[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-beyond-the-passage-of-time":3,"chapter-beyond-the-passage-of-time-beyond-the-passage-of-time-chapter-1":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Beyond the Passage of Time",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":18,"prevChapterSlug":19,"totalChapters":20,"novelImage":21},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":12,"translator":16,"content_hash":17},2344441,4583,"Chapter 1: Living","beyond-the-passage-of-time-chapter-1",1,"\u003Cp>March, early spring.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A corner of the eastern Nanhuangzhou.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The hazy sky was a sheet of gray-black, heavy with oppression, as if someone had spilled ink onto rice paper, the ink soaking into the firmament and staining the clouds.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The clouds were layered and intertwined, diffusing streaks of crimson lightning, accompanied by the rumbling of thunder.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was like the low growl of a deity, echoing through the human world.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Blood-colored rain, carrying a sense of sorrow, fell upon the mortal world.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The earth was blurred; a ruined city sat in silence amidst the dim red blood-rain, devoid of any vitality.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Within the city were broken walls and ruined remains, all things withered; collapsed houses were visible everywhere, along with cyan-black corpses and shredded flesh, like shattered autumn leaves, silently withering away.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The once bustling streets were now desolate.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The dirt roads that once saw people coming and going were now devoid of noise.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only blood-mud remained, mixed with shredded flesh, dust, and paper, indistinguishable from one another, a shocking sight.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not far away, a broken carriage was stuck deep in the mud, full of sorrow; only a discarded rabbit doll hung from the carriage shaft, swaying with the wind.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Its white fur had long been soaked into a damp red, filled with a grim and eerie air.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Its murky eyes seemed to retain some lingering resentment, staring alone at the mottled stones ahead.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There, a figure lay prone.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was a boy of thirteen or fourteen, his clothes tattered and covered in filth, a damaged leather pouch tied around his waist.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The boy squinted, motionless; the bone-chilling cold penetrated his worn outer garment from all sides, invading his entire body and gradually stealing his warmth.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet even as the rain fell upon his face, he did not blink, staring coldly into the distance like a hawk.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Following his gaze, seven or eight zhang away, a gaunt vulture was gnawing on the rotting carcass of a wild dog, occasionally observing its surroundings with vigilance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It seemed that in these dangerous ruins, at the slightest disturbance, it would instantly take flight.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And the boy, like a hunter, waited patiently for an opportunity.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After a long while, the opportunity arrived; the greedy vulture finally buried its head completely into the wild dog's abdominal cavity.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Instantly, a cold glint appeared in the boy's squinted eyes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His body shot out like an arrow released from a bow, rushing rapidly toward the vulture; with a flick of his right hand, he drew a black iron spike from the leather pouch at his waist.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A sharp, cold glint flashed from the tip of the iron spike.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Perhaps sensing the killing intent, the moment the boy rushed out, the vulture immediately noticed; startled, it flapped its wings to take flight, intending to escape.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But it was too late.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With a faceless, forceful swing from the boy, the black iron spike transformed into a black line and shot out.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Pfft!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The sharp iron spike pierced the vulture's head in an instant, shattering its skull and killing it on the spot.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The powerful impact carried its corpse, causing it to fall at an angle and, with a thud, pin it to the carriage not far away.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The blood-colored doll to the side swayed even more due to the carriage's disturbance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The boy's expression was calm; his speed did not pause for a moment from start to finish. He rushed to the spot and, upon arriving, grabbed the vulture's corpse along with the iron spike.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The force was so great that the part of the carriage pinned by the iron spike was also torn off in a small piece.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After doing this, he turned and sped away along the edge of the street without looking back.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The wind seemed to grow stronger at this moment; as the blood-colored doll on the carriage swayed, it seemed to be watching the boy's departure.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Walking further and further away.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The wind was indeed stronger, carrying the cold from the rain as it brushed against the boy's thin clothes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The boy shivered involuntarily, his brows slightly furrowed; he pulled his collar tight and let out a sharp intake of breath.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He hated the cold.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And the way to resist the cold was to find a place sheltered from the wind and rain to rest, but the boy running through the streets did not slow down in the slightest, as ruined shops flashed past his eyes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He did not have much time left.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because hunting the vulture had taken too long, and today, there was still one place he had not visited.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"It shouldn't be far now,\" the boy muttered to himself, speeding along the street.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the road ahead, cyan-black corpses were visible everywhere; their faces, having lost all hope, were filled with ferocity, as if they had transformed into an aura of despair, wanting to taint the boy's mind.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But the boy was accustomed to it and did not even glance at them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As time passed bit by bit, the boy looked at the sky from time to time, a hint of anxiety appearing on his face; it seemed that to him, the changing of the sky was more terrifying than those corpses.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fortunately, not long after, when he saw a pharmacy in the distance, the boy breathed a sigh of relief and rushed toward it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The pharmacy was not large; many medicine cabinets were scattered on the ground, emitting a moldy smell, like a tomb that had been opened, full of disorder.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the corner lay the corpse of an old man, his entire body cyan-black, leaning against the wall, as if he had died with his eyes open, staring blankly at the outside world.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The boy stepped in, took a glance, and immediately began to search.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Most of the medicinal herbs here, like the corpses, had turned cyan-black; only a few remained normal.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Among these normal herbs, the boy carefully identified them for a long time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seeming to recall past experience, he finally picked up a common stalk of Golden Wound Grass, took off his thin clothes, and revealed a huge wound on his chest.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The wound had not yet fully healed; one could see that the edges of the wound had begun to turn black, and some bloody fluid was even seeping out.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The boy lowered his head to look, crushed the herb, took a deep breath, gritted his teeth, and raised his hand to apply it bit by bit to the wound.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In an instant, the sharp pain of the wound surged like a violent tide, causing the boy's body to tremble uncontrollably, but he forced himself to endure it; however, the sweat on his forehead could not be suppressed, falling drop by drop along his cheeks onto the dark ground.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It became ink-like.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The entire process lasted for more than ten breaths; until he had completely applied the herb to the wound, the boy seemed to have lost all his strength at once. He leaned against the medicine cabinet to the side, resting for a good while before taking a deep breath and slowly putting his clothes back on.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Looking at the sky outside again, he pondered and took out a tattered map from the leather pouch at his waist, carefully spreading it out.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The map was very simple, depicting this very city.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The locations of the pharmacies inside had all been marked, and in the northeast direction, many areas had been crossed out with fingernails, with only two areas left without crosses.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"After searching for these days, it must be in one of these two areas,\" the boy said in a hoarse voice, muttering to himself, and was about to leave after putting the map away.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But before leaving, he turned back to look at the old man's corpse, his gaze falling on the corpse's clothes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was a fur coat; perhaps due to the special nature of the leather, the degree of decay of the fur coat was not great.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The boy thought for a moment, walked over, took the fur coat off the old man's corpse, and put it on himself.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The fur coat was a bit large, but after wrapping his small body in it, the boy finally felt a trace of warmth, so he lowered his head to look at the old man's open eyes and raised his hand to gently cover them, making him close his eyes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Rest in peace,\" the boy said softly, tore off a curtain from the shop to cover the old man's corpse, and turned to leave the pharmacy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As he walked out, a glimmer of light shone from before his feet; the boy looked down and saw a palm-sized fragment of a mirror in the blood-mud.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the mirror fragment, he saw his own face.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The face reflected in the broken mirror, though covered in filth, could still faintly be seen to be an extremely handsome face.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was just that the innocence a thirteen or fourteen-year-old boy should have was gone, replaced by indifference.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The boy looked silently at himself in the mirror on the ground, and after a long while, he raised his foot and stepped on it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With a crack.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Cracks appeared.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After crushing the mirror with one foot, his body flickered, and he sped away.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the ground, although the broken mirror was filled with cracks, it still refracted the vast human face on the firmament, which seemed to cover the world, cover all living beings, like the remnant face of a deity.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The remnant face was cold with closed eyes, high above, with only strands of withered, curved hair hanging down.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That was a natural existence in this world, just like the sun and moon.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was as if beneath her, all living beings were ants, and like the awakening of insects, the phenomenon of all things growing was influenced by her and forced to change.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And at this moment, the sky also gradually lost its light under this remnant face of the deity.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The shadow of the setting sun was like a black haze, permeating the city ruins, covering the earth, as if to swallow everything.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The rain grew heavier.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As the night gradually swallowed everything, so did the wind, emitting bursts of sharp, sobbing sounds.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was like the roar of fierce ghosts, beginning to awaken the eerie existences within the city, causing all kinds of hair-raising sounds to respond one after another, as if capturing one's soul.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The running boy quickened his pace, his movements becoming more urgent; between this race against the descending night, he nimbly wove through the streets.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Until, when he passed a collapsed house and intended to use it to leap further, the boy's pupils suddenly shrank.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a person amidst a pile of broken walls not far away.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Looking from afar, this person was dressed neatly, as if without any injuries, sitting there leaning against the wall.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Most importantly, the skin exposed on the other person's body was actually a normal color, not cyan-black!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Such a figure, in this city, unless they were a living person, it would be impossible for them to appear!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And a living person... the boy had not encountered a second one in all these days, besides himself.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This scene made his mind shake, and he soon seemed to think of something, his breathing becoming slightly more rapid.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He had the intention to go over, but the night, like a haze, had already swallowed everything behind him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The boy hesitated, memorized the location, and left rapidly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Speeding all the way, finally, before the night could catch up to him, the boy returned to his temporary dwelling in this city.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was a burrow, very small inside, full of bird feathers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The gap at the entrance was not large, and an adult could not crawl in; only the boy could barely enter.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After entering, he skillfully blocked the entrance with debris like books and stones from inside the burrow.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The moment he filled it completely, the night outside instantly covered everything over.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The youth did not lower his guard; he gripped the iron skewer tightly in his hand, held his breath, and crouched there listening for a long time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gradually, the roars and shrill cries of strange beasts drifted over, occasionally interspersed with eerie laughter.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not until a clearer roar echoed, and in the youth’s tension, the sound seemed to pass by and fade away, did he finally let out a breath and sit to one side.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The cave was pitch black, and the youth sat there silently, time seemingly coming to a halt in this moment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He dazed off for a while, calmed his nerves which had been taut all day, grabbed a water skin from his side, took a few sips, ignored the sounds outside, and took out the vulture from his pocket.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the darkness, he held it to his mouth and tore at it bite by bite.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A fishy, astringent taste surged in his throat, but he calmly swallowed it slowly, forcing the food down his throat into his stomach.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His stomach was also churning forcefully at this moment, attempting to digest it and alleviate his hunger.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Soon, the entire vulture was eaten; the youth took a deep breath, waves of exhaustion surged over his entire body, and his eyes slowly closed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet in his hand, he always held that pitch-black iron skewer tightly, like a lone wolf feigning sleep.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It seemed that if there were any abnormality, he would open his eyes in an instant.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At this moment, the outside world was a night like a curtain, covering the city, covering the earth, and also covering this firmament.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The world beneath the firmament was vast in scope, and Nanhuangzhou, located overseas, was merely one part of it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Few knew exactly how large the entire world was; only that majestic severed face in the firmament, carrying intense intimidation, could be seen by everyone who looked up.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The exact time of the arrival of this severed face could no longer be investigated.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>People only knew from fragmented descriptions in some ancient texts that a very, very long time ago, this world, filled with immortal spiritual energy, was prosperous and vibrant, until... this huge severed face arrived from the depths of the distant void, bringing destruction and attraction.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>During its arrival, the living beings of this world exhausted all methods to stop it, but all failed; in the end, only a few ancient sovereigns abandoned the masses, taking some of their clansmen and choosing to migrate.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not long after, the severed face arrived and hung in the sky; from then on, a nightmare descended.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The aura from her permeated the entire world; mountains, oceans, all things, and the masses, and even the spiritual energy that cultivators relied upon for practice, were all infected by it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>All things withered, the masses perished, and not one in a hundred survived.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>From then on, those who struggled to survive this catastrophe called this half of a human face... a God.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They called this world the End Lands, and the place where the ancient sovereigns went was called the Holy Land.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This form of address had been passed down generation after generation through multiple epochs.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And the disaster brought by the God was not just this; her majesty suppressed the masses at every moment, because...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Every few years, or decades, or even centuries, she would open her eyes at irregular intervals, lasting for several breaths.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Every area she looked at when she opened her eyes would be instantly and intensely polluted by her aura.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Living beings would be slaughtered, turning into eternal forbidden zones.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Over multiple epochs, the forbidden zones in this world became more numerous, and the areas suitable for living became fewer and fewer.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And nine days ago, the God opened her eyes once again, and the place she looked at was exactly the area where the youth was located.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Within that area, all species and over a dozen human cities, regardless of where they existed, whether inside the city or in the slums outside, were instantly heavily polluted and turned into forbidden zones of life.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Under this terrifying pollution, some of all things and living beings directly decomposed into blood mist, some mutated into strange beasts without intelligence, and others had their souls scattered, leaving behind polluted blue-black corpses.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only an extremely small number of people and beasts could survive.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The youth was one of them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At this moment, outside the pitch-black cave, following a shrill sound that moved from far to near, the sleeping youth quickly opened his eyes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The iron skewer in his hand was raised instinctively, and he looked vigilantly at the gap in the blocked entrance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not until that shrill sound circled the vicinity and gradually moved away did the youth finally let out a breath.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Having lost his sleepiness, he felt his leather bag and took out a bamboo slip from inside.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the darkness, he touched the handwriting on the bamboo slip, a glimmer of light seemingly appearing in his eyes; he then sat up straight, closed his eyes, and adjusted his breathing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The youth was named Xu Qing, and he had lived a difficult life alone in the slums outside this city since he was a child.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the sudden catastrophe nine days ago, he hid in a rock crevice; unlike other terrified and crazed people, he calmly watched the God who opened her eyes in the firmament, and watched the special cross-shaped pupils in the God’s eyes in the sky, seemingly having lost the emotion of fear.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Until he saw a purple light descend from the sky and land in the northeast direction within the city.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The next instant, he lost consciousness.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After waking up, he became the only survivor inside and outside the city.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But he did not leave immediately.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because he knew that the forbidden zone formed by the God opening her eyes would be shrouded in blood rain at the beginning, turning into a barrier.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>People inside could not get out, and people outside could not enter, unless the forbidden zone was completely formed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And the sign of its formation was the stopping of the blood rain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This catastrophe, for Xu Qing who grew up in the slums, did not seem like much.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because in the slums, whether it was the various vagrants, wild dogs, or a disease, or even a cold night, could make people lose their lives at any time, and it required great difficulty to survive.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And as long as one was alive, everything else did not count for much.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, amidst the cruelty of the slums, there was occasionally a trace of warmth.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For example, some down-and-out scholars would teach their group of children to read and write for a living; besides that, there were memories of relatives.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was just that in Xu Qing’s mind, the memories of his relatives were gradually blurring with the passage of time, even though he tried very hard to recall them, afraid of forgetting.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But he knew that he was not an orphan, that he still had relatives, only that they had long since been separated.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Therefore, his ideal was to survive.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If he could live a little better, and if he could have the chance to see his relatives once, that would be even better.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thus, having luckily not died, he chose to enter the city.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He wanted to go to the residences of the upper-class masters in the city to search for the methods rumored in the slums that could make one become powerful, and even more so to search for that purple light that fell into the city.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And the path to becoming strong had always been rumored in the slums and longed for by everyone; they called it cultivation, and those who mastered the methods of cultivation were called cultivators.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thus, becoming a cultivator was Xu Qing’s greatest wish, besides his memories of his relatives.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Cultivators were not rare; in the past few years in the slums, Xu Qing had seen this type of person enter the city from afar.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Their typical characteristic was that when one gazed at them, one’s body would instinctively tremble.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xu Qing had even heard people say that the City Lord was a cultivator, and the guards around him were also cultivators.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thus, after searching in this city for a long time, five days ago, he finally found the bamboo slip in his hand on a corpse in the City Lord’s mansion.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That place was very dangerous, and the wound on his chest was left behind at that time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What the bamboo slip recorded was exactly the method of cultivation he longed for.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>All the content on it had long been memorized by him, and he had even begun to attempt cultivation in these past few days.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xu Qing had never seen other cultivation techniques; this bamboo slip was the only one he had obtained, and he did not know how to practice correctly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fortunately, most of what was described on it was simple and easy-to-understand text, focusing on visualization and breathing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So by following the steps, he had gained some harvest.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This method was named the Sea Mountain Art.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The method of cultivation was to have the totem carved on the bamboo slip appear in one’s mind, and to coordinate with specific breathing to perform inhalation and exhalation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This pattern was very eerie; it was an alien existence with a large head and small body, only one leg, the whole body was black, and the face was ferocious like a fierce ghost.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xu Qing had never seen this kind of creature; the bamboo slip called it a Xiao.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At this moment, following the cultivation, not long after this pattern appeared in his mind, Xu Qing’s breathing gradually changed, and dark currents gradually permeated the nearby air.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The spiritual energy from the surroundings surged in in wisps, slowly drilling into his body, flowing through his entire body, and causing waves of bone-chilling cold; the parts it passed through were like being placed in ice water.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xu Qing was afraid of the cold, but he endured it without giving up and still persisted.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Until a long time later, when he finally ended this cultivation session according to the requirements of the bamboo slip, his body was already soaked in cold sweat.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And his stomach, which had just eaten the vulture, again sent waves of hunger.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xu Qing wiped away the cold sweat, touched his stomach again, and determination appeared in his eyes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Since practicing this technique, his appetite had obviously increased too much, and his body was also more agile than before.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>All of this made him have stronger endurance for the ice-cold during cultivation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At this moment, looking up, Xu Qing looked outside through the gap at the entrance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Outside, it was pitch black, with only terrifying roars, sometimes strong and sometimes weak, echoing in his ears.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He did not know the real reason why he became a survivor; perhaps it was luck, or perhaps... he saw that purple light.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So while searching for techniques these days, he was also constantly going to the northeast area to search for the landing point of the purple light, but unfortunately, he never found it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In his thoughts, Xu Qing listened to the roars outside. The image of the corpse leaning against the wall that he saw when returning at sunset could not help but appear in his mind, and his eyes slowly narrowed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The place where the other party was located was the northeast area, and... it seemed to be a living person.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Could it be related to the purple light?\"\u003C\u002Fp>",3959,"2026-06-21T00:45:15.441Z","Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite","138ae24c8800e9ec924c099dae6eb02dd43ede80409cb0770135ff65e122eff6","beyond-the-passage-of-time-chapter-2",null,998,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fbeyond-the-passage-of-time-cover.jpg"]