Beyond the Timescape

Rejecting the Cannon Fodder Fate, Embracing the Life of a Reader (Part One of Two)

In the continent of South Phoenix, there was a restricted area to the east of Antlerville.[1]

The dark cloud cover seemed like the hand of a giant, hanging over the ruins of a village. It seemed like it could drop at any moment and crush the village out of existence. The village looked like it had been scraped clean by the winds of time. There was no color visible; everything was a desolate gray.

The only exception were some swaying lanterns in the middle of the village that were the color of blood. They also provided the only light, and added the oppressive, gruish atmosphere. The lanterns were like souls drifting about randomly. Occasionally, a lantern would stop in front of a withered corpse, from which it would extract a final drop of blood to make itself even redder.

Creak.

As one of the blood-red lanterns stopped in front of a thatched hut, a hand suddenly shot out from the window, grabbed the lantern, and pulled it inside.

The owner of that hand was a young man of about twenty-four or twenty-five years of age. His daoist name was Master Freespirit, and he was tall, muscular, and good-looking. However, there was a deep frown on his somewhat ashen face. He looked at the shriveled, blood-red lantern in his hand, and his expression shifted to one of measured determination. As the saying goes, when you start down a path, you have to walk it to the end. Ripping open the lantern, he found the blood core that formed the flame and quickly devoured it. Instantly, some of the color returned to his face. Heaving a sigh, he leaned back up against the mottled wall of the hut.

Across from him was a young man in a blue daoist robe, with a serious expression on his face as he vigilantly scanned the area surrounding the hut.

Master Freespirit sighed. “We’ve been waiting here all day. Seems Sergeant Zhou ran into some trouble.”

“Don’t jinx us,” growled the young man in the blue robe. Looking disdainfully at Master Freespirit, he continued, “Sergeant Zhou’s cultivation base is already in the great circle of Qi Condensation. You think he’s going to run into trouble chasing down some whoreson in the seventh level of Qi Condensation?”

“Ai, you don’t get it. Back at the basecamp, I looked into Lin Tianhao. The whoreson grew up an orphan after his clan was exterminated. He took it upon himself to avenge his clan, and immediately showed signs that he might very well be a child of destiny.

“Beyond that, when he was twelve years old, he was bitten by a five-spotted adder, yet miraculously survived. In fact, that event resulted in an unprecedented blessing to his physique and cultivation base. He reached the seventh level of Qi Condensation by the time he was only fifteen, which was also when he became the vice-sergeant of Squad Dragonsong.

“Based on all the ancient records I’ve read through the years, someone with amazing destiny like that is someone you should either A) make friends with, B) get away from, or C) go all out to kill as quickly as possible!

“But what did Sergeant Zhou do? He did everything the wrong way around and provoked Lin Tianhao. If things go as expected, Sergeant Zhou is going to end up nothing more than a grinding stone on that whoreson’s path forward. And you and I? We’re playing the role of the villain’s minions.”

Heart twinging with pain, Master Freespirit shook his head and sighed despairingly.

“You know what, Master Freespirit?” said the blue-robed young man. “Could you just cut it with the jibber-jabber? All you do is sit around talking about who you think might be a child of destiny and psyching yourself out. Hey, take a look at me! Do I look like I might fit the bill?”

“No,” Master Freespirit said solemnly. “You’re far too ugly.”

The blue-robed young man glared at Master Freespirit. Not really knowing what to say after that, he decided to change conversation topics. “Just wait and see. After this mission is over, I’ll finally be able to leave this little squad and join Seven Blood Eyes. That’s where I’m really going to become a badass bigshot!”

The blue-robed young man pulled a tattered old map out of the fold of his garment. It featured an eye-catching red circle, which was their primary target on the squad’s mission. There were some ruins there that had been around for so long nobody knew how old they were. But there were supposedly a lot of secret magics there that were suitable for equipment forging.

If they could get some of those secret magics and turn them in at Seven Blood Eyes, they could earn a healthy amount of cultivation resources.

Unfortunately, the same information had also fallen into the hands of their sworn enemies in Squad Dragonsong. And thus, the two squads clashed when they ran into each other in the forbidden region.

After that clash, the various members of the two squads split up.

Master Freespirit, the blue-robed young man, and Sergeant Zhou were trying to track down Lin Tianhao and a few other members of his squad. Eventually, Sergeant Zhou went off on his own to try to take down Lin Tianhao, while Master Freespirit and the blue-robed young man were supposed to take care of the other two cultivators. After everything was taken care of, they were to meet at a rendezvous spot.

Master Freespirit and the blue-robed young man had already taken down those two members of Squad Dragonsong, and had been waiting at the appointed spot for an entire day without seeing so much as a trace of Sergeant Zhou.

As Master Freespirit stewed in anxiety, he couldn’t help but jabber a bit more. “Big Bro, you need to listen to me. Forget about being a badass bigshot. People like that die horrible deaths left and right. They always end up stepping stones for people trying to rise to prominence.

“If I were you, I’d find a spot where there aren’t any powerful experts at all. You could set up your own sect there, keep a low profile, and live like a king. Based on my experience reading many novels over the years, I can tell you that the most important thing is to just stay alive until the finale.”

As Master Freespirit gave his kind advice, he started making some preparations for what was to come. Laid out in front of him were eleven defensive talismans, five flight talismans, a variety of white boluses, and a huge collection of healing pills.

As Master Freespirit jabbered, the young man in blue looked at him derisively. Master Freespirit had been like this from the moment they met. He was obsessed with things like defensive talismans and flight talismans. He was extremely frugal with most things, and spent almost all of his money on defensive items. In fact, the young man in blue had never met another scavenger who was more afraid of dying than Master Freespirit.

All of a sudden, Master Freespirit’s face twitched, and a cold light flashed in his eyes. He had just sensed some fluctuations from the mutant hornets he had placed around the village.

Without a moment of hesitation, Master Freespirit activated a golden defensive talisman, which caused a host of golden magical symbols to spring up around himself and the blue-robed young man, forming a defensive barrier that resembled a golden bubble.

RUMBLE!

A piercing whining sound could be heard before the thatched hut around them exploded. Countless blood-colored threads slashed the straw to pieces before slamming into the surface of the golden defensive barrier.

Most of the blood-colored lanterns in the area were shredded to bits by the shockwave, leaving behind bits of crimson light.

Master Freespirit could already sense where the sneak attack had come from. Looking out at the gray trees, he saw a short but handsome young man striding out into the open wearing a white robe splattered with blood. He was none other than Lin Tianhao! And he was holding a severed head in one hand.

“Sergeant Zhou!” blurted the blue-robed young man.

Never in his wildest dreams could he have guessed that Sergeant Zhou, who was in the great circle of Qi Condensation, would die at the hands of the whoreson Lin Tianhao, who was only in the seventh level of Qi Condensation.

In contrast, Master Freespirit only seemed surprised for a split second. The scene that was playing out right now was almost exactly the same as a scene he had read in a novel once.

Clasping hands subserviently, Master Freespirit said, “Fellow Daoist Lin, it’s true that we and Sergeant Zhou are all members of Squad Bloodscale. But we’ve never had any issues with you! In fact, remember back when we first got to the basecamp and I gave you those three white boluses? That was how you got out of that entire deadly situation back then. Listen, how about the two of us just get out of this forbidden region and go back to the basecamp? Going forward, we’ll mind our business and you mind yours.”

PLOP, PLOP, PLOP!

Before Master Freespirit even finished speaking, Lin Tianhao took out three white boluses and threw them onto the ground.

“You can have the white boluses back. As of this moment, I don’t owe you anything. And sadly for you, all of Squad Bloodscale has to die.... That’s the only way for me to become the ultimate bigshot in the basecamp.”

Lin Tianhao’s eyes surged with so much killing intent he looked like a bloodthirsty wild beast.

Voice cold, the blue-robed young man said, “How dare you forget favors and violate justice, you whoreson! Aren’t you being a bit too cocky? You really think the two of us are just lambs waiting to be slaughtered?”

Yanking out two bright red curved daggers, he unhesitatingly launched himself in the direction of Lin Tianhao.

Master Freespirit would have intervened, but there wasn’t time.

300 meters away, Lin Tianhao grinned derisively. At the same time, a huge ghost head manifested behind him. It was vicious, with green skin and long fangs, plus blood-red hair that swayed about it in a sinister manner. As the blue-robed young man closed in, Lin Tianhao waved his finger through the air, and a blood-colored hair shot out of the fingernail and slashed toward the blue-robed youth like a sharp blade.

Before the blue-robed youth could defend himself, he found, to his horror, that the hair had already slashed through his daggers and had reached his legs. In the blink of an eye, his legs were cut off his body, and blood sprayed everywhere.

How could this be happening? Don’t tell me this whoreson isn’t in the seventh level of Qi Condensation anymore. Is he already in the eighth level? The blue-robed youth was already overwhelmed with an intense sensation of deadly crisis.

“You think a bit too much of yourself,” Lin Tianhao said with a cold snort as he prepared to slash the blue-robed youth to bits.

But then, Lin Tianhao’s eyes went wide as a huge golden hand shot toward him from the side. Not daring to dally, Lin Tianhao shoved his own palm out to meet the attack. It was the color of blood.

SLAM!

A shockwave swept out into the forbidden region, leveling rotten trees and sending debris flying everywhere. At the same time, a green fog spread out from the golden hand.

“Poison?” Lin Tianhao blurted, pulling his hand back and falling back several paces.

Taking advantage of the moment, Master Freespirit, who had been the one to launch the attack just now, quickly grabbed the blue-robed youth, slapped a flight talisman onto his leg, and sped away into the forbidden region.

It took a few breaths of time for the poison miasma to dissipate. Lin Tianhao looked at Master Freespirit fleeing off into the distance, then at the legs on the ground in front of him. He didn’t look angry. In fact, he looked like he was having fun.

“You cowardly rogue. You really think you can escape from me?”

Lin Tianhao began to casually pursue Master Freespirit.

A few hours passed, and Master Freespirit was getting close to the heart of the forbidden region. That was also the spot indicated by the red circle on their map. The blue-robed youth wasn’t bleeding anymore, but his face was pale, and he looked very weak.

“I owe you my life, Master Freespirit. Maybe you were right. Maybe that whoreson really is a child of destiny....”

“No,” Master Freespirit said calmly. “I was wrong. Lin Tianhao is no child of destiny.”

“How can you be sure?”

“Based on my years of experience reading novels, I can tell you that anyone who forgets favors and violates justice, anyone who doesn’t have a bottom line, and anyone with an extremely unlikeable personality definitely cannot be the main character of a novel. And thus, he cannot be a child of destiny.” Master Freespirit sounded very sure of himself.

The blue-robed youth was at a loss for words.

Eventually, after crossing a rather tall mountain, they found themselves looking at a very large and gruish set of ruins. It had once been a huge city, but now it was full of gray rubble. There were white souls of the dead floating here and there, all of which instinctively continued to do what they had done in life, and went through the motions of forging magical devices.

“This must be the place. Definitely.” The blue-robed young man took out the tattered map to check their position.

“If the intelligence report Sergeant Zhou got was correct,” Master Freespirit said coolly, “then there should be a treasure trove with a ton of equipment forging secret magics here. It should be right in the middle of these ruins.”

“Don’t forget to be careful of the bright souls,” the blue-robed young man said. “Thankfully there aren’t very many of them. And remember that the terrifying dark souls often hide in the shadows. Their attack power is many times that of the bright souls, and they won’t hesitate to try to possess any living thing they encounter.”

Master Freespirit nodded, took out a good dozen defensive talismans and plastered them all over himself.

It was a very moving scene to the young man in blue. It was even beautiful. Never before had Master Freespirit seemed so reliable to him.

Master Freespirit had spared no effort to facilitate their escape, burning through three flight talismans to put some distance between them and Lin Tianhao. If Lin Tianhao wanted to catch up to them, it was going to take at least two incense sticks’ worth of time. And that meant they had a chance.

To the young man in blue, the normally garrulous Master Freespirit suddenly seemed a lot taller and more muscular than before.

Master Freespirit wasn’t paying attention to the look in his companion’s eyes as he took out two more defensive talismans, one for each hand. Then the flight talisman on his leg glittered as he flew into the ruins, carrying the blue-robed young man with him.

When Master Freespirit entered the ruins, it was evening. As the sky turned dark, a cold, sinister aura built up.

At the same time, the souls drifting about could sense the life force coming from Master Freespirit, and they locked onto his position. Then, like a pack of wolves that had caught the scent of lonely antelope, they charged from all directions.

Master Freespirit smoothly activated one of the defensive talismans, then handed a few to his companion to be prepared.

The mutagen-laced souls slammed into Master Freespirit’s defensive barrier one after another, which caused them to explode into a white mist that kept eating at the barrier.

After enough time passed for half an incense stick to burn, cracks started spreading out on the defensive barrier, and the talisman in Master Freespirit’s hand was turning dark.

“Watch out!” the blue-robed young man said. Before anything else could happen, a dark streak swept through the bright souls and slammed into the golden defensive barrier.

1. Antlerville was first mentioned in chapter 5. Since it didn’t come up very many times, here are all the other chapters it was mentioned in: 40, 41, 43, 45, 46, 47, 61, 221, 223. ☜