lightning bolt and caused his eyes to widen. Although there were too many weird and unusual things in Revered Ancient to count, the ability to change one’s gender at will was not something commonly seen. But what was really shocking was the wording that the Captain was using in his descriptions.

Everything in the conversation up to this point was causing Xu Qing to start connecting various dots. After a moment of hesitation, he asked, “Eldest Brother, how... how did you find out about this?”

The Captain stuck his chin up and assumed a derisive posture. “Little Swallow just doesn’t understand the height of the heavens or the depths of the earth, and had the audacious gall to steal my hillworm from right in front of me! Then, after sensing my presence, he told me to screw off! His expression and wording were like the picture of arrogance.”

The Captain snorted coldly.

“So, after hearing his demand, I went and screwed off. However, the more I thought about what happened, the angrier I got. So, as he was working on getting the hillworm under control, I used all the godly law medallions I’d created to summon that hillworm’s entire family. I’m talking dad, mom, grandpa, grandma, et cetera. [2]

“And what happened...? Heh heh. Let’s just say Little Swallow got into a real bad situation. His cultivation base and battle prowess might be extraordinary, comparable to a Smoldering God even, but not even that will help much upon being surrounded by hillworms. Now, do you want to guess what I saw then?” The Captain rubbed his hands excitedly, and before Xu Qing could respond, continued, “At a very critical moment, he used a very terrifying divine ability. In fact, maybe it’s beyond a divine ability and is actually a god magic! So, yeah, it’s a terrifying god magic! Maybe even the reprimand of a god!”

Xu Qing’s eyes narrowed.

The more the Captain went on with his story, the more his eyebrows danced up and down. “This magic has a side effect that, from Little Swallow’s perspective, isn’t really a side effect at all. Long story short, after you use that magic, for a short time period, your gender changes!

“Believe you me, little Ah Qing, I personally saw it happen every time he used it. He would turn into a woman, then a man, then a woman, and then a man again! So fun, right?”

The Captain’s enthusiasm caused a strange expression to appear on Xu Qing’s face.

By this point, the Captain wasn’t paying attention to Xu Qing. He was completely wrapped up in his excitement as he continued, “What’s more, every time he uses it and his gender changes, a pearl will form alongside him. As it orbits around him, it absorbs the aura of transformation and allows him to switch back. With one glance, I could tell that it was his personal life essence pearl. Obviously, it’s very important to him.

“Now, as you know, your Eldest Brother is a very kind and generous person, willing to help others and completely selfless in thought and action. And I really dislike seeing other people unhappy.

“Therefore, how could I possibly tolerate seeing him go through the pain of that transformation? After all, switching from man to woman involves changing even your meridians and blood vessels, let alone the physical external changes. As you can imagine, it’s very painful.

“Therefore... I took advantage of a moment when he had turned into a woman to simply take that pearl away from him.... That way, he can’t change back! It solves the problem entirely!”

The Captain extended his hand to reveal a red pearl floating above his palm. Although it emanated dazzling light, there was a shimmering blue shield covering it and preventing any fluctuations from escaping.

“What do you think?” The Captain looked at Xu Qing, clearly very pleased with himself. “The point is that you can’t be fooled by Little Swallow’s physical appearance. That girl is still on the inside. And she... won’t be changing back. In fact, because of that, when we parted ways I made sure to leave her one of Nethersprite’s lace bodices.”

Stunned, Xu Qing stared at the Captain. Then he thought about the fury and killing intent with which Sir Firedark had been searching through the returnees. Now he understood what was going on.

“No wonder...” Xu Qing sighed.

The Captain laughed heartily. Closing his hand around the pearl, he stood and stretched. The trip to the Mountain and Sea Region had been amazing, and he had benefited wildly. That said, thinking about how Xu Qing fared with Ninedawns made him hesitate. In fact, he couldn’t suppress his curiosity and asked Xu Qing for some details.

Xu Qing obliged.

As the Captain listened to the story, his eyes widened. In the end, he stamped his foot angrily.

“Little Swallow held me back! I should have been part of that whole thing! I really lost out!!”

Xu Qing didn’t respond.

The Captain sighed, squatted back down, and started thinking. After a short time, he apparently figured out a way to comfort himself internally, because his eyes lit up.

“I might have missed out on a destined opportunity,” he murmured, “but what happened still confirmed a theory of mine. And given what we have to do next, that’s going to be a big help!”

The Captain looked at Xu Qing, his eyes bright and full of expression, primarily craziness.

“Little Junior Brother, when this god domain gets opened up, I was planning to do something big, except I was only about ten percent confident in succeeding. But now, after what you just told me, I’m a lot more confident!

“This time, your Eldest Brother is going to take you... on a super big job so amazing it’ll surpass anything we’ve ever done before!!”

Xu Qing immediately went on guard. Whenever the words ‘a big job’ came up, he knew he had to start paying close attention to the Captain’s wording. After all, when the Captain talked about such things, they often involved toeing the line with death.

And the level of craziness of such jobs always seemed to increase. Thinking back, it all started with Joine’s flesh. Then came the Seazombie ancestral statues, the Nethersprite clothing heist, the heavenly dao son incident, the Greenhair Badlands and the Imperial Sovereign, and finally, slaughtering Crimson Mother. Each event just got more and more dramatic. What was especially notable was that the Captain used the word ‘super.’

Xu Qing’s level of vigilance couldn’t be any higher. Looking at the Captain, he sighed. “Eldest Brother, we’re... not going to do anything suicidal, are we...?”

The Captain smiled mysteriously. “Don’t worry at all. I’ve been planning this thing for a very, very long time. And now that you’ve confirmed my theory, we’re going to be completely and utterly safe.”

The Captain thumped himself on the chest confidently.

Hearing the Captain speak in such a way caused Xu Qing’s hair to stand on end. His mind was spinning as he came to realize that the Captain was obviously planning something unprecedentedly terrifying.

He was about to say something when the Captain zipped out of the room, leaving behind only a few words echoing in his absence.

“Calm down, little Junior Brother. I’m going out to make some plans for the big job.”

Xu Qing remained behind in the residence. After some thought, his eyes began to shine with determination. Based on what he knew of the Captain, he got the feeling that the best thing to focus on after entering the god domain was to search for heavenly daos and sealing marks. He was absolutely, positively not going to join the Captain in his next job.

Xu Qing had come to the conclusion that his hobbies did not include the practice of risking his life for fun. Having reached the conclusion that this was definitely the best idea, he took a deep breath, and closed his eyes to meditate. His mage trove needed more work to get him in peak fighting condition, and thus, he needed to speed up the absorption of the ninety-five god monuments.

In that manner, time passed. Six days.

***

It was morning, and there was only an incense stick’s worth of time before the god domain was opened for the next round of the Great Hunt. Just as Xu Qing was getting ready to leave, the Captain returned.

Before Xu Qing could even open his mouth, the Captain took out a bottle. Then, a swishing sound could be heard as the Captain crumbled into a host of blue worms that entered the bottle.

“Put me in your bag of holding, little Junior Brother! It’s time to get going!”

At the same time, shocking fluctuations rolled out from God Mountain with mountain-toppling, sea-draining force. Three terrifying streams of divine will had already covered the entire region. The aura of gods was present everywhere. Any life force who was under the level of a god began to tremble as a cold voice filled heaven and earth.

“The god domain will be opened. Participants, present yourselves.”

Xu Qing put the bottle into his bag of holding, then left the residence. When he appeared in midair, he looked at the distant God Mountain and saw astonishing figures.

Sunfire. Moonfire. Starfire.

Three gods had emerged!

1. These words are intended to have some vague innuendo attached to them, which becomes more obvious as the content of this chapter unfolds. ☜

2. The godly law medallions were mentioned in chapter 846-847. ☜