OUTSIDE OF TIME

532 Shadow Explodes

Xu Qing fell silent when he heard this. His eyes narrowed slightly and he fell silent for a long time before cupping his fists and bowing.

The old man didn’t speak anymore and continued to sharpen his blade.

Xu Qing left and returned to Cell D132 on the 57th floor. He looked at the greenish-black cell gate in front of him and pushed it open before walking in.

As soon as he entered, he heard the shout from the head in cage 237.

“Pawn, Pawn, are you back?”

“How is it? Didn’t you get unlucky when you went out? Hurry up and throw me to the cloud beast. I’ll help you neutralize your bad luck.”

“Believe me.”

“If you still don’t believe me, then you’re really done for. I’ve already seen it. You died very miserably, but you don’t know. You don’t know how many times you’ve died.”

“Also… do you really think this is your first time guarding D132?”

“I can’t say anymore. I can’t say anymore. Hurry up and throw me to the cloud beast. If you throw me over, I’ll dare to continue telling you the truth.”

Xu Qing calmly walked on the corridor and passed by the cages where the prisoners were in. He then walked to the head and opened the cage. Amidst the excitement on the head’s face, Xu Qing carried it in his hand.

“That’s right, that’s right. Haha, Cloudy, I’m coming.”

Amidst the excitement of the head, Xu Qing carried it to the cage where the millstone was and threw it in.

The millstone trembled as though it was very surprised, but it also emitted some joy.

As for the head, the excitement on its face instantly turned into horror as it let out a mournful cry.

“Let me out. I don’t want to be here.”

“Lord Pawn, I was wrong. This place is cursed. D132 is cursed. I can slightly neutralize it for you.”

“However, I didn’t lie to you earlier. I really saw it. You’ve really died many times. I didn’t lie to you.”

Xu Qing didn’t bother with it. He went to the cage where the last prisoner was. He looked at the painting that was floating and the 23 figures inside before suddenly speaking to the shadow.

“Eat it.”

At the next instant, the shadow revealed greed. It spread out from under Xu Qing’s feet and into the cage.

As it spread in, an evil intent spread from it and enveloped the surroundings. At the same time, the entire D132 suddenly fell silent.

The head no longer screamed, the millstone no longer spun, the cloud beast no longer chewed, and the straw dolls no longer cried…

Only the painting of the Painting Race was shaking.

As the shadow got closer, the shaking became increasingly intense. When the shadow was less than three feet away from it, the old man in the painting suddenly spoke.

“Lord Guardian, the one in the lower right edge isn’t of our race.”

Xu Qing immediately looked over and his gaze landed at the bottom right corner of the painting.

There was a little boy drawn there. He stood there smiling and looked no different from the other figures in the painting.

However, after the old man spoke, the little boy in the painting frowned. The shadow immediately lunged toward the little boy. With a cracking sound, it seemed to have bitten something.

After that, it returned to Xu Qing. As for the painting, it wasn’t damaged but the little boy inside was gone. It had been swallowed by the shadow.

However, the instant the shadow returned, an unprecedented scene appeared.

The shadow’s body suddenly trembled. Under Xu Qing’s gaze, it instantly collapsed and shattered into pieces, while letting out a wailing sound.

Its body exploded!

A blurry figure crawled out and fused into the surrounding darkness while laughing. Even though the black iron stick rushed over quickly, it still missed. The little boy disappeared.

It was obvious that it was impossible for the shadow to die just like that. Although its body shattered into many pieces, they quickly fused together. After it recovered, it was clearly weaker but it hurriedly transmitted what it wanted to say to Xu Qing.

“Luck… Swallow… Explode, explode…”

It seemed to be very afraid that Xu Qing would think it was useless. This time, its description was actually quite clear.

Xu Qing turned his head to look at the place where the little boy had disappeared.

“Luck?” Xu Qing mumbled.

At that moment, the black iron stick returned and the Diamond Sect’s ancestor manifested. He quickly glanced at the weakened shadow and then looked at Xu Qing. He instantly became nervous.

He had failed twice. Although the shadow had also failed, it had made up some nonsense about luck.

‘This brat shadow has learned bad habits. Damn it!”

The Diamond Sect’s ancestor snorted coldly inwardly. He felt that there was an 80% chance that the shadow was spouting nonsense because it didn’t want to show its incompetence. Hence, he thought to himself, ‘Little shadow, you can’t compare to me.’

‘Since you’re spouting nonsense, I’ll add some spice to it. This way, when the demon discovers that something is wrong, you’ll be in big trouble. As long as I extract myself, I won’t be implicated.’

He had read too many books and some of them also had descriptions of luck. Moreover, most of them were necessary items for the protagonist.

“Luck? Master, I can’t see luck. In this aspect, I’m inferior to the knowledgeable Little Shadow. But since it said so…”

“Congratulations, Master. Master is indeed blessed by the heavens. That’s why you can encounter luck here!”

The Diamond Sect’s ancestor hurriedly spoke.

Xu Qing frowned and looked over.

The Diamond Sect’s ancestor perked up and hurriedly recalled the contents of the book.

“Master, according to the explanation and train of thought Little Shadow gave, if it’s not wrong, I should be able to guess why some guardians of D132 encountered accidents and died for no reason.”

“If Little Shadow isn’t wrong, then I know the secret of D132.”

“This place contains a wisp of luck. It should be a part of the power of luck of Fenghai County. For some reason, it exists here and has transformed from invisible to tangible.”

“As for the reason why those former guardians died, it was because their luck wasn’t ordinary. It exceeded the limit, so it backfired and created misfortune and inexplicable events.”

At this point, the Diamond Sect’s ancestor was stunned because he felt that this explanation seemed… extremely reasonable.

‘Was the Little Shadow telling the truth?’

While the Diamond Sect’s ancestor’s mind was shaking, Xu Qing frowned even more. This was the first time he had heard of luck. When his master introduced Crown Prince Purple Green, he said that the other party seemed to have been born from gathering the luck of the Wanggu Continent.

Just as Xu Qing was thinking, his expression suddenly changed. He abruptly looked to the right in the distance. A figure appeared in the darkness. It was the little boy who had disappeared earlier.

He stood there and looked at Xu Qing curiously.

The Diamond Sect’s ancestor rushed out, but the little boy disappeared. However, he quickly appeared on the other side and continued to look at Xu Qing curiously.

This time around, Xu Qing noticed that the other party’s gaze was on his right wrist!

Xu Qing’s mind stirred and he lifted his right hand.

The little boy’s sight also followed his hand.

Xu Qing fell silent. His right wrist looked normal but he knew that there were golden threads hidden there. Back then, when he had fused the poison pill and narrowly escaped death, the golden threads had flickered and a series of inexplicable coincidences had happened.

“What is this?” Xu Qing lifted his right hand and suddenly asked the little boy.

In Cell D132, as Xu Qing’s words echoed, all the prisoners were extremely quiet.

The cloud beast turned around and the woman crawled to the edge of the cage. The stone patterns on the millstone formed eyes and the head in the corner also looked over…

Even the painting of the Painting Race became blurry. An illusory old man’s figure stuck to the railing of the cage and paid attention to Xu Qing.

Xu Qing didn’t care about these prisoners. He looked at the little boy and waved his right hand.

The little boy’s gaze followed Xu Qing’s right hand. It was as though in his eyes, Xu Qing’s right hand had become the only thing in this world. His expression was very strange, with a hint of confusion.

When he heard Xu Qing’s words, his gaze moved away from the hand and met Xu Qing’s gaze.

A moment later, he opened his mouth as though he was saying something, but no sound or divine sense spread out. Even the shape of his mouth didn’t change at all.

Xu Qing frowned.

However, the little boy’s expression was very strange. After he finished speaking, his ears twitched a lot, as though he had heard a response. His eyes lit up as he spoke again.

After that, he listened attentively.

In the end, he seemed to have heard a response that made him happy. Hence, he became excited. After taking a look at Xu Qing, he patted his chest and retreated, merging into the darkness again.

At the same time, in the county capital’s territory, located about a month’s journey away from the capital and near the border of the Netherworld Province, there was a range of continuous mountains.

One end was deep into the Netherworld Province, and the other end was in the county capital.

This mountain range was very strange. The soil and rocks were all purple.

Terrain of this color was rare and the mountain range’s name was the Purple Spirit Mountain Range.

At that moment, in this part of the Purple Spirit Mountain Range that was located in the county capital, there was an abyss.

This abyss was very large and the bottom was pitch-black. One couldn’t see the details and could only see waves of purple fog spreading out from the abyss. When it slowly rose into the air, two figures were approaching from outside the abyss.

Among these two figures, one was old and the other was young. The old man was none other than the old man from Panquan Road. The young girl was naturally the flawlessly beautiful Ling’er.

Previously, they were riding on the flying giant that had an agreement with their race. After they were brought to the county capital, the other party left. Hence, they walked to the Purple Spirit Mountain Range on their own.

Now, they were finally close to his destination.

“Ling’er, the Wood Spirit Race is about to arrive. According to the ancient agreement, you can obtain an inheritance here. However, there are risks in this matter. You need to recuperate for a period of time and wait for your bloodline to stabilize before you can attempt it.”

“During this period of time, you have to be completely focused. You…” As the old man from Panquan Road spoke, he suddenly noticed that Ling’er was a little distracted.

“What are you doing?”

“Father, a kid is talking to me.” Ling’er’s eyes revealed a hint of surprise.

“What kid?” The old man from Panquan Road was surprised and looked around.

“It’s nothing. Maybe it’s the Wood Spirit Race.” Ling’er blinked. This was the first time she had lied to her father. She knew that the other party didn’t like Xu Qing, so she felt that it was better not to tell him about this.

At the same time, in her mind, she quickly replied to the voice of the child that suddenly echoed in her mind.

“That’s right. I was the one who put this thread of fate. Who are you? Have you seen my Brother Xu Qing? Where are you guys?”

“In the county capital?!” Ling’er’s eyes lit up even more.

“Yes, yes. You actually don’t have a single friend? Alright, of course I can be friends with you. However, you have to help me take care of my Brother Xu Qing. I’ll look for you guys in a while.”

The old man from Panquan Road was suspicious and carefully sized up Ling’er a few times.

“Father, let’s go quickly.” Ling’er smiled and looked very happy. Her smile was filled with innocence and beauty.

The old man from Panquan Road became even more suspicious, but he didn’t know what had happened. Hence, after some thought, he shook his head and continued to exhort.

“Don’t make any mistakes. This inheritance is very important. You can’t fail. That’s a matter of life and death. In a while, when you reach the Wood Spirit Race, go into seclusion to stabilize your bloodline. I’ll make a trip to the county to buy some auxiliary items for you.”

“I know, Father.” Ling’er pulled the old man’s arm and said cutely.

At that moment, the mountain breeze blew over, blowing her black hair up and caressing her peerlessly beautiful face.

Ling’er lifted her hand and tucked her hair behind her ear. With the help of this action, she quickly turned her head in the direction of the county capital. The corners of her mouth curled up into a smile.