Beyond the Timescape [Wuxiaworld] - Chapter 866: Fifth Secret Trove - Mage Trove

Seven days passed in a flash.

The big stir in the Mountain and Sea Region ended after the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands was sealed again. The beasts in the region stopped howling. The struggle that had emerged from their souls and blood went away, and they went back to being animals.

However, the Firemoon Darkheaven cultivators participating in the Great Hunt were unable to calm their hearts. All sorts of speculations ran wild among them. Many of them used different ways to confirm the source of the upheaval. And as a result, most of them kept their distance from the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands.

Because the mountains that were Xu Qing’s hiding place were comparatively close to the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands, not many people passed through. Add in the fact that he was well-concealed, and the violet crystal had absorbed the gray fog, it ensured that nobody discovered him.

Seven peaceful days passed in which Xu Qing was fully immersed in working on the Ninedawns mage trove. He wanted complete control of the Ninedawns skulls. They needed to be a part of him, and thus, he had no choice but to make them into a mage trove.

However, it wasn’t exactly a simple process. First, he needed to fully fuse with the nine skulls. And to do that, he needed the foundation of a secret trove in his sea of consciousness to put them in. The foundation was extremely important for this secret trove. For one thing, there needed to be a spot for the skulls. What was more, it would be integral to the fusion process.

After some thought, Xu Qing made a decision. The flesh would be the foundation, and the bones would be the mountain!

During the seven days that passed, he tapped into his own flesh, bringing it into his sea of consciousness to build the secret trove foundation. The process required a huge amount of flesh, so much so that normally speaking Xu Qing would never have been able to meet the requirement.

At a certain point, he thought about the white wind from the Greenhair Badlands in the Moonrite Region. It was a terrifying and chaotic wind that caused random growths of flesh and blood. Back in the Greenhair Badlands, anyone who the wind touched would develop bizarre deformities that could ultimately lead to them becoming a mountain of flesh, then dying. Xu Qing had done a lot of studying and experimentation before ultimately using that wind as the basis for his cursequelling lozenge. One thing he was certain of was that the deformed flesh was part of the body that grew it.

After some more thought, Xu Qing gritted his teeth and took out some pills from his bag of holding that contained the white wind. He consumed them, and almost immediately, chaotic growths of flesh appeared all over him.

Seven or eight arms. Dozens of legs. A few heads. In a very short time, his body became large and bloated. As the flesh grew, Xu Qing carefully cut it off. Thus, the secret trove foundation began to take shape in his sea of consciousness.

The more white wind pills he consumed, the more chaotic flesh grew. It was very dramatic, and on a few occasions it grew so quickly he nearly turned into a mountain of flesh. At the same time, he was assailed by sensations of weakness. Thankfully, the violet crystal was hard at work keeping his strength up.

Ultimately, he built a 30,000-meter-tall mountain of flesh in his sea of consciousness. That was his limit. Every single bit of that flesh belonged to him, and as the foundation of his secret trove, it was naturally part of his essence.

Atop the mountain of flesh were piles of his own bones, nine in total. From the look of it, the nine piles of bones were all made of skulls. He did it that way in imitation of the setup of the cave in the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands.

The land was made of his own flesh. The bone mountains were made from his own bones.

When it was done, he opened his eyes from his position underneath the mountain range that was his hiding place. His face was pale, and he felt very weak. Even his eyes were dull. It had been extremely draining to do this.

But at the same time, light glittered in his eyes.

The foundation of flesh and bone is done. Next, I absorb it!

Xu Qing looked up at the nine lanterns floating around him. Lifting his right hand, he pointed out, and one of the lanterns trembled and flew over to him.

It touched his finger, and then was absorbed inside of him. It reappeared… in his sea of consciousness atop the 30,000-meter mountain of flesh, where it landed on one of the piles of bones.

The instant it landed, the gray fog within it poured out and entered the pile of bones. When the process was complete, the pile of bones trembled, and the gray fog transformed into flesh. At the same time, two black flames appeared within the previously empty eye sockets.

All of a sudden, the roar of an ox echoed out from the skull. Next, its shape transformed into that of an ox clad in a golden suit of armor. It had a draconic head, and when it threw its head back and roared, the sound was like the chanting of a god.

“Mage Life: Ox-Dragon!” [1]

As it appeared, its energy surged, and Xu Qing’s sea of consciousness trembled. It was now completely connected to him.

What was more, Xu Qing realized that this ox-dragon was one of Ninedawns’ mage states from long ago.

Nine skulls. Nine different mage states!

Seeing that this method worked, Xu Qing excitedly performed an incantation gesture, pulling the second lantern inside of him. It soon landed on the second pile of bones, where another animal took shape.

It was a jackal-like animal with a draconic head. It emanated a sense of violence and brutality, and seemed to personify death. Its pitch-black color and towering killing intent left Xu Qing feeling shaken. It was like the ultimate warrior. The shocking killing intent Xu Qing had experienced when facing Master Stillwinter was like nothing compared to that coming off of this beast. Along with the killing intent came a deafening roar.

“Mage Life: Jackal-Dragon!”

Such formidable killing intent…. Xu Qing was truly shaken.

A moment later, his sea of consciousness went calm, and he waved his right hand and pointed toward the next three lanterns. After absorbing the three lanterns, they flew toward the third, fourth, and fifth pile of bones. The moment they were in his sea of consciousness, an incredible tempest raged.

Three fantastic creatures appeared, all of them imbued with a spirit that could conquer mountains and rivers.

Xu Qing trembled as though his body couldn’t sustain the force, and he had to rely on the regenerative powers of the violet crystal. He also sent out soul threads, entering his third-level god state.

Three beasts appeared. The first was somewhat blurry, making it difficult to see clearly. It left behind a string of afterimages as it moved with such speed it bordered on teleportation. It was just barely possible to see that it looked somewhat like a winged lizard. It was also surrounded by a constant, screaming wind.

“Mage Life: Phoenix-Dragon!”

The fourth looked almost completely like a dragon, except it was much smaller than the other beasts. It floated there peacefully for a moment, then suddenly opened its mouth and released a heaven-rending, earth-crushing roar.

“Mage Life: Roaring-Dragon!”

The sound caused Xu Qing to shake from head to toe, and provoked instabilities in his third-level god state. He quickly entered the fourth-level god state to compensate.

The fifth beast was completely and utterly shocking. It was shaped like a lion, and was surrounded by an aura of smoke and fire. It hovered above the fifth pile of bones, emanating incredible majesty that seemed to surpass everything in heaven and earth! Within the swirling joss flame, it seemed like an actual god. Its deep roar echoed out in all directions.

“Mage Life: Lion-Dragon!”

The sensation from the fifth beast caused Xu Qing’s mind to feel like it would split apart. It was just too strong!

Although he still wasn’t sure what any of these beasts could actually do, from their auras, he could sense that they were vastly more terrifying than the ghost chariot he had seen in the past.

Eyes gleaming with determination, he calmed his sea of consciousness, then pointed at the rest of the lanterns. The sixth, seventh, and eighth piles of bones surged with the fire of the underworld as additional beasts appeared.

One of them had the head of a dragon and the body of a turtle. It pulsed with something extremely domineering, to the point where Xu Qing felt like his sea of consciousness might not be able to sustain it.

“Mage Life: Turtle-Dragon!”

Next came a beast with the body of a tiger and the head of a dragon, with a mouth full of huge teeth. The moment it appeared, a sensation of sealing emanated off it, rippling through Xu Qing’s mind and spreading to the outside. The entire mountain range blurred as it entered a state of being sealed. Within that sealed area could be heard an echoing chant.

“Mage Life: Tiger-Dragon!”

Next came a beast that looked like a dragon, except that it was slender and elegant. As it swirled about, it emanated blue light that nourished the sea of consciousness. Xu Qing’s soul felt cool and relaxed, as if it had suddenly been encased in a suit of armor. It was a silent and constant blessing to his soul. His eyes shone brightly as he sensed the blessing, and realized… how astonishingly beneficial it was.

It’s like the blessing of a god!

As he came to understand that, the beast’s voice echoed out softly.

“Mage Life: Graceful-Dragon!”

Next was the final lantern! After absorbing it, the lantern appeared above the ninth pile of bones. The mountain beneath it trembled, and as the underworld flame lit up, a creature appeared with the head of a dragon, the body of a lion, and the tail of a fish.

There was no heaven-shaking, earth-shattering blast of energy. There were no strange and gruish phenomena. But when it appeared, it looked at Xu Qing, and his fleshly body trembled. He felt his previous injuries being completely healed, along with his soul. It was as if they had received the ultimate blessing. What was even stranger was that all the fluctuations that had filled his sea of consciousness faded away. It was as if this beast’s gaze caused everything to reverse.

“Mage Life: Fish-Dragon!”

Ninedawns’ nine skulls had fused with Xu Qing’s flesh. His skulls formed the connection. The ‘mage life’ states had all appeared! Next, the foundation of flesh sank down, and rumbling sounds echoed out as the nine beasts roared in unison, the sound converging as if to light an enormous furnace.

RUMBLE!

The fifth secret trove was complete! The mage trove was finished! The aura of the great circle of Spirit Trove spread out from Xu Qing in all directions.

1. The translator note for this chapter contains information about the draconic beasts in this chapter. I suggest just reading the chapter first, then reading the background info in the note. ☜

Deathblade’s Thoughts

The nine beasts in this chapter are all based on the ‘nine sons of the dragon’ from Chinese mythology, which are the children of the mythological Dragon King. In reality, the beasts all have unique names that are essentially proper nouns. Each is generally a hybrid of a dragon and some other creature, and each has unique characteristics, but their names do not necessarily create an instant visual of what type of hybrid they are. Rather than transliterate them, I’ve chosen to render them in the form of “descriptor-dragon” for the sake of simplicity and to make them memorable and easy to visualize. Transliterating would have resulted in nine incomprehensible pinyin names that the vast majority of readers wouldn’t understand or be able to remember. E.g. qiuniu, chaofeng, pulao, bi’an, etc.

Something comparable in English would be a Western fantasy story that features the skulls of “a nessie, a bigfoot, a chupacabra, and a jackalope!” I think most American readers wouldn’t have much trouble understanding that. But if you simply transliterated those things into Chinese, virtually no Chinese readers would have any idea what they were. This is a stylistic choice on my part (yeah, I’m sure there are people out there who would prefer mostly incomprehensible transliterated versions, but sorry, I’m not one of them).

To further complicate things, there are different versions of the lineup of names for the nine sons of the dragon. There is not just one set list that is always conformed to. In fact, I’m fairly certain at least one of these “Ninedawns skulls” is actually a complete fabrication on the part of the author, although it’s also possible it’s from a list I didn’t access when researching this. Here’s the wiki link if you’re interested in learning a bit more, although, again, bear in mind that the list in the wiki doesn’t perfectly conform to the list in this chapter. Based on how they’re used by the author, I don’t think they’re supposed to actually conform to their mythological usage, in other words, they’re not actually the children of some Dragon King. Rather, they are supposed to be beasts based on the nine sons of the dragon.