Outside of Time

The season at this moment was only late autumn in Qixuetong, but it was already winter here in Zitu.

The wind and snow fell, spreading all over the earth, covering this ancient city that has existed for thousands of years.

Looking from a distance, the crimson palace buildings seemed to be embedded in the vast and boundless sea-like snow.

It's snowing heavily.

The entire earth was covered in layers, and there were not many pedestrians on the streets. Everyone was wearing thick clothes, but they could not sweep away the snowflakes that continued to fall, making everyone seem to be going old.

A feeling of decline and depression filled the air. Along with the snowflakes and the numb expressions of passers-by, it gradually merged into the environment and became the atmosphere of this place.

The exposed tile roofs of all the buildings in the entire city are like lonely islands in a sea of ​​snow.

Here is the purple soil.

This was also the former imperial capital of Nanhuang Continent.

Thousands of years ago, there was a kingdom in Nanhuang Continent called Ziqing Shangguo. It once unified Nanhuang Continent and used the Flame Phoenix as its totem. However, in the end, it could not survive in this cruel and chaotic world.

It can only collapse in the civil strife, making Ziqing Shangguo buried in history and become a thing of the past.

As for the original royal family and the wealth it inherited, they were all divided up by the rogue gangs back then, and the bloodline was the same until it withered now.

After the rebels carved up everything, they became orthodox and formed eight major clans. They occupied Zitu and became the big families of Zitu. They continue to this day. They still worship the totem of Yanhuang and use Yanhuang as their totem. gods.

Looking at it at a glance, the size of the entire Purple Earth Imperial Capital is larger than the main city of Seven Blood Pupils, almost three times as big, and it is divided into eight areas.

They are eight major families.

In each area, there is a palace-like existence, which is also the ancestral home of these eight families.

Some family palaces are surrounded by turquoise water, with duckweeds all over the ground, translucent and clean. The eaves are carved with dragons and phoenixes, and the gold scales and armor are vivid.

There are also family palaces with golden glazed tiles shining dazzlingly in the winter sun. From a distance, the double-eaves roof is particularly brilliant.

Compared with Seven Blood Pupils, it is completely different style.

In comparison, Zi Tu is more like an old man who wears fancy clothes but is stubborn and rigid. Everything is about rules, everything is about blood, and everything is based on family tradition.

This is their way of survival in troubled times. It is different from Seven Blood Pupils, and there is no way to tell which one is better.

But what can be seen is that Qixuetong, as a branch of the Seven Sects Alliance, was inferior to Zitu to a certain extent from the beginning, but as time passed and developed, it gradually reached equality.

Now, with the breakthrough of the ancestor Xue Lianzi, he has surpassed him in one fell swoop and even has the courage to go to war with foreign races.

But Zitu won't be like this.

They like to close themselves off and don't like to be disturbed by others. Even while they are in awe of the remaining face of the sky, they also despise all external forces. Even Wanggu Continent, they still look down upon.

They believe that their own bloodline is the most noble, and they do not think that they are a frog in the well.

Therefore, if the people living here do not have inherited blood, most of them will have no future, and naturally they will have no vitality, and servility will slowly permeate into their souls. This has been true for generations.

Master Bai is a rare person in Zi Tu for thousands of years.

He is also the first person who wants to break the family's traditional concepts and seek common development with the outside human alliance.

His thoughts were contrary to Zi Tu, so he paid the price and became a mortal.

But he did not give up. With his unparalleled talent and the way of grass and trees, he found another path in his limited years.

He has also researched a large number of elixir recipes, and in the way of vegetation, he has even surpassed monks with his own mortal power.

To a certain extent, he is already the number one person in the alchemy path in Nanhuang Continent.

Even the peak master of the second peak of the Seven Blood Pupils, as a Nascent Soul cultivator, she admires Master Bai very much. A person like Qi Ye must also call him master.

All this shows that Master Bai's attainments in alchemy have reached the pinnacle.

But even so, in Purple Earth, he was still locked by many rules, and he was unable to do many things. Everything was because of blood.

Master Bai is not a direct descendant of the Bai family, he is from a collateral lineage.

At this moment, the wind and snow are getting worse.

As the snowflakes fell, a dozen people stood silently in the public cemetery in the city where the Bai family was located. In front of them was a crystal coffin. Master Bai's body lay inside, and the wound between his eyebrows had been covered up.

Although the body was blessed with magic power and sealed with a crystal coffin, if you look closely, you can still see that Master Bai's body is rotting and turning black.

This is a sign of poisoning. This poison is very overbearing and can accelerate decay.

Therefore, the body could not be preserved for too long and could only be buried in the dusk of this day, in the dim sunset of the snowy sky.

The thin bloodline made Master Bai ineligible to enter the family's imperial mausoleum after his death. Master Bai also disdained this during his lifetime. He had confessed many years ago that after his death, he could be buried in a public mausoleum.

Most of the crowd was silent, including Bai Yundong.

The people who can come here are either the juniors of Master Bai, or the people who are close to him. The number is not very large, but people may not need to have too many friends in this life, just a few confidants are enough.

As the coffin was buried, the oppressive atmosphere around the people in front of the grave became even more solemn. It was not until a girl couldn't control herself and cried that the oppressive atmosphere was broken.

The one who cried was Tingyu.

Two years have passed, and she has grown up. During her graceful years, she should have been as carefree as ever, but now with the death of Master Bai, her sky has collapsed.

She knelt in front of the grave, tears falling down drop by drop, feeling extremely sad.

Next to her, stood a young man of eighteen or nineteen years old. This young man had a tall and straight figure and a majestic appearance. His robes were extremely luxurious, and the jade pendant tied around his waist emitted the light of a magic weapon.

He is none other than Chen Feiyuan.

He is the eldest grandson of the Chen family. The teleportation blockade after Master Bai's death was actually accomplished with his full force.

At this moment, he was clenching his fist tightly, breathing rapidly, and the murderous intent in his eyes was extremely strong, intense to the extreme.

In this sadness and anger, they did not notice that far away from the mausoleum, there was a middle-aged man standing silently in an alley, looking at this place from a distance.

The middle-aged man was wearing a coarse linen robe. He looked unattractive, and his face was a little sallow, but there was endless sadness in his eyes. His body was trembling slightly at the moment, and he clasped the wall beside him with his right hand, crushing it.

After a long time, the sky gradually darkened, as the sunset gradually set, and as the dusk was about to dissipate, everyone in front of Master Bai's grave left silently in the afterglow.

The last ones to leave were Tingyu, Chen Feiyuan, and several of Chen Feiyuan's entourage.

The middle-aged man walked forward in silence. He did not look at the people leaving. He approached the public cemetery and passed by Chen Feiyuan and Tingyu.

Chen Feiyuan supported Tingyu, who was in grief and still crying, and also noticed Xu Qing, but in his grief, he didn't pay attention. This cemetery is very big, and there are many people who come to pay tribute every day.

This was what made him even more sad and angry. His master, Chen Feiyuan, was actually buried here, but there was nothing he could do.

"Do you think he will come..." Tingyu, who was in sorrow, wiped away her tears and whispered weakly.

"Him? Huh, he has been here for a long time. If he hasn't come yet, he should be a white-eyed wolf like everyone else!" Chen Feiyuan didn't need any thinking to know who Tingyu was talking about. He gritted his teeth at this moment. Open your mouth.

Tingyu was silent.

The middle-aged man walked past them silently until everyone behind him had gone away. He also came to Master Bai's grave, looking at the tombstone with red circles in his eyes.

"Teacher..." The middle-aged man murmured, his voice hoarse, and he knelt down towards the tombstone.

He is Xu Qing who was teleported to Zitu!

After teleporting to Zitu, Xu Qing immediately found out the news about Master Bai's burial and rushed there immediately, but he knew that his Taoist robe was too conspicuous and was not conducive to tracing the murderer.

So he changed his appearance and came here.

Looking at the tombstone at this moment, Xu Qing felt a stinging pain in his chest. This pain became deeper and deeper and began to spread throughout his body.

So far in his life, he has only knelt down to two tombstones, one for Lei Dui and the other for Master Bai.

"Teacher, I will find the murderer and the person behind this matter." Xu Qing murmured bitterly, kowtowed to the tombstone, took out a wine gourd from his arms, and placed it in front of the grave.

"Team Lei said that teacher, you like to drink, and I will accompany you." Xu Qing said, picked up the jug and took a sip, then gently sprinkled it in front of the grave, and put the jug aside.

"Teacher, my disciple has memorized all the scriptures on grass and trees that you left behind before you left. I will keep them in mind. I will recite them for you."

"The way of grass and trees is one of all things. It can be the same as the great road. It understands the nature of things and understands the principles of heaven."

"The first plant, golden button grass, also known as three-leaf pearl and scattered cold grass, is the whole grass of the sedge plant Cyperaceae. It is a perennial herb that grows in the forest on the hillside and in moist places in the wilderness. It is distributed in the southern part of Nanhuang. Youzhou and Guangling.”

"The second plant, rhinoceros sparkle, also known as Yunmengsi, is a plant of the family Fireaceae. It is a perennial spiritual plant. It can relieve lungs and relieve coughs, clear away heat and detoxify, dissipate blood stasis and reduce swelling. It has miraculous effects on snake bites and bruises."

…

"The 137th strain, Soul-melting mist, also known as Tian Shuyan, is a rare herb from the Great Spiritual Period of Mists. It has the effect of melting soul marks. It is difficult to detect and difficult to remove. It is the main flavor of the Twelve-hour Decay Pill. medicine."

Xu Qing murmured softly and recited the herbs he had written down in the Herbal Scripture.

In a daze, he seemed to see the figure of Master Bai reappearing in front of him, drinking wine and looking at him with a smile, with majesty in his eyes, but he couldn't hide the joy.

"Night Corpse Morning Glory, also known as Poison Mountain Root Vernonia, is the stem and root of Vernonia tenuifolia, a plant in the Compositae family. It is a woody vine that grows in Corpse Yin ravines, shady cold streams or in jungles. It tastes astringent and pungent, and the entrance is slightly warm. , has a feeling of decay, and has the miraculous effect of relieving the wind, but it is poisonous in excess, and it is a typical yin and yang polar plant. "

The cold wind blew, and the snowflakes fell one by one. Xu Qing's voice echoed in front of Master Bai's grave, until the night fell, and his shadow conveyed a ray of emotional fluctuations.

It seemed to tell him that he had found it!

Xu Qing suddenly raised his head, silently looking at Master Bai's tombstone, and kowtowed three times. The moment he stood up, his whole body was full of murderous intent, and he disappeared into the night.

Not long after he left, several figures appeared in the distance and arrived quickly. The one at the front was Tingyu, and behind her were Chen Feiyuan and several of his followers.

"Tingyu, are you mistaken? How is it possible? She is now a famous person with seven blood pupils. How can she remember the teacher?"

"It's not wrong. I recognize the look in his eyes. When I go back and recall it carefully, it must be him!"

——

I want to create a protagonist with a soul. Xu Qing, a child, has many shortcomings, such as his small-mindedness and cold personality, but he has his own temperature, whether it is kindness or someone who will enter his heart in the future. He will cherish his partner.

He is a person who values ​​​​love and justice.

At the same time, I recalled my previous books. Except for Immortal Rebellion and Seeking Demons, the group portraits here were a bit lacking, so I also wanted to enrich more characters in this book, such as the captain, the ancestor, and Zhang San. , such as Huangyan, they all have their own stories, woven together to form a web, and there will be more in the future, all in my mind.

Life is like a dream, live after your dreams.

Xu Qing is like this, and so are we, let’s encourage each other.