1769

Gu Qing Shan fell into thought.

If I had the Heavenly Emperor’s strength and the Pendant of Fire, I would also sneak into Heavenly Palace city as well.

Right——–

The Pendant of Fire!

By using the pendant’s power, the Heavenly Emperor would have easily been able to sneak into Star Gazer city!

But then, what’s the Heavenly Emperor’s goal?

——-to get rid of me, Star Gazer’s City Lord, so that both cities are under his control.

If that succeeds, all of his issues would be resolved.

There would be no loss even if he fails, as Heavenly Palace city would still remain.

——-that was probably the thought process.

The Heavenly Emperor is already stronger than I am, so he has more reasons than I do to put such a plan into action.

So why hasn’t the Heavenly Emperor come to kill me then?

Gu Qing Shan thought briefly before gradually understanding the reason.

Earlier, I’d just suffered attacks from a Sequence outside of the Samsara.

Not only did that Sequence not manage to kill me after attacking consecutively, but it also angered the Samsara enough that it acted against the attacking monster.

That made the Heavenly Emperor a bit unsure.

——–the Heavenly Emperor doesn’t know exactly how I managed to survive, nor does he know how I got the Samsara to help me.

One of the parties supporting him has already been gotten rid of, so he naturally has to act with more caution.

Even if he kills me by using the power of Miracles, it would still be the end for him if that caused the Samsara to act again.

Gu Qing Shan thought back to how that monster ended up.

—–the monster was sealed inside a casket.

Timing-wise, the duration of being sealed that way is practically eternal.

——it would be an outcome worse than death.

For that reason, both he and I have established a delicate equilibrium.

The Heavenly Emperor is definitely thinking of a way to approach and observe me.

Approach me…

Gu Qing Shan turned his gaze and looked up at Li An.

——-Li An is a Tianma, so she naturally can’t be the Heavenly Emperor.

But the Void is boundless, so there are infinite worlds with infinitely unimaginable means and abilities.

Regardless of whether or not he has impersonated Li An, I need to be careful with anyone who tries to approach me.

…I need to come up with a foolproof plan.

What would be a foolproof plan?

Gu Qing Shan remained silent for a brief moment.

—–regain my strength!

First I need to regain my strength, then wait until the emergence of the Huang Quan realm.

If I retrieve the Six Paths Great Mountain sword, I would be able to dispel any trickery with a single slash!

As soon as I get Shannu back, I wouldn’t have to worry about the Heavenly Emperor getting close to me with any sort of unknown techniques.

Gu Qing Shan took a deep breath and stepped outside.

『 Where are you going? 』Li An asked from behind him.

“I have some personal matters to take care of. You should focus on regaining your powers first, no need to worry about me for now” Gu Qing Shan told her.

He closed the door as he left.

Li An was a bit surprised and muttered: 『 Acting all mysterious… 』

Gu Qing Shan stepped onto the deck of the warship again.

Lines of bloody red text quickly appeared in the void of space to remind him:

[Attention: Star Gazer city has great potential, you will most likely have to complete a time-sensitive event in order to continue unlocking the functions it possesses]

[Attention: Heavenly Palace city has a concealed technique capable of constantly observing Star Gazer city’s movements]

[Attention: Many unusual lifeforms and some Apocalypses have appeared within the great tomb river]

[Attention: There are unique Samsara fluctuations emerging from every tomb, Chosen Saints must venture inside in order to investigate them and unearth their secrets]

[Attention: There are some Chosen Saints who haven’t left Star Gazer city]

Gu Qing Shan quickly skimmed through all the messages and stood firmly on the warship’s deck.

The Heavenly Emperor seems to prefer acting only after all preparations have been made, not fighting battles where his victory isn’t certain.

He’s exactly the same as me in regards to this.

——if the Heavenly Emperor is hiding in the shadows to monitor me right now, what should I do?

He has the power of Miracles.

It wasn’t just the Heavenly Emperor, as representatives of various other Sequences must have entered the two cities as well.

Are they also observing me?

Listening to the surrounding footsteps, Gu Qing Shan turned towards the other end of the deck.

After a moment of silence.

He gradually sped up.

From a stroll to a fast walk, then from a fast walk to a slow run, he kept on accelerating——

Gu Qing Shan was now sprinting at full speed!

He rushed towards the edge of the deck at an extremely fast pace, before leaping into the air!

There’s no need to overthink things right now, I need to disregard my concerns and ignore my extreme thoughts. The priority right now is to explore the great tomb and unseal my strength!

Furthermore, it’s best that I don’t accidentally run into any other Chosen Saints.

Do not team up with anybody.

Do not join any existing groups.

And do not fight anyone

—–simply meeting another person would be giving them a chance to size me up.

The wind howled.

As Gu Qing Shan’s momentum reduced, his descent was imminent.

But he reached his left hand forward and instantly manifested a metal gauntlet.

Gu Qing Shan didn’t waste any time.

The gauntlet struck him without hesitation.

[Repel Evil]!

Gu Qing Shan turned into a streak of light as he flew across the sky by this attack.

—–he didn’t consider his trajectory or where he would end up.

Riding the strong wind, he continued flying towards the endless underground.

A few moments later.

He arbitrarily struck himself again.

He changed his trajectory!

Even if the Heavenly Emperor was silently observing him from the shadows and was prepared, it would still be impossible for him to predict Gu Qing Shan’s next actions!

No one could possibly know where he would end up!

Gu Qing Shan had decided to enter the great tomb in such a risky manner.

At this point, there were no longer any worries about silent observers.

The only thing he had to worry about was the random danger that he might face outside of the two cities…

But since when was he not in danger?

The wind grew stronger.

He continued to fly forward.

Very quickly, his figure could no longer be seen in the darkness.

Nobody could find him now.

…

Sploosh!

A huge splash erupted in the water.

Not too long after that, a corpse floated to the surface and began to bob up and down the cold gloomy river.

The underground waterflow gradually pushed the corpse onto the shore as it remained motionless for a while.

——and then it was revived!

Gu Qing Shan stood up and examined his surroundings.

I’m currently ‘stranded’ on a deserted island that is only a few meters squared in total.

This place is already exceptionally far from the two cities.

I can’t see anything but the great tomb river within my range of vision, there aren’t any large patches of land around here either, only a few small islands.

My surroundings are still dark

It’s unknown whether it’s daytime or not.

Standing on top of the muddy sand, Gu Qing Shan felt his feet stepping on something sturdy.

He crouched down and dug the ground up.

Only to see that there was an ancient stone stab under his feet, which was engraved with complicated patterns that seemed to depict some sort of lost civilization.

At least, Gu Qing Shan had never seen these patterns before.

“Great…”

Gu Qing Shan muttered under his breath, then suddenly laid down before placing mud all over his body and once again activating [Govern Spirit].

He was dead.

A few moments later.

A large dark shadowy figure emerged from the riverbed.

The shadowy figure silently and uneventfully traveled along the flow of the river as it headed downstream.

Gu Qing Shan’s eyes remained shut as he continued to lay under the mud for a long while before reviving himself again, slowly patting the mud off his body.

——he didn’t know what that shadowy figure was.

But his Spirit Sense reacted in such a way that he felt he was in critical danger, almost enough for him to use [Virtue].

It was a good thing that he managed to avoid it.

Gu Qing Shan once again took a closer look at the patterns on the stone slab.

Still completely intelligible.

Furthermore, the patterns on the stone slab seemed to be connected somehow, which radiated a powerful force of rejection.

——it was rejecting Gu Qing Shan from approaching it.

Gu Qing Shan sighed, then realized that he should call someone for help.

“Come on… a real combatant, or someone knowledgeable”

Taking out the Reincarnation Gloom Orchid, Gu Qing Shan silently muttered.

“Barry, Kitty, Ying Hao, Anna, Laura, Lady Fusi—– so many comrades, anyone will do”

“Come and help me!”

As the Reincarnation Gloom Orchid glowed, [Moon Invitation] was activated!

Thin strands of red thread emerged from the void of space to form a summoning gate.

Immediately, lines of bloody red text appeared in the void of space:

[Moon Invitation’s summoning target is currently random]

[Attention: Due to your Title of ‘Pure Love Gang’, you will summon an individual that is compatible with the Title]

[Through the name of the ‘Pure Love Gang’, you’ve found an old comrade]

The summoning gate opened with a bang——-

A silver beard old man the size of a thumb slowly stepped out from the gate.

At the same time, Gu Qing Shan facepalmed.

I think this is the great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather of the pixie king?

——-I really don’t know how their relationships work.

In short, this is the pixie that I saved from the passageway that led into the Dusty World.

Why is it a pixie!?

How is a pixie supposed to cooperate with me to explore this great tomb?

Not to mention, what part of being a pixie fits the ‘pure love’ description!?

Gu Qing Shan couldn’t help but turn towards the void of space where a line of bloody red text was hovering:

[Only the best playmate can become a pixie’s lover, a relationship that lasts for life]

[—–this is a strange race]

[But without a doubt, they are definitely pure!]

Gu Qing Shan silently read through everything, then turned to the pixie.

Only to see the silver beard old man had flown up as he landed in front of Gu Qing Shan.

“Hah, during my dream today, I already knew I had to come out at this point” the old man said.

“Really? You can only keep one ability in this place, so which one did you keep?” Gu Qing Shan asked.

The old man appeared solemn and began to speak: “You are a comrade of our pixie race to whom we owe a lot, considering the severity of the situation, as well as the joint vote between all the pixies in the dreamscape, together with 28000 coin tosses that I did myself, not to mention various raffles, campaigns, presentations, costume parties—— and the most important play-bidding competition of us pixies, I finally recognize that I must also display the exceptional capabilities of us pixies”

“What exactly is it?” Gu Qing Shan couldn’t help but ask.

The old man pulled out a short stick and began to draw the shape of an animal in the mud and explained: “Years ago, the progenitors of our pixie race dawned upon our most powerful Quipcraft as they observed the movements of this animal right here”

——he still hasn’t explained what the ability was.

Gu Qing Shan still kept his hopes high and turned to look at the animal.

It was a donkey.

The donkey somehow began to move and did a sideways roll in the mud.

“Look! It was this movement right here!”

The old man appeared excited and exclaimed: “This is the essence of our pixie race, the ideal of our Quipcraft——”

“What exactly is it?” Gu Qing Shan shrugged and just asked.

The silver beard old man suddenly turned to him with gleaming eyes and called out: “This is called the donkey roll, can’t you see it?”

Gu Qing Shan sighed and asked: “You mean the ability you kept was actually a kind of martial art skill?”

“NO! You only saw the form of it, but missed the spirit of it” the silver beard old man replied.

“I still don’t get it” Gu Qing Shan really couldn’t understand.

The silver beard old man flew up and whispered to him in a mysterious tone: “It’s throwing a tantrum——- also known as playing dirty”

Playing dirty?

The silver beard old man flew back to the stone slab and landed on it before explaining: “Take a look, these patterns are actually saying that ‘nobody except the successor of the Cambrian civilization can enter'”

Gu Qing Shan suddenly realized that the pixies were also an exceptionally knowledgeable race.

They’d witnessed plenty of mysteries and the secrets of many civilizations.

“No wonder I can sense that these patterns are rejecting me, then should we change to another island?” Gu Qing Shan asked.

“No, we’re going to play dirty…”

The silver beard old man said as he looked around in a shifty manner.

The river was silent.

There was nothing in their surroundings.

The silver beard old man shiftily walked up to a part of the stone slab and poked at the pattern with his short stick.

—–the pattern was changed by his poke.

“There, I’ve changed the ‘can’ part of this message”

“Now, this pattern reads: ‘nobody except the successor of the Cambrian civilization can’t enter'”

As soon as he said that.

A rumbling noise could be heard from deep under the island.

A door leading underground appeared right in front of Gu Qing Shan.

Gu Qing Shan was stunned.

——-I could have never imagined that ‘playing dirty’ meant something like this.

Although the pixie’s power system developed in quite a strange direction, their Quipcraft has the ability to alter Laws!

What an unreasonable power!

Seeing the door open, the old pixie’s eyes glowed.

He urged impatiently: “Come on now! Let’s go inside and see what kind of treasure we can find!”

Gu Qing Shan fell into thought.

If I had the Heavenly Emperor’s strength and the Pendant of Fire, I would also sneak into Heavenly Palace city as well.

Right——–

The Pendant of Fire!

By using the pendant’s power, the Heavenly Emperor would have easily been able to sneak into Star Gazer city!

But then, what’s the Heavenly Emperor’s goal?

——-to get rid of me, Star Gazer’s City Lord, so that both cities are under his control.

If that succeeds, all of his issues would be resolved.

There would be no loss even if he fails, as Heavenly Palace city would still remain.

——-that was probably the thought process.

The Heavenly Emperor is already stronger than I am, so he has more reasons than I do to put such a plan into action.

So why hasn’t the Heavenly Emperor come to kill me then?

Gu Qing Shan thought briefly before gradually understanding the reason.

Earlier, I’d just suffered attacks from a Sequence outside of the Samsara.

Not only did that Sequence not manage to kill me after attacking consecutively, but it also angered the Samsara enough that it acted against the attacking monster.

That made the Heavenly Emperor a bit unsure.

——–the Heavenly Emperor doesn’t know exactly how I managed to survive, nor does he know how I got the Samsara to help me.

One of the parties supporting him has already been gotten rid of, so he naturally has to act with more caution.

Even if he kills me by using the power of Miracles, it would still be the end for him if that caused the Samsara to act again.

Gu Qing Shan thought back to how that monster ended up.

—–the monster was sealed inside a casket.

Timing-wise, the duration of being sealed that way is practically eternal.

——it would be an outcome worse than death.

For that reason, both he and I have established a delicate equilibrium.

The Heavenly Emperor is definitely thinking of a way to approach and observe me.

Approach me…

Gu Qing Shan turned his gaze and looked up at Li An.

——-Li An is a Tianma, so she naturally can’t be the Heavenly Emperor.

But the Void is boundless, so there are infinite worlds with infinitely unimaginable means and abilities.

Regardless of whether or not he has impersonated Li An, I need to be careful with anyone who tries to approach me.

…I need to come up with a foolproof plan.

What would be a foolproof plan?

Gu Qing Shan remained silent for a brief moment.

—–regain my strength!

First I need to regain my strength, then wait until the emergence of the Huang Quan realm.

If I retrieve the Six Paths Great Mountain sword, I would be able to dispel any trickery with a single slash!

As soon as I get Shannu back, I wouldn’t have to worry about the Heavenly Emperor getting close to me with any sort of unknown techniques.

Gu Qing Shan took a deep breath and stepped outside.

『 Where are you going? 』Li An asked from behind him.

“I have some personal matters to take care of. You should focus on regaining your powers first, no need to worry about me for now” Gu Qing Shan told her.

He closed the door as he left.

Li An was a bit surprised and muttered: 『 Acting all mysterious… 』

Gu Qing Shan stepped onto the deck of the warship again.

Lines of bloody red text quickly appeared in the void of space to remind him:

[Attention: Star Gazer city has great potential, you will most likely have to complete a time-sensitive event in order to continue unlocking the functions it possesses]

[Attention: Heavenly Palace city has a concealed technique capable of constantly observing Star Gazer city’s movements]

[Attention: Many unusual lifeforms and some Apocalypses have appeared within the great tomb river]

[Attention: There are unique Samsara fluctuations emerging from every tomb, Chosen Saints must venture inside in order to investigate them and unearth their secrets]

[Attention: There are some Chosen Saints who haven’t left Star Gazer city]

Gu Qing Shan quickly skimmed through all the messages and stood firmly on the warship’s deck.

The Heavenly Emperor seems to prefer acting only after all preparations have been made, not fighting battles where his victory isn’t certain.

He’s exactly the same as me in regards to this.

——if the Heavenly Emperor is hiding in the shadows to monitor me right now, what should I do?

He has the power of Miracles.

It wasn’t just the Heavenly Emperor, as representatives of various other Sequences must have entered the two cities as well.

Are they also observing me?

Listening to the surrounding footsteps, Gu Qing Shan turned towards the other end of the deck.

After a moment of silence.

He gradually sped up.

From a stroll to a fast walk, then from a fast walk to a slow run, he kept on accelerating——

Gu Qing Shan was now sprinting at full speed!

He rushed towards the edge of the deck at an extremely fast pace, before leaping into the air!

There’s no need to overthink things right now, I need to disregard my concerns and ignore my extreme thoughts. The priority right now is to explore the great tomb and unseal my strength!

Furthermore, it’s best that I don’t accidentally run into any other Chosen Saints.

Do not team up with anybody.

Do not join any existing groups.

And do not fight anyone

—–simply meeting another person would be giving them a chance to size me up.

The wind howled.

As Gu Qing Shan’s momentum reduced, his descent was imminent.

But he reached his left hand forward and instantly manifested a metal gauntlet.

Gu Qing Shan didn’t waste any time.

The gauntlet struck him without hesitation.

[Repel Evil]!

Gu Qing Shan turned into a streak of light as he flew across the sky by this attack.

—–he didn’t consider his trajectory or where he would end up.

Riding the strong wind, he continued flying towards the endless underground.

A few moments later.

He arbitrarily struck himself again.

He changed his trajectory!

Even if the Heavenly Emperor was silently observing him from the shadows and was prepared, it would still be impossible for him to predict Gu Qing Shan’s next actions!

No one could possibly know where he would end up!

Gu Qing Shan had decided to enter the great tomb in such a risky manner.

At this point, there were no longer any worries about silent observers.

The only thing he had to worry about was the random danger that he might face outside of the two cities…

But since when was he not in danger?

The wind grew stronger.

He continued to fly forward.

Very quickly, his figure could no longer be seen in the darkness.

Nobody could find him now.

…

Sploosh!

A huge splash erupted in the water.

Not too long after that, a corpse floated to the surface and began to bob up and down the cold gloomy river.

The underground waterflow gradually pushed the corpse onto the shore as it remained motionless for a while.

——and then it was revived!

Gu Qing Shan stood up and examined his surroundings.

I’m currently ‘stranded’ on a deserted island that is only a few meters squared in total.

This place is already exceptionally far from the two cities.

I can’t see anything but the great tomb river within my range of vision, there aren’t any large patches of land around here either, only a few small islands.

My surroundings are still dark

It’s unknown whether it’s daytime or not.

Standing on top of the muddy sand, Gu Qing Shan felt his feet stepping on something sturdy.

He crouched down and dug the ground up.

Only to see that there was an ancient stone stab under his feet, which was engraved with complicated patterns that seemed to depict some sort of lost civilization.

At least, Gu Qing Shan had never seen these patterns before.

“Great…”

Gu Qing Shan muttered under his breath, then suddenly laid down before placing mud all over his body and once again activating [Govern Spirit].

He was dead.

A few moments later.

A large dark shadowy figure emerged from the riverbed.

The shadowy figure silently and uneventfully traveled along the flow of the river as it headed downstream.

Gu Qing Shan’s eyes remained shut as he continued to lay under the mud for a long while before reviving himself again, slowly patting the mud off his body.

——he didn’t know what that shadowy figure was.

But his Spirit Sense reacted in such a way that he felt he was in critical danger, almost enough for him to use [Virtue].

It was a good thing that he managed to avoid it.

Gu Qing Shan once again took a closer look at the patterns on the stone slab.

Still completely intelligible.

Furthermore, the patterns on the stone slab seemed to be connected somehow, which radiated a powerful force of rejection.

——it was rejecting Gu Qing Shan from approaching it.

Gu Qing Shan sighed, then realized that he should call someone for help.

“Come on… a real combatant, or someone knowledgeable”

Taking out the Reincarnation Gloom Orchid, Gu Qing Shan silently muttered.

“Barry, Kitty, Ying Hao, Anna, Laura, Lady Fusi—– so many comrades, anyone will do”

“Come and help me!”

As the Reincarnation Gloom Orchid glowed, [Moon Invitation] was activated!

Thin strands of red thread emerged from the void of space to form a summoning gate.

Immediately, lines of bloody red text appeared in the void of space:

[Moon Invitation’s summoning target is currently random]

[Attention: Due to your Title of ‘Pure Love Gang’, you will summon an individual that is compatible with the Title]

[Through the name of the ‘Pure Love Gang’, you’ve found an old comrade]

The summoning gate opened with a bang——-

A silver beard old man the size of a thumb slowly stepped out from the gate.

At the same time, Gu Qing Shan facepalmed.

I think this is the great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather of the pixie king?

——-I really don’t know how their relationships work.

In short, this is the pixie that I saved from the passageway that led into the Dusty World.

Why is it a pixie!?

How is a pixie supposed to cooperate with me to explore this great tomb?

Not to mention, what part of being a pixie fits the ‘pure love’ description!?

Gu Qing Shan couldn’t help but turn towards the void of space where a line of bloody red text was hovering:

[Only the best playmate can become a pixie’s lover, a relationship that lasts for life]

[—–this is a strange race]

[But without a doubt, they are definitely pure!]

Gu Qing Shan silently read through everything, then turned to the pixie.

Only to see the silver beard old man had flown up as he landed in front of Gu Qing Shan.

“Hah, during my dream today, I already knew I had to come out at this point” the old man said.

“Really? You can only keep one ability in this place, so which one did you keep?” Gu Qing Shan asked.

The old man appeared solemn and began to speak: “You are a comrade of our pixie race to whom we owe a lot, considering the severity of the situation, as well as the joint vote between all the pixies in the dreamscape, together with 28000 coin tosses that I did myself, not to mention various raffles, campaigns, presentations, costume parties—— and the most important play-bidding competition of us pixies, I finally recognize that I must also display the exceptional capabilities of us pixies”

“What exactly is it?” Gu Qing Shan couldn’t help but ask.

The old man pulled out a short stick and began to draw the shape of an animal in the mud and explained: “Years ago, the progenitors of our pixie race dawned upon our most powerful Quipcraft as they observed the movements of this animal right here”

——he still hasn’t explained what the ability was.

Gu Qing Shan still kept his hopes high and turned to look at the animal.

It was a donkey.

The donkey somehow began to move and did a sideways roll in the mud.

“Look! It was this movement right here!”

The old man appeared excited and exclaimed: “This is the essence of our pixie race, the ideal of our Quipcraft——”

“What exactly is it?” Gu Qing Shan shrugged and just asked.

The silver beard old man suddenly turned to him with gleaming eyes and called out: “This is called the donkey roll, can’t you see it?”

Gu Qing Shan sighed and asked: “You mean the ability you kept was actually a kind of martial art skill?”

“NO! You only saw the form of it, but missed the spirit of it” the silver beard old man replied.

“I still don’t get it” Gu Qing Shan really couldn’t understand.

The silver beard old man flew up and whispered to him in a mysterious tone: “It’s throwing a tantrum——- also known as playing dirty”

Playing dirty?

The silver beard old man flew back to the stone slab and landed on it before explaining: “Take a look, these patterns are actually saying that ‘nobody except the successor of the Cambrian civilization can enter'”

Gu Qing Shan suddenly realized that the pixies were also an exceptionally knowledgeable race.

They’d witnessed plenty of mysteries and the secrets of many civilizations.

“No wonder I can sense that these patterns are rejecting me, then should we change to another island?” Gu Qing Shan asked.

“No, we’re going to play dirty…”

The silver beard old man said as he looked around in a shifty manner.

The river was silent.

There was nothing in their surroundings.

The silver beard old man shiftily walked up to a part of the stone slab and poked at the pattern with his short stick.

—–the pattern was changed by his poke.

“There, I’ve changed the ‘can’ part of this message”

“Now, this pattern reads: ‘nobody except the successor of the Cambrian civilization can’t enter'”

As soon as he said that.

A rumbling noise could be heard from deep under the island.

A door leading underground appeared right in front of Gu Qing Shan.

Gu Qing Shan was stunned.

——-I could have never imagined that ‘playing dirty’ meant something like this.

Although the pixie’s power system developed in quite a strange direction, their Quipcraft has the ability to alter Laws!

What an unreasonable power!

Seeing the door open, the old pixie’s eyes glowed.

He urged impatiently: “Come on now! Let’s go inside and see what kind of treasure we can find!”