Beyond the Timescape

Chapter 787: A Violation of Human Morality

Chapter 787: A Violation of Human Morality

As the Xeno-Immortal schoolmaster passed out green snowflakes over the past two months, Xu Qing was able to use his connection to them to keep tabs on many of the students from the Xeno-Immortal School.

If Xu Qing wanted to know their true identity, it would be a simple matter of course. That said, he wasn’t interested in that. The Xeno-Immortal schoolmaster had remained in the Imperial University this entire time. He hadn’t left even once. As a result, Xu Qing had no idea who he actually was.

These three weren’t the only people he had sensed leaving the imperial capital after receiving Xeno-Immortal dao seeds. After all, members of the Imperial University were more than just students. They all had identities on the outside, and those came with various personal and public matters that had to be handled.

After sensing the three people leaving, Xu Qing closed his eyes and went back to breathing exercises. When the light of dawn shone over the city, he opened his eyes. Straightening up his garments, he pushed open the door of the private chamber and walked out. Snow landed on his face, which quickly melted.

He looked at the blue sky filling up with snow. He felt the cold wind. And he could hear the swordsages from Sea-Sealing County working on their breathing exercises. Xu Qing gradually came to feel absent-minded.

The aura of winter was getting stronger.

It’s been three months.

That was how long he’d been in the imperial capital. When he arrived, it was autumn. Now, it was nearly the middle of winter. During those three months, he had done a few high-profile things. But after joining the Imperial University, he had gradually melted into the crowd. That was how Xu Qing liked to do things. A high-profile action could establish some prestige. But after that, he preferred to stick to the shadows.

He wasn’t the only one to fade from public view. The same occurred with Plumdark and the Captain.

Plumdark had been gone for half a month now. The difference between Ling’er and Plumdark was clear. The former stuck close to Xu Qing, while the latter was independent. Plumdark had her own things to deal with. Her own life to live. After the Dawning Sun went missing, and the atmosphere in the imperial capital became tense, she had gone to one of the other rings in the Imperial Region.

To her, this whole place was both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. And thus, she had gone to look for traces of the ancient past. She didn’t come to say goodbye to Xu Qing. But she left behind a jade slip that had some of her aura attached to it.

Xu Qing respected her decision not to come in person, and didn't reach out to ask any questions.

After the big heist, the Captain vanished and had not yet shown up again. That made Xu Qing even more curious about what he’d stolen from the Star Emperor Preeminence Sect. Given what he knew of the Captain and how restless he was, Xu Qing knew he couldn’t hole up anywhere for long. And that seemed to indicate there was a good chance the Captain had assumed a new identity.

As for what identity that was.... After some thinking, he looked in the direction of the branch sect of the Star Emperor Preeminence Sect.

I’d say there’s a nine out of ten chance that he went back there. He probably wasn’t aiming to steal only one thing.

Wu Jianwu and Kong Xianglong were both pursuing their own personal destined opportunities in the imperial capital.

Wu Jianwu went to the Daoist Literary Academy, which was an academy originally set up by Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity. It had fallen into decline, and was mostly a historical archive now. But for some reason, it really captured Wu Jianwu’s attention. For roughly two months now he had been doing odd jobs there.

Kong Xianglong had chosen to pursue training at the Swordsage Division, in the hopes of following in the footsteps of his grandfather.

Everyone was wrapped up in their own pursuits.

In contrast to everyone else, Ningyan seemed very quiet. After the Dawning Sun incident, he spent most of his time in secluded meditation in front of his mother’s portrait. He rarely came out. However, on this particular evening, because Xu Qing was heading out earlier than usual, they happened to pass each other. They exchanged a nod.

Xu Qing could sense that Ningyan’s time spent in the shrine hall had resulted in his aura changing.

Xu Qing ignored them, walked over to his usual corner, and sat down cross-legged. Before he could even close his eyes to begin meditating, the conclave student who had just given the orders looked at him. Considering that Xu Qing had been around since the beginning, he was obviously familiar with him.

“You too,” he said. “You go with them.”

Xu Qing’s expression remained the same as ever as he closed his eyes.

Seeing that kind of reaction caused the conclave student to frown beneath his mask. He then walked over to Xu Qing, which attracted the attention of many other students. Numerous eyes were fixed on the conclave student as he stopped in front of Xu Qing.

“I’m talking to you, Sir Dark-Thunder!”

Xu Qing slowly opened his eyes and looked calmly at the student in front of him. That single look caused the student to shiver from head to toe. All of his soul threads went into complete chaos. Some of them seemed like they might explode, and it caused intense pain to strike the students' internal organs. Shocked, the student backed up a few paces.

The onlookers were surprised. They hadn’t sensed a thing. All they saw was the conclave student walk up to Xu Qing, and then suddenly back up looking surprised. There were already numerous theories in the minds of the onlookers.

Xu Qing closed his eyes and went back to meditating.

The conclave student shivered. A moment ago, he’d felt like the shadow of death was looming over him. His heart pounded with lingering fear, and he wanted to just drop the matter. But there were a lot of people watching, and as the saying goes, if you ride a tiger, it’s hard to get off.

He turned in place and quickly walked over to the spot where he and his faction usually meditated. There, he took out a communications jade slip unique to the Imperial University. With it, he sent a voice message.

Not long after, someone walked into the tower. It was none other than the successor student Darkforest. His arrival prompted many of the other students to get to their feet and bow to him. The conclave disciple who had clashed with Xu Qing hurried over, bowed, then whispered a few things into Darkforest’s ear, all while pointing at Xu Qing.

Darkforest turned to look coldly at Xu Qing.

“How amusing.”

He started walking toward Xu Qing, his 70,000 soul threads pulsing out to create a powerful pressure in the area.

Before he could take more than seven or eight steps, the sound of an explosive commotion rose up from the outside of the tower.

“Something big just happened in Heavenbright County! 1,000,000 mortals were sacrificed in some sort of ceremony!”

“The governor of Heavenbright personally went to investigate, and ended up executing the culprit. The murderer tried to destroy his own body, but the governor stopped him before he could. And guess what, a strange seed was found inside him!"

“People are saying that the governor of Heavenbright County suspects it’s a Xeno-Immortal dao seed. The matter has already been reported to the emperor. And that dao seed is already on the way to the emperor to be inspected!”

“People in the imperial palace are absolutely furious!”

As the words drifted into the Xeno-Immortal School, the students looked around in shock. Darkforest stopped in place, then turned to look outside.

Xu Qing opened his eyes, and they shone with a steely light.