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Beyond the Timescape – Chapter 34: A Chance Encounter

Chapter 34: A Chance Encounter

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nChapter 34: A Chance Encounter

nBodies lay everywhere in the temple complex. Bodyguards. Servants. And a few young men whose understanding of the dangers of the forbidden region came from books alone. They stared up into the sky, their faces filled with the terror they had experienced before dying.

nThere were also dead jellyfish.

nUnlike humans, when jellyfish died, they became shapeless gray sludges that flopped to the ground and emanated a noxious stench. They didn’t seem anything like the beautiful, colorful creatures they were in life. They also emanated a powerful level of mutagen that seeped into everything around it.

nThe disaster continued.

nAs the young men and women desperately fled into the jungle, the jellyfish pursued them, wreaking death and havoc.

nIt wasn’t until about two hours later that Xu Qing reached the temple complex. When he looked around at all the corpses, his facial expression didn’t change. He had seen many corpses in his life. He left the dead bodyguards and servants alone, but did collect some of the jellyfish remains to study later. Whatever possessions remained on the corpses were tainted by the dead jellyfish mutagen, and were thus useless.

nEventually, Xu Qing stopped next to one corpse in particular. It was Ol’ Stony. His chest had a gaping hole in it, but the blood was already coagulating. The man stared up with vacant eyes that still contained a bit of regret.

nXu Qing sighed.

nHe wasn’t a god, so even though Ol’ Stony had bought insurance from him, there was no way he could have saved him from this. That was even more the case considering the Fog of Confusion hadn’t risen up.

nAfter a quiet moment, Xu Qing knelt and closed Ol’ Stony’s eyes. Then he buried him. He didn’t bother with a gravestone. As Sergeant Thunder had said, scavengers didn’t have family, and thus, there was no need for any ceremony. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. That was the life of scavengers. They struggled to survive in a chaotic world, and after they died… being able to rest in peace was enough. It was sad, but that was how most scavengers ended up.

nStanding in front of where he’d buried Ol’ Stony, Xu Qing looked in the direction of the basecamp and thought about his life recently.

nIt had already been four months since he arrived at the camp..

nCaptain Bloodshadow was dead. Flamecrow was dead. Fatmountain and Horsefour were dead. Savage Ghost was dead. Boneblade was dead. Ol’ Stony was dead. Sergeant Thunder had retired. And there were many other scavengers who had died during that time.

nIt was a brutal, chaotic world in which human life wasn’t worth much.

nThe only way to keep on living is to get even stronger.

nExpression turning cold, he turned and left.

nIn the fading evening light, a wind blew, rustling his clothing. It was a cold sound, and it grew fainter as he disappeared into the jungle. Despite the light fading, it still worked hard to penetrate the leafy canopy, as if it sought to shine on Xu Qing as he ran. But he was too fast, and the light couldn’t catch up.

nAfter moving for some time, Xu Qing suddenly stopped and looked down, a disbelieving gleam in his eyes. Kneeling, he sniffed the air as he looked at one plant in particular, and more specifically, an almost undetectable trace of powder on one of its leaves. If it weren’t for his solid understanding of poisonous plants, and his familiarity with the smells in the forbidden region, he wouldn’t have noticed it. After observing the powder for a moment, he plucked off the leaf and stared at it even more closely.

nI can’t identify every ingredient, but I know it has ageless centipede blood in it!

nHis eyes glittered as he thought back to a lecture in which Grandmaster Bai talked about ageless centipede blood.

nIt had certain medicinal properties, but was usually used as a catalyst in other medicines. And because it could be combined with other medicinal items to create a substance that attracted beasts, it was an important ingredient to hunters.

nDoes this have something to do with those jellyfish going on the move? Narrowing his eyes, he carefully put down the dangerous leaf, then brought out a packet of poison powder.

nAfter scattering the powder on the leaf with the ageless centipede blood on it, he started moving again, this time in a different direction.

nHe had no intention of going in a similar direction as the young men and women Ol’ Stony had been working for. Their affairs had nothing to do with him, and he didn’t want to get involved. Even if they were friends of Chen Feiyuan, he wasn’t duty-bound to help them. Besides, they had experts with them who could fight the giant jellyfish, and as far as Xu Qing was concerned, those experts could be a threat to him as well. Most importantly of all, it seemed like someone in that group had, for some unknown reasons, intentionally provoked the jellyfish.

nAfter determining where they were, Xu Qing went around them. The sky was dark by the time he reached the canyon and his laboratory. Carefully putting all his newly harvested medicinal plants into storage, he started working on the white bolus project again. Despite having avoided the fleeing young men and women, as the night grew deeper, Xu Qing could still hear the rumbles and booms of their fight. And it was getting closer. He frowned.

nEventually, when he heard footsteps nearing, he sighed.

nGetting to his feet, he walked out of the laboratory and into the moonlight. From the entrance of the canyon, he heard frantic voices.

n“The path leads here!!”

n“Everybody hurry. Get inside!”

nThe voices belonged to a group of bedraggled young people in tattered garments. They looked terrified.

nBehind them were a dozen or so people of the same age, then seven or eight bodyguards, most of them injured to varying degrees.

nIn total, they numbered more than twenty. As they ran into the canyon, the bodyguards took up defensive positions by the entrance. Meanwhile, the young men and women breathed sighs of relief and looked around the beautiful canyon. Almost immediately, they noticed Xu Qing standing there outside of his laboratory.

n“Someone’s here!”

nThe young men and women cried out in alarm, and stumbled back, away from Xu Qing. At the same time, three of the bodyguards flew past them and glared at Xu Qing with both vigilance and killing intent.

nThe killing intent caused Xu Qing’s eyes to turn as cold as ice. Then he looked past the guards to the young men and women. Two of them stood out to him.

nOne looked to be a bit older than Xu Qing, perhaps sixteen or seventeen. He was in bad shape, but instead of being flustered like his companions, he was alert and on guard.

nThe other was a pretty young woman whose garment was very dirty. She appeared to be terrified. However, Xu Qing had seen so much in life that, at a single glance, he could tell that her terror was an act.

nFurthermore… that girl wore a set of very clean gloves. Xu Qing, who was already very knowledgeable about working with poison, knew that gloves like that had many uses.

nFor instance: scattering medicinal powder.

nEight bodyguards, all with cultivation bases in the sixth level of Qi Condensation. Everyone else is in the fifth level or lower. They’re organized into three groups. That fellow is the only one with a cultivation base in the seventh level. And that girl… is the one who brought the jellyfish. The experts fighting the big jellyfish aren’t here. They must have led the big jellyfish away from the main group.

nIt was Xu Qing’s habit to size people up this way. And there was no way that these young men and women could have any idea that all he needed was a single glance to determine so much about them.

nHowever, the bodyguards were different. They could sense the coldness in Xu Qing’s eyes, and upon looking at his laboratory behind him, the vigilance in their eyes grew stronger.

nHere they were in a forbidden region, where they found a canyon with a workshop in it. It could indicate only one thing; this young person in front of them was familiar with the forbidden region, and probably lived inside of it. And that meant that he was a dangerous person.

n“Fellow Daoist, are your parents around?” one guard said. “We have no ill intentions. We were attacked by some mutant beasts and fled here to hide.”

n“We’ll leave at daybreak,” said another guard. “Please forgive us for disturbing you.”

nThe guards were instinctively polite. And their words were a surprise to the young men and women behind them. Sensing that something unusual was going on, they peered at Xu Qing.

nThe oldest young man in the group looked at Xu Qing for a moment, and his expression turned serious.

nAs for the girl with the gloves, she looked at him suspiciously. Then she glanced at his laboratory, and could smell the faint aroma of medicinal plants. That was enough for her to get an idea of what Xu Qing was all about.

nMeanwhile, Xu Qing frowned as he looked over the group, then at the canyon entrance. Without saying a word, he walked back toward his laboratory. Doing so, he gave them tacit approval to stay.

nSeeing that, the bodyguards sighed in relief. However, the young men and women all seemed nervous.

nThe only exception was the girl with the gloves. Her eyes glittered strangely, and then she spoke in a cautious but seemingly hurt tone.

n“You’re… you’re so mean! We just want to hide here from the mutant beasts! If we go out there, we’re dead!”

nHer voice seemed to provoke sympathy in those who heard her speak, and it caused the young men in the group who liked her to suddenly swell with courage.

n“That’s right! How could you be so cold-blooded?”

n“We have no ill intentions. We just want to rest here for a bit.”

n“It’s not like he owns the forbidden region! We don’t have to ask his permission!”

nA few softly spoken words were all it took to get these people riled up at Xu Qing. They weren’t whipped into a fury, but it was enough that the girl felt pleased with herself. She liked using people, and right now, she wanted to know more about the young man they’d encountered.

nHowever, that was when a cold light glittered from Xu Qing as his dagger shot out with lightning speed toward the girl.

nHer face fell, but before she could dodge, the dagger passed by her ear, slicing through a lock of hair, and then thumping into the stone behind her. Sparks flew. The shocked young woman’s right hand hung in the air where she’d thrown it up to defend herself. Then she looked at Xu Qing, and saw him glaring back at her with the cold, murderous eyes of a wolf. The look in his eyes shook her to the core.

nAs for the bodyguards and the other young men and women, they looked similarly astonished. The former became even more vigilant than before, while the latter let loose exclamations of surprise.

nGiving the girl a hard look, Xu Qing suppressed his killing intent and said, “We met by chance, like patches of drifting duckweed. Don’t push me.”

nThen he walked back to his laboratory. He seemed to meld with the moonlight, becoming as cold as the night.

nEveryone else in the canyon went silent. During that brief moment, many in the canyon suddenly felt they had faced a danger just as frightening as the jellyfish outside.

nIn the silence, Xu Qing entered his laboratory. And then a bloodcurdling scream rang out from the entrance. A small jellyfish had just found them, and had stabbed one of the guards, sucked up his organs, and then entered the canyon.

nAnd behind it was a whole host of jellyfish, rushing forward.

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Chapter end

<<Prev
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Catalogue
Chapter 1: Living
Chapter 2: Mutagen
Chapter 3: May You Rest in Peace
Chapter 4: An Unexpected Guest
Chapter 5: Scavenger Basecamp
Chapter 6: The Kid
Chapter 7: Please, Eat
Chapter 8: Set for Three
Chapter 9: Consequences of a Threat
Chapter 10: New Clothes
Chapter 11: A Gathering
Chapter 12: The Dangers of the Forbidden Region
Chapter 13: Vile Shadow
Chapter 14: Danger Everywhere
Chapter 15: Blood-Colored Evening
Chapter 16: You Ask When I’ll Return, My Lord; I Can’t Give
Chapter 17: What Are You?
Chapter 18: Grandmaster Bai
Chapter 19: Life
Chapter 20: Home?
Chapter 21: Thirsting for Knowledge
Chapter 22: Temple Complex
Chapter 23: Single Saber Strike
Chapter 24: Kid, You Answer
Chapter 25: Dao of Poison; Corpse-Ravaging Powder
Chapter 26: The Dusk of a Person’s Life
Chapter 27: A Stranger Like Jade
Chapter 28: You Don’t Need Light to Travel the Night
Chapter 29: The Sorrow of Parting
Chapter 30: An Unexpected Gift
Chapter 31: He Bought Insurance from Me
Chapter 32: Life to the Left, Death to the Right
Chapter 33: Eternal Darkness
Chapter 34: A Chance Encounter
Chapter 35: Troubles Bring a Frown
Chapter 36: Killing with Impunity
Chapter 37: Power over Life and Death
Chapter 38: Total Extermination
Chapter 39: A Requiem to the Mortal World
Chapter 40: Growing Up
Chapter 41: Nets Above and Snares Below
Chapter 42: Faceless Woman in White
Chapter 43: Complete Success with the Hobgoblin
Chapter 44: Cause and Effect
Chapter 45: Seeking Revenge over the Smallest Grievance
Chapter 46: Razing the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect
Chapter 47: Seven Blood Eyes
Chapter 48: Buy Corpses?
Chapter 49: Godly Blood
Chapter 50: Seventh Peak
Chapter 51: A Boat for Life
Chapter 52: Colleagues
Chapter 53: Sea Cultivation
Chapter 54: Total Transformation
Chapter 55: An Unusual Captain
Chapter 56: A New Recruit in the Violent Crimes Division
Chapter 57: Take a Spirit Coin
Chapter 58: A Birthday Alone
Chapter 59: A Lonely Figure on a Rainy Night
Chapter 60: Invitation Only
Chapter 61: A Beautiful Young Woman with an Umbrella
Chapter 62: A Ladies' Man
Chapter 63: Hardworking Xu Qing
Chapter 64: Coo. Coooo
Chapter 65: A Secret Worth 100 Spirit Stones
Chapter 66: Trying to Take Credit for My Work?
Chapter 67: Crossing the Line!
Chapter 68: Everyone Has Difficulties
Chapter 69: Fair and Just
Chapter 70: Let Me Treat You to an Egg
Chapter 71: Jabbering Patriarch
Chapter 72: Terrifying Huang Yan
Chapter 73: Domineering Second Highness
Chapter 74: The Path to the Yellow Springs
Chapter 75: Fish-Killing!
Chapter 76: Drought Demons can Scorch all Living Things
Chapter 77: Forbidden Sea Dragonwhale
Chapter 78: Zhang San Makes an Investment
Chapter 79: A New Person at Sea
Chapter 80: Bronze Dragon Chariot
Chapter 81: A Fair Price
Chapter 82: Countless Movements Became Sinister
Chapter 83: A Dragon from the Depths
Chapter 84: Magical Enlightenment from the Sea
Chapter 85: The Summit of a Fiendish Island
Chapter 86: Don’t Mess with Me
Chapter 87: A Vicious Night
Chapter 88: Xu Qing’s Rules
Chapter 89: Unbreakable Alliance
Chapter 90: A Golden Glow that Causes Madness
Chapter 91: Killing for Treasure
Chapter 92: Blood-Soaked Sealizard Island
Chapter 93: Like a Phoenix. Like a Hawk
Chapter 94: Gu Muqing
Chapter 95: The Creditor Comes Knocking
Chapter 96: A Gruish Inn
Chapter 97: The Asuras Appear
Chapter 98: One out of Fifty
Chapter 99: Traveling to the Crimson Wilds
Chapter 100: The Patriarch’s Anxiety
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