Beyond the Timescape

Chapter 807: Nine Summer Immortals!

Chapter 807: Nine Summer Immortals!

The ethereal voice echoed back and forth in the temple. The person who had spoken was clearly right in front of Xu Qing, yet for some reason, it seemed to him like they were separated by countless years. It was like a person in the past, plucking a zither, the sound of which carried with it the sensation of the timescape.

The god’s finger wasn’t capable of sleeping, and could only lay there trembling.

As for Xu Qing, his heart was pounding as he looked at the palace lord of the Summer Immortal Palace, whose cultivation base he couldn’t read. In fact, he couldn’t sense anything about her. She seemed both illusory and looming at the same time. The older Xu Qing got, the less often things like this happened. He had dealt with beings as lofty as Imperial Sovereigns and as lowly as grues. He had seen just about everything. He even had multiple experiences dealing with gods. In other words, he had a lot of reference points to call on when assessing someone’s aura. But right now... this palace lord was impossible to read. As a result, it didn’t matter what reference points he had.

In fact, the sensation of the mixture between past and present, and the combination of illusory and material, was growing stronger. All of these things created even more mystery within Xu Qing’s heart. Because of that mysterious sensation, the palace lord’s words seemed deeply meaningful. It was as if she spoke with the voice of all living beings.

Summer Immortal....

Xu Qing collected his thoughts, then waved his right hand, causing Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior to fly out. The iron skewer, which now looked more like a fiendish club, landed on Xu Qing’s palm.

“Is this what you’re sensing, Senior?” he asked softly.

Silence reigned in the temple.

The patriarch trembled on Xu Qing’s palm, terror raging uncontrollably within him. He felt like he was in the presence of a god. Little Shadow was also trembling, though it managed to contain all of its emotional fluctuations. That actually gave Xu Qing a better idea of this palace lord’s cultivation base.

Again, she spoke in her ethereal voice.

“Yes. And no.” The woman in the homespun garments sat with her back to Xu Qing, speaking as if from ancient times. “Do you know what a Summer Immortal is?”

Xu Qing didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he thought back to everything he knew about Summer Immortals.

Finally, he said, “Summer Immortal is a cultivation level.”

The woman in the homespun garments slowly shook her head. “Correct. But also incorrect. See for yourself.”

She reached up and pointed to the first of the nine paintings behind the candles. The blurriness of the painting turned into clarity, and the person depicted became visible.

He was an old man, tall and burly, with white hair and a white beard. He seemed straightforward and even boorish, and in his hand he held a walking stick that was golden in color, except made from... a bone. It was not an ordinary bone. It was the bone of a god. Even though it was only a painting, the shocking energy that Xu Qing could sense seemed to surpass Crimson Mother! Though it was clearly an unmoving artistic depiction, the old man was so lifelike he looked like he might step out of the painting at any moment. The shabby clothing he wore didn’t do anything to diminish his character. In fact, it made him seem more profound and ancient. His eyes seemed to contain stars, as if he could understand anything and everything.

Next was a young man with ordinary facial features but profound eyes. His face seemed full of the passage of time, and he wore a simple daoist robe that rippled freely in the wind.

The final painting, despite having been revealed by the palace lord, depicted a figure that wasn’t fully clear. It seemed to portray an old man. Though his features weren’t possible to make out fully, the painting made him seem like the kind of person who could prevent the dome of heaven from collapsing by holding it up with his hands. He was like an unshakable mountain.

“The last one had no time to form a mortal husk. He could only leave behind a scrap of his aura before he perished.”

The palace lord looked up at all the paintings.

Xu Qing, meanwhile, bowed deeply and solemnly to all of them. Then he looked back at the palace lord. “Senior, might I ask why you summoned me here today?”

“Most people know of the Summer Immortal Palace’s mission to record the history of Revered Ancient. But the truth is that the Summer Immortal Palace has another mission. And that is to keep a record of the techniques that changed the immortal essence of the Summer Immortal Palace.

“Your soul seeds created ripples in the immortal essence, and therefore, I would like to ask... if you would be willing to leave one behind here, to be stored for all eternity in the immortal essence of the Summer Immortal Palace? Consider it a contribution. And in return, you can seek enlightenment of any technique you find in the immortal essence.”

The eyes on the little butterfly’s wings suddenly glittered.

“What?” the butterfly said. “That’s what this is about? Master, it was his crappy technique that caused a stir in the immortal essence? This is immortal essence we’re talking about!”

The butterfly seemed both disbelieving and also envious.

Xu Qing thought about it for a moment. He honestly could never have guessed that the Summer Immortal Palace was interested in his soul seeds. The reality was that none of this mattered much to him. That said, he was interested to learn some more about this ‘immortal essence.’

“Senior, what is this immortal essence you mentioned?”

The person to answer him wasn’t the palace lord, but rather, the butterfly. “It’s something created by the nine Summer Immortals after they elevated Revered Ancient. It’s the only thing that surpasses the heavenly daos.

“In the never-ending worlds of Deep Earth, it serves as the source of all techniques and divine abilities. All magical techniques in Deep Earth actually come from immortal essence, although they’re all propagated in different ways. At the same time, the immortal essence is also responsible for collecting all rare and unique daos, then organizing them for later distribution. In that way, people from our homeland can practice cultivation for all eternity.

“This is outright preposterous! How could your soul seeds provoke a reaction from immortal essence?”

1. This is the wordplay I alluded to many chapters ago. The words ‘lower’ and ‘summer’ are pronounced exactly the same in Chinese. The word used in Chinese that I’m rendering ‘lower’ could be interpreted in different ways, but there’s a line in the text that I left out (because it’s irrelevant linguistically due to how I’m rendering the terms), which clarifies that it was used pejoratively. In other words, “Lower” was intended to be somewhat insulting or at least negative. In terms of the wordplay, something similar in English would be: “In the early days, they were called Profit Immortals, but later they came to be called Prophet Immortals.” The pronunciation doesn’t change, but the meaning does. The idea seems to be that people changed the name so that it came across as something more impressive and respectful. As of yet, there does not seem to be any further explanation of this term in Chinese, but as of releasing this chapter, I’m barely 200 chapters behind the latest release. There could theoretically be a later wordplay explanation clarifying some sort of hidden meaning for the term. If that happens, I might change ‘Summer’ to something else, or I might keep it and just use a footnote to explain. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens. ☜