1804

TN: Due to some unfortunate circumstances, i’ve had to send my work computer out for repairs, so the novel will be taking a 15-day hiatus starting tomorrow. All chapters that would have been released during that period will be released at a 2-chapter daily rate after the hiatus is over, thank you for your continued support and patience with me.

———

“Return!”

Gu Qing Shan grunted under his breath.

Within the vast sea of clouds, the myriads of swords vanished without a trace, leaving only a single flying sword hovering next to him.

“Delimitation Divine Sword, I want to know what exactly happened in the past” Gu Qing Shan said.

The sword hover around him and spoke: 「 You will need to focus your thoughts and cooperate with me to manifest a world, then I shall display the events of the past for you to see 」

Gu Qing Shan muses: “Would that be [All-Encompassing Sword Realm], or [Behold]?”

「 Because these were events that I personally experienced, I can display them directly—– consider it a combination of those two abilities 」the sword answered.

“Come, show me the truth!” Gu Qing Shan declared.

He gripped the hilt of the sword tightly with both hands and stabbed it into the ground with considerable force——

[All-Encompassing Sword Realm]!

[Behold]!

A line of bloody red text appeared from the void of space:

[You are about to leave the main world and enter a Phase Realm of your own creation]

In an instant, the sea of clouds, the palace complex, the Tianma, as well as his sect brother and sisters all vanished from Gu Qing Shan’s sight, nowhere to be seen.

A gloomy dark world was slowly opening up in front of Gu Qing Shan.

The sword spoke: 「 One day after the Wraith realm Ruler and the dragons put their strength together to summon me into the Samsara——- 」

Boom!!!

A thunderous explosion.

In the sky, Apocalyptic monsters with strange and unusual forms were flying all over the place, their hands wielding various weapons as they were trying to breach into the Wraith realm.

These Apocalyptic monsters were so incredibly powerful that they could wipe out a large number of Wraiths with a single movement of their hands and feet.

The Wraith realm itself was riddled with wounds.

「 The decisive battle has begun 」

The Delimitation Divine Sword continued: 「 The Wraiths did not expect for the Apocalypse to attack their world directly, so having no other choice, the Wraith realm Ruler had to borrow my powers in battle without holding anything back 」

Gu Qing Shan looked around.

The Wraiths were all roaring or uttering battle cries in unison.

The Wraith realm Ruler had appeared.

He was equipped with a set of black armor, a ferocious Guise Hex over his head, and the Delimitation Divine Sword in his hand; his entire body was radiating the fluctuations of immense Wraith realm Origin Power.

This power far exceeded that of Gu Qing Shan’s, in fact, they couldn’t even be compared.

The Wraith realm Ruler uttered a loud cry before forming a hand seal and tossing the sword in his hand into the sky.

In an instant, the sword split off into hundreds and thousands of swords, scattering like a howling storm wind with each sword as a single gust.

The golden sword projections swept across the sky, which erased the Apocalyptic monsters that filled the sky as easily as sweeping the floor.

The Delimitation Divine Sword explained: 「 The Wraith realm Ruler wasn’t a swordsman, but he was extremely powerful, coupled with the fact that the Wraith realm’s heritage contained many sword techniques of great power. All he needed to do was study them for a little bit then borrow my power to unleash them, and that was more than enough to kill his enemies 」

Gu Qing Shan turned his gaze back towards the battlefield and saw that the myriad of swords only needed to ‘flow’ back and forth like a tidal wave a couple of times before all the Apocalyptic monsters were killed.

A few moments later.

A group of even more powerful Apocalyptic monsters began to appear in the sky.

The Wraith realm Ruler uttered: 「 Come, all shamans, transfer your power to me and I shall use an ancient sword technique’s power to boost the flying swords’ power, making it deadlier! 」

「 Sir, yes sir! 」

All the shamans stood surrounding the Wraith realm Ruler and began to chant an incantation together, transferring all of their power into the Wraith realm Ruler.

The Wraith realm Ruler then raised both hands and stiffly formed a sword seal.

In the sky, the myriads of swords continued to ebb and flow like a tide.

All the Apocalyptic monsters were eliminated without fail.

The sky suddenly became dark with countless stars manifesting over it.

These stars all gave off a cold glimmer that illuminated the Wraiths on the ground.

Thin strands of blue light started to form and connect the countless stars into a seemingly boundless net.

An resounding voice radiated throughout the entire world:

[To commemorate the descent of the Apocalypse, let us begin the very first round of our game]

[Anyone can be first, each of you must describe a connection between yourself and all things, or with any living beings, then be recognized by the game]

[The first round is about to begin, you will need to prove at least two kinds of connection between yourselves, no repetitions]

[Those who succeed, congratulations on winning the right to prolong your lives]

[For those who cannot prove even two connections…]

[They will be ended!]

This tone—–

Gu Qing Shan exclaimed: “Oh no, this is [Siming]!”

There’s no mistake, these supernatural phenomena matched exactly what happened when [Apocalypse: Siming] first appeared!

This was an Apocalypse that cannot be defeated through sheer force.

The Wraith realm Ruler hurriedly called out: 「 Divine Sword! Open the [All-Encompassing Sword Realm] and take all Wraiths away! 」

A brand new world manifested out of nowhere and fully encompassed all the wraiths without pause.

All living beings in this land were gone.

[Siming] has lost its target.

——-it cannot exert its destructive power!

Seeing this from within the Phase Realm, the Wraith realm Ruler appeared delighted and ordered:

「 Let’s go! We’re going to leave this world and come to the Emperor’s aid in the Heaven realm 」

Following his voice, the new world left the Wraith realm and began to rapidly move through the void of space.

「 Ahahaha, milord, with this sword in hand, we of the Samsara can truly turn this battle around! 」

「 It’s all thanks to the Ruler’s wisdom that we managed to summon this sword 」

「 After this, we of the Wraith realm can truly let ourselves loose! 」

「 We’re definitely going to win! 」

All the wraiths cheered.

The Wraith realm Ruler also appeared to grin and spoke to the Great Shaman: 「 I sacrificed all the treasures and resources that we’ve accumulated over a few million years to summon this sword——– I know that you all still feel regretful for that, so what do you have to say now? 」

The Great Shaman lowered his head: 「 Ruler, your decision was correct after all, this sword’s capabilities are incredible, once we’ve gathered and met up with the Heavenly Emperor, we’d be able to turn the tide around 」

「 Gahahaha, I think so as well! 」the Wraith realm Ruler grinned even more.

Suddenly, the entire Phase Realm stopped.

It was no longer moving forward, but was now halted in the middle of the void, no longer moving.

The Wraith realm Ruler asked in surprise: 「 Divine Sword, why did you stop? 」

The Delimitation Divine Sword spoke: 「 Something stopped me, it’s coming—– 」

Bang!

The entire world began to shake.

A large hole had been broken into the sky above, with numerous black tubes taking up every bit of space trying to reach into the Phase Realm.

「 What are these things!? 」the Wraith realm Ruler exclaimed in shock.

Before he could finish his words, those black tubes had already descended.

The wraiths appeared to have been stunned as they stood completely motionless while the black tubes pierced into their heads and sucked out all the flesh within their bodies.

「 Destroy these tubes! 」the Wraith realm Ruler shouted.

He changed his hand seal and sent the sword flying outwards, slashing and weaving in between the countless black tubes.

Large chunks of tubing were cut off, which spilled the flesh and blood that they contained everywhere.

Zhiiiiii——–

A sharp insect noise reverberated from outside the Phase Realm.

And the hole in the sky began to expand.

A ferocious aura radiated across the entire world, while something could be seen faintly moving around.

All the black tubes were swiftly retracted.

A colorful hue eclipsed over the hole in the sky, which began to slowly creep into the world through it.

Although it was impossible to tell what the colorful creature was, it was clearly some sort of insect.

——-an completely unknown insect.

「 Great Shaman, is this an Apocalypse? Or is it some other entity? 」the Wraith realm Ruler asked with a hurried voice.

The Great Shaman was now sweating bullets as he worriedly answered: 「 …I don’t know, I’ve never heard about something so terrifying existing within the Samsara 」

「 Give me your full support! 」the Wraith realm Ruler shouted out loud.

「 Yes sir! 」

All the shamans put their hands together to form hand seals while chanting an incantation, once again transferring all of their power to the Wraith realm Ruler.

「 Divine Sword, kill that enemy! 」the Wraith realm Ruler ordered.

The Delimitation Divine Sword flew out from his hand and slashed the colorful insect body with all its might———-

Dangggg!

The impact resounded across this entire world.

The colorful insect’s body only shivered slightly, it then release billions of tiny needles and knocked the flying sword away/

The sword flew back into the Wraith realm Ruler’s hand.

The Wraith realm Ruler began to sweat profusely and muttered: 「 Not good, even the Divine Sword couldn’t deal with it—– it’s too powerful, powerful beyond our imagination 」

At this point, Gu Qing Shan, who has been watching for the entire time, frowned.

But since this is only a vision of the past, the Wraith realm Ruler naturally couldn’t see him.

Zhiiiii——–

Another sharp insect void reverberated.

This time, the wraiths within the Phase Realm began to kneel down one by one as transparent projections of their likeness began to take flight towards the insectoid body which was halfway done breaking into their world.

It was eating their souls!

Among the millions of wraiths here, the number of wraiths that could defend themselves from this insect noise can be easily counted on two hands.

In that moment, the sky was filled with transparent souls, which were all swiftly sucked into the colorful insectoid body and vanished without a trace.

「 What… exactly… is that monster…? 」

The Wraith realm Ruler muttered to himself.

The three shamans who were supporting and protecting him were already on their last spurt of strength.

「 Flee, Ruler, hurry up and flee! 」the Great Shaman called out.

The Wraith realm Ruler regained his senses.

That’s right.

At a time like this——

Right as he was about to act, the void of space shifted as a glowing sheet of paper appeared out of nowhere.

This sheet of paper was the same as the paper sheets that hovered above the Heavenly Palace and Star Gazer city.

It follows the will of the Samsara.

「 Ruler sir, it’s a Samsara Page—— the will of the Samsara hasn’t given up on us! 」the Great Shaman exclaimed with excitement.

The Wraith realm Ruler reached his hand out to take the paper sheet while shivering and started to read from it.

「 We… still have a way to live… 」

He muttered as he turned his gaze towards the Divine Sword.

The Great Shaman hurriedly asked: 「 Ruler, what should we do? 」

The Wraith realm Ruler didn’t say a word, only clenching his teeth before putting the Samsara Page over the hilt of the Divine Sword.

The sword immediately gave off a shrill noise before its divine glow started to dim.

「 Ruler? 」the Great Shaman asked in shock.

「 There is no other way, this sword is too strong, that monster was attracted here by the fluctuations of its power——– the Samsara told me to use this method to separate the Divine Sword into two pieces, and then that monster would naturally not be able to find us again 」the Wraith realm Ruler said with a harrowing tone.

「 But—— 」

「 There are no ‘buts’, we have to survive first before anything else! 」

As the Wraith realm Ruler violently applied force, the Divine Sword’s blade and hilt were separated.

Instantly, a rip opened up in the void of space.

The Wraith realm Ruler and Delimitation Divine Sword both fell into it and escaped the Phase Realm.

They continuously fell through the endless darkness, constantly free falling for an unknown amount of time before they finally crashed onto a barren place covered in dust.

This was a tomb.

It was the great tomb.

The Wraith realm Ruler had fallen unconscious,

The paper sheet flew back up into the air and emanated a colorful light to envelope him.

After a few moments, the Wraith realm Ruler was transformed into a ghostly image and was gradually absorbed into the sword hilt.

The paper sheet circled around the sword hilt and blade a few more times before it gave off a flash of colorful light that manifested a sentence in the air:

[The great tomb is almost complete, you both shall be responsible for guarding the great tomb from now on]

The vision stopped here.

Everything slowly faded away.

As Gu Qing Shan looked around again, he found himself back above the sea of clouds, standing outside of a palace.

A voice spoke into his ears:

「 Have you seen it? 」

——-It was the Delimitation Divine Sword.

“Hm, you unfortunately met a non-swordsman and fell victim to a ploy, finally ending up having to guard the great tomb for all those years, it’s truly been tough for you” Gu Qing Shan consoled it.

The sword circled around him once before speaking again: 「 We are not completely safe, I’ve always believed this to be fact, so I can’t tell you anything at all. Everything that you’ve seen, you’ll have to ponder it by yourself 」

Gu Qing Shan nodded and turned around to face everyone.

His aura slowly rose back up and asked: “What does everyone think we should do now?”

The Progenitor Fiendess answered: 『 As per orders of her majesty, you are now the Master of Bai Hua sect. From now on, all of us will heed your orders 』

She knelt down first, followed by Li An and the rest of the Tianma girls, lowering their heads respectfully towards Gu Qing Shan.

Qing Rou and Wan Er also exchanged glances, then bowed: “Sect master, we will heed your orders”

Gu Qing Shan turned to Qin Xiao Lou.

Qin Xiao Lou practically leapt forward to grab his sleeves, asking while practically crying: “Qing Shan, Shifu told us to explore the void, but what exactly should we do?”

Gu Qing Shan put a hand on his shoulder and asked in a light tone: “Xiao Lou, will you listen to my orders?”

Qin Xiao Lou clenched his teeth and replied: “Of course I will!”

Gu Qing Shan casually replied: “Very well, then tell me everything that had happened when the two Shifu met each other; I want to know each of their expressions, each of their gestures, and every sentence they say down to the exact letter without anything missing. If you miss so much as a single word, it’ll be considered a great disrespect to our sect, no, to our master, and I’ll have you answer for it!”

“Understood!” Qin Xiao Lou answered.

He then described in detail everything that occurred that day.

Once he was finished, Gu Qing Shan made everyone else give their inputs to supplement it as well.

Everyone put their heads together to report everything they can remember to Gu Qing Shan.

After listening to them, Gu Qing Shan turned around and came back into the palace hall and spoke without turning his head: “Before I leave, nobody should disturb me”

The gates were then closed.

Everyone stood outside the gates, exchanging confused looks.

『 What is the sect master doing? 』the Progenitor Fiendess couldn’t help but ask.

She turned to the disciples of Bai Hua sect.

Qin Xiao Lou’s expression remained sorrowful with the corners of his eyes red from holding back his tears, not saying a word.

Wan Er and Qing Rou exchanged glances.

Qing Rou muttered: “He doesn’t want to accept this”

…

Gu Qing Shan walked until he reached the end of the palace hall and sat facing the wall.

He had fallen into thought.

Time slowly passed.

Several hours had gone by without a sound.

“Both of their gestures, words, and attitude… did not show any issues…”

“It was only after the Progenitor Fiendess showed up that Shifu’s attitude displayed a clear change…”

Gu Qing Shan slowly wrote a few words on the wall with his finger:

[The deers call out, eating apples in the field;

We have an honored guest, zithers and bamboo flutes blow;

As clear as moonlight, but when can we meet;

From such worries grow, never to cease]

He silently read through this poem.

After a while he muttered to himself: “The Progenitor Fiendess said that this was a poem from a mortal world without any considerable backgrounds or secrets”

——-then what was it that Shifu wanted to be reminded of that she made the Progenitor Fiendess remember this poem?

Why didn’t she simply commit it to memory herself?

Could there be some sort of secret hidden here that would endanger her life?

This was a mortal world’s poem, but Shifu specifically took out such an excerpt from it.

Considering Shifu’s circumstances, how should I decipher this?

Gu Qing Shan turned towards the first line of the poem——

[The deers call out, eating apples in the field]

Deers…

He hesitated briefly before writing a few words next to the poem:

[Competition of heroes¹]

Who can be considered ‘heroes’?

And what kind of event could be considered a competition of heroes?

He raised his hands and continued to write:

[Samsara Clash for Supremacy]

After writing that, he turned his gaze towards the latter half of the sentence.

[—–eating apples in the field]

Eating.

Eating means eating.

Eating what?

Apples in the field.

—–who’s eating?

Gu Qing Shan stared blankly at these words, slowly feeling a chill crawl down his spine.

TN: Due to some unfortunate circumstances, i’ve had to send my work computer out for repairs, so the novel will be taking a 15-day hiatus starting tomorrow. All chapters that would have been released during that period will be released at a 2-chapter daily rate after the hiatus is over, thank you for your continued support and patience with me.

———

“Return!”

Gu Qing Shan grunted under his breath.

Within the vast sea of clouds, the myriads of swords vanished without a trace, leaving only a single flying sword hovering next to him.

“Delimitation Divine Sword, I want to know what exactly happened in the past” Gu Qing Shan said.

The sword hover around him and spoke: 「 You will need to focus your thoughts and cooperate with me to manifest a world, then I shall display the events of the past for you to see 」

Gu Qing Shan muses: “Would that be [All-Encompassing Sword Realm], or [Behold]?”

「 Because these were events that I personally experienced, I can display them directly—– consider it a combination of those two abilities 」the sword answered.

“Come, show me the truth!” Gu Qing Shan declared.

He gripped the hilt of the sword tightly with both hands and stabbed it into the ground with considerable force——

[All-Encompassing Sword Realm]!

[Behold]!

A line of bloody red text appeared from the void of space:

[You are about to leave the main world and enter a Phase Realm of your own creation]

In an instant, the sea of clouds, the palace complex, the Tianma, as well as his sect brother and sisters all vanished from Gu Qing Shan’s sight, nowhere to be seen.

A gloomy dark world was slowly opening up in front of Gu Qing Shan.

The sword spoke: 「 One day after the Wraith realm Ruler and the dragons put their strength together to summon me into the Samsara——- 」

Boom!!!

A thunderous explosion.

In the sky, Apocalyptic monsters with strange and unusual forms were flying all over the place, their hands wielding various weapons as they were trying to breach into the Wraith realm.

These Apocalyptic monsters were so incredibly powerful that they could wipe out a large number of Wraiths with a single movement of their hands and feet.

The Wraith realm itself was riddled with wounds.

「 The decisive battle has begun 」

The Delimitation Divine Sword continued: 「 The Wraiths did not expect for the Apocalypse to attack their world directly, so having no other choice, the Wraith realm Ruler had to borrow my powers in battle without holding anything back 」

Gu Qing Shan looked around.

The Wraiths were all roaring or uttering battle cries in unison.

The Wraith realm Ruler had appeared.

He was equipped with a set of black armor, a ferocious Guise Hex over his head, and the Delimitation Divine Sword in his hand; his entire body was radiating the fluctuations of immense Wraith realm Origin Power.

This power far exceeded that of Gu Qing Shan’s, in fact, they couldn’t even be compared.

The Wraith realm Ruler uttered a loud cry before forming a hand seal and tossing the sword in his hand into the sky.

In an instant, the sword split off into hundreds and thousands of swords, scattering like a howling storm wind with each sword as a single gust.

The golden sword projections swept across the sky, which erased the Apocalyptic monsters that filled the sky as easily as sweeping the floor.

The Delimitation Divine Sword explained: 「 The Wraith realm Ruler wasn’t a swordsman, but he was extremely powerful, coupled with the fact that the Wraith realm’s heritage contained many sword techniques of great power. All he needed to do was study them for a little bit then borrow my power to unleash them, and that was more than enough to kill his enemies 」

Gu Qing Shan turned his gaze back towards the battlefield and saw that the myriad of swords only needed to ‘flow’ back and forth like a tidal wave a couple of times before all the Apocalyptic monsters were killed.

A few moments later.

A group of even more powerful Apocalyptic monsters began to appear in the sky.

The Wraith realm Ruler uttered: 「 Come, all shamans, transfer your power to me and I shall use an ancient sword technique’s power to boost the flying swords’ power, making it deadlier! 」

「 Sir, yes sir! 」

All the shamans stood surrounding the Wraith realm Ruler and began to chant an incantation together, transferring all of their power into the Wraith realm Ruler.

The Wraith realm Ruler then raised both hands and stiffly formed a sword seal.

In the sky, the myriads of swords continued to ebb and flow like a tide.

All the Apocalyptic monsters were eliminated without fail.

The sky suddenly became dark with countless stars manifesting over it.

These stars all gave off a cold glimmer that illuminated the Wraiths on the ground.

Thin strands of blue light started to form and connect the countless stars into a seemingly boundless net.

An resounding voice radiated throughout the entire world:

[To commemorate the descent of the Apocalypse, let us begin the very first round of our game]

[Anyone can be first, each of you must describe a connection between yourself and all things, or with any living beings, then be recognized by the game]

[The first round is about to begin, you will need to prove at least two kinds of connection between yourselves, no repetitions]

[Those who succeed, congratulations on winning the right to prolong your lives]

[For those who cannot prove even two connections…]

[They will be ended!]

This tone—–

Gu Qing Shan exclaimed: “Oh no, this is [Siming]!”

There’s no mistake, these supernatural phenomena matched exactly what happened when [Apocalypse: Siming] first appeared!

This was an Apocalypse that cannot be defeated through sheer force.

The Wraith realm Ruler hurriedly called out: 「 Divine Sword! Open the [All-Encompassing Sword Realm] and take all Wraiths away! 」

A brand new world manifested out of nowhere and fully encompassed all the wraiths without pause.

All living beings in this land were gone.

[Siming] has lost its target.

——-it cannot exert its destructive power!

Seeing this from within the Phase Realm, the Wraith realm Ruler appeared delighted and ordered:

「 Let’s go! We’re going to leave this world and come to the Emperor’s aid in the Heaven realm 」

Following his voice, the new world left the Wraith realm and began to rapidly move through the void of space.

「 Ahahaha, milord, with this sword in hand, we of the Samsara can truly turn this battle around! 」

「 It’s all thanks to the Ruler’s wisdom that we managed to summon this sword 」

「 After this, we of the Wraith realm can truly let ourselves loose! 」

「 We’re definitely going to win! 」

All the wraiths cheered.

The Wraith realm Ruler also appeared to grin and spoke to the Great Shaman: 「 I sacrificed all the treasures and resources that we’ve accumulated over a few million years to summon this sword——– I know that you all still feel regretful for that, so what do you have to say now? 」

The Great Shaman lowered his head: 「 Ruler, your decision was correct after all, this sword’s capabilities are incredible, once we’ve gathered and met up with the Heavenly Emperor, we’d be able to turn the tide around 」

「 Gahahaha, I think so as well! 」the Wraith realm Ruler grinned even more.

Suddenly, the entire Phase Realm stopped.

It was no longer moving forward, but was now halted in the middle of the void, no longer moving.

The Wraith realm Ruler asked in surprise: 「 Divine Sword, why did you stop? 」

The Delimitation Divine Sword spoke: 「 Something stopped me, it’s coming—– 」

Bang!

The entire world began to shake.

A large hole had been broken into the sky above, with numerous black tubes taking up every bit of space trying to reach into the Phase Realm.

「 What are these things!? 」the Wraith realm Ruler exclaimed in shock.

Before he could finish his words, those black tubes had already descended.

The wraiths appeared to have been stunned as they stood completely motionless while the black tubes pierced into their heads and sucked out all the flesh within their bodies.

「 Destroy these tubes! 」the Wraith realm Ruler shouted.

He changed his hand seal and sent the sword flying outwards, slashing and weaving in between the countless black tubes.

Large chunks of tubing were cut off, which spilled the flesh and blood that they contained everywhere.

Zhiiiiii——–

A sharp insect noise reverberated from outside the Phase Realm.

And the hole in the sky began to expand.

A ferocious aura radiated across the entire world, while something could be seen faintly moving around.

All the black tubes were swiftly retracted.

A colorful hue eclipsed over the hole in the sky, which began to slowly creep into the world through it.

Although it was impossible to tell what the colorful creature was, it was clearly some sort of insect.

——-an completely unknown insect.

「 Great Shaman, is this an Apocalypse? Or is it some other entity? 」the Wraith realm Ruler asked with a hurried voice.

The Great Shaman was now sweating bullets as he worriedly answered: 「 …I don’t know, I’ve never heard about something so terrifying existing within the Samsara 」

「 Give me your full support! 」the Wraith realm Ruler shouted out loud.

「 Yes sir! 」

All the shamans put their hands together to form hand seals while chanting an incantation, once again transferring all of their power to the Wraith realm Ruler.

「 Divine Sword, kill that enemy! 」the Wraith realm Ruler ordered.

The Delimitation Divine Sword flew out from his hand and slashed the colorful insect body with all its might———-

Dangggg!

The impact resounded across this entire world.

The colorful insect’s body only shivered slightly, it then release billions of tiny needles and knocked the flying sword away/

The sword flew back into the Wraith realm Ruler’s hand.

The Wraith realm Ruler began to sweat profusely and muttered: 「 Not good, even the Divine Sword couldn’t deal with it—– it’s too powerful, powerful beyond our imagination 」

At this point, Gu Qing Shan, who has been watching for the entire time, frowned.

But since this is only a vision of the past, the Wraith realm Ruler naturally couldn’t see him.

Zhiiiii——–

Another sharp insect void reverberated.

This time, the wraiths within the Phase Realm began to kneel down one by one as transparent projections of their likeness began to take flight towards the insectoid body which was halfway done breaking into their world.

It was eating their souls!

Among the millions of wraiths here, the number of wraiths that could defend themselves from this insect noise can be easily counted on two hands.

In that moment, the sky was filled with transparent souls, which were all swiftly sucked into the colorful insectoid body and vanished without a trace.

「 What… exactly… is that monster…? 」

The Wraith realm Ruler muttered to himself.

The three shamans who were supporting and protecting him were already on their last spurt of strength.

「 Flee, Ruler, hurry up and flee! 」the Great Shaman called out.

The Wraith realm Ruler regained his senses.

That’s right.

At a time like this——

Right as he was about to act, the void of space shifted as a glowing sheet of paper appeared out of nowhere.

This sheet of paper was the same as the paper sheets that hovered above the Heavenly Palace and Star Gazer city.

It follows the will of the Samsara.

「 Ruler sir, it’s a Samsara Page—— the will of the Samsara hasn’t given up on us! 」the Great Shaman exclaimed with excitement.

The Wraith realm Ruler reached his hand out to take the paper sheet while shivering and started to read from it.

「 We… still have a way to live… 」

He muttered as he turned his gaze towards the Divine Sword.

The Great Shaman hurriedly asked: 「 Ruler, what should we do? 」

The Wraith realm Ruler didn’t say a word, only clenching his teeth before putting the Samsara Page over the hilt of the Divine Sword.

The sword immediately gave off a shrill noise before its divine glow started to dim.

「 Ruler? 」the Great Shaman asked in shock.

「 There is no other way, this sword is too strong, that monster was attracted here by the fluctuations of its power——– the Samsara told me to use this method to separate the Divine Sword into two pieces, and then that monster would naturally not be able to find us again 」the Wraith realm Ruler said with a harrowing tone.

「 But—— 」

「 There are no ‘buts’, we have to survive first before anything else! 」

As the Wraith realm Ruler violently applied force, the Divine Sword’s blade and hilt were separated.

Instantly, a rip opened up in the void of space.

The Wraith realm Ruler and Delimitation Divine Sword both fell into it and escaped the Phase Realm.

They continuously fell through the endless darkness, constantly free falling for an unknown amount of time before they finally crashed onto a barren place covered in dust.

This was a tomb.

It was the great tomb.

The Wraith realm Ruler had fallen unconscious,

The paper sheet flew back up into the air and emanated a colorful light to envelope him.

After a few moments, the Wraith realm Ruler was transformed into a ghostly image and was gradually absorbed into the sword hilt.

The paper sheet circled around the sword hilt and blade a few more times before it gave off a flash of colorful light that manifested a sentence in the air:

[The great tomb is almost complete, you both shall be responsible for guarding the great tomb from now on]

The vision stopped here.

Everything slowly faded away.

As Gu Qing Shan looked around again, he found himself back above the sea of clouds, standing outside of a palace.

A voice spoke into his ears:

「 Have you seen it? 」

——-It was the Delimitation Divine Sword.

“Hm, you unfortunately met a non-swordsman and fell victim to a ploy, finally ending up having to guard the great tomb for all those years, it’s truly been tough for you” Gu Qing Shan consoled it.

The sword circled around him once before speaking again: 「 We are not completely safe, I’ve always believed this to be fact, so I can’t tell you anything at all. Everything that you’ve seen, you’ll have to ponder it by yourself 」

Gu Qing Shan nodded and turned around to face everyone.

His aura slowly rose back up and asked: “What does everyone think we should do now?”

The Progenitor Fiendess answered: 『 As per orders of her majesty, you are now the Master of Bai Hua sect. From now on, all of us will heed your orders 』

She knelt down first, followed by Li An and the rest of the Tianma girls, lowering their heads respectfully towards Gu Qing Shan.

Qing Rou and Wan Er also exchanged glances, then bowed: “Sect master, we will heed your orders”

Gu Qing Shan turned to Qin Xiao Lou.

Qin Xiao Lou practically leapt forward to grab his sleeves, asking while practically crying: “Qing Shan, Shifu told us to explore the void, but what exactly should we do?”

Gu Qing Shan put a hand on his shoulder and asked in a light tone: “Xiao Lou, will you listen to my orders?”

Qin Xiao Lou clenched his teeth and replied: “Of course I will!”

Gu Qing Shan casually replied: “Very well, then tell me everything that had happened when the two Shifu met each other; I want to know each of their expressions, each of their gestures, and every sentence they say down to the exact letter without anything missing. If you miss so much as a single word, it’ll be considered a great disrespect to our sect, no, to our master, and I’ll have you answer for it!”

“Understood!” Qin Xiao Lou answered.

He then described in detail everything that occurred that day.

Once he was finished, Gu Qing Shan made everyone else give their inputs to supplement it as well.

Everyone put their heads together to report everything they can remember to Gu Qing Shan.

After listening to them, Gu Qing Shan turned around and came back into the palace hall and spoke without turning his head: “Before I leave, nobody should disturb me”

The gates were then closed.

Everyone stood outside the gates, exchanging confused looks.

『 What is the sect master doing? 』the Progenitor Fiendess couldn’t help but ask.

She turned to the disciples of Bai Hua sect.

Qin Xiao Lou’s expression remained sorrowful with the corners of his eyes red from holding back his tears, not saying a word.

Wan Er and Qing Rou exchanged glances.

Qing Rou muttered: “He doesn’t want to accept this”

…

Gu Qing Shan walked until he reached the end of the palace hall and sat facing the wall.

He had fallen into thought.

Time slowly passed.

Several hours had gone by without a sound.

“Both of their gestures, words, and attitude… did not show any issues…”

“It was only after the Progenitor Fiendess showed up that Shifu’s attitude displayed a clear change…”

Gu Qing Shan slowly wrote a few words on the wall with his finger:

[The deers call out, eating apples in the field;

We have an honored guest, zithers and bamboo flutes blow;

As clear as moonlight, but when can we meet;

From such worries grow, never to cease]

He silently read through this poem.

After a while he muttered to himself: “The Progenitor Fiendess said that this was a poem from a mortal world without any considerable backgrounds or secrets”

——-then what was it that Shifu wanted to be reminded of that she made the Progenitor Fiendess remember this poem?

Why didn’t she simply commit it to memory herself?

Could there be some sort of secret hidden here that would endanger her life?

This was a mortal world’s poem, but Shifu specifically took out such an excerpt from it.

Considering Shifu’s circumstances, how should I decipher this?

Gu Qing Shan turned towards the first line of the poem——

[The deers call out, eating apples in the field]

Deers…

He hesitated briefly before writing a few words next to the poem:

[Competition of heroes¹]

Who can be considered ‘heroes’?

And what kind of event could be considered a competition of heroes?

He raised his hands and continued to write:

[Samsara Clash for Supremacy]

After writing that, he turned his gaze towards the latter half of the sentence.

[—–eating apples in the field]

Eating.

Eating means eating.

Eating what?

Apples in the field.

—–who’s eating?

Gu Qing Shan stared blankly at these words, slowly feeling a chill crawl down his spine.