Chapter 298: Time and Space Distortion Palace Summoning
The night was high in the sky, and the remaining purple lightning in the sky had already disappeared into the sea of ​​clouds, but it made every sound of the wind carry a chilling aura.

At the edge of the camp, where the fire flickered, it reflected mottled traces of blood and dust.

The aftermath of the previous confrontation with the leader of the Outer Gods is still lingering, and the soldiers are all worried that the huge shadow known as the “Lord of the Abyss” will descend again at any time.

But compared to the calm on the surface, a greater crisis is growing in the darkness, like a crisscrossing root system underground, spreading to the foundation of the world.

Li Qingyun stood silently near the collapsed camp fence. Broken wooden stakes were half buried on the ground, and the remaining bloodstains looked dark and glaring under the faint moonlight.

He stared at the shadow of the crack that appeared and disappeared in the distance, and felt a little colder in his heart.

The pain of the seal still lingered in his chest, and every breath seemed to crush his heart and lungs. A dark mist lurked in the depths of his sea of ​​consciousness, ready to stir.

He understood that it was Silence that wanted to break free, and the powerful appearance of the Outer God leader would only cause the seal to tremble more frequently.

If he wants to avoid the worst outcome, he must reverse all this first.

Behind him, Mu Guiying and He Xiangu took small steps forward.

Both of them looked tired, but they couldn’t hide the concern in their eyes.

Mu Guiying called softly, “Qingyun, the people we sent down have discovered strange signs again. It seems that a god is performing a time-space distortion technique somewhere, causing the geographical locations of several nearby villages and towns to become disordered… There were even refugees who walked into a forest path with a cry of surprise, only to find that the exit had turned into ruins and they could not return to their original path.”

Li Qingyun frowned slightly when he heard this.

The distortion of time and space is an extremely profound magical power, and even a true god cannot display it on a large scale.

Could it be that a supreme god appeared?

Now that the Outer Gods have crossed over and their leaders possess dark godhood, their ability to distort reality is not surprising, but it is enough to plunge mortals into despair.

He turned his head to look at the gray night and said in a deep voice:
“If we don’t stop them, the Outer Gods will be able to further undermine the order of the Three Realms. By then, the human defense line will be useless.”

He Xiangu gritted her teeth and said, “But we are short of manpower. Even if we know that something is wrong somewhere, it is difficult to investigate it one by one. What’s more, the remnants of the Taoist sect are making trouble everywhere and may sacrifice again at any time… How can we deal with them at the same time?”

Li Qingyun looked up and saw occasional purple flashes in the crack, as if celebrating the chaos in time and space.

He whispered:

“Perhaps we don’t need to rush around. We can first find the Outer God’s twisted core and destroy its foundation. I will lead people to find out the truth.”

Although his face was calm, his tone revealed the determination to take a gamble.

Mu Guiying was about to agree when she saw a cultivator from the sixth realm running over with a panicked look on his face:
“Your Excellency, the river twenty miles ahead originally led to the south of the mountain, but now it strangely tilts and flows southeast, submerging several villages, and the villagers are fleeing in all directions! Many people said that when they turned back after walking, they found that the road had changed direction, as if they were lost in an endless cycle. The scouts we sent out have also… disappeared.”

After hearing this, several people looked at each other in bewilderment. He Xiangu sighed:

“As expected, the space-time distortion has a wider impact. The conspiracy of the Outer Gods has reached a critical moment. They are destroying the geographical pattern and disrupting mortals’ understanding of the world.”

Li Qingyun’s expression was stern:
“At this rate, within a few days, large areas will fall into unprecedented chaos. Ordinary people will lose their way and collide with each other or be devoured by monsters in the ever-changing space. This is equivalent to a disguised massacre of the city, which is more terrifying than open swords and guns.”

Mu Guiying held the hilt of the knife:
“If we don’t stop it, the people will inevitably be like lambs to be slaughtered. But how can we break this large-scale space-time chaos? Is it possible that we can only ask you to force your way into the center of the distortion array again?”

Li Qingyun was silent for a moment, and suddenly he felt a sharp pain in his chest again, and the seal surged again.

He took a deep breath, steadied his sword, and looked calm:

“It is true that the only way to solve the problem is to go straight to the source. However…”

Having said this, he pondered to himself: The distorted power of the outer gods might have relied on the Taoist formation foundation of Yuxu Palace, or it might be connected with the rift in the divine world and the spiritual world.

More importantly, when the gray fog in the palace suddenly floated, he seemed to hear a faint whisper, as if instructing or provoking him.

A thought flashed through his mind: in the deepest part of the palace there is a power of overlapping creation and destruction. If he could summon absolute power, he might be able to break the chaos of time and space, but that would most likely give “Silence” a good opportunity to counterattack – this was the key to his hesitation.

He gritted his teeth and finally suppressed his worries silently, and said to Mu Guiying and He Xiangu:
“Let’s go explore the place where the river flows in the opposite direction first, find out the truth and then make a decision.”

That night, the team traveled light.

A few moments later, they approached the river area, but were surprised to find that the river had been lifted and twisted as if by some invisible hand. The water surface had left the usual riverbed and rushed directly into the valley, forming a strange steep slope waterfall.

What was even stranger was that small groups of refugees or soldiers kept rushing out of the forest in a panic, shouting that they were “trapped in a wall of ghosts” and that they were walking in circles and couldn’t even see the sun or the moon.

Some people even cried out that a relative of theirs suddenly disappeared without a trace.

Li Qingyun led his men deeper into the city. They saw biting cold winds along the way. The grass and trees were twisting left and right in a distorted force field. Some tree trunks were even twisted into a pretzel shape, making painful creaking sounds.

Sometimes, a vortex-like black shadow flashes in the air, sucking in the surrounding dead branches or the bodies of poor wanderers, and disappears in the blink of an eye, which is creepy.

They had not walked far when they ran into a group of monsters. Those deformed figures were wandering idly in the distorted space, as if they were “patrolling”.

Seeing the men and horses coming, they immediately roared and rushed to kill them.

But Li Qingyun and his companions showed no mercy. They fought fiercely with swords and sabers. Amid the rain of blood, many of these monsters were killed, and the rest escaped into cracks or shadows and disappeared cunningly.

He Xiangu scolded:
“These beasts are indeed familiar with the terrain here. They take advantage of the spatial disorder and think they can come and go freely.”

Mu Guiying also said worriedly:
“If we go deeper, we may accidentally fall into a larger space-time trap.”

Li Qingyun held the knife firmly, his expression firm:
“This is the center of the outer god’s twisted formation. If we can find the center of the formation and break it, we can save the people here. But…”

He paused for a moment, as if to imply that the road ahead would be dangerous.

Suddenly, gray fog rolled in his heart, and he felt that this twisted space was pulling the power from deep inside the palace. For a moment, he seemed to see a chaotic scene emerging in his sea of ​​consciousness, with the palace corridors and the blood-red sun and moon overlapping, as if it was a dream from the depths of horror.

He shuddered, suppressed his trance, and shouted coldly:
“Form up and move forward!”

Seeing that his orders were firm, his subordinates did not dare to hesitate and filed into the area that looked like a twisting mountain road.

After walking just a dozen feet, the air suddenly became thin and cold, and visibility decreased greatly. It was like an invisible barrier covering the trees and rocks, as if I was walking into an icy quagmire.

At this moment, the ground shook slightly, and a section of the hillside suddenly rotated ninety degrees, throwing the road ahead into the air. Another piece of forest was split like a Rubik’s Cube, turning into several floating fragments hovering in the sky.

This unbelievable scene frightened everyone so much that their scalps tingled and they dodged to avoid being sucked into the crack.

Mu Guiying was secretly horrified:
“Is this a time-space disorder array? The Outer Gods are truly terrifying, able to change reality at will like the work of a supernatural being.”

Li Qingyun gritted his teeth and held on. He swung his knife to break a fallen tree trunk, protecting his men from being hit, but he himself was pushed back three steps by the subsequent storm.

The seal on my chest suddenly hurt again.

Seeing his face turn pale, Mu Guiying hurried forward to support him, but Li Qingyun resolutely waved his hand to indicate that it was okay, with a cold light flashing in his eyes:
“Break through this space barrier as quickly as possible, otherwise we will be trapped and killed.”

They immediately sped up and charged forward as if attacking a city, with sword lights and palm power interweaving to clear a path.

Unlike usual, every step here may touch an unknown trap: some rocks suddenly disappear, causing people to fall into nothingness; some monsters jump out from behind the suddenly inverted shadows of trees, opening their mouths to spew out poison.

Everyone had no choice but to follow Li Qingyun’s sword moves to protect him.

The journey was extremely dangerous, with blood and dust splattering all over the sand.

After about a quarter of an hour, the view suddenly widened and I came to a space that looked like a square.

The surrounding terrain floats in mid-air, undulating, like mountain fragments that have been forcefully squeezed and pieced together into a circular shape.

In the open space in the center, there stands a black stone pillar, about three meters high, with unrecognizable distorted runes engraved on it, constantly releasing gloomy waves in the surroundings.

“Is this the center of the formation?”

Mu Guiying’s breathing quickened.

The black stone pillar looked as eerie as a tombstone, and under its base there were countless twisted vine-like tentacles entwined around the pillar, making it blend into the void.

Sometimes you can hear sparse human voices or monster roars coming from those tentacles, which is chilling.

Li Qingyun looked around vigilantly:

“Be careful of ambush.”

He walked forward slowly and cautiously, and the soldiers also scattered around to look around.

Unexpectedly, when they were about ten steps away from the stone pillar, the ground made a sharp vibration, and several space cracks suddenly opened. A group of translucent deformed monsters slid out from it. Each of them had a slender body, like an enlarged human-shaped eel, half of which was embedded in the gap of time and space, and the other half stretched out its terrifying claws, pouncing on everyone.

The monks following Li Qingyun shouted:
“A monster——”

Immediately raise swords and guns to meet the enemy.

However, these strange shadows can switch between half-real and half-virtual, and ordinary swords can hardly cause substantial damage to them.

Seeing this, Li Qingyun raised his sword and slashed horizontally. The golden light turned into a half-moon rainbow, cutting off the several strange shadows in front of him at the waist.

The remains twisted and struggled in mid-air, turning into slime and falling down.

He sheathed his sword and swung it again. Three consecutive sword energies burst out in the square, forcing back more enemies.

But the black stone pillar flashed, and new monsters emerged from the cracks in time and space. They could not be killed, as if there was no end.

At the moment of stalemate, a large amount of black smoke suddenly gushed out from the top of the stone pillar, and ancient runes appeared in the smoke, which were extremely similar to the previous symbols of the Outer Gods. The dark purple stripes weaved a large net like a curse.

The net instantly spread to the four walls of the square, encircling everyone in a hemispherical “twisted cage”.

Faint shadows of human faces could be seen floating on the wall of the cage, like human souls that had been pulled out of time and space, trapped in the membrane wall and groaning in pain.

“Damn, what is this?!”

He Xiangu raised the Jade Ruyi and stabbed the cage with it, but her force was ineffective as it penetrated the soft membrane wall. She was also knocked back several steps by the strong recoil.

She was shocked and said:

“Could it be that the Outer Gods have formed a space-time cage to trap us to death?”

Mu Guiying looked solemn:
“If we can’t break this cage, I’m afraid we will all become turtles in a jar…”

Before she could finish her words, a strange shadow pounced at her. She had no choice but to chop off its head with her knife, but she saw that the shadow seemed to be regenerating and sticking together, squirming in a disgusting way.

Li Qingyun shouted:
“Don’t panic! I’ll break the formation!”

He was also worried that if the matter dragged on, his side would suffer heavy casualties.

But the seal at this moment once again tore his soul apart, and the dark mist collided with his sea of ​​consciousness, making him almost vomit blood.

He endured the pain and raised his sword, gathering his sword energy.

The golden and white blade light instantly formed a magnificent blade shadow, stabbing towards the center of the black stone pillar. If the center of the formation can be destroyed, the distortion of the cage should be resolved.

With a loud bang, the thick smoke in the air was swirling due to the impact of the knife light.

The stone pillars shook and countless cracks appeared on the ground.

The strange shadows screamed and shrieked, as if they felt the foundation of the formation was shaken.

But more black mist diffused from the top of the stone pillar, licking the sword light like a tongue, and forcibly removing some of its power.

Li Qingyun gasped for breath, the seal was stinging so much that he almost lost his grip.

The monks were shocked:
“Even Lord Li can’t do anything about it?”

The black pillar hummed, as if the outer gods were grinning.

More and more strange shadows emerged from the cracks and attacked Li Qingyun and others fiercely.

He Xiangu, Mu Guiying and other monks fought desperately, but were still unable to stop the endless tide of deformed monsters.

In just a few moments, some people were pierced through the chest and abdomen by the sharp fangs of the strange shadow and fell down miserably; some people were sucked into the translucent gap and didn’t even have time to call for help.

The situation was critical. Li Qingyun’s expression became more and more ruthless.

He knew that if he didn’t break the formation at this moment, everyone would be swallowed up by the space-time cage. He took a deep breath, the gray mist in his body almost boiled, and the seal was almost on the verge of collapse.

But he still concentrated and raised his sword with strength, “No matter what the cost, I will kill you!” He roared in his heart and immediately mobilized the power of the palace to slightly release a layer of restraints.

The gray fog in the sea of ​​consciousness rolled violently, giving a feeling of a torrent bursting through a dam.

Gray and white lines appeared on half of his body, interweaving with the golden divine light. He looked extremely strange, as if he was half human and half demon.

The soldiers saw his silhouette from a distance, and someone shouted, “What happened to the lord?”

But they also saw a strong aura suddenly emerge from his sword, forming a blazing and dazzling flame that overwhelmed all the black fog.

At this moment, Li Qingyun seemed like a strange being that was a fusion of the god of war on earth and evil energy. With a roar, he raised the sword high in both hands and chopped down the black pillar fiercely.

The blade light was like an upside-down Milky Way, carrying power from deeper inside the palace, shattering the surrounding strange shadows into powder in an instant, and even the membrane wall of the space-time cage sank and collapsed, making a hissing sound.

The stone pillars wailed and trembled, as if hit by a huge wave, and the runes on the surface broke one after another.

But he also paid a price. The gray mist in his body almost broke through the seal and reached the edge of no return.

A tearing pain made his mind shake, but the power of the knife had not yet ended and continued to erupt according to his will.

Finally, the dark stone pillar could not withstand the combined energy of the sword and the palace, and quietly cracked into several narrow cracks. The sharp howls of the outer gods were heard from inside, as if an eyeball was pierced, and then it collapsed with a loud bang.

In an instant, black light scattered across the valley, the space-time cage shattered piece by piece, and the square area returned to a relatively normal state.

The translucent strange shadows suddenly lost their support and began to howl and flee. Some were directly sucked away by the distorted energy and turned into mist.

The few remaining monsters were hacked to death by the monks.

Once the center of the formation was broken, the distorted power was greatly weakened, and everyone was rescued.

Li Qingyun forced himself to steady himself. He felt a fishy taste in his throat, but he swallowed it back, feeling bitter in his heart.

He once again used the power of the palace, but it also allowed “Silence” to break free from the seal more.

The gray fog was stirring more and more wildly in his sea of ​​consciousness. If it weren’t for his strong will, he would have been possessed on the spot.

But there is no other way.

He Xiangu and Mu Guiying rushed over to check on Li Qingyun and saw that his breathing was disordered, but he was still trying to cheer himself up.

He gave them a bitter smile: “The chaos of time and space has been temporarily eliminated. But there must be more than one place where the Outer Gods have set up this kind of formation. We need to hurry up-“

Before he could finish his words, blood began to flow out of his mouth again.

He forced himself to wipe it, his eyes still determined.

The rescued soldiers all cheered, but they still looked at Li Qingyun’s face, which was half covered with faint gray lines, with lingering fear, and felt a complex mixture of gratitude and faint fear – is he really still the same Lord Li?

Why is there an extra sense of evil and strangeness in the atmosphere?

But when the army’s morale collapsed, it was he who turned the tide. Everyone could only bury their doubts and continue to worship him.

The battlefield gradually returned to silence.

The collapsed stone pillars were scattered all over the ground, and the spiritual light was dim, perhaps hiding some of the aura of the outer gods.

Li Qingyun asked someone to carefully collect it for further research.

He watched the remaining space cracks in the air slowly shrink, but he did not feel happy at all. He thought to himself: Breaking this twisted formation is only to temporarily stabilize this area. The leader of the outer gods did not show up to interfere, maybe it has other plans…

Sure enough, the clouds at the end of the sight were still rolling and boiling, with purple arcs hidden deep within.

It was as if a huge hand was plotting more terrible spells behind the sky.

The more Li Qingyun thought about it, the more uneasy he felt: the outer gods not only rely on monsters or Yuxu Palace, but can also reverse the laws of time and space and turn the human world into a chaotic hell.

Several array points are just the beginning, and the ultimate change will eventually occur at the intersection of the three realms.

Once the “silence” in the palace resonates with the external gods, who can withstand the catastrophe of the three realms?

He gritted his teeth and concentrated, the seal hurt again and he almost couldn’t stand.

There seemed to be a sinister snicker in his head, mocking his stupidity.

If he completely released the power of the palace at this moment, he might be able to easily destroy the foundation of the Outer Gods, but it would also allow “Silence” to return and turn him into a vessel.

As the saying goes, there is no way out when faced with a dilemma.

Seeing that he looked pale, Mu Guiying wanted to say something but stopped herself. In the end, she just reached out and held his arm to prevent him from falling to the ground.

He Xiangu also held a jade ruyi in her hand, guarding silently by the side.

They could all see that he was holding on, but they also understood that breaking through the formation’s core was the most urgent task and there was no time to waste.

Just as they were thinking about the follow-up plan, several figures in Taoist robes suddenly flew over from the horizon. Two or three of them saluted Li Qingyun with fists and said excitedly:
“Your Excellency has broken this formation and saved countless lives. We are disciples of Yuxu Palace, but we oppose the plan of Huanglong Zhenren and the three Tianzun. We also cooperated with the encirclement and suppression before. Now we come to report again: the next focus of the outer gods’ distortion may be–“

As they spoke, they handed over a map with many annotations on it, which were the places where the Taoist formation overlapped with the space-time rift.

As long as the leader of the Outer Gods launches a large-scale space-time distortion again, it will become the new main battlefield, far larger in scale than this one.

Li Qingyun’s pupils shrank slightly.

Sure enough, the undercurrent is deeper.

But he didn’t have time to think about it. The night wind suddenly turned cold, and purple lightning flashed in the clouds again, like an invisible sharp knife splitting the sky, accompanied by the strange sound of horns in the distance, buzzing and deafening. Obviously, the Outer Gods began the next round of layout.

Everyone looked stern, knowing that the catastrophe was not over yet and would only get worse.

The mountains fell into silence again.

Li Qingyun stared at the map, the seal on his chest stabbing more and more violently, yet he remained extremely cold on the surface.

He secretly made up his mind: no matter how hard or painful it was, he had to stop the outer gods from completely reversing the time and space of the three realms, otherwise billions of lives would be lost in the sea of ​​death.

If one day he fails to completely subdue “Silence”, he can only use his last breath to preserve the fire of humanity and never let the outside gods succeed.

A gust of wind blew by, picking up the monster’s blood and stone pillar fragments remaining on the ground.

Everyone looked at Li Qingyun, waiting for his orders.

He rolled up the map gently, his expression calm but stern:

“Order the entire army to rest for half a day, and then set out immediately to destroy the various rift formations on this map. Either we take the lead and kill the Outer Gods before they are completely twisted, or -“

There was an unquestionable cold determination in his voice, “We will perish together!”

Mu Guiying, He Xiangu and the opposing Taoist priests of Yuxu Palace were all excited and nervous, thinking that the battle ahead would be even more difficult and tough.

But Li Qingyun’s sword power had already boosted their morale.

Since the only hope in the world lies here, we can only try our best to follow it.

Then, Li Qingyun sent people to defend the wounded in order to protect the area from being counterattacked by monsters, while he himself set out on a new journey with his elite troops.

The rift in time and space and the confluence of the outer gods are the source of the catastrophe in the three realms and must be disintegrated one by one as soon as possible.

But in the middle of the night, he suddenly covered his chest, a drop of cold sweat rolled down his cheek, and a look of pain flashed across his face, warning of the critical danger of the seal.

Fortunately, it was only a brief attack and he gritted his teeth to hold on.

If you want to put an end to the conspiracy of the Outer Gods, you may have to give it a try and open the deeper door of the palace again…

The stars twinkled, but were half covered by thick dark clouds.

In the dead of night, all that could be heard was a faint hoarse whisper on the wind, as if an ancient god was whispering behind the sky.

The chain of time and space in the three realms was crackling, and the movement of the outer gods continued to expand.

More dark shadows seemed to crawl out of the cracks in the distance, opening their corrupt mouths and roaring, looking in the direction of Li Qingyun and his group.

The wind and sand were blowing, the sky and the earth were vast, people only saw Li Qingyun holding a knife in front, the dim moonlight fell on half of his face, but it could not hide the sharpness in his eyes.

He didn’t know how far he could go, he just knew he had to go to the end.

The distortion of time and space and the summoning of the palace are entangled into an unsolvable situation. Once the Outer God turns the situation around, it will be the end of the world. If he chooses to activate the extreme power of the palace, the backlash of “Silence” will be inevitable.

Either outcome will plunge the world into an irreversible abyss.

Perhaps, this is exactly the direction of fate.

Under the pale moonlight, a desolate smile suddenly emerged in Li Qingyun’s heart, but it disappeared in an instant.

He cheered up, raised the magic sword high, and asked the cultivators and Taoists who followed him to keep up with his steps and rush in the direction marked on the map.

The night wind blew behind them like a man-eating beast chasing in the darkness.

No matter whether the next moment is the tearing of the three realms or the crushing of the outer gods, he will uncover the truth of this huge conspiracy.

The flames of time and space distortion have already burned to the core of the human world, and the low hum of the palace’s summons seems to be calling on him to fight in a more extreme way.

He didn’t know how deep and how far this darkness would last, but his fingers holding the knife never relaxed and there was murderous intent in his eyes.

Even if there is a bottomless abyss ahead, he will cut through those obstacles until his sword breaks or he dies.

The mountains and fields were empty, and in the tearing wind there seemed to be a whistling sound crying out the fall of the ancient gods.

This road is destined to be full of blood and gore.

Li Qingyun, however, had a face as hard as iron and a heart as fiery as fire. He stepped into the misty corridor of fate amidst thousands of footsteps and heartbeats.

When the next storm comes, perhaps he will unlock the deepest power of the palace in an unstoppable desperate situation and fight to the death with the leader of the Outer Gods.

After all, the distortion of time and space is only the beginning. The barrier between the three realms is about to be shaken more violently, and the shadow of “silence” lurking in his blood is always waiting for the moment when the distortion wave is at its peak, to complete the resonance and reach the most advanced stage of destruction.

If we want to stop all this, we have to break the core of the formation first and save more lives. Otherwise, when the final feast begins, there may be no one left in the world.

There is no turning back and no place to retreat.

The blade light was dim and shining, carrying the scent of blood and wind, whistling through the wind and continuing forward.

All that was left for everyone was a desolate night that seemed like a dream.

But behind the deeper cracks in the darkness, perhaps the ultimate plan of the Outer Gods and Yuxu Palace is flickering – they want to turn the entire space and time into a wriggling maze, and throw the human race and even the three realms into the center of the vortex to become eternal sacrifices.

For Li Qingyun, every step was as heavy as a mountain, but he had to keep going.

His back was vaguely visible in the scattered dust, like a faint halo, entangled with the evil darkness in the night sky.

No one knows whether he can hold up the seal and push the sword’s power to an impossible limit when the next round of space-time anomalies breaks out again.

All he knew was that, since he had chosen to continue to step deeper into the conspiracy of the Outer Gods, it meant that he was getting closer to the absolute collision with “Silence” and closer to the end of the split between the Three Realms.

The night wind was even more mournful, calling out to the countless souls buried in the darkness, and also to the billions of living beings that were yet to be saved.

However, no matter how terrifying the road ahead was, he still chose to move forward.

He is Li Qingyun, he never lets go of his sword. Even if the seal in his body is broken, he will not let go of the sword. Even if the world is torn into an endless maze, he will fight his way out of it with blood and life.

The crack deep in the dark night was waiting for him to come with a knife, waiting for an unavoidable fateful collision…

……

(End of this chapter)