Chapter 1001: A Mysterious Individual in Timeruins’ Body
There was a fish in the outer sea that was named Timeruins. It lived in the void, and was very rarely seen. Whenever it came out, its upper jaw became a scarlet heaven, and its lower jaw became a boundless sea. It would devour the light of the sun and moon, and would gobble up any and all living beings. In fact, it could even swallow time and space. There were very few beings who knew what it looked like. They only knew that when Timeruins came out, heaven and earth became empty.
For example, this moment. When the red sky appeared, nothing existed. Even the sea sank down, as if it were suddenly missing some of itself. A vortex appeared on the surface of the water, rumbling with deafening loudness. The sound echoed across the outer sea, causing infinite vibrations, and kicking up a tempest that would last for months on end.
Xu Qing and Erniu had vanished.
Eventually, the wind kicked the sea up into a frenzy, and lightning crashed in the sky. Rain began to fall in the outer sea.
Within that rain, Yu Liuchen hovered in midair looking stunned. The danger earlier had been so immense that all hē could do was flee for hīs life. Hē had been unable to do anything to save Xu Qing and Erniu. When Timeruins devoured something, it wasn’t just a devouring of physical things. Something devoured by Timeruins was scraped out of fate, time, and all possible dimensions. That was why hē had been unable to do anything but watch as Xu Qing and Erniu disappeared right in front of hīm.
Even Timeruins showed up? This can’t be a coincidence. Yu Liuchen wanted to curse someone, except then hīs eyes narrowed, and a blood-red glow sprang up around hīm. Hold on a second.... Ever since I arrived in the outer sea, my emotions have been all off!
Yu Liuchen knew that hīs stories required emotions. That was the only way to make the stories moving, and the only way to affect people. That was why hē sometimes didn’t seem like other gods, who were cold and apathetic. That was a conscious decision based on hīs godly authority.
However... on a substructural level, gods were cold and apathetic. That was something nobody could change. Therefore, though it seemed like hē had plenty of emotion in hīm, it was really just an act. But on this trip out to sea, things were different.
I’m being influenced! Some unknown entity is stirring emotions up within me?
Shaken, Yu Liuchen looked out at the sea. A moment passed, and then hē suddenly started speaking. As hē did, godly authority spread out, entering the dome of heaven, marking the sea, and turning into the true words of a dhāraṇī incantation, the foundation of which was a true name.[1]
“One day, a god named Yu Liuchen took Xu Qing and Chen Erniu out to sea. To Yu Liuchen, the outer sea was not an unfamiliar place. But to Xu Qing and Chen Erniu, it was a place full of unknowns. Under the influence of some unknowable and unspeakable force, they encountered an inauspicious sculpture, and then ran into a dreaming sun. After, they crossed paths with a patrolling sea demon. Finally, they came across Timeruins. Timeruins wasn’t hungry, and just carried out an ordinary devouring of heaven. And then, ten hours later—”
The next instant, wild colors flashed and intense rumbling sounds echoed out as hīs true words showed signs of shattering. That indicated that it wasn’t possible for hīs story to become true.
Seeing that, Yu Liuchen quickly made a correction. “And then, a day later—”
The true words rumbled, forming into a sealing mark. However, as soon as the sealing mark appeared, it started cracking and crumbling.
Yu Liuchen again made a correction. “And then, seven days later—”
Though the crumbling slowed, it was clear that it was still going on.
“And then, a month later!” Yu Liuchen corrected, and hīs godly authority trembled. This time, though the sealing mark vibrated loudly, it didn’t crumble. Given that, Yu Liuchen felt comfortable continuing hīs story. “And then, a month later, in the east of the outer sea, some 80,000,000 kilometers out, water gushed out from the sky.”
The moment the words were spoken, heavenly thunder rumbled, and the sea surged. Sealing marks glittered brightly, forming truth and reality. Yu Liuchen sent out some god perception, exhaled a breath of energy, then stepped up into the dome of heaven and vanished.
The rain fell harder.
***
“What the hell kind of place is this? This rain is corrosive!”
In the world inside of Timeruins, Xu Qing and Erniu scowled as they raced through midair. It was raining here too. And this rain was corrosive. They had been trapped for ten days. Ten days earlier, heaven fell and devoured the sea, and everything went black. When the world became clear again, they were in this place. There seemed to be stars in the sky, glittering brightly. However, if you looked closely, you would realize that they weren’t actually stars. Instead, they were luminescent flowers. The lands below were a swampy marsh filled with endless ruins and sludge.
During the ten days that passed, Xu Qing and Erniu had long since come to the conclusion that they were inside of whatever gargantuan entity had devoured them. They had also come to realize how huge that entity’s body was. They had flown for ten days straight and not reached any end point.
After doing some exploring, Xu Qing could only guess that they hadn’t even seen 1/10,000th of the world inside this creature. That conclusion made their hearts sink.
Thankfully, they hadn’t run into any dangers inside this terrifying being’s body. There was the endless rain, but nothing else. No living beings. But there was no end to what lay in front of them, and the dim ‘starlight’ was getting increasingly annoying.
What made them particularly jittery were the statues they had seen in the ruins. Some were crumbling, but others were intact. They came in all shapes and forms. But the combination of the strange statues and the dim ‘starlight’ made this world seem evil and demonic. Though the statues never came to life, the auras they exuded were difficult for Xu Qing and Erniu to suppress.
“Ah Qing, we can’t go on like this...” Erniu murmured at a certain point.
Xu Qing didn’t reply at first. Looking off into the distance, he felt more strongly than ever that he was being watched. And he was also experiencing a premonition... that the watcher was up ahead.
“Is it possible,” he murmured, “that everything which happened to us before was arranged on purpose?”
When Erniu realized Xu Qing wasn’t paying attention to him, he sighed. “It doesn’t matter. I have no choice now but to use a trump card. After all, flying along like we have isn’t going to get us out of here.”
Xu Qing looked over at Erniu. He knew what Erniu was planning to do.
Erniu took a deep breath, looked around, then loudly said, “How come we can’t even hear anything breathing in here? I guess that means this place is very safe....”
Erniu vigilantly looked around only to realize that nothing unexpected was happening. After waiting for a long moment, he blinked suspiciously a few times.
That was when Xu Qing suddenly said, “Eldest Brother, I get the feeling... that there’s something up ahead, watching us.”
Hearing that, Erniu looked around again. A moment passed, and he looked back at Xu Qing. Both could see each other’s eyes shining with determination. Since they had no way out, then even if there was someone up ahead, then they both knew they might as well go check out the situation. They immediately started moving at top speed.
A few days later, both of them spotted something like the glow of a fire up ahead, which stood out prominently within the dim ‘starlight.’ Xu Qing stopped in place, his vigilance spiking. What he was seeing caused his heart and Erniu’s heart to start pounding.
The glow was coming from a bonfire. Next to the bonfire was an old man who appeared to be human. He was nothing special to look at. He had a hemp sandal on one foot, while the other foot was bare. He was holding some iron skewers out over the fire, upon which were chunks of unknown meat, sizzling in the heat.
Upon noticing them, the old man looked up, and his hooded eyes flitted up and down as he assessed Xu Qing.
“So, I was right. You’re like a god, but not. And like a cultivator, but not. Even more interesting is that you have human destiny aura on you. You used to be human, though you don’t have a human fleshly body anymore. It might be a bit of a stretch, but I’d say you still count as human.” Then he looked at Erniu. “But what the hell are you, exactly? A fur monster?”
1. Dhāraṇīs, also known as Parittas, are Buddhist chants, mnemonic codes, incantations, or recitations, usually the mantras consisting of Sanskrit or Pali phrases. In Chinese, they are literally “true words.” Because of wordplay revolving around “true,” I’m going to generally translate this term in that way, “true words.” In the past, I have translated the term as dhāraṇī or dhāraṇī incantation, but in this case, the “true” element trumps the other version. ☜