Outside of Time - Chapter 1377

Chapter 1351 I Am Ziqing (Second Update)

The thousand-year-old Ziqing Kingdom shattered like glass under the siege of cultivators from all races.

I watched as my father was torn apart by the enemy, my wife’s head was pierced by a magical artifact, and my young son huddled in the shadows, growing cold.

I couldn’t save him…

nor did I have the power to…

At the moment this war began, my cultivation was sealed by the spells of all races, and I became a mortal.

In my grief and anger, my younger brother faced the pursuers, detonating the last vestiges of Ziqing Kingdom’s fortune. He then

channeled that fortune into my body.

Engulfed by the fortune, I saw countless eyes

—my deceased relatives, my subjects, all watching me from beyond the reach of time.

I will take revenge!

…

The thousand-year-old Ziqing Kingdom shattered more easily than a glass lamp.

The vast and auspicious purple aura had long been torn away by the filthy, bloody winds of the cultivators’ spells.

Inside and outside the imperial city, the magnificent jade pillars that once symbolized immortality were now nothing more than a graveyard of massive wreckage, trembling amidst the deafening roar of battle and the sickening sound of bones cracking.

I stood atop the shattered imperial steps, my feet sinking into sticky, bloody mud, the pungent smell of rust almost freezing my breath.

My father, that figure that once stood like a pillar supporting the heavens, was seized before my very eyes by a shadow that tore through space.

I didn’t even hear his final cry; I only witnessed his purple-gold dragon robe, a symbol of supreme majesty, along with his powerful body, being instantly ripped apart by an invisible force!

A rain of blood mixed with shattered bones splattered down, scalding my face.

Drops of my father’s scalding blood fell into my eyes, blurring my vision with crimson.

The azure sky collapsed completely in this rain of blood.

And I was powerless to stop it.

My cultivation, my supernatural powers, even my physical strength, were all cursed by the combined power of all races at the moment the war began, sealing my cultivation and rendering me powerless.

I was reduced to a mortal.

And it was at this moment that I realized I wasn’t as strong as the rumors suggested…

my vulnerability was no less than anyone else’s.

“Your Highness! This way!” The hoarse shouts of the surviving guards pierced the suffocating roar.

As if pulled by invisible threads, I numbly retreated with them.

Just as I passed through the crumbling palace gates, a blinding light suddenly pierced my peripheral vision.

It was the direction of the Phoenix Palace!

There, a sea of fire!

My heart trembled. I staggered closer, and amidst the thick smoke and flames, I saw her—my wife.

She leaned against a half-charred pillar, a blood-stained silver hairpin deeply embedded in her forehead, her slender hand that had once adorned me with flowers hanging limply at her sides.

She stared blankly at the sky obscured by black smoke, her frozen gaze seemingly still holding lingering regrets.

My outstretched hand froze in mid-air, my fingertips icy cold. Something within my chest shattered with a silent, mournful sound.

The ancient lotus emblem in my palm, symbolizing the power of the Purple-Blue Royal Family, suddenly burned like a branding iron, searing my very soul.

“Father…” A weak, kitten-like voice, trembling with death, came from the heavy, collapsed shadows.

Beneath the heavy, broken beams, a small body curled up—my seven-year-old prince.

His small body was ice-cold, only the rough wooden sword I had carved myself, clutched tightly in his tiny hand, seemed to retain a faint warmth.

I trembled as I picked him up, but that pitiful warmth quickly vanished, leaving only coldness.

The wooden sword slipped from his limp hand, striking the cold floor tiles with a soft “tap,” piercing my eardrums and heart along with the roars of the myriad races of cultivators.

My father, my wife, my prince, my country… all were cold.

“Go! Your Highness!” The remaining armored soldiers formed a broken dam with their bodies, desperately blocking the terrifying torrent surging from all directions, their twisted faces etched with despair and a death wish.

Like a puppet with its strings cut, I was swept up by a resolute force, smashing open the crumbling palace gates and rushing desperately into the unknown darkness.

Behind me lay my utterly destroyed world.

The palace gates groaned under the weight behind me, collapsing with a deafening crash.

An extremely sharp, destructive, and icy divine thought, like a leech, instantly locked onto my back, the chill of death almost freezing my very bones.

“Prince Ziqing, you are no longer the spirited young man you once were.”

The voice, laced with the mocking taunt of a cat playing with a mouse, was cold and piercing, seeping into my ears.

Just as the destructive power was about to engulf me, a familiar yet resolute figure, like a shooting star drawn to a flame, defied the flow of fleeing people and suddenly stood between me and that terrifying divine thought!

It was my younger brother!

The one who was disliked by our father, usually taciturn, living in my shadow, and rarely interacting with me!

He clutched the imperial seal, his tattered robes fluttering wildly under the violent spiritual pressure, his sideburns disheveled by the strong wind.

He suddenly turned and glanced at me.

In those eyes burned a desperate madness!

The next instant, his withered body suddenly expanded, like an air bladder inflated to its limit, and blinding purple light burst forth violently from the imperial seal and from every pore of his body!

The light was so pure, so tragic, as if it compressed and ignited the last remaining fortune of the Purple-Azure Kingdom, and the last vestiges of his own life and soul!

Boom!

An indescribable roar echoed throughout the world.

Heaven and earth seemed to go completely deaf at that moment.

This igniting power, containing the fortune of the Purple-Azure Kingdom, surged into my body like an invisible giant hammer, merging into my very being.

Within my body, it roared and shattered the powerful curse meticulously prepared and branded upon me by all races, and even more so, it broke through the cultivation they had sealed with their combined strength.

It caused the long-lost power and the dormant cultivation to awaken anew in this nearly decaying body, like frozen soil collapsing.

However, within that burst of cultivation power, a churning, blood-red mist appeared in my mind, within which countless eyes seemed to suddenly emerge!

Father, brother, beloved wife, young son… and countless other familiar faces, the soldiers and subjects who shed their last drop of blood for Ziqing…

Their gazes, filled with farewell, seemed to come from beyond time, from that unreachable other shore.

Looking at them, a thick tear of blood, unknowingly, spilled from the corner of my eye, detached from my cheek, and silently fell into the boundless darkness.

It fell towards the ruins of my homeland, being devoured and annihilated by blood and fire, fell into the unfathomable, eternal silence.

At this moment, behind me lay the utter collapse of the past, the ruins of time’s decay.

And ahead of me, only a vast, dark road awaited, stained with blood.

I will take my revenge!