Beyond the Timescape-Chapter 1123: Dao Fight

In the Li Clan’s restricted area, Li Mengtu narrowed his eyes and waved his hand, causing the scroll to fly out and hover above his head. It didn’t open up, but rather, sent out a gentle light of blessing down onto Li Mengtu.

Even going all out, I can only crack open the scroll. And its range is only 500 kilometers....

The scroll still had a function when not opened. It could bolster a person’s mind, making it easier to think clearly and gain enlightenment. At the same time, it could serve as a trump card to provide a huge boost when needed. Combined with the 9,000 towers, it provided a major augmentation to his powers of understanding.

I’d planned to save this for the end. But I guess... I’ll have to use it early!

Li Mengtu took a deep breath. He knew that this legacy had been prepared for him by his Master, which was a deviation from what the other three planetary systems were doing. This legacy was unique in that it could only be acquired once by a single person! If his state of enlightenment ended up crumbling, he would have no way to regain control.

I don’t care who this person is. This behavior makes it clear that this is a dao fight. We might not have any previous enmity, but as of now... we can’t live together under the same sky! [1]

With such thoughts on his mind, Li Mengtu’s eyes glittered as if they contained numerous ancient magical symbols. Then he looked up at the legacy flower, and inspiration surged within him. The fourth flower petal on his forehead became complete in an instant, and then a fifth petal started forming. He would fight hard to gain the upper hand. And after everything was over, he would go track down the person who was trying to compete with him.

And he would take back the legacy that belonged to him! There was only one way to do that. By killing the other person!

Having made his decision, Li Mengtu cleared his thoughts and focused on enlightenment. Using the help of the 9,000 towers and his clan’s mysterious scroll painting, his powers of understanding advanced by leaps and bounds.

Before long, the fifth flower petal was complete. Previously, there had been twelve petals in the sky, but now there were only four. Then, without any warning... another petal disappeared. Only three were left.

***

The petal that had just gone missing was now on the forehead of Xu Qing, who was still at the Primary Dao Precipice. As four flower petals rotated on his forehead, the dao of plants and vegetation filled his heart and mind. He was now methodically coming to understand all aspects of the legacy flower’s poisonous properties.

Suddenly he raised his hands and instinctively performed an incantation gesture. Illusory medicinal plants appeared, swirling around each other, occasionally combining and occasionally splitting apart.

An incense stick of time passed. A fifth flower petal appeared on Xu Qing’s forehead.

At the same time, a sixth petal formed on the forehead of Li Mengtu in the Li Clan’s restricted area. The flower in the dome of heaven was very blurry, but it was still possible to see that there was a single petal left.

All of a sudden, two streams of red shot down from that flower, one toward the Primary Dao Precipice, one toward the restricted area in the Li Clan.

Xu Qing and Li Mengtu were now directly competing. Both were operating at incredible speed, relying on their various methods of understanding to absorb the petal. As a result, the petal was rapidly disappearing.

After enough time passed for half an incense stick to burn, the entire western planetary system was filled with thunderous rumbling sounds.

The legacy flower vanished. In the moment it did, the darkness lifted, and the red aurora became visible again. The other cultivators with permission medallions in the west knew... that the legacy phase was over.

“Nobody even had a chance to seek enlightenment in the legacy phase. I guess that means the only person who qualified was Li Mengtu.”

“We all know what was going on. There’s no point in jabbering about it. The legacy was prepared for him. The other three regions do the same thing; they just hide the truth a bit better.”

“That’s how social hierarchy works. People like us can’t do anything about it.”

“Heh. You said it, not me.”

As discussions raged in the west, the 9,000 towers in the Li Clan went dark. The light that had been shining from them went out, and the clan’s scroll painting dropped down into Li Mengtu’s hands. He stood up.

Shockingly, he had six-and-a-half flower petals on his forehead! Six were complete. But the half-petal had obviously not become a seventh. What was more, it was blurry, indicating that only fifty percent of it was there.

Li Mengtu stood there rubbing his forehead. A somber and desolate aura surrounded him, causing everything around him to turn as cold as ice. In fact, black snowflakes started drifting to the ground.

Fine. It’s time to see... who exactly you are!

Li Mengtu’s killing intent burned with great intensity. He was the only Shining Star in the west, and he refused to believe that there was anyone in the same generation as himself who could compare to him. In fact, even if he ran into a late Imperial Sovereign, he was confident that he could use his clan’s legacy treasure to seal that person and ultimately kill them.

With no further hesitation, Li Mengtu shot into the air, causing terrifying pressure to surround him as he headed in the direction of the Primary Dao Precipice.

He needed no teleportation portal. Though he was far away from the cliff, as one of the Shining Stars of the region, and as an apprentice of a Lower Immortal, he had all sorts of treasures to rely on. One of them ensured that he could travel great distances without having to use teleportation portals.

As he rocketed in the direction of the Primary Dao Precipice, Xu Qing was in that very location opening his eyes.

Five-and-a-half flower petals were spinning on Xu Qing’s forehead. He felt the sensation of sudden inspiration, but at the same time, detected an intense sensation of deadly crisis.

That sense of danger caused him to sigh inwardly. He had predicted that something like this would happen.

In the moment of enlightenment, he had seen the thread stretching from the legacy flower into the east, and knew it indicated he was competing with someone else. He had assumed there would be an eighty to ninety percent chance fighting would break out after the legacy phase ended. He was also fairly certain he knew who the other party was.

There were only two threads in the entire western region. That means there were only two people seeking enlightenment. The fact that no one else could see the flower or participate indicates... that there were requirements to be able to seek enlightenment.

No one else qualified, and though I don’t know why I somehow qualified, it does seem to indicate that my participation was unexpected. Given all of that, the identity of the other person... seems fairly obvious. He must be... the eighth Shining Star of the Fifth Star Ring, and the only shining star in the west. Li Mengtu!

Xu Qing stood and recalled the information about Li Mengtu from the map.

Li Mengtu comes from the Li Clan. He later joined the Dao Immortal Sect and became the apprentice of the heavenly inspector there, who’s a Lower Immortal.

His clan rose to prominence thanks to him. They were previously in decline, but are now very strong. Something unique about their clan is that direct bloodline clan members all have the character “tu” in their name.[2]

His cultivation base is only in early Imperial Sovereign, but he has four types of authority. With his battle prowess, plus the legacy of his clan’s gruish magical technique, as well as training from his Master, he was able to kill a mid-Imperial Sovereign.

Xu Qing’s eyes narrowed. It didn’t sound like this information was up-to-date, so he had to treat it as a general overview. It seemed most likely that Li Mengtu was a lot more dangerous than the information indicated.

Xu Qing looked off into the distance, his eyes radiating determination. He had acquired this legacy, so there was no way he would give it up just because things got dangerous. Great daos were all about fighting and struggle. Giving up would just result in falling behind. But taking a step forward would lead to continued momentum.

Xu Qing took a deep breath and then shot off into the distance. He had no intention of staying behind on the cliff.

As one of the Shining Stars, Li Mengtu surely had all sorts of trump cards, and definitely had outstanding elements to his battle prowess. Even if you prepared well in advance, fighting an opponent like that wouldn’t necessarily be worth it.

But if I can form my eighth extreme....

Eyes narrowing, Xu Qing flew as fast as possible toward the nearest teleportation portal. His plan was to head toward the God Blood River.

That’s the best place to fight. If I win, great. But if I start losing, I’ll have a path to make a getaway.

Xu Qing accelerated, causing ripples to spread out as he shot through the sky.

A few days later... an enormous, pitch-black hand suddenly appeared above the Primary Dao Precipice, instantly blocking out the light of the aurora. There weren’t many cultivators on the cliff, but all of them were shocked to see the hand, as well as the figure within it. He had a black robe, black hair, icy eyes, and six-and-a-half flower petals on his forehead. He was none other than Li Mengtu. Glancing around, he identified the spot where Xu Qing had been meditating.

“Binding Order: Wind Inquiry! What cultivation level was this cultivator?”

He reached out, and the wind began to take the shape of a person.

“Binding Order: Heaven Inquiry! What types of authority did this cultivator have?”

His words echoed out as ripples filled the sky, becoming the spirit of the person.

“Binding Order: Law Inquiry! Where did this cultivator go?”

Magical laws gathered, turning into the eyes of the person. A mysterious entity was now looking at Li Mengtu. Then, it spoke.

“Smoldering God cultivation base. Nine types of authority. The five elements form the foundation, augmented by time and space, as well as erasure and something else very gruish. Battle prowess equivalent to mid Imperial Sovereign. He’s heading south!”

Upon hearing the information, Li Mengtu’s eyes shone brightly. “Someone like that....”

He turned to look off into the distance, his killing intent intensifying. An instant later, he was speeding southward, all the while checking everything within the range of his Immortal Capital permission medallion. Any time he detected the presence of anyone else with a medallion, he would approach to check them.

If someone could look down on the entire western region, they would see Li Mengtu slowly catching up to Xu Qing.

***

In the Dao Immortal Sect, within the fields of plants, Poison Monarch was still watering the two poisonous plants with nine firmaments immortal serum. He still looked like a farmer.

The two poisonous plants seemed even more intelligent than before, and they were still struggling with each other to get as much of the serum as possible. Both had stabbed their poisonous thorns into the other. They were even trying to devour each other.

Seeing that caused Poison Monarch to smile. “It doesn’t matter which one dies and which gets my legacy. It’s all karma to me.”

1. The term ‘dao fight’ is basically an invented term, not something commonly used either in literature or spoken Chinese. The character I’m rendering as ‘fight’ has a lot of dictionary definitions, such as: contend, vie, strive, argue, debate, fight (over or for something), struggle, wrangle. After experimenting with a few different options, I picked ‘fight’ as my translation choice based on some later wordplay. But as you can see from the various options, the implication of this usage of “fight” is that of a struggle as opposed to combat or battle. ☜

2. We still do not have any explanation about why the “tu” in the name of the clan members is important. In fact, I don’t think we have any clues. This character “tu” means earth/soil, the same one from the five elements. It could also be interpreted to mean your home or homeland. Up to this point, it just seems to be emphasized as a unique and interesting aspect of the clan name, without any deeper meaning. ☜