Outside Of Time

1604  What Is Ordinance! Xu Qing raised his head and gazed beyond the scroll.

What he saw was the direction of the Dao Immortal Sect.

For the events happening at the Dao Immortal Sect, his body and senses didn't sense anything at all. n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

However, his mind was different.

 In that moment, a subtle feeling, surpassing the level of his physical body, emerged in Xu Qing's mind.

"Borrowing the Dao?"

Xu Qing fell into deep thought and retracted his thoughts after a while.

For him, the most important thing now was to stabilize his eighth extremity.

Although the appearance of the eighth extremity was in line with his previous plan, it had to be said that the birth of the Ordinance had broken his previous understanding to a certain extent.

It was also destined to overturn the traditional methods of combat.

This extremity was his latest height, propelled by the convergence of the previous seven extremities.

The first five extremities served as the foundation, with time and space as the fuel. Once ignited and unleashed, they forged what he had envisioned as the eighth extremity.

A Dao that encompassed reincarnation, karma, and everything in between, forming the Dao of space-time.

At the moment this Dao manifested, a profound realization filled his mind.

"It is akin to an ascension."

"One unrelated to the physical body, but rather an elevation on the level of thought and soul."

Xu Qing closed his eyes and sensed the eighth extremity in his body.

"This is a state of time and space that can be entered at any moment!"

"Once inside, while the physical body remains outside, the mind transcends beyond the past limits, reaching an omniscient level."

"In that state, everything—living beings and objects—appears as if they are a painting, easily modified at will."

"I can influence, manipulate, and control."

As he pondered, the eighth extremity within Xu Qing spread abruptly, and in the next moment… the sensation of space-time reappeared.

Gazing into the distance, his perception deepened.

"In this state, combat surpasses the conventional expectations."

"All beings, in my eyes, have no secrets. Whether it's their techniques, their bodies, even their thoughts, fates, reincarnations, past, and future—all are laid bare."

"I can, without my opponent's awareness, influence their choices. Whether they err or live or die is within my single thought."

"I can alter their spells, from the source to their very essence, all in a single moment."

"I can traverse any time, any place, even appearing at the moment of my opponent's birth to erase them."

"This… is the power of the Ordinance? Though I still won't be considered an immortal in the lower realms, this power is not far from one."

"However, this is the upper thirty-six star rings. There are higher Ordinances that restrict me.

Xu Qing fell silent.

"Ordinance…"

The appearance of his Ordinance and the voice from the void earlier allowed him to have an innate understanding of the Ordinance.

Part of it came from himself, and the other part came from the additional information contained in every word of that sentence.

Ordinance transcended rules and laws, representing an unknown yet supreme source of power within the upper thirty-six star rings.

These upper thirty-six star rings belonged to gods.

Thus, the gods more easily tapped into this supreme, unknown source, wielding it in Their hands.

The manifestation of this power began with divine authority, eventually transforming into true divinity, becoming their very divine aspect.

They had innate qualifications to access it.

This was also the reason why the gods were so powerful.

After all, They were born in the upper thirty-six star rings.

As outsiders, cultivators didn't have this qualification.

Hence, this qualification was broken down into several steps.

First came the origin, followed by Dao fate. Then, during the formation of the immortal embryo, they would instinctively absorb the power of the star rings as nourishment, producing something akin to divine authority—authority Dao marks.

Only in this way could they embark on the path.

However, though authority Dao marks resembled divine authority, they were still inferior in nature.

It was only when these authority dao marks ascended, evolving into Ordinance, that a cultivator could truly obtain a status equivalent to that of the gods.

Ordinance was on the same level as divine aspect!

Using such a cumbersome method to obtain the qualifications to become a god showed how difficult it was for cultivators in the upper thirty-six star rings.

Hence, at the end of the day, the Ordinance was the known final manifestation of immortals plundering the power of the source of the 36 star rings.

It was also because the birth process was cumbersome that generally speaking, only cultivators who had reached the quasi-immortal realm could have an Ordinance because the immortal embryo in their bodies was forming.

However, this possibility was also very slim. It depended on opportunities.

Under normal circumstances, only when the immortal embryo reached the Large Success stage and transformed into an immortal would the Ordinance… appear.

Other than that, there were two other methods that could bring forward the formation of the Ordinance or allow people who didn't have an Ordinance to use it.

They were inheritances and magic treasures.

The former was like the flower of inheritance in the hunt.

A higher-level cultivator would strip one of their own Ordinances from the many they possessed and pass it on.

The latter was an Ordinance treasure.

However, the latter often contained incomplete Ordinances and insufficient law power.

And the power of law was the measurement of the Ordinance.

 Therefore, the process of forming Ordinance, extending it to its full potential, and ultimately becoming a source, was one of the three key elements to becoming an Immortal Lord.

Because of this, Ordinance, which typically required immense opportunities and could only be obtained by Quasi Immortal-level cultivators… created an extreme difference when it fell into the hands of a Ruler. The gap between those who possessed Ordinance and those who did not was vast, almost insurmountable.

Even if their cultivation levels were the same, the difference in combat strength was definitely the difference between heaven and earth.

This was also the reason why Li Mengtu fought a life or death battle with Xu Qing in order to snatch back the inheritance.

This was because possessing an Ordinance was equivalent to standing at the peak of the Ruler realm.

 If the opponent did not have Ordinance, they were not of the same level and would inevitably be suppressed by it.

It was also because of this that the three major laws of Ordinance appeared.

Firstly, Ordinance belonged solely to cultivators and was one of the marks of immortals.

Secondly, the clash between two Ordinances was a process of mutual erasure, where the side that eroded first would determine life and death.

Thirdly, Ordinance was the highest known force, and only Ordinance or a god's divine aspect, which was on the same level, could mutually erase each other.

Furthermore, Ordinance was not defined by how many Daos one possessed.

It could be numerous or few, and had no bearing on one's rank or status. Even mastering many Ordinances did not depend on one's rank.

Instead, it was solely connected to combat prowess.

Therefore, while the pursuit of more Ordinances could increase one's strength, the true foundation for advancing one's realm lay in the completeness of a single Ordinance.

These thoughts appeared in Xu Qing's mind.

A long time later, he retracted his thoughts.

"It's time to leave."

Xu Qing didn't do anything and just glanced at the void in front of him.

The void instantly fluctuated. After that, a storm rose and silently spread in all directions, instantly engulfing the entire world on the scroll.

Everything turned blurry and dissipated.

What appeared in front of Xu Qing was no longer the painting but a cauldron and raging flames.

This fire instantly stopped.

It lost the ability to cause damage.

Or to be more precise, if this fire possessed a spirit, then at this moment, even though Xu Qing stood directly in front of it, he had become an entity beyond its comprehension.

It could only burn pointlessly.

Even the cauldron was blurry under Xu Qing's gaze, as though it didn't exist.

They dissipated.

Xu Qing stood in the minor world of the Li clan, facing the wooden hut.

14:43

In his eyes, this world contained countless pasts and futures. It was the same for everything, including the hut and the calligraphy inside.

Only… in the past of this wooden hut, he saw a person.

This person was different from this world.

He only had the past, but had no present or future.

Even the past was blurry and in the midst of collapse.

He wore blue clothes and stood in front of the table in the wooden hut with a brush in his hand.

He was deep in thought, as though he didn't know how to begin.

"I don't know how to write my last words. Since Fellow Daoist came from the fabric of time and space, could you teach me?"

Gazing steadily, the middle-aged man in the blue robe, existing in the distant past, spoke softly.

He didn't raise his head or look while speaking.

Xu Qing fell silent and looked at the other party's collapsing past. He saw the Profound Earth, Wanggu, and the other party's identity.

He sighed inwardly.

The blue-robed man didn't speak anymore.

After a long time, Xu Qing slowly spoke.

"He's like a devout devotee, always searching for a temple that might not exist."

With that, Xu Qing cupped his fists and bowed. He then retracted his gaze and everything dissipated.

The world was as usual.

Xu Qing raised his head and his gaze landed on the sky. Only time and space changed there, isolating it from the surroundings.

Very soon, in that separate area, the figure of Li Mengtu who had arrived here in the past and sent the scroll into the cauldron appeared.

Xu Qing grabbed. That figure transformed into a beam of light that landed in Xu Qing's hand.

Immediately, all the trajectories regarding Li Mengtu appeared in Xu Qing's mind.

Following the trajectory, Xu Qing took a step forward.

The world melted, the void became a path, and he vanished into the distance without a trace.

…

The minor world was silent.

Only a soft sigh echoed in the space-time of this place after Xu Qing left.

"Every generation, even every individual, seeks a different temple. When we parted ways all those years ago, each of us went our own path. I traveled a long road and once thought I had found it here, but in reality, I never did. I can see that path, but I lack the strength to walk it."

"However, his appearance made me feel…

He might be the temple."

His voice gradually dissipated.

The words on the calligraphy in the wooden hut were blurry and gradually changed.

It became another sentence.

"I think I found it."

The moment this sentence appeared, there seemed to be fluctuations of fate in the entire Fifth Star Ring. The range of influence was limited, affecting only the surviving members of the Li clan.

These individuals, including Li Mengtu, found their memories of the ancestral hall's writing shifting.

The aurora in the sky also fluctuated.

In the aurora, the eyes of the twelve Sky Patrollers shone with a strange light, emitting invisible threads as though they were calculating something.

Above them, in the higher reaches of the sky, eleven immortal palaces hovered. Nine remained as usual, but two shone brilliantly, their radiating runes on the verge of forming.

Then, a calm and vast voice descended from the highest point.

"Space-time is fixed, unchangeable."

"Yet, this Ordinance possesses immense potential, beyond even the deduction of the immortals."

As soon as the voice finished speaking, the twelve Sky Patrollers in the aurora lowered their heads and the threads instantly broke.

The two shining immortal palaces also chose to disperse after weighing the pros and cons.

As for the calligraphy in the wooden hut, it became blurry again and returned to its original state. Even the memories of the Li clan members returned to before without them noticing.