OUTSIDE OF TIME

424 Yanyan’s Gift

Inside the magic warship, Xu Qing opened his eyes.

During this period of time, Yanyan was not the first person to come. Ding Xue and Gu Muqing had come before.

Xu Qing was as per normal. He didn’t reveal any differences from before. If there really was a difference, it would be that he was more silent.

When he heard Yanyan’s voice outside, Xu Qing stood up and walked out of the cabin. He stood there and calmly looked at the young lady on the shore.

Xu Qing’s appearance caused Yanyan’s beautiful eyes to curve into crescent moons. She directly leaped onto Xu Qing’s magic warship.

However, in the next moment, she crashed into the defense of the magic warship.

With a bang, she landed on the shore.

“Brother Xu Qing, don’t you like me anymore? Did Yanyan do something wrong? Tell me, I’ll change…” Yanyan got up, feeling a little discouraged. She sat on the ground with her eyes slightly red, as if she was about to cry.

Her fingers, which were covered in wounds, pinched the corner of her clothes.

“There’s no need to pretend. What’s the matter?” Xu Qing calmly spoke.

Yanyan’s reddened eyes returned to normal as she tilted her head and looked at Xu Qing. A mesmerized smile appeared on her face and she placed her finger in her mouth. She bit down lightly and sucked her blood.

“As expected, I still can’t deceive Brother Xu Qing.”

“However, Brother Xu Qing, I really like it when you don’t like me. This time, I even brought you a greeting gift.” Yanyan smiled foolishly. With a wave of her small hand, seven black water vats appeared beside her.

Each of them was half the height of a person. They were covered, but heads were exposed outside them.

Each of the seven water vats contained a cultivator, most of whom were at the Three Fires Foundation Establishment stage. One of them even emanated the fluctuations of a Golden Core, a Heavenly Palace Golden Core.

Clearly, they had all been tortured to the extreme. Although they weren’t dead, they were planted in the water vats like flowers.

As the water vats landed on the ground, they opened their eyes. When they saw Yanyan, their faces were filled with endless fear and despair.

There were men and women among these people. All of them were pale. Some were missing an eye, some were missing an ear, some had their noses cut, and some had their mouths sewn together.

“Brother Xu Qing, the last time I returned to Dongyou Island, I started to capture the Night Dove Organization there and even found some clues. I followed the clues and found these seven guys.”

“The seven of them are the leaders of the Nanhuang Continent’s Night Dove Organization. When they were moving to the Yinghuang Province, Shrimpy captured all of them.”

Yanyan spoke happily. Her eyes shone with anticipation, as though she was eager to receive Xu Qing’s praise.

Xu Qing’s gaze swept past the seven of them. There was no need to identify them. He had killed too many Night Dove members. At this moment, when he spread out his perception to sense them, he could sense a large amount of resentment fusing from the seven of them.

In addition, the Seven Blood Eyes Homicide Department also had a warrant for these seven people. However, these seven people were very cautious and never appeared in the territory of the Seven Blood Eyes.

“Very good.” Xu Qing nodded at Yanyan.

This nod made Yanyan excited. Her breathing quickened, and her nose opened slightly. Her eyes became even more blurry as she spoke softly.

“Brother Xu Qing, shall we… start?”

Xu Qing stepped out of the magic warship. After landing on the shore, his gaze swept past the seven trembling people and finally landed on the Golden Core cultivator.

This cultivator was middle-aged and had a scar on his face. At the same time, the resentment on his body was extremely dense. Xu Qing knew this person. The Seven Blood Eyes had records of this person.

This person was one of the leaders of the Night Dove Organization in the Nanhuang Continent. He was cruel and bloodthirsty. Many treasure-nurturers had died in his hands, and he had sold a vast number of them.

At this moment, under Xu Qing’s gaze, the middle-aged man’s sewn-up mouth let out a whimper. His eyes were filled with the intention to beg for mercy. This kind of begging was something that the middle-aged man had seen countless times in his life. However, the same thing was reflected on him countless times during this period of time.

Xu Qing was expressionless. He grabbed at the air; instantly, the water vat that the middle-aged man was in shattered into pieces.

As a large amount of blood splattered, the middle-aged man’s body, which had lost all four limbs, fell to the ground. When he struggled, a powerful force enveloped him and he was suddenly moved in front of Xu Qing.

Amidst Yanyan’s excitement, Xu Qing calmly raised his right hand. His right hand instantly turned illusory and slowly penetrated into the middle-aged man’s chest. There was no wound or damage. Xu Qing’s right hand was completely illusory as it pierced through.

However, the middle-aged cultivator’s fear instantly surpassed the torture Yanyan had inflicted on him on Dongyou Island. His body trembled violently, and his eyes filled with shock and disbelief. He was also filled with intense terror as he struggled maddeningly.

He felt a cold hand enter his body, enter his sea of consciousness, and touch his Heavenly Palace…

Immediately after, this cold hand pierced through his Heavenly Palace and grabbed the golden core that he had suppressed in the Heavenly Palace.

The hand suddenly pulled!

The pain surpassed anything he had experienced before, causing the middle-aged cultivator to go completely mad. He began to groan miserably. Compared to what he was feeling now, the torture he had endured on Dongyou Island was like child’s play.

This pain seemed to pierce his soul.

His lips, which had been sewn together, were torn apart as he struggled. By the time the inhuman screams came from his mouth, Xu Qing’s hand had already retracted from the middle-aged cultivator’s chest.

In his hand… was a golden core.

The golden core was still connected with countless threads. With a sudden pull from Xu Qing, all the threads were broken.

The middle-aged cultivator’s body trembled violently. The Heavenly Palace in his body collapsed inch by inch, turning into countless drops of blood that sprayed out of his mouth, nose, eyes, ears, and all the pores on his body.

What made the middle-aged cultivator feel even more despair was that in his blood-stained eyes, he could vaguely see his golden core rapidly dissipating and being absorbed by Xu Qing’s illusory hand.

This scene was enough to cause everyone who saw it to be terrified to the extreme, especially since Xu Qing’s expression was calm from the beginning to the end and not a single drop of blood stained his body.

Yanyan’s eyes shone brightly as she stared straight at Xu Qing. She realized that Xu Qing’s playstyle made her even more excited and obsessed than before.

She couldn’t help but breathe faster and faster. At this moment, she placed her finger in her mouth again and bit it, sucking the blood.

It seemed that this was the only way for her to suppress the excitement.

Xu Qing glanced at Yanyan and didn’t pay much attention to her. With a wave of his hand, the resentment aura surrounding the dying middle-aged cultivator instantly erupted, transforming into countless illusory faces that ferociously devoured the middle-aged cultivator.

Miserable screams echoed again. It lasted for a few breaths before it stopped.

He breathed his last.

As for the other cultivators in the water vats, they were all trembling. Their despair was filled with indescribable terror. Earlier, they had thought that Yanyan was a nightmare, but now they knew that compared to now, she was quite ordinary.

It was useless for Xu Qing to absorb these Foundation Establishment cultivators. Hence, he sent out a divine sense.

In the next moment, the black iron stick flew out at an extremely fast speed toward the remaining six cultivators. It instantly pierced through their foreheads, absorbed their souls, and returned as an afterimage.

The black iron stick didn’t let go of the dead Golden Core either, because there was still remnant soul power dissipating from the corpse.

Yanyan took in a deep breath and looked at Xu Qing with a smile on her face.

In her eyes, it was as though this world was blurry. Only Xu Qing’s figure was incomparably clear.

“Brother Xu Qing, do you feel better now?”

Xu Qing glanced at Yanyan’s fingers. Every single one of them was covered in countless old and new scars from being bitten.

“Don’t hurt yourself like this next time. It doesn’t look good.”

If someone else said this, Yanyan would have gouged out their eyes or pulled out their tongue. Even if her grandmother told her this, she would just ignore it. However, when she heard Xu Qing’s words, she hurriedly nodded.

“Brother Xu Qing, I’ll only bite one finger in the future and will only bite it again after it’s healed. This way, there won’t be any scars and it won’t be ugly anymore.”

“Brother Xu Qing, can… can I board the boat?” Yanyan looked at Xu Qing expectantly.

“Next time. I want to cultivate.” Xu Qing calmly spoke. He then returned to the magic warship and headed to the cabin.

The afterglow of dusk fell on the shore. Yanyan looked at the departing Xu Qing and felt a little disappointed in her heart. When she came, she was happy and sad. She was happy that she could see Brother Xu Qing again, but she was sad when she heard her grandmother talk about the events in the Seven Blood Eyes.

Therefore, she begged her grandmother to give her enough Dao Protectors. That was how she managed to capture the seven leaders of the Night Dove Organization.

Then, she brought them here to give to her Brother Xu Qing so that he could be happier.

She didn’t know what to do to make Xu Qing happy. Hence, she thought that if it was her, she would be happy if someone gave her such a gift.

But now, she was a little disappointed.

Staring at the disappearing figure on the magic warship, she sat alone on the shore and bit her lower lip. She couldn’t help but raise her hand again to bite her finger.

However, she held it in and tried her best to control this habit of hers.

Because Brother Xu Qing didn’t like it.

However, she could not control herself. Gradually, as she restrained herself and struggled, a vicious aura appeared on her body.

Originally, she was extremely vicious. Now that her emotions were fluctuating, her viciousness became even more intense.

However, at this moment, Xu Qing’s calm voice rang out from the magic warship.

“Sit down.”

Yanyan stared blankly for a moment, then sat down obediently. As she looked up at the magic warship, the sound of a flute drifted out.

The sound of the flute was melodious and comforting, seemingly dragging out one’s thoughts.

Under the bright moon, the viciousness on Yanyan’s mind gradually dissipated, and a smile appeared on her face.

After a long time, when the sound of the flute stopped, Yanyan stood up happily.

“Thank you, Brother Xu Qing.” After speaking, she skipped away, humming the flute tune she heard earlier. She was extremely happy.

Just like that, several days passed. One morning, Xu Qing, who was sitting cross-legged in meditation, suddenly opened his eyes and lowered his head to look at his voice transmission jade slip.

After taking it out, Old Master Seventh’s solemn voice echoed in his ears.

“I have found Illuminate’s traces and found Saintly Star’s tracks. After confirming that this isn’t an ambush, the Alliance will go all out to issue the Blood Massacre Mission.”

“Xu Qing, are you willing to accept the order and participate in this mission?”

Xu Qing abruptly inclined his head, his expression incomparably cold. Without any hesitation, he replied via voice transmission.

“Disciple accepts the mission!”