Outside of Time - Chapter 1289

Chapter 1267 Escaping the Cage

The family that holds jurisdiction over this star is named Zhenyi.

According to the rules of the divine lineage of the Fourth Star Ring, only clans that have produced a True God can bear the honor of the title “Zhen” (True).

In the Butterfly God’s memory, the Zhenyi clan’s jurisdiction extends beyond this star, encompassing the vast nebula and several surrounding universes.

All of this belongs to this family.

Originally, this should have been eternal, as True Gods, even if they fall, will return, and thus, until a new True God appears, the jurisdiction would remain unchanged.

However, this family encountered an unexpected event.

Their True God is suspected to have fallen many years ago and has not returned…

As time passed, the consequences gradually became apparent: the Zhenyi clan was unable to effectively suppress the clans within their jurisdiction.

This forced them to gradually shrink their territory until now, only this star and dozens of nearby stars remain at their command.

Such a situation, where a True God fails to return, is not common in the divine system, but it does occur.

Generally, most of the time, the return is thwarted by snipers during the process, leading to unexpected events.

Xu Qing had personally participated in similar incidents, and he had even served as bait in the beginning…

Back then, Yu Liuchen wanted to lure a True God who was about to return.

“So the secret of return is ultimately not perfect. With the development of the times, and with more and more gods and cultivators exploring it…

some glories are just memories of the past.”

Xu Qing, transformed into a butterfly, danced in the sky, getting closer and closer to the 360 Emerald Halo.

He could already sense that a large number of gods were gathering in the 36th ring.

That was the summoning ground for the Zhenyi family, whose jurisdiction had now shrunk significantly. It was

also the place Xu Qing had chosen, a place where he could mix in with the mixed aura using the Mud Fox Secret Technique!

“Hopefully, the Mud Fox’s secret technique will work!”

Xu Qing narrowed his eyes, preparing himself for a failed attempt to force his way in. Then, with a burst of speed, he traversed the void and appeared before the 36th Emerald Halo.

The moment he arrived, a jade-green light enveloped him, and divine power descended. Xu Qing didn’t hesitate for a moment; with a flap of his wings, he suddenly flew in.

The next instant, he entered the halo.

Inside, everything was jade-green, boundless, like a dyed void. Only in the center was a huge scroll unfurled, spreading out to both sides.

As for the depiction on the canvas, it was drawn with countless lines in a dense manner, making it impossible to discern what was depicted. It was quite abstract, and at first glance, it was difficult to make out its meaning.

One could only vaguely see that there seemed to be multiple forms.

Xu Qing narrowed his eyes. This painting gave him a strange feeling, so he looked at it carefully.

Soon, he realized something was wrong. A sense of bewilderment rose in his heart, along with a touch of emotion.

“This painting…”

This painting couldn’t really be described as abstract, because only those who couldn’t understand it would use that word.

In fact, with Xu Qing’s state of mind and cultivation, in his eyes, this was clearly a map of heaven and earth, a world in itself.

It was just… it depicted all the three-dimensional aspects of all living beings and things within that world, all painted onto this canvas.

Thus, at first glance, it appears dense and bizarre, distorted and abstract.

“This object is definitely not something a divine altar could possess; it must be something at the level of a true god. The manifestation within… could this be the inner substance that causes the surroundings to distort due to divine pressure?” A

strange feeling arose in Xu Qing’s heart, and in a flash, he was about to approach the painting.

But in an instant, divine thoughts suddenly swept over from the world within the painting.

Along with the divine thoughts, one after another, gods emerged from the shattered parts of the painting. There

were over a hundred of them, some containing true fire and some flawless essence, and some even containing divine altars.

Several of them caught Xu Qing’s attention.

One was a strange eye corroded with bronze.

The pupil of this eye was actually a bronze chime bell, and outside the pupil, stardust flowed, and tentacles grew all around, the ends of which split into Buddha-hand-shaped suction cups.

With each breath, it pulled the pupil to contract, striking the chime bell within, emitting a divine sound that drove people mad.

There was another, even more bizarre, a withered old woman, completely naked, her skin covered in craggy bumps—thirty-six thousand human-faced stars, flowing beneath her skin.

Withered hair drifted, drawing countless floating ancient corpses from the void behind her, each reciting burial scriptures from different eras.

Yet another, embodying life and death, had its left half blooming with begonia flowers that revealed glimpses of past lives, while its right half was peeling away like charred wood, its chest containing nine bronze soul lamps, their flames swirling with drowning souls.

Its feet were rooted in a distorted spacetime, its left foot on an ice age, its right foot embedded in a blazing star core.

This one drew Xu Qing’s most intense gaze.

He sensed a divine authority in it similar to his own.

This made Xu Qing’s mind sharpen, and he realized that most of these deities did not originate from this star; therefore, what they displayed now was their divine form.

This is also a way for deities to determine each other’s status, similar to how cultivators clash with their Daoist thoughts.

“This opportunity…”

Xu Qing’s heart stirred slightly. The mud fox understood his meaning, and both simultaneously used this opportunity to unfold their divine forms, employing a secret technique to merge with the outside world.

The next instant, Xu Qing’s body swayed, and his butterfly form underwent a sudden transformation, his wings unfurling violently.

The unfolded wings resembled a millstone of reincarnation, each scale woven from the skin of an unknown creature, its body flowing with crimson light, drawing in the surrounding void.

Especially his forewings, each inlaid with 96,000 weeping blood compound eyes, each pupil reflecting lightning, now emitting a resonant sound of ghostly wails as he flapped his wings,

responding to all the gods whose divine thoughts swept towards him.

Even more bizarrely, the butterfly that Xu Qing had transformed into had two antennae each entwined with a crimson river, forking at the ends, hanging with floating, rusty ghostly lamps. It flew

straight towards the scroll.

Its fluttering wings seemed to echo the rhythm of a primordial calamity; the left wing could be seen stirring up an annihilating tide, while the right wing sprinkled primordial dew. Among the scales scattered along its path, the shadows of countless scaled oxen could be seen worshipping.

This was none other than the divine form of the butterfly possessed by Xu Qing!

Instantly, those divine senses sweeping over it mostly revealed reverence, while the few deities whom Xu Qing had previously gazed upon subtly withdrew their auras.

They allowed the butterfly that Xu Qing had transformed into to fall into the scroll and hover in an empty space.

At the same time, divine sounds echoed.

“Eternal Netherworld Butterfly!”

“It’s been a century. You’re not far from breaking through your current realm.”

This divine voice emanated from the shattered part of the scroll, accompanied by a gigantic black lotus slowly rising.

Within the black lotus sat a dwarf, his body jet black, surrounded by three hundred and sixty ancient remains, each radiating considerable pressure.

A speck of gold dust adorned his brow—solidified true god blood. His pupils

reflected emerald halos, and he toyed with a scale in his hand. The voice emanating from him reverberated throughout the scroll, causing all the gods within to bow their heads.

This was none other than the god of the Zhenyi family, who governed this star.

Xu Qing, through his understanding of the butterfly spirit, had seen this god before, recognizing him as the current Zhenyi, and also the initiator of this summons.

Therefore, Xu Qing bowed slightly, showing reverence.

The dwarf nodded slightly, remaining silent, and closed his eyes to meditate on the black lotus.

Silence fell around them as all the gods waited.

Xu Qing also withdrew his divine form, but his aura, now integrated with his surroundings through a secret technique simultaneously used by himself and the mud fox, remained in

this state, waiting for time to pass.

Soon, three days passed.

The appointed day drew ever closer, and during these three days, dozens more deities arrived. The vast majority were summoned from other stars, while a few, like the butterfly deity Xu Qing had transformed into, belonged to this star. Some were like

the lightning worshipped by humankind, others like gods formed from burning creep.

Simultaneously, during these three days, divine senses from outside the realm appeared several times.

The most frequent instance involved three divine senses jointly probing.

Despite Xu Qing’s vigilance, the mud fox’s method proved effective; the divine senses’ probing failed to detect Xu Qing’s concealment.

As for the other deities here, they seemed accustomed to the frequent searches by the divine gods during this period and showed little reaction.

“As long as no more than five True Gods probe me, this secret technique can conceal my presence. Two more days… after these gods depart, it will be time for me to leave!”

Xu Qing murmured to himself.

These final two days seemed to pass longer than usual during Xu Qing’s wait, but fortunately, everything went smoothly. Although True Gods did probe, they didn’t exceed Xu Qing’s concealment limit.

And so, the appointed day arrived.

At the exact moment, all the gods present released their auras, and the dwarf sitting cross-legged on the black lotus opened his eyes and waved his hand.

Instantly, black stones scattered, falling before each god, who collected them using their own methods.

Xu Qing also raised his hand and picked one up. The instant he touched it, he knew that this object contained the divine seal of a True God. It wasn’t very useful to him, but for the gods, it could aid them in breaking through their cultivation levels.

“Gentlemen, these are the promised True God Stones.”

“And after this exploration of the secret realm, the remaining True God Stones are also ready.”

“Now… depart!”

The golden blood between the dwarf’s brows suddenly shone, transforming into a golden light that illuminated the emerald halo in his eyes, making it visible to the outside world and radiating waves of teleportation.

Then, some gods took the lead, flying straight towards the halo and disappearing in an instant.

As the gods followed one after another, Xu Qing was about to implement his pre-prepared departure plan, but at this moment, a scene that caused Xu Qing a strong sense of crisis appeared.

In the starry sky, a vast sea of True God divine thoughts swept across the nebula containing the stars, containing more than ten True Gods!

The moment he sensed it, Xu Qing’s pupils shrank, and his heart skipped a beat.

He knew very well that if he was swept across this time, his disguise would be exposed.

So at the critical moment, without any hesitation, he decisively abandoned the thought of leaving, his body blurred, and he rushed straight towards the halo in front of him, rushing into it.

He disappeared in an instant.