Outside of Time

March, early spring.

A corner in the eastern part of Nanhuangzhou.

The hazy sky was gray and black, showing heavy depression, as if someone had spilled ink on the rice paper, and the ink soaked into the sky and blurred out the clouds.

The clouds overlapped and merged with each other, spreading out streaks of crimson lightning, accompanied by rumbling thunder.

It's like the roar of gods, echoing in the world.

Blood-colored rain, with sadness, falls into the mortal world.

The earth was hazy, and there was a ruin-like city, silent and lifeless in the dim red rain of blood.

The city is in ruins and everything is withered. Collapsed houses can be seen everywhere, as well as blue-black corpses and pieces of meat, like broken autumn leaves, silently withering.

The streets that used to be bustling with people are now desolate.

The sandy dirt road that used to be bustling with people is no longer noisy now.

Only blood and mud mixed with minced meat, dust, and paper were left, indistinguishable from each other, which was shocking.

Not far away, a broken carriage was stuck deep in the mud, full of sadness. Only an abandoned rabbit doll hung on the shaft, swaying in the wind.

The white fluff has long been soaked into wet red, full of eerieness.

The turbid eyes seemed to have some residual resentment, looking lonely at the mottled rocks in front of them.

There, a figure was lying down.

This is a boy of thirteen or fourteen years old, his clothes are torn and covered with dirt, and he has a broken leather bag tied around his waist.

The young man squinted his eyes and remained motionless. The biting cold penetrated his worn coat from all directions and spread throughout his body, gradually taking away his body temperature.

But even though the rain fell on his face, he didn't blink, staring coldly into the distance like an eagle.

Following his gaze, he saw a skinny vulture gnawing on the carrion of a wild dog, seven or eight feet away from him, observing the surroundings vigilantly from time to time.

It seems that in this dangerous ruins, if there is the slightest movement, it will instantly rise into the sky.

The young man is like a hunter, patiently waiting for the opportunity.

After a long time, the opportunity came, and the greedy vulture finally buried its head completely into the belly of the wild dog.

In an instant, a cold light appeared in the young man's narrowed eyes.

His body was like an arrow off the string, and he rushed out quickly, heading straight for the vulture. With a flick of his right hand, he pulled out a black iron stick from the leather bag on his waist.

A sharp cold light flashed from the tip of the iron stick.

Perhaps because of the sense of murderous intent, the vulture immediately noticed the moment the young man rushed out. Frightened, it flapped its wings and flew into the air, about to fly away.

But it's still too late.

The black iron stick turned into a black line and shot out as the young man swung it expressionlessly.

puff!

The sharp iron stick instantly penetrated the vulture's head, shattering its skull and killing it instantly.

The powerful impact brought its body down, and with a bang, it was nailed to the carriage not far away.

The bloody doll on the side also swayed more and more due to the turbulence of the carriage.

The young man looked calm and ran straight to this place without any pause. When he arrived, he grabbed the vulture carcass together with the iron stick.

The force was so strong that a small piece of the carriage was lifted off by the iron pick.

After doing this, he quickly left along the edge of the street without looking back.

The wind seemed to be stronger at this moment, and the bloody doll on the carriage swayed as if watching the boy go away.

Farther.

The wind was indeed stronger, carrying the chill from the rain, blowing through the young man's thin clothes.

The young man shook involuntarily, frowned slightly, shrank his clothes, and made a sound of inhalation.

He hates the cold.

The way to resist the cold was to find a sheltered place to rest, but the boy running on the street did not stop at the slightest speed, and dilapidated shops passed by his eyes.

He doesn't have much time left.

Because hunting vultures took too long, there was still one place he had not gone to today.

"It shouldn't be far." The young man whispered to himself, speeding along the street.

On the way forward, green-black corpses could be seen everywhere. Their hopeless faces were full of ferocity, as if they had turned into an aura of despair, trying to contaminate the young man's mind.

But the young man was so used to it that he didn't even look at it.

As time passed, the young man looked at the sky from time to time, with a little anxiety on his face. It seemed that to him, the change in the sky was more terrifying than those corpses.

Fortunately, soon after, when he saw a medicine shop in the distance, the young man breathed a sigh of relief and rushed away.

The medicine shop was not big, and there were many medicine cabinets scattered on the ground. It gave off a musty smell, like a tomb that had been opened and was full of mess.

There is also the corpse of an old man in the corner, covered in black and blue, leaning against the wall, seemingly unable to close his eyes and looking at the outside world.

The young man stepped in, took a quick look, and immediately started rummaging around.

Most of the herbs here were the same as those of the corpses, turning into blue-black color, only a few of them were still normal.

Among these normal herbs, the young man carefully identified them for a long time.

As if recalling his past experiences, he finally picked up a common golden grass and took off his thin clothes, revealing a huge scar on his chest.

The scar has not completely healed, and you can see that the edge of the wound has begun to turn black, and there is even some blood oozing out.

The young man looked down, crushed the herb, took a deep breath and gritted his teeth, then raised his hand and applied it on the wound little by little.

In an instant, the severe pain from the wound suddenly hit like a raging tide, causing the young man's body to tremble uncontrollably, but he forced himself to endure it, but he could not suppress the sweat on his forehead, and drops fell down his cheeks on the dark ground.

It became smeared.

The whole process lasted for more than ten breaths. After he had completely applied the herbs to the wound, the young man seemed to have lost all his strength. He held on to the medicine cabinet beside him and waited for a long time before taking a deep breath. Slowly put on clothes.

Looking at the sky outside again, he thought about it and took out a broken map from the leather pouch on his waist, and spread it out carefully.

The map is very simple and depicts this city.

The locations of the pharmacies inside have been marked, and many areas in the northeast direction have been marked with crosses, leaving only two areas without crosses.

"After searching for these days, it should be in these two areas." The young man murmured in a low voice with a hoarse voice, and was about to leave after putting away the map.

But before leaving, he looked back at the old man's body and his eyes fell on the body's clothes.

It was a leather jacket. Perhaps due to the special leather, the leather jacket was not very corroded.

The young man thought for a while, walked over, took off the leather jacket from the old man's body, and put it on himself.

The leather jacket was a bit big, but after wrapping his thin body, the young man finally felt a touch of warmth. So he lowered his head and looked at the old man's open eyes, raised his hand and gently covered it, making him close his eyes.

"Rest in peace." The young man said softly, tore off the curtain in the shop, covered the old man's body, turned around and left the medicine shop.

As he walked out, a glimmer of light reflected in front of his feet. The young man looked down and saw a fragment of a palm-sized mirror in the bloody mud.

In the mirror, he saw his own face.

Although the face reflected in the broken mirror was covered with dirt, it could still be vaguely seen that it was an extremely delicate face.

It's just that the immaturity that a thirteen or fourteen year old should have is gone, replaced by indifference.

The young man silently looked at himself in the mirror on the ground. After a while, he raised his foot and stepped on it.

There was a click.

Cracks appeared one after another.

After crushing the mirror with his foot, he swayed and galloped away.

On the ground, although the broken mirror was full of cracks, it still reflected half of the vast human face in the sky, which seemed to cover the world and all living beings, like the broken face of a god.

The remaining face was indifferent with closed eyes, standing high above, with only strands of withered and curved hair hanging down.

That is the same natural existence of this world as the sun and moon.

It seems that under Him, all living things are like ants, and like the awakening of insects, the growth of all things is affected by it and has to change.

At this moment, the sky was gradually losing its light under the remnant face of this god.

The shadow of the setting sun is like a black haze, filling the ruins of the city and covering the earth, as if it wants to swallow everything up.

The rain is getting heavier

As the night gradually swallowed up, so did the wind, sending out bursts of sharp whimpers.

It was as if the roar of a fierce ghost began to awaken the strange existence in the city, causing all kinds of creepy sounds to respond one after another like a soul-stirring one.

The running boy's steps are faster and his movements are more urgent. Between this and the falling night, he is chasing after each other, and he nimbly shuttles through the streets.

Until, when he passed by a collapsed house and wanted to use his strength to make a long jump, the young man's pupils suddenly shrank.

From the corner of his eye, he saw what seemed to be a person among the ruins not far away.

From a distance, this man was neatly dressed and seemed to have no injuries. He was sitting there leaning against the wall.

The most important thing is that the exposed skin of the other party's body is normal in color, not blue and black!

Such a figure would not appear in this city unless it was a living person!

And living people...the young man has not met anyone other than himself these days.

This scene shocked him, and he soon seemed to think of something, and his breathing became slightly faster.

He had the intention to go, but the hazy night behind him had already swallowed him up.

The young man hesitated, remembered the location, and left quickly.

After galloping all the way, and finally catching up with him in the dark night, the young man returned to his temporary residence in this city.

It was a hole in the ground. It was very small and full of bird feathers.

The gap at the entrance is not big enough for adults to get in, but teenagers can barely get in here.

After entering, he skillfully blocked the entrance with books, rocks and other debris in the cave.

The moment it was completely filled, the darkness outside covered it in an instant.

The young man did not relax his vigilance. He held the iron stick firmly in his hand, held his breath, and squatted there to listen for a long time.

Gradually, the roars and shrill sounds of strange beasts came, occasionally mixed with weird laughter.

It wasn't until a clearer roar echoed, and amid the boy's nervousness, that the sound seemed to pass by in the distance, and gradually became lighter, he breathed a sigh of relief and sat aside.

It was dark inside the cave, and the young man sat there silently, as if time stopped at this moment.

He was in a daze for a while, calmed down the nerves that had been tense all day, grabbed a water bottle from beside him, took a few sips, ignored the sounds outside, and took out the vulture from his pocket.

In the dark, he put it to his mouth and bit it bit by bit.

There was a fishy taste in his throat, but he calmly swallowed it slowly, squeezing the food down his throat and into his stomach.

The stomach was also moving vigorously at this moment, trying to digest and relieve hunger.

Soon a whole vulture was eaten by him. The young man took a deep breath, waves of exhaustion surged through his body, and his eyes slowly closed.

But he was always holding on to the black iron stick in his hand, like a lone wolf pretending to be asleep.

If there was any abnormality, he would open his eyes instantly.

In the outside world at this moment, darkness is like a curtain, covering the city, the earth, and the sky.

The world under the sky is extremely vast, and the overseas Nanhuang Continent is just one of them.

Few people know how big the entire world is, but the majestic remnant of the sky is so intimidating that everyone can look up.

The exact time of arrival of this remnant face is unknown.

People only know from the fragmentary descriptions in some classics that a long time ago, this world full of fairy spirit was prosperous and full of vitality, until...this huge broken face emerged from the distant depths of the void. , comes with destruction and attraction.

During the arrival process, the sentient beings in this world tried every means to stop it, but all failed. In the end, only a few ancient emperors led some of their tribesmen to abandon the sentient beings and chose to migrate.

Soon, the broken face arrived and hung in the sky. From then on, the nightmare came.

The breath from Him pervades the entire world, and the mountains, seas, all things, and all living beings, even the spiritual energy that monks rely on for their practice, are also infected by it.

All things will wither, all living things will perish, and not one of a hundred will survive.

From then on, those who survived this disaster called this half of the human face...a god.

This world is called the End Land, and the place where the Ancient Emperor went is called the Holy Land.

This title has been passed down from generation to generation through many eras.

And the disasters brought by the gods are not just these. His majesty suppresses all living beings all the time, because...

Every few years, decades or even hundreds of years, He would open his eyes from time to time and continue to count his breaths.

Every time he opened his eyes and looked at the area, it would be instantly polluted by his aura.

The living beings were devastated and turned into an eternal forbidden area.

Over the past many epochs, there have been more and more restricted areas in this world, and there have been fewer and fewer habitable areas.

Nine days ago, the god opened his eyes again and looked at the area where the young man was.

All species and more than a dozen human cities in that area, no matter where they existed, whether in the city or in the slums outside the city, were instantly polluted and turned into a restricted area for life.

Under this horrific pollution, some of all living things decomposed directly into blood mist, some mutated and became mindless alien beasts, and some were disintegrated and left behind polluted blue-black corpses.

Only a very small number of humans and animals can survive.

The boy is one of them.

At this moment, outside the dark cave, following a shrill sound from far to near, the sleeping young man quickly opened his eyes.

He instinctively raised the iron sign in his hand and looked warily at the blocked entrance gap.

It wasn't until the shrill sound circled nearby and gradually faded away that the young man breathed a sigh of relief.

No longer sleepy, he touched his leather bag and took out a bamboo slip from it.

In the darkness, he touched the writing on the bamboo slip, and there seemed to be some light in his eyes. Then he sat upright, closed his eyes, and adjusted his breathing.

The boy's name is Xu Qing, and he has lived alone and difficultly in a slum outside this city since he was a child.

During the sudden catastrophe nine days ago, he hid in the crevices of the rocks. Unlike other people who were frightened and crazy, he calmly looked at the gods in the sky who opened their eyes. The special cross pupils in the eyes of the gods in the sky seemed to be lost. The emotion of fear.

Until he saw a purple light falling from the sky and landing in the northeast of the city.

The next moment, he fell into a coma.

After waking up, he became the only survivor inside and outside the city.

But he didn't leave immediately.

Because he knew that the restricted area formed by the opening of the gods' eyes would initially be covered by a rain of blood and turn into a barrier.

People inside can't get out, and people outside can't step in unless the restricted area is completely formed.

The sign formed was that the rain of blood stopped.

This catastrophe seemed nothing to Xu Qing, who grew up in a slum.

Because in the slums, whether it is all kinds of homeless people, wild dogs, a disease, or even a cold night, people will lose their lives at any time, and it will be very difficult to survive.

And as long as you are alive, nothing else matters.

Of course, amid the brutality of the slums, there is occasionally a touch of tenderness.

For example, some down-and-out scholars will teach literacy to a group of their children for a living. Other than that, they are just memories of their loved ones.

It's just that in Xu Qing's mind, the memories of his relatives are gradually blurring as time goes by. Even if he tries hard to recall them, fearing that he will forget them, they are still getting blurry.

But he knows that he is not an orphan. He still has relatives, but they have been separated for a long time.

So his ideal is to survive.

It would be even better if we could live a better life and have the opportunity to see our loved ones.

So he, who was lucky enough to survive, chose to enter the city.

He was going to the residences of the upper class men in the city, looking for ways to become stronger that were spread in the slums, and he was also going to look for the purple light that fell into the city.

The way to become stronger has been circulated in the slums and is desired by everyone. They call it practice, and those who master the method of practice are called monks.

So becoming a monk is Xu Qing's biggest wish besides the memories of his relatives.

Monks are not uncommon. Xu Qing has seen this type of people entering the city from a distance in the slums in the past few years.

Their typical characteristic is that their bodies will instinctively tremble when looking at them.

Xu Qing even heard people say that the city lord is a monk, and there are also monks among his guards.

So after searching in the 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 palace.

It was very dangerous there, and the injury on his chest was from that time.

What the bamboo slips recorded was exactly the method of practice he longed for.

All the contents on it have long been memorized by his heart, and even in the past few days, he has begun to try to practice it.

Xu Qing had never seen any other cultivation techniques, and this bamboo slip was the only one he had obtained, and he didn't know how to practice it correctly.

Fortunately, most of the descriptions are in simple and easy-to-understand words, focusing on visualization and breathing.

So he followed the steps step by step, and he gained something.

This method is called Haishan Jue.

The method of practice is to think of the totems carved on the bamboo slips in your mind and breathe them out with specific breathing.

This pattern is very strange, it is an alien existence, with a big head and small body, only one leg, the whole body is black, and the face is as ferocious as a ghost.

Xu Qing had never seen this kind of creature, and the bamboo slips called it a mandrill.

As he practiced at this moment, not long after this pattern appeared in his mind, Xu Qing's breathing gradually changed, and an undercurrent gradually filled the air nearby.

Silks of spiritual energy from all around surged in, slowly penetrating into his body, flowing throughout his body, sending bursts of biting cold, and the parts he passed through felt as if he were in icy water.

Xu Qing was afraid of the cold, but he endured not to give up and persisted.

It was not until a long time ago that when he finally ended this practice in accordance with the requirements of the bamboo slips, his body was soaked in cold sweat.

And just after eating the vulture's belly, I felt hungry again.

Xu Qing wiped away the cold sweat and touched his belly again, his eyes showing determination.

Since practicing this technique, his food intake has obviously increased significantly, and his body is more flexible than before.

All of this made him more tolerant of the cold during training.

Looking up at this moment, Xu Qing followed the gap at the entrance and looked outside.

The outside world was pitch black, with only terrifying roars, sometimes strong and sometimes weak, echoing in my ears.

He didn't know the real reason why he became a survivor. Maybe it was a fluke, or maybe...he saw that purple light.

So while looking for the technique these days, he also kept going to the Northeast region to look for the falling point of the purple light, but unfortunately he never found it.

In his thoughts, Xu Qing listened to the roar outside. His mind couldn't help but think of the corpse he saw leaning against the wall when he returned from sunset, so he slowly narrowed his eyes.

The other party is in the northeastern region, and... he seems to be a living person.

"Is it related to purple light?"