Beyond the Timescape

Chapter 809: So, You Studied It For Nothing?

Xu Qing’s mind spun, and his senses collapsed. Everything went blank. His divine will faded from the location of the immortal essence.

The dandelion seed vibrated, then backed up slightly. Then it continued moving back in the direction of the dandelion. However, this time... it had three figures inside instead of two! The third figure was blurry, and occasionally disappeared entirely, as if it was having trouble forming fully.

Xu Qing’s true body stood in the ancient temple, amidst the sea of flames, right in front of the ‘window’ leading to the immortal essence. His eyes were closed, and he wasn’t moving.

Off to the side, the palace lord sighed softly.

The little butterfly heard it and knew what it meant. “That Xu Qing is so greedy! He picked a returning seed that the immortal essence hadn’t purified yet, which will make it a lot harder to gain enlightenment of. It would be much simpler to let the immortal essence purify it.”

The butterfly actually seemed pleased and even happy. Inside, she was thinking that if Xu Qing hadn’t killed her over and over again before, she might have told him this secret earlier.

“Master, you already gave him ten breaths of time that he normally wouldn’t have. Yet he just didn’t know how to take advantage of that. This is his destined opportunity, so there’s no need for you to sigh. Don’t worry, my powers of understanding are definitely better than his, so I won’t have trouble surpassing him.

“The figure Xu Qing left in the seed will probably just dissipate on its own, which will prove that he failed at enlightenment. Even if his powers of understanding were on the same level as my own, he just doesn’t have enough time.

“Besides, once that seed returns to the dandelion, any figures inside that aren’t there permanently will be purified away. Therefore, Master, you really don’t need to sigh with regret!”

The palace lord shook her head. “I wasn’t sighing about Xu Qing. What I regret is picking an apprentice too soon and choosing you.”

The palace lord’s gaze came to rest on the dandelion seed that Xu Qing had chosen for his enlightenment.

The butterfly was stunned, and initially didn’t understand. Then her gaze followed her Master’s to the immortal essence seed. She was about to ask for some clarification when the eyes on her wings suddenly widened.

The seed Xu Qing had picked was on its way back to the immortal essence dandelion. It wasn’t very far. In fact, it looked like it would only take a few dozen breaths of time to reach its destination.

But then, on the way back, the third figure inside suddenly began to become very clear! It became increasingly stable, until, in the end, it clearly resembled Xu Qing.

The butterfly simply couldn’t comprehend such enlightenment speed. All of the seeds she had sought enlightenment from had been purified and were on their way back out. As a result, she always had plenty of time to work with. Normally speaking, it would take a day or two to figure out how to take control of it. That was the reason why she’d said all the things she just had. Based on her own frame of reference, she didn’t see how Xu Qing could succeed. Therefore, what she was seeing now blew her mind.

“This....”

Meanwhile, an astonishing tempest was erupting in Xu Qing’s sea of consciousness.

He was looking at a starry sky full of ripples. It looked like the surface of some body of water. Compared to the universe as a whole, that starry sky was like a well.

He suddenly heard an ancient voice speaking. “Everything is inside the well. All divine abilities, magical treasure, all states exist in the well....”

Xu Qing immersed himself in the voice and the well water.

The sensations he had experienced in the location of the immortal essence were long gone. His divine will had already disappeared from there. But that brief contact created a sensation that still lingered within him.

Although there wasn’t a lot, it was there. And of course, Xu Qing had incredible powers of understanding that had amazed both Master Seventh and the Heir Apparent on multiple occasions. Just a little scrap of something in his sea of consciousness was enough for him.

Xu Qing looked at the starry sky. The ripples were fading, and everything was turning calm, creating a much clearer reflection of what was above. Gradually, Xu Qing was able to glimpse himself within the starry sky reflected in the well.

Within the water, he saw all of his god states, his heavenly dao, his magical devices, and everything from his Gold Core days. The god’s finger. The Ghost Emperor mountain. D-132. Daybreak light.... But that wasn’t it. All of the martial techniques, magical techniques, and divine abilities that he had practiced from the beginning of his cultivation journey were there. Golden Crow Assimilates Myriad Spirits, Within the Nine Springs, and everything else.... As for his reflection, it was incomparably clear. At a glance, it was impossible to tell which was the reflection and which was real!

That’s also me....

Xu Qing was experiencing a sensation that blended profundity and reality. As that sensation overtook him, Xu Qing felt like he had lost his ability to even move, as if he were fixed in place, his soul transfixed by the water. Most noteworthy of all... was that the reflections in the water did not contain the violet crystal! That discovery struck Xu Qing to the core. Next, he heard that same ancient and domineering voice speaking to him.

“This divine ability of mine is... Fishing the Moon in the Well!”

The moment the words rang out, something like an enormous, blurry hand appeared in the void. It reached down into the well, causing the water, and Xu Qing’s reflection, to ripple. Then the hand fished something out from inside.

“The moonlight in the well is beautiful, and I wanted some. Now, I have some.”

Within the illusory hand was an image of Xu Qing. The hand squeezed down, forcing the image of Xu Qing to remain in the palm.

“He is you! Did you master it?”

As the words echoed out, the hand which held Xu Qing extended, revealing an entire person attached to it. It was a pale-faced middle-aged man clad in a gray suit of armor, with eyes as peaceful as tranquil water! The armor was vicious, as if it had grown out of the man’s flesh, and was part of it. Based on what Xu Qing could sense, it abounded with nefarious energy. Within that nefarious energy was something very domineering. The two things conflicted and yet were harmonious at the same time. And he was looking directly at the Xu Qing in the palm.

Xu Qing wasn’t capable of moving, nor could he use any magical technique. Apparently, even his god states had been taken away. The only thing he could do was think, and that meant he had no trouble seeking enlightenment.

So, the name of this divine ability is Fishing the Moon in the Well! What an amazing divine ability. If there is no moon in the well, one will appear, except it’s a reflection of the moon in the sky. But in the hands of this person, it’s a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering magic! The process of using it involves finding the gaps between reality and illusion, then using the power of time to reach into the mirror image and create something from nothing! It’s about having supreme self-confidence, a domineering will, and superb willpower. [1]

As Xu Qing came to that understanding, his image in the dandelion seed grew even clearer, until it was almost complete. Soon, there would be a tripartite balance of power with the other two figures there. As of this moment, it was definitely correct to say that Xu Qing had gained enlightenment of Fishing the Moon in the Well.

But then, Xu Qing’s heart flip-flopped. “Wait. No!”

Immortal essence legacies can’t be this simple. Everything from just now was probably just a generalization. My thinking is a bit too one-sided. The Heir Apparent and Princess Brightblossom once told me that the only thing limiting a person’s advancement is imagination.

In other words, Fishing the Moon in the Well might not be exactly as I just experienced.... It’s probably a lot more profound. A lot more useful! It’s only my lack of perception and ability that prevents me from seeing it more clearly.

As these thoughts went through Xu Qing’s mind, the image in the dandelion seed collapsed and started fading away. When the little butterfly noticed that, she was stunned. She had assumed that Xu Qing already succeeded, which was quite a blow to her. But now it looked like his image was collapsing....

“Master, w-what’s... what’s going on?”

The palace lord sighed again, this time more deeply. “What a pity the rules of the Summer Immortal Palace clearly state that the palace can only have one successor at a time.”

The butterfly was completely astonished.

“He wasn’t happy with the divine ability,” the palace lord explained, “so he decided to delve into its substructure.”

“Substructure?” The butterfly’s eyes went wide.

The palace lord was right. Xu Qing was now probing the ability on a substructural level. He had started thinking about how his initial contact with the seed had provoked a reaction from his violet moon. Given that, and considering the name of the divine ability, a very outrageous possibility had occurred to him.

What’s being fished out of the well isn’t just a person’s soul. Perhaps it’s a whole bunch of souls. And floating within the well aren’t just things like divine abilities, magical techniques, and magical devices. Those things are too simplistic. If the well has a moon in it, what if that moon isn’t the actual moon in the sky? Who said that this ability has to be used on an enemy. It seems perfectly possible... to use it to fish the moon out of my own heart!

Xu Qing’s mind spun as he came to the conclusion that this new way of thinking was absolutely correct.

I get it now! That’s why the cultivator in the gray armor said the moon was beautiful, and that he wanted some. He was warning me! What’s more, he asked me if I’d mastered it. That was also a warning! In fact, when he said ‘he is you,’ he was spelling things out for me as clearly as could be. He was basically asking me if I had mastered the substructure of the ability!

As this understanding filled Xu Qing, and the concept became clearer, the figure within the palm of the middle-aged man suddenly erupted with blinding, violet light. As the light spread out, the figure vanished, turning into... a boundless violet moon! It rested in the palm emanating astonishing mightiness. Then the palm started vibrating until it collapsed. The man in the gray armor was also shredded into ash by the violet light. The entire well came to be filled with a violet moon, slowly rising up. This moon wasn’t illusory. It was true and real! [2]

It wasn’t the moon that Li Zihua had taken out into the starry sky. Xu Qing had created it. It was the second violet moon to form in the Revered Ancient mainland! The source was the same as Li Zihua’s violet moon, but it belonged to Xu Qing!

Xu Qing appeared on the violet moon and looked in the direction where the cultivator in the gray armor had disappeared. Outside, the seed was nearly at the dandelion. Just before it merged into it, the two figures inside collapsed and disappeared, to be replaced by another one-of-a-kind figure.

It was none other than Xu Qing!

1. Fishing the Moon in the Well is an ability from Renegade Immortal. In fact, that’s the title of chapter 1429 of that novel. In the Chinese comments on Qidian, someone actually shared a screenshot of that chapter. Many parts from this chapter of BTT are exactly the same as that chapter. For example, the line from above “Everything is inside the well...” and the things after that down to this line (and some of the subsequent lines) are largely the same. It seems to me the author probably copy and pasted a lot of it, then made tweaks and changes so everything made sense for Xu Qing’s unique experience. That said, there are many things that are exactly the same without any changes at all. Generally speaking, I avoid critiquing the work of other translators. For one thing, I wouldn’t like it if people went through my translation line-by-line and nitpicked it. However, there are some problems with the RI translation in this chapter. For one thing, the name of the ability is translated... not that well. The verb is to “fish out” or “pull out.” Really, it should be something more like Fishing the Moon from a Well or out of a Well. In English, if you’re specifically going fishing for something, you don’t say “fishing XYZ.” E.g. If I’m going fishing for tuna, I don’t say “I’m fishing tuna.” That’s not to mention that the point of this technique is not about “going fishing” but rather about “fishing something out” of the water. In any case, I’m keeping the same ability name from RI to maintain continuity. Beyond that, there are other poor translation choices. For example, the voice very clearly says that he likes the “moonlight” in the well. But the RI translation says that he likes the “moon” in the well. In other words, it would actually make more sense for the ability to be named Fishing Moonlight From a Well. All of that is not to mention issues of tense, grammar, etc. In any case, in Chinese, there are more similarities between the two chapters than you’ll see in English, mostly because I can’t stand to have clunky English and inaccurate translations if I can avoid it. ☜

2. I saw some speculation from Chinese readers about who this figure in gray armor is. Considering the scant amount of evidence, I won’t go into detail. Suffice it to say, if you’ve read Renegade Immortal, you can probably come to the same conclusions as them. ☜