Outside Of Time

Making the ghostly cries summon the decaying moon was already the limit of the severed hand.

If Xu Qing wasn't proficient in the divine authority of sound, he would undoubtedly have found it difficult to deal with the eerie nature of this severed hand, requiring much more brute force. But now… in his presence, this severed hand was like a toothless snake.

It had no choice but to fight Xu Qing using methods it was not proficient in.

The outcome was as expected.

In the span of fifteen minutes, after seizing control of the sound, Xu Qing relied on his formidable physical body to ignore everything the severed hand sent out.

He kept on attacking while moving forward.

The severed hand continued to retreat. Its malicious ghosts were torn to pieces, its tears completely broken, and all its spells were useless.

As it continued to retreat, it grew increasingly dim, with cracks beginning to appear in its eye.

Its aura also grew weaker.

Finally, Xu Qing's fist stopped three inches in front of the eye in the palm of the severed hand, not delivering the final blow.

He didn't want to completely erase this severed hand. What he wanted was control.

So, after severely injuring it, divine consciousness emanated from Xu Qing, instantly enveloping the severed hand, suppressing it entirely from its divine source, divine consciousness, divine authority, and status.

The severed hand trembled violently. Even though Xu Qing completely suppressed it, the blood-red eye in its palm displayed a hint of madness, staring fixedly at Xu Qing.

The fluctuations of self-destruction spread out from it.

This wasn't the outcome Xu Qing wanted.

Just as the severed hand was about to self-destruct, the cry of the Golden Crow suddenly rang out from Xu Qing's body. This sound was loud and clear. At the same time, a black sea of fire spread in all directions with Xu Qing as the center.

The Golden Crow rushed out of the sea of fire and circled above Xu Qing's head.

Its black body and black flames, along with thousands of tail feathers, created a fiery snow that illuminated the darkness, beautifully and spectacularly falling to the sea floor.

The severed hand shook.

After circling around a few times, the Golden Crow headed straight toward Xu Qing. In the end, it merged with Xu Qing, transforming into an imperial robe adorning him.

It also formed an imperial crown that rested on his head.

As Xu Qing stood there, he bore a striking resemblance to the Golden Crow youth of the past.

This was especially so for the Golden Crow's aura!

The eye in the severed hand's palm shook even more violently as it witnessed this transformation. watched all of this and its trembling became even more intense. With Xu Qing's permission, a faint, piercing whisper emanated from the severed hand.

Xu Qing didn't care what it said. He looked at the severed hand and calmly spoke as though he was giving instructions.

"Play the music."

As soon as he finished speaking, Xu Qing's divine consciousness surged forth. However, this time, under the influence of the Golden Crow, the severed hand's struggle significantly diminished.

In the end, Xu Qing's divine sense completely covered it.

The eye in the palm of the severed hand slowly closed.

From the point where the hand was severed, wisps of phantom blood threads emerged, rapidly extending and outlining a vague silhouette.

It was a woman.

She wore a white long robe, her head lowered, obscuring her face. Only the broken-stringed ancient zither she held could be seen.

At this moment, her only visible right hand plucked the invisible strings of the zither.

Waves of melodious music rang out.

Heavenly Voice Welcomes the Moon.

This was the original tune.

While it sounded the same as the version that Xu Qing had extracted from the wailing of the ghosts, its essence was fundamentally different.

And at this moment, as dawn faded in the outside world and the night was dispersing, the expected arrival of sunlight was eerily delayed.

In the depths of the sea, as the musician played, the surface of the Forbidden Sea rippled, as though something was about to rise from the sea.

In the end, the illusory decaying moon slowly appeared.

It rose from the seabed, breaking through the surface, and at the moment when the sun was supposed to appear, It seemed poised to take the sun's place and ascend according to Its destiny.

The young girl's face on It seemed like it was about to open its eyes.

But unfortunately… the moon that was meant to ascend into Wanggu's sky under the melody of 'Heavenly Voice Welcomes the Moon' had long since fallen. It only existed in the annals of time, and in this current world, what remained was merely a projection.

It couldn't stay in the sky.

Hence, the rising moon slowly dissipated like bubbles.

It was difficult for the young girl's face to open its eyes.

As it completely dissipated, a murmur echoed through space and time, accompanied by the late sun in the distant horizon.

"Brother…"

This sound wandered in time and landed in the Forbidden Sea outside time. As it rippled across the surface of the sea, it was also sent to the outer sea by the sea breeze.

Under the ink-like seawater, at the bottom of the terrifying outer sea that was even more mysterious than the inner sea, a rotting giant was slowly advancing with large strides.

Its footsteps formed massive waves.

Its corpus was wrapped in rusty iron chains, and at the end of the iron chains… was a dilapidated bronze dragon carriage.

At that moment, the dragon carriage shook. No matter how the giant pulled, it didn't budge. Hence, the giant also slowly stopped.

In the dragon carriage, the Golden Crow Art engraved on the murals was shining.

As those runes distorted, they seemed to form a Golden Crow. It opened its eyes and looked toward the inner sea.

After a long time… the Golden Crow dimmed.

However, the rotting giant gradually changed its direction and gave up on sleeping in the outer sea. It pulled the bronze dragon carriage and walked toward the inner sea.

As it moved forward, the waves became even larger, and the sound of the sea breathing could be heard.

…

Its exhalation echoed in the inner sea.

Xu Qing, who was at the bottom of the sea, sat cross-legged and meditated.

The musician transformed from the sliced hand in front of him was still playing the Heavenly Voice Welcomes the Moon.

The melody was graceful and moving.

When Xu Qing heard this, he clearly felt that his godly authority of noise was becoming increasingly bright.

Only that hint of regret from the projection of the decayed moon seeped into his heart with the music.

Time slowly passed.

In the blink of an eye, more than half a month passed.

During these twenty days, Xu Qing didn't move from the seabed. As for the tune of Heavenly Voice Welcomes the Moon, it wasn't played all the time. It would only be played after every sunset and when night fell.

Once, twice.

Xu Qing could sense that the seawater had changed. It was colder than before, as though there was an undercurrent that was slowly approaching with a certain colossus.

He knew that he had succeeded.

The bronze dragon carriage was slowly walking over from a direction he didn't know.

Xu Qing was very patient and waited silently.

However, Little Shadow was anxious.

The appearance of the heavenly vine made it feel danger. The appearance of the sliced appendage made this danger even more intense. Hence, it took the initiative to stand at the side. When there was no Heavenly Voice Welcomes the Moon during the day, it would do its best to make sounds.

Just like that, another seven days passed.

As the temperature of the seawater in the inner sea decreased and the waves became larger than before, most of the forces who lived in the Forbidden Sea felt the difference.

Hence, they all reduced the number of times they went out to sea to avoid danger.

However… some dangers couldn't be evaded even if they wanted to.

For example, at this moment, on the island of the Sea Spirit Race, which had only a few thousand members and could only survive in the Forbidden Sea by relying on nearby larger islands, the fire of calamity was burning.

The color of that fire was red.

Blood dyed this race's territory red. The thousands of its members, without exception, had all become corpses. Among them were men and women, old and young.

Even some children who had just been born couldn't escape the calamity.

All of them died.

The son of Transient Evil sat atop a stone house, inhaling the blood-soaked air with a look of enjoyment.

"Such a wonderful smell."

The nine Dao Protectors who followed him were digging out the hearts of the corpses one by one.

The heart of the Sea Spirit Race's members was a type of crystal core.

In the records of the Evil Life Holy Land, these crystal cores were considered highly valuable materials, and the worth of thousands of them was even greater.

Soon, all the crystal cores were collected. As the fire burned, everything here turned to ashes, leaving no traces.

As for the son of Transient Evil, he also stood up and took out a map, determining the next location to gather materials.

However, at that moment, his correct hollow suddenly shone with a faint light.

The young man swept his gaze over, a sharp gleam in his eyes, and a smile appeared on his lips.

"The killer has been sensed so quickly?"

"Then, let's go and see what this killer looks like."

The son of Transient Evil smiled and stood up, walking toward the horizon.

The nine Dao Protectors followed without saying a word.

The sea breeze became even stronger.