Beyond the Timescape

It was night at Young Aurora Hall, and the lanterns shone brightly.

Inside, Xu Qing was thinking about everything that just happened with Immortal Lord Aurora. On the road, Aurora was an Immortal Lord. Outside the Nineshores Grotto-Heaven, he was a father. And in the Desert of Time, he was a lonely man who had lost the love of his life. By the time night fell and he was back in the immortal palace, he was back to being an Immortal Lord.

Before this event, Xu Qing had considered Immortal Lord Aurora to be little more than a symbol. Granted, the imp in the second world had called himself a scrap of discarnate will from Immortal Lord Aurora. But whether or not that was true would require further investigation. From the very beginning until now, Xu Qing had had his doubts. That was why, to him, the words ‘Immortal Lord Aurora’ had been just that: words.

But everything he had experienced just now, and the different versions of Aurora that he had seen, all painted a very different picture. Without even realizing, he had come to view Aurora as a real and complex person.

And now I’m getting an inkling of what’s going to happen in a month....

Otherwise, how was it possible to explain how Aurora had essentially entrusted his son to another like an orphan? And what explanation was there for what he had said in the desert? However, even as some of the puzzle pieces clicked into place in his mind, more questions and suspicions proliferated.

Immortal Lord Aurora already had space-time canon, and has pushed it much closer to completion than I have. He has to know what’s coming in the future. It’s not going to come as a surprise to him.

So what’s going to happen in a month that will cause the Immortal Paragon to interfere? Why does the historical record call it a rebellion? And why am I instructed not to go see him at nighttime? Does it have something to do with that sinister, black-garbed version of him I saw under the lake?

Furthermore, he’s made all sorts of arrangements, including entrusting his son to someone else. So why does his son die in a month? What’s more, why does everyone else in the immortal palace die as well? Why does the Immortal Paragon wipe out every living being here?

Even stranger, why does the palace get left behind to exist for such a long time afterward....

There were too many questions swirling in Xu Qing’s mind. Even after much analysis, he didn’t come up with any good answers.