Outside Of Time

Xu Qing had encountered many difficulties in his life. Some were resolved and some couldn't be resolved.

However, in Xu Qing's memories, he was rarely stuck in cultivation, especially in terms of comprehension. Regardless of whether it was the Mountains and Seas Art back then or the series of cultivation arts after that.

He was able to cultivate every one of them smoothly.

Even when he comprehended the Ghost Emperor Mountain, it was the same. In fact, he didn't encounter much obstruction when he manifested it later. Also, although it was a little difficult for the Golden Crow earlier, the smoothness of his thought process allowed him to quickly comprehend it.

Of course, this had a lot to do with the guidance of others. However, fundamentally, it was Xu Qing's comprehension ability.

His comprehension had always been remarkable.

However, this time, he had no direction or clue.

How to turn the Poison Restriction into his gaze was easy to say but it was too illusory to really do it. Xu Qing kept trying in these three days but he was still unable to complete it.

He could fuse the Poison Restriction into his eyes. Because the Poison Restriction had fused with him, Xu Qing could ignore the damage of the Poison Restriction. Even if the time lengthened, the purple crystal could still recover him.

Hence, to a certain extent, there was poison in his eyes.

However, this poison couldn't be spread out through his gaze.

"Gaze…" Xu Qing fell silent.

He didn't understand. What kind of light was the gaze? How could it fuse poison into it and poison everything he saw?

"How did god achieve this?"

Xu Qing looked tired. He sensed the dissipation of the restriction set up by the heir around him. Standing up, he silently walked towards the apothecary. Just as he was about to enter the city, something stirred in his mind.

"Perhaps I was too obsessed with my eyes?"

Xu Qing paused, closed his eyes, and silently sensed, but everything remained the same. It seemed that shutting his eyelids didn't bring him any deeper understanding.

Because the darkness in front of the eyes was the result of his gaze being covered and could be perceived.

"Then, what if I lose my eyes?"

He was always ruthless to himself. At this moment, without any hesitation, he raised his hand and pressed it directly onto his eyes, giving them a forceful poke.

An intense pain spread throughout his body and blood flowed down his eyes. He became blind.

This intense pain gushed into Xu Qing's perception in waves. However, compared to the pain he had experienced in the past, this wasn't much.

The injured eyes would also slowly recover under the power of the purple crystal.

However, Xu Qing suppressed the recovery power of the purple crystal. He wanted to experience it more.

The darkness in front of him was different from the darkness with his eyes closed previously!

Xu Qing's body trembled.

This was something he hadn't paid attention to previously. He also didn't expect that the difference between being blind and closing his eyes was actually different.

Previously, when he closed his eyes, his vision was blocked and he saw pitch-black darkness.

This time, there was no sight, so there was no concept of black.

"That's not black…"

Xu Qing mumbled. He couldn't tell what this feeling was. It was like a normal person closing one eye would see their vision narrowing, as though a piece was missing.

"And the missing piece, it's not black, it has no color, nor any visual feedback, as if it has been wiped away."

"Nothingness…"

Xu Qing spoke softly.

This term appeared in his mind. This was the scene he sensed after he went blind.

This made Xu Qing feel a little uncomfortable.

After a while, Xu Qing dispersed his divine consciousness. Gradually, the world reappeared in his mind.

Everything was perceived not through sight but through the aura, the touch of the wind, the resonance of the soul, and the coverage of divine sense.

Divine sense was like an invisible web, composed of countless ripples spreading out from him as the center. Touching anything would create feedback, causing the continuous fluctuations of this web.

Subsequently, within his mind, a consciousness formed.

Consciousness, not an image.

An image was something you could see, a direct and sight response, while consciousness was a kind of perception, a feeling.

Sometimes, to cultivators, because of the existence of divine consciousness, it was very difficult to distinguish between images and consciousness. It would make them instinctively think that divine consciousness was an extension of their vision.

However, in reality, at this moment, Xu Qing understood that it wasn't.

Xu Qing felt that everything in the surroundings that appeared in his mind was formed by him through this feeling he had of the outside world.

Regardless of whether it was earth city, the sky, the ground, all the houses in the surroundings, the pedestrians on the streets, and the mountain peaks in the distance.

He could sense them and 'see' them.

However, some of them had color, while others didn't have any color. They were just an outline.

After a long time, Xu Qing silently walked into the earth city and the apothecary.

On the way, he sensed everything in this state, feeling this stare that wasn't a sight.

"In a thousand miles for pills I've sought,

Fate or not, I'll take a look!"

From afar, the voice of Wu Jianwu reached Xu Qing's ears. Xu Qing looked up, and in his perception, the figure of Wu Jianwu emerged. He had colors—his clothing, hair, and even expressions.

"You, you, you… What's wrong?"

Wu Jianwu's eyes widened as he watched Xu Qing approaching. He observed Xu Qing's closed eyes and the flow of blood. His voice, filled with shock, attracted the attention of those nearby.

Immediately after, the captain, Li Youfei, and Ling'er noticed Xu Qing walking over.

"Brother Xu Qing!"

Ling'er panicked and quickly ran out, hugging Xu Qing.

Xu Qing patted Ling'er's head and smiled. Ling'er was also colorful.

"It's fine. I'm cultivating."

"But… what cultivation requires digging out one's eyes?" Ling'er cried.

Xu Qing comforted her and walked into the apothecary. In the scene that appeared in front of him, the captain had a look of disbelief, Li Youfei had a look of shock, and Ning Yan's eyes were wide open.

Nether Fairy continued to boil water. The heir, who was sitting not far away, looked at him.

Xu Qing patted Ling'er's back and approached the heir. He sat at the side and pondered.

A long time later, Xu Qing spoke softly.

"Senior, I still can't do it. Even after digging out my eyes, I still can't make the poison spread in my gaze. Even the world of perception can't let the poison follow my divine sense."

The heir picked up the teacup and took a sip. He was about to continue guiding in a profound way like before, but after giving it some thought, he looked at Xu Qing's blinded eyes and decided to be more direct this time.

"You were right to blind your eyes!"

"You have to think of a way to sense the god's vision and see the real world."

"The vision of a god? The real world?" Xu Qing mumbled.

"That's right." The heir said meaningfully.

Xu Qing fell silent. A while later, he stood up and bowed. Under Ling'er's nervous and worried gaze, Xu Qing returned to the familiar back room and sat down cross-legged, pondering in his mind.

"Why is it that in the world of my perception, some have colors and some don't…"

Xu Qing pondered. He felt that this might be a key point.

The night passed.

The next morning, Xu Qing lifted his head. He had a faint guess. Hence, he sensed his surroundings. Everything had color. A while later, Xu Qing suddenly transmitted his voice to the captain.

"Senior Brother, do you have any items that I haven't seen before?"

The captain, who was staring at Nether Fairy in the main hall, raised his brows when he heard this. A spurious smile appeared on his face as he walked toward the back room. When he saw Xu Qing, he lifted his right hand and took out an item.

Xu Qing swept his divine awareness over and smelled a medicinal pill, the curse-breaking pill.

"Change it."

The captain's eyes revealed a strange glint as he smiled meaningfully. After some thought, he took out another item.

"What about this?"

Xu Qing saw that it was a dudou[1]. He shook his head after a moment of silence.

The captain's interest was piqued and he kept taking things out. Xu Qing looked at those messy things and was a little speechless. A while later, he sensed that the captain seemed to have taken out some kind of item.

However, in his perception, this item was colorless.

Xu Qing abruptly lifted his head.

"This is…"

The captain's stare landed on his palm. There was a small blue statue there. He had obtained this item in his early years. It was an item worshiped by a small race and wasn't anything special. He had kept it in his storage bag all this while and had forgotten about it.

"This is a statue." The captain looked at Xu Qing.

Xu Qing nodded. His perception indeed saw an outline of a statue in the captain's hand.

"What color?" Xu Qing asked.

"Red." The captain's stare was deep as he smiled.

In an instant, Xu Qing sensed that the statue in the captain's hand had turned red.

Xu Qing nodded. Just as he was about to speak, the captain suddenly spoke again.

"Eh, I saw wrong. It is white."

Xu Qing frowned.

The captain smiled and placed the blue statue in front of Xu Qing as he whispered.

"Little Qing, due to some reasons, I can't guide you. However, this statue is a gift for you. After you recover your eyes, see what color it is."

With that, the captain left.

Xu Qing's heart churned. As many thoughts filled his mind, he loosened the restraint on the purple crystal's recovery power and allowed it to surge into his eyes.

A few days later, Xu Qing opened his eyes and looked at the blue statue in front of him.

The instant he saw this statue, Xu Qing's mind rumbled.

The red and white colors he thought of crumbled and turned blue.

The shock this process brought him was endless.

"Colors can be faked… Then, is what I'm seeing real?"

"In my previous state, the reason why everything in the world I saw contained color and some didn't have color was because those with color were things I had seen before or knew existed, so I could form its images on my own."

"As for what I haven't seen before, I can't form a picture. There's only the outline and no color…"

"As for the captain's words, which caused a change in color in my perception, this indicates… the source that determines what the eyes see and the composition of the world is not the eyes.

To mortals, the brain determines what they see.

For cultivators, it is the soul that predominates, determining what they see and feel."

Xu Qing drew in a deep breath as understanding appeared in his eyes.

"The eye is just a window."

"My path earlier was wrong. Even if I fused the Poison Restriction into this window, it would only be piled up there."

"I want the power of the Poison Restriction to fuse into my gaze…"

"I need to fuse the poison into my soul. If my soul has poison and it spreads out through the window, everything I see will be invaded by my gaze!"

"I wonder if the world I see at that time will be the real world that the heir mentioned?"

[1] A dudou is a traditional Chinese article of clothing that covers the front of the torso.