Outside of Time - Chapter 1382

Chapter 1356 My Surname is Xu! My Surname is Wang!

The void is boundless, deathly silent like a tomb.

This is still the Ninth Star Ring.

However, now, apart from Shanghuang, there are no other gods in the Ninth Star Ring.

The Black Tower, the giant beast, the paper figure, and the Mother River, where they once stood, are now nothingness.

Sensing this, Xu Qing walks in the starry sky, into time, and into the broken dimensional gaps.

Following the guidance of the torn paper in his palm, he moves forward step by step.

With each step, countless worlds glow.

There are also waves of killing intent, turning into endless coldness, freezing even the slightest spatial ripples wherever he steps.

And his gaze, calm yet containing the black and white that can temper billions of stars, penetrates the layers of spatial turbulence as he moves forward…

Finally, it nails to an extremely obscure coordinate, almost assimilated with nothingness.

“Found it.”

Xu Qing pauses, then speaks softly.

There, in a mortal world

, within a town and a school, lay a collection of scrolls.

Xu Qing’s gaze, piercing through time and space, fell upon the scroll at the very bottom!

This scroll was ancient, its material ordinary, unremarkable, possessing no extraordinary qualities whatsoever. It seemed utterly ordinary, perfectly blending into the background world.

In fact, had Xu Qing not possessed the fragment in his palm and possessed extraordinary constitution, he would have been completely unaware of its existence.

“Well hidden, Derozi,”

Xu Qing’s voice was low and emotionless. He took a step forward, his figure piercing through countless worlds, directly descending into that world.

He appeared in the school, standing before the scroll.

The instant he appeared, he didn’t hesitate. His right hand, fingers outstretched, reached out and grabbed at the scroll!

This grab wasn’t a mere touch; it directly acted upon the concept of “world” embodied by the scroll!

The moment it landed, a terrifying roar, as if the membrane of heaven and earth had been forcibly torn apart, reverberated throughout the world.

The heavens and earth trembled, causing all living beings in this world to lose their senses in an instant.

Then the scroll floated up and suddenly opened!

Revealing a painting!

In the painting were undulating, ornately decorated celestial palaces!

Jade pavilions and towers floated above a sea of clouds, bathed in radiant light and auspicious mists, with cranes soaring and goddesses dancing

gracefully. A scene of supreme bliss.

However, this splendor seemed shrouded in dust, enveloped by a persistent layer of deathly gray.

Under this hue, all colors were eerily dim, as if washed away by time. The cranes’ eyes were hollow, the goddesses’ dance stiff as puppets, exuding a suffocating falseness and deathly stillness.

The entire world within the painting seemed permeated with a carefully crafted, deeply ingrained stench of decay.

And at the center of that world, above that solidified, magnificent sea of clouds, sat a colossal figure!

It was a paper figure! It

was none other than Derozi!

He was no longer a thin piece of paper, but draped in a magnificent yet equally lifeless imperial robe, wearing a jeweled crown, like an inflated, comical, and terrifying emperor.

Countless fine, translucent threads of fate extended from every living being, every piece of tile, and every wisp of cloud in the painting, densely connecting with him, as if providing him with nourishment.

Almost the instant Xu Qing’s gaze fell upon him, this enormous paper figure suddenly opened its eyes.

Its eyes gleamed with a scarlet light, meeting Xu Qing’s gaze across the painting!

“Xu Qing!”

Derozi’s expression darkened, and his mind trembled violently.

He knew the cause and effect between himself and Xu Qing, but according to his omniscience, he did not believe that Xu Qing could find him.

His concealment, unless Shanghuang truly awakened, was something no one could detect! Even

if he had a piece of paper left outside, it would be meaningless; all his avatars had long since severed causally ties with his original body.

“Something’s not right!”

Derozi’s mind was in turmoil, and what made him uneasy was his current state.

This was the most unfavorable moment!

Given enough time, he was confident he could restore his divine status, and having obtained the memories of the divine umbilical cord, he had much more confidence in his future path to godhood.

But… everything went wrong the moment Xu Qing found him!

“You have indeed fallen from your divine status, no longer a divine being.”

As Derozi’s expression changed, Xu Qing slowly spoke, stepping into the painting.

The instant he entered, this false, glorious world trembled violently, like a still mirror tossed with a boulder!

The layer of deathly gray light membrane fluctuated violently, attempting to repel Xu Qing. Countless stiff goddesses, cranes, and spirit beasts, like activated mechanical puppets, with stiff, eerie smiles, swarmed towards Xu Qing!

They were not physical entities, but curses and resentments formed from the rules of the painting; touching them would erode the divine soul and pollute the origin.

Xu Qing remained expressionless. His own constitutional dimension transformed into black and white threads, instantly swirling around his body and spreading outwards in layers.

Like a world-ending tide, it swept in all directions. Wherever it passed, the puppets in the painting that rushed towards him were torn apart like pieces of paper by a raging storm, not even having time to scream before shattering into pieces!

The layer of deathly gray light membrane emitted a soul-piercing wail under the storm of black and white, violently twisting and deforming, forcibly rendered, causing the colors of the entire painted world to fade rapidly!

Ignoring all obstacles, Xu Qing took a step, crossing the solidified sea of clouds, appearing before the swollen paper emperor, Derozi. He

raised his right hand and threw a punch!

The storm of black and white swirled around him, carrying devastating force, crashing towards Derozi’s swollen and twisted chest, draped in imperial robes!

Where the storm reached, space was not merely shattered, but conceptually annihilated!

Time, color, form, rules… all the elements that constitute this false world in the painting collapsed and vanished under this storm!

Then, they slammed heavily onto Derozi’s paper-thin imperial robes!

There was no earth-shattering explosion, only a kind of annihilation where all things returned to silence!

Centered on Xu Qing’s fist, Derozi’s swollen imperial body collapsed from the inside out, like a sandcastle thrown into a black hole!

The magnificent imperial robes turned to ashes inch by inch, the jeweled crown shattered into nothingness, and the divine power within instantly dissipated.

Its body crumbled into countless fragments, transforming into countless paper money that scattered backward.

But its counterattack also manifested.

The countless paper money formed from its body suddenly converged amidst the scattering, transforming into a gigantic paper doll’s head, opening its maw to devour Xu Qing.

Countless threads of fate emanated from this paper doll’s head, forming a river of destiny that bound Xu Qing.

The power of a peak God-Lord erupted at this moment.

Yet Xu Qing remained expressionless, his raised fist not lowered. Behind him, in the undulating void, a second version of himself emerged.

After devouring the primordial mother star, Xu Qing’s cultivation had reached the peak of the God-Lord realm, and… he possessed two bodies!

Like twin stars!

The second body, from the Black Star, suddenly appeared, also unleashing a punch!

The paper doll’s head suddenly collided with the approaching doll’s head.

A wave of energy, powerful enough to destroy everything, erupted in that instant! A

deafening roar, carrying the force of annihilation, swept across all directions.

The entire painted world collapsed abruptly.

Celestial palaces and jade pavilions turned into grayish-white powder, the solidified sea of clouds evaporated, and the stiff goddesses and cranes peeled away like faded murals.

The deathly splendor vanished into a rapidly spreading, empty void.

Derozi’s body trembled, disintegrating once more, turning into a torn-up pile of paper money.

As for the countless threads of fate binding Xu Qing, they too, like a destroyed spiderweb, snapped and dissipated under this punch.

Then, White Star Xu Qing, taking over from Black Star, stepped forward again, his right fist striking down without hesitation!

But at that moment, a sudden change occurred! In

the instant the painted world completely collapsed, a drop of thick, unyielding black ink, imbued with extreme decay and resentment, formed!

The ink wasn’t attacking Xu Qing, but rather, as if it possessed a life of its own, it instantly enveloped one of the scattered pieces of paper belonging to Derozi!

Taking advantage of the last chaotic gap created by the complete annihilation of the painted world and the collapse of its rules, it used a bizarre escape technique—burning its very essence and disregarding the cost—to pierce through the void and vanish into thin air!

Its speed surpassed perception!

Xu Qing’s punch missed.

He narrowed his eyes, standing on the utterly vanished ruins of the painted world, his gaze icy as he looked in the direction where the drop of ink had disappeared.

There, only a faint trail remained, a mixture of rotten paper pulp and the stench of resentful ink.

Then, he slowly withdrew his fist.

However, the killing intent in his pupils was now even more concentrated and profound.

“How far can you escape?”

Xu Qing spoke calmly, his voice echoing in the void, chilling to the bone.

He took another step forward, stepping directly out of the annihilated ruins of the painting world. His figure once again merged into the boundless void, silently pursuing the almost dissipated yet firmly locked-on wisp of decaying resentment.

This pursuit was relentless, like a leech, never-ending.

…

Time, in this hunt and chase between Xu Qing and Derozi, became meaningless.

Both Xu Qing and Derozi could traverse time, entering different planes of time, and not just ascending…

descending was the same.

Even in the end, with Xu Qing’s repeated pursuit and attacks, Derozi, in this extreme danger, chose to split!

He split into millions, even more, clones, entering different times and spaces.

This was his method of survival!

Each of his nearly countless clones could become his main body; as long as one survived, he would not die.

And given enough time, any one of his clones could recover to the rank of a god.

And once restored, all other clones will turn to ashes, making Him the sole being.

However, this method also has a drawback: while His clones may have an advantage in number and range, their realm is inferior to that of the original.

With His current realm, using this technique, the clones are no longer at the level of a god-king, but have fallen to the level of a true god.

Even so, for Derozi, this is currently the only way to delay!

Faced with this divine technique, Xu Qing’s corresponding method is also differentiation!

His constitutional dimension originally came from unity, and now all he needs to do is disperse again. However,

just like the flaw in Derozi’s technique, the dispersed clones cannot possess the realm of the original; they are all… Xia Xian!

Thus, this pursuit is no longer just a one-on-one battle in different times and planes, but… an infinite versus an infinite!

…

The Rumbling Kingdom.

The air is filled with the mixed smell of rust, coal ash, and inferior oil. In

the distance, huge steam pipes, like coiled steel pythons, hiss and spew scalding white steam between towering buildings.

The deafening clang of gears blended into an incessant, roaring elegy.

This was a small world, devoid of cultivators.

At this moment, a figure stood within the steel city of this world, in the shadow of a suspended iron bridge.

Long black hair, long purple hair, clashed sharply with the surrounding grease and filth.

It was Xu Qing.

His gaze pierced through the billowing steam and the spinning giant flywheel, landing deep within an enormous difference engine.

There, billions of tiny copper gears meshed and rotated frantically, calculating every breath of this steel metropolis.

On the edge of one of the gears, an extremely fine, dust-like white layer covered it.

It operated with extraordinary smoothness, possessing an eerie agility beyond mechanics.

Staring at that white layer, a cold glint flashed in Xu Qing’s eyes. Like a weightless ghost, he silently descended the iron bridge in a way unseen by the world’s patrolling guards.

His fingers lightly brushed across the massive outer shell of the precision difference engine, etching a hole just large enough for a finger to pass through.

Then, he took out a drop of the black oil formed from its constitution and dripped it precisely into the hole.

“Sizzle!”

A very faint yet sharp sound, enough to pierce the roar of steel, rang out.

The gear covered by the white mark suddenly stopped! The

layer of “dust” covering it trembled violently, trying to escape.

But the black oil, like a leech, instantly enveloped and permeated it.

The white mark struggled and writhed in the thick blackness, like a flying insect trapped in resin, constantly spreading and seeping in. The gear’s rotation became difficult and clunky, emitting painful creaking sounds.

Finally, the struggling ripples completely subsided, the gear stopped turning, and no trace of white remained on its surface.

Only a faint, divine lament was utterly extinguished in the roar of the oil and steam.

Outside, Xu Qing withdrew his finger, the metal at the edge of the hole automatically sealing itself.

He turned and disappeared into the billowing steam, leaving only the roar of the differential engine restarting behind him.

…

At the bottom of the abyss, a silent graveyard.

Absolute darkness and endless seawater enveloped everything.

Here, between ascending and descending, lay an abandoned abyss.

Xu Qing hovered in the icy, bone-chilling water, beneath his feet the decaying wreckage of a massive ancient ship.

Like the skeletal remains of a fallen beast, it slumbered on the seabed.

Time seemed to freeze here, with only the occasional glint of cold, blue light from deep-sea creatures illuminating the twisted, carved wooden ornaments and scattered utensils within the ship’s interior.

Xu Qing’s gaze swept across the wreckage as he entered.

His target was the captain’s cabin.

There lay a half-rolled parchment nautical chart, forgotten on the corner of an oak table.

Yellowed and tattered, it looked as ancient and lifeless as the shipwreck itself.

But in the dim light of the cabin, the ink markings on the parchment, representing reefs and routes, writhed eerily, like the veins of a living creature.

The moment Xu Qing approached, the parchment suddenly froze.

Then it melted violently, as if trying to escape!

But it was too late. Xu Qing abruptly raised his right hand and lashed out!

An iron spike flew out in an instant, like a blunt instrument piercing rotten wood, carrying immense force as it pierced the half-rolled parchment nautical chart, pinning it firmly to the thick oak planks of the cabin wall!

A distorted face formed from ink smudges instantly appeared on the paper, its mouth silently gaping open to its limit, the lines of its face twisting and trembling wildly, displaying extreme pain and terror.

Meanwhile, seawater, carrying Xu Qing’s unique constitution, seeped into the parchment through the pierced opening and the rusted seams of the talisman.

The ink face convulsed violently, the ink dots forming the islands blurred and diffused, the lines representing the shipping routes twisted and broke like waterlogged earthworms.

Finally, only a chaotic and filthy ink stain remained, slowly spreading in the cold seawater, merging with the eternal darkness.

Xu Qing, expressionless, turned and stepped out of the silent coffin, leaving only the eternal silence of the deep sea behind him.

… A

celestial mountain amidst clouds and mist, shrouded in ethereal spiritual energy.

A solitary peak suspended above a vast sea of clouds, perpetually enveloped in a misty, ethereal aura.

Cranes cried out, exotic flowers bloomed, and jade palaces and pavilions appeared and disappeared among the clouds and mist.

This was a serene Daoist temple, a blessed land dreamed of by countless cultivators, located in the lower planetary ring.

At this moment, under the clear sky and in the heavenly wind, Xu Qing stood atop a solitary peak.

His black robe fluttered in the wind, and his long purple hair danced wildly, seemingly trying to envelop the clear sky, incongruous with the surrounding celestial aura.

He was like a demon.

His cold gaze pierced through the ethereal clouds below, landing on a Daoist temple located within the blessed land.

Deep within that temple, in a secluded meditation chamber filled with restrictions, were three Xuan Tian Protector True Talismans, their surfaces shimmering with precious light and covered with dense runes.

The talisman paper was neither gold nor jade, but faintly radiated spiritual light.

In the corner of one of the talismans, an extremely tiny rune, its strokes edged with a faint trace of gray, was visible.

This was the talisman Xu Qing was looking at.

“They’re getting better at hiding; they’ve actually concealed themselves within the rules, impervious to destruction except by the rules of this realm.”

The instant the lock was placed, Xu Qing stepped off the solitary peak. The sea of clouds beneath his feet automatically surged and condensed, carrying him as if on solid ground, instantly traversing space and landing outside the tightly closed jade door of the Taoist temple’s secret chamber.

Ignoring the complex restrictions flowing across the door, he walked straight through, as if passing through a curtain of water.

Inside the secret chamber, sandalwood incense wafted, the spiritual energy so dense it was almost liquid.

Without the slightest hesitation, Xu Qing raised his right index finger, a tiny, needle-like point of light flickering at its tip, yet containing a destructive aura that caused the entire secret chamber’s spiritual energy to become chaotic and retreat.

In a flash, it didn’t attack the talisman itself, but instantly disrupted the invisible spiritual energy field above the secret chamber, like a pebble thrown into a calm lake, stirring up the laws that attract lightning.

“Boom!”

Without warning!

A massive, blazing white bolt of lightning, as thick as a pillar of heaven, tore through the dome of the Taoist temple, ignoring all defensive barriers. Carrying the overwhelming wrath of the heavens, it struck with pinpoint accuracy the protective talisman enshrined at the highest point!

More precisely, it struck the rune with its ghastly, pale color.

Time seemed to freeze for a moment.

The next instant, the radiant talisman erupted with blinding white light!

Instantly, it charred, carbonized, and disintegrated!

Countless burning fragments of paper, like startled moths, scattered wildly from the center of the explosion! They

danced and thrashed desperately within the confined space of the secret chamber, attempting to escape the destructive lightning and fire of supreme yang.

Within the rising smoke, Derozi’s face appeared and disappeared, his contorted in agony, as he roared at Xu Qing.

“Xu Qing, I curse you!”

Xu Qing stared coldly as the face vanished, and finally all the rune fragments turned into sparkling black ash, scattering across the cold ground.

The rich sandalwood incense in the secret chamber was now completely replaced by the pungent smell of burning, leaving only the deathly silence and devastation after the thunder and fire.

Xu Qing withdrew his fingers, the eerie light at his fingertips extinguished.

He didn’t even glance at the layer of black ash on the ground, turning and disappearing into the distorted air of the secret chamber.

At this moment, the alarmed Taoist temple formations began to ripple frantically, tearing apart the tranquility of the immortal mountain.

…

One after another, annihilation, one after another.

Some worlds were turbulent, some were peaceful.

But death was their only commonality.

The differentiation of Derozi not only failed to buy Him time, but instead became the end of His final destiny.

This was greatly related to His own most unfavorable state, and also closely related to Xu Qing’s constitution.

To some extent, Xu Qing’s constitution was actually… the most restraining of Derozi’s divine authority!

Thus, when three months passed in the mortal world, in this endless starry sky, the last piece of paper, hidden in the cold shadow of a weathered rock in a desolate little world, was ignited by the black and white fire flicked by Xu Qing’s finger.

As the paper burned, silently curling, charring, and finally dissipating into a wisp of insignificant blue smoke…

in all the myriad realms, in every dimension that had been stained by the white trace of the paper, a final, overlapping scream, originating from the same core of the soul, seemed to resound a million times over!

This scream contained the excruciating pain of being shattered in the Roaring Kingdom, the viscous despair of being pierced through the abyss, the fear of being annihilated by lightning in blessed lands…

and all the various kinds of pain and terror endured when being obliterated in all other worlds!

It transformed into a slow, unimaginable execution!

At this moment, Xu Qing stood in the void where his opponent’s last avatar had vanished, his feet resting on an inconspicuous, barren rock, surrounded by nine burning purple lanterns.

These were not manifestations of his earliest Divine Eye, but rather the Source-Tracing Flames created from the opponent’s avatars during his pursuit of Derozi.

In the firelight, Xu Qing’s expression remained unchanged, as if his previous attack had merely brushed away a speck of dust from his robes.

He merely raised his eyelids slightly, but the chilling killing intent in his unfathomable purple pupils did not diminish; instead, it intensified.

He clearly “saw” that at the source of the millions of overlapping screams, deep within the endless dimensional turbulence…

a passage, rendered impossible to perfectly conceal due to the destruction of all his avatars and the devastating damage to his core consciousness, had revealed itself!

“Interesting…”

Xu Qing murmured, raising his hand, and a bronze lantern appeared before him. He took a step forward.

…

It was a hidden passage.

Weakened and nearing the end of his life, Derozi transformed into a gigantic face and raced wildly through the passage.

He was afraid.

The collapse of his own power, coupled with the turmoil of life and death, made him feel the approach of annihilation.

“There’s still hope!”

“This passage was left behind by me to scheme against Wang Gu. Its end leads to the future of the Thick Earth Star Ring. Leaving from there, I still have hope of gaining enough time!”

Derozi moved even faster; with his current True God level, he reached the end of the passage in an instant.

There, he saw a mirror-like seal.

Through the seal, he could see a terrified fat man outside.

Ignoring this, a golden light flashed in Derozi’s eyes, and his gigantic face charged towards the mirror seal.

Upon approaching, the mirror seal seemed unable to withstand the pressure; it flashed with light and cracked violently.

From the other side, one could clearly see a gigantic face rapidly protruding from below the mirror seal!

The mirror-like surface resembled a membrane, while the protruding face seemed to represent endless evil, yearning to break free of its seal.

“Hope is right before my eyes!”

Inside the passage, Derozi roared, approaching with all his might.

To him, the seal was as fragile as paper, easily broken, so his plan was to gather his power and escape at the moment of breaking free.

But just as he was about to touch the seal… outside the seal, before the terrified fat man, a vortex of starlight suddenly appeared.

And within the vortex, a finger composed of starlight abruptly extended!

It struck directly at the seal!

As it landed, an aura belonging to Xia Xian, seemingly replacing the will of that world, descended with a deafening roar.

It pressed against the man’s brow!

Derozi shuddered, his roar turning into a scream, his own aura collapsing instantly.

“Xia Xian! How could Xia Xian be there by chance! And this person is no ordinary immortal…”

Derozi spat out divine blood, his face instantly withered and shriveled. He tried to struggle, but with his current level, everything was futile under those fingers!

He only managed to hold on for three breaths before being violently thrown back, blocked before the seal.

Just as he was about to try again, the next instant… a chill that made his whole body freeze and even his soul tremble approached silently from behind.

It became a hand, a hand… grabbing his head!

“Found you.”

Derozi’s soul roared as he was directly invaded by the Constitutional Law, enveloping the seal.

Xu Qing’s figure appeared in the passage.

He held Derozi in one hand, nine purple fire lanterns floating around his body, looking at the mirror seal that Derozi had just rushed towards.

The cracks in the mirror seal were visibly healing under the power of starlight from the outside world.

Looking at the mirror seal, Xu Qing narrowed his eyes and stepped forward.

As he approached, the mirror-like seal trembled violently, unleashing a powerful surge of energy. It seemed that Xu Qing’s mere stroll had already pushed the seal to its limit.

Outside the seal, the finger extending from the vortex, which had been slowly dissipating, appeared to be on the verge of collapse. But

in the next instant, the starlight within the vortex suddenly paused, an unprecedented sense of gravity coalescing within, transforming into a pair of cold eyes.

“Halt!”

A faint voice emanated from the vortex, penetrating the seal.

Hearing this, Xu Qing stopped at the edge of the seal, looking up through it at the outside world.

His gaze first swept over the fat man, then fell upon the starlight eyes within the vortex before him.

In that instant, he saw a white-haired cultivator, radiating an overwhelming killing intent, his cultivation having reached the Xia Immortal level!

“Interesting. I’ve been hunting down Derozi for three months, slaying a million of his clones, yet I never imagined his true form would somehow create a passage to the outer realms here!”

“Even more interesting is that here… I actually encountered a fellow Daoist who seems to be of the same kind!”

Xu Qing spoke calmly, then turned around, carrying Derozi, and walked away. He didn’t force his way in; that place wasn’t his world.

However, after a few steps, his voice rang out.

“My surname is Xu.”

“My surname is Wang.”

Voices from the outside world echoed from the mirror’s seal.