1816

1818 An offering to the flag

TN: the title refers to a practice in ancient Chinese culture, whenever an army is going out on a decisive battle, the commander would bring out a “sacrifice” (usually an important person from the opposing force that they took prisoner during a previous battle) and execute them in front of his army, thus “offering” that person to the flag of their army to boost the morale of troops.

——–

In the void.

The black dragon slowly transformed and turned back into Gu Qing Shan.

“I’ve not been able to contact you the entire time, so I have no idea how you currently are—– where are you right now?” Gu Qing Shan asked.

The scale gently shivered, but didn’t give a reply.

Gu Qing Shan thought briefly and lightly tapped the scale instead.

The scale suddenly came apart and manifested into a vision.

Huang Quan.

It was the world of Huang Quan.

A large opening had opened up in the sky, from which numerous weapons, armors, and treasures that gave off an immense presence flew into the Huang Quan realm.

All of them were heading towards the Hall of Reincarnation.

All of a sudden, a sword from among them shifted and moved, trying to escape from the crowd of numerous treasures.

It gave off a gentle but loud ring as it approached the Forgetting River.

The water of the Forgetting River suddenly flew up and gently enveloped it in an attempt to take it into the river.

Unfortunately.

Even with the Forgetting River’s help, this sword still couldn’t escape the same invisible force that was pulling it towards the Hall of Reincarnation.

The sword gave off a wail filled with unwillingness.

At this point, another sword emerged from within the numerous treasures.

It was a sword that appeared almost like an autumn river’s flow.

As it suddenly flew out, it struck the first sword with a considerable amount of force.

“Go!”

An aloof female voice resounded.

The first sword was immediately sent flying as it submerged within the Forgetting River surrounded by its water.

It was free!

The sword floated to the top of the river and loudly called out with an expectant tone towards the sky.

In the sky, the autumn river blue-steel sword rang out a single time.

A lonely female voice spoke from the sword: “I am a sword of the Samsara, representing a Samsara Deific Authority; I must first return to be sealed, as the Laws of the Samsara Clash for Supremacy dictates”

“—–stay here and wait for gongzi to arrive”

“At that time, you will once again come into his hands, pass the numerous difficult trials, triumph against all enemies, and then… awaken me once again”

“Gongzi will surely come”

“He will definitely come!”

After saying that, the autumn river blue-steel sword returned to the massive flow of treasures and entered the Hall of Reincarnation with them.

Only the first sword remained above the water of the Forgetting River.

After staying silent for a few moments, it suddenly gave off a resolute ring.

The waters of the Forgetting River silently moved apart.

The sword flew deeper into the river before vanishing out of sight.

And the vision ceased.

The giant corpse’s voice slowly sounded:

“There are things that I cannot tell you”

“But I have hidden several secrets with your sword”

“…Go, retrieve the sword from within the Forgetting River, I will buy you some time and temporarily ensure that Huang Quan won’t be disturbed…”

“This is our only chance, Gu Qing Shan”

“I’ll leave it to you!”

After these words, everything vanished without a trace, as if nothing had happened at all.

Gu Qing Shan then felt the fish hook abruptly speeding up.

At the very next instant, the scenery around him changed.

He found himself violently crashing into a cold stony surface.

Two voices cheered:

“Rhode is back!”

“We finally managed to save him, that’s great!”

Gu Qing Shan slowly pulled himself back up and looked around.

Only to see that Xiao Lang and Liu Li had respectively put their fishing rod and glazed lamp away, both with an excited expression on their faces.

“You guys… how were you able to save me?” Gu Qing Shan asked.

“Huang Quan bestowed us a great deal of Merits, allowing us to promote our Deific Authorities as well as our strength, so we combined our powers to invoke a Divine Skill to retrieve you” Xiao Lang explained.

Liu Li waved her hands dismissively: “No need to thank us, it’s just that uncle is such a good meal ticket that we can’t just lose you like that”

Gu Qing Shan felt a sense of warmth from the bottom of his heart and smiled: “Thanks a lot, both of you”

He began to observe his surroundings and found that this was one of the side halls of the Hall of Reincarnation; there were several Deities with various equipment and tools in their hands, seemingly trying to assess something.

Their gazes were filled with caution.

One of the Deities stood ahead of them all, seemingly the one in charge of this matter.

Noticing Gu Qing Shan’s gaze, Xiao Lang explained: “It’s ok, they’re just worried that we might have carelessly summoned the enemy here as well”

“They might ask you a few questions, just answer honestly” Liu Li added.

As soon as they said that, the leader Deity approached.

「 Rhode, there is a worry of an unknown monster attaching itself to you and trying to sneak into this realm; furthermore, we also want to collect data about your battle, so I will be asking you a few questions 」

The Deity began to operate a jade tray in his hand while solemnly explaining to him.

“Got it” Gu Qing Shan said.

「 Your task 」

“A suicide mission”

「 Please explain in detail your combat situation 」

Gu Qing Shan then explained everything from beginning to end.

The Deity nodded continuously, then finally sighed: 「 Part of the reason why you were able to survive was that the monster underestimated you, only leaving its subordinates to kill you; the other part was that your improvisation abilities were impressive, and finally that the two Deities here saved you 」

“Does that count as deserting?” Gu Qing Shan asked.

「 If it did, you would have been dead as soon as you returned—— no one can deceive the Laws of Huang Quan 」the Deity replied.

He then curiously asked: 「 How come when that monster chanted the same incantation, it was still restrained and was unable to escape like you did? 」

“Ah, about that. Actually, that incantation requires a corresponding catalyst in order to invoke; since that monster only chanted the incantation, it naturally couldn’t escape” Gu Qing Shan explained.

He casually showed him a Card.

The Card depicted a group of impoverished people whose entire bodies were clad in tattered clothes while being surrounded by fog, all of which were kneeling while praying devoutly to the sky; in the air above, a man with wings of light was looking down pitiably on them while radiating brilliant white light.

Indeed, this was a Card from the Condemnation Codex, the evolved form of [Divine Word – Cleanse].

When he first saw the starlight enemies, when the Book of the Sea said that he still owed ‘3000 years of debt’, it automatically flipped open to display this Card to him.

Being the shrewd person that he was, Gu Qing Shan naturally understood what it wanted to say.

Since the Saint Pillar book didn’t explain anything, it was obviously something that couldn’t be revealed.

But even though it didn’t say anything, it handed him this Card, which shows that it still wanted to help Gu Qing Shan.

After all, with it previously being the Condemnation Codex, it had accompanied him for a very long time.

—-it wasn’t until Gu Qing Shan found both of the Death God Pendants that it was awoken.

The Deity nodded and looked down at his jade tray.

The tray was completely empty, as pristine as new.

The Deity declared: 「 Very well, there are no issues, you can leave now 」

He stowed the jade tray away and whispered: 「 You may leave—– by the way, there might be some minor trouble when you leave the Hall of Reincarnation, if you can’t deal with it yourself, simply call out and our people will appear 」

Gu Qing Shan felt surprised, but nodded: “Thank you very much”

The Deities all retreated.

Only the three members of the Hells Department remained in the side hall.

Xiao Lang held up her fishing rod and muttered anxiously: “What kind of trouble is it exactly?”

Gu Qing Shan whispered under his breath: “Since the people of the Hall of Reincarnation didn’t say anything clearly, they probably want to see whether or not we can resolve it ourselves as well as display our mettle as their cooperators—– I believe it won’t be anything especially big”

The three of them left the side hall and entered the main hall.

There were still as many people here as it has ever been, lively and crowded.

All of a sudden, somebody called out: 『 The people of the Hells Department are here! 』

Over ten people swiftly gathered and surrounded the three of them.

“What’s the matter?” Gu Qing Shan calmly asked.

A burly man with a ferocious face stood out and grunted: 「 You bunch in Hell are sure good at your jobs, you took our Merits, but two of my subordinates didn’t return after going out for their tasks! 」

Gu Qing Shan thought briefly and just chuckled: “There are specific machines responsible for matters like these, you should go and ask them if you have any questions”

The burly man angrily shouted: 「 You’re still laughing? This is two lives we’re talking about! If you can’t give us a clear explanation, don’t even think about leaving! 」

『 That’s right, don’t think that’s the end! 』

“You people must have done something wrong that Hell didn’t rescue our people”

「 Don’t let them run! 」

Everyone called out with dissatisfaction one after another.

More and more people were gathering around, giving Gu Qing Shan displeased looks as they understood what happened.

Gu Qing Shan chuckled again and replied: “The only condition I set for not rescuing someone was if there was an issue with their credibility, everyone else——- even if they only had a single point of Merit, would still be rescued”

“You probably still don’t get it, this is Huang Quan”

「 So what if this is Huang Quan?” 」the burly sternly scoffed.

“That’s right, no matter what world it is, justice still exists”

『 Frauds aren’t welcome anywhere! 』

Everyone else called out one after another.

Gu Qing Shan looked around, then slowly said: “All living beings must return to Huang Quan to be judged after death. Did you really think that transferring your Merits ahead of time, or any other tricks you came up with could actually escape Huang Quan’s eyes? Know that everything is within the calculations of the Huang Quan machines, as they are the manifestation of Huang Quan’s will itself”

“You reap what you sow, don’t come crying to me”

After saying that, Gu Qing Shan began to leave with the two girls.

The only thing he wanted to do was head out in search of Chao Yin, not to mention the Primal Chaos’ feedback that he hadn’t checked, so he really didn’t have time to waste here with these people.

But those people still surrounded them without moving out of the way.

「 I don’t believe you, you can’t leave 」the burly man said.

“Why is that?” Gu Qing Shan asked.

「 Those people died under your care, if you can’t give a satisfactory explanation, don’t even think about leaving the Hall of Reincarnation today! 」the burly man grunted.

“And what explanation do you want?” Gu Qing Shan asked again.

「 Merits. Reimburse our Merits 」the burly man said.

Gu Qing Shan silently laughed.

“You bunch… actually came up with the idea of asking Hell for reimbursement… Very well, today I’ll make an offering to the flag of Hell, just to make sure people know that after I came, Hell is no longer the same Hell of the past”

With the giant corpse’s words as assurance, he took out the Delimitation Divine Sword without worry.

「 So you want to fight? 」the burly man seemed excited.

Gu Qing Shan didn’t even bother to look at him before stowing his sword away and openly left with the two girls.

The burly man didn’t try to give chase.

He and the subordinates around them stood completely still without moving.

Beads of cold sweat as big as peanuts suddenly appeared on his face.

「 Quickly, someone give me medical treatment! I’ll pay with Merits! 」

He loudly shouted.

Everyone took a closer look at him.

Only to see that there were subtle lines of blood at the connecting joints between his extremities and his torso.

It turned out that during his last question, all of his extremities had already been cut off.

——-because of how fast the sword strikes were, they were still temporarily ‘connected’ to his body without falling off.

And it was the same with the rest of his subordinates.

All the surrounding Combatants burst out in laughter.

Not only did they fail to throw a tantrum for compensation, they were even taught a lesson, so it was certainly something worth laughing at.

Very quickly.

Some Combatants who were good at healing took Merits as payment and patched them back together.

“—–That Rhode fellow is quite the swordsman, don’t try to mess with him again” a Combatant tried to give them some friendly advice.

「 Tch, I was only trying to discuss business with him, so I didn’t expect him to act so ferociously. I’ll make him pay for this 」the burly man declared, clearly irritated.

“That’s right!”

「 We’ll follow you, boss 」

『 We have to get justice on our side! 』

His subordinates swiftly followed up.

All of a sudden, several illusory swords manifested out of nowhere.

Before anyone could react, these illusory swords had already pierced through their heads.

Their complaints instantly ceased.

All of them were dead on the spot.

—–without being able to defend against it at all.

The entire rowdy hall gradually fell silent.

Seeing how they died, as well as how the illusory swords faded away, none of them could say anything.

“They already left and another strike still came”

Somebody muttered to themselves.

The top Combatants who were there all had solemn expressions on their faces.

With their experienced eyes, they were naturally able to see how impressive that final strike was.

Ordinary people could only pray that they weren’t on the receiving end of this strike, otherwise, the only possible outcome was a one-way trip to reincarnation.

——this was an infallible Causality sword technique.

The sword technique from the Bygone Era.

[Causeless].

1818 An offering to the flag

TN: the title refers to a practice in ancient Chinese culture, whenever an army is going out on a decisive battle, the commander would bring out a “sacrifice” (usually an important person from the opposing force that they took prisoner during a previous battle) and execute them in front of his army, thus “offering” that person to the flag of their army to boost the morale of troops.

——–

In the void.

The black dragon slowly transformed and turned back into Gu Qing Shan.

“I’ve not been able to contact you the entire time, so I have no idea how you currently are—– where are you right now?” Gu Qing Shan asked.

The scale gently shivered, but didn’t give a reply.

Gu Qing Shan thought briefly and lightly tapped the scale instead.

The scale suddenly came apart and manifested into a vision.

Huang Quan.

It was the world of Huang Quan.

A large opening had opened up in the sky, from which numerous weapons, armors, and treasures that gave off an immense presence flew into the Huang Quan realm.

All of them were heading towards the Hall of Reincarnation.

All of a sudden, a sword from among them shifted and moved, trying to escape from the crowd of numerous treasures.

It gave off a gentle but loud ring as it approached the Forgetting River.

The water of the Forgetting River suddenly flew up and gently enveloped it in an attempt to take it into the river.

Unfortunately.

Even with the Forgetting River’s help, this sword still couldn’t escape the same invisible force that was pulling it towards the Hall of Reincarnation.

The sword gave off a wail filled with unwillingness.

At this point, another sword emerged from within the numerous treasures.

It was a sword that appeared almost like an autumn river’s flow.

As it suddenly flew out, it struck the first sword with a considerable amount of force.

“Go!”

An aloof female voice resounded.

The first sword was immediately sent flying as it submerged within the Forgetting River surrounded by its water.

It was free!

The sword floated to the top of the river and loudly called out with an expectant tone towards the sky.

In the sky, the autumn river blue-steel sword rang out a single time.

A lonely female voice spoke from the sword: “I am a sword of the Samsara, representing a Samsara Deific Authority; I must first return to be sealed, as the Laws of the Samsara Clash for Supremacy dictates”

“—–stay here and wait for gongzi to arrive”

“At that time, you will once again come into his hands, pass the numerous difficult trials, triumph against all enemies, and then… awaken me once again”

“Gongzi will surely come”

“He will definitely come!”

After saying that, the autumn river blue-steel sword returned to the massive flow of treasures and entered the Hall of Reincarnation with them.

Only the first sword remained above the water of the Forgetting River.

After staying silent for a few moments, it suddenly gave off a resolute ring.

The waters of the Forgetting River silently moved apart.

The sword flew deeper into the river before vanishing out of sight.

And the vision ceased.

The giant corpse’s voice slowly sounded:

“There are things that I cannot tell you”

“But I have hidden several secrets with your sword”

“…Go, retrieve the sword from within the Forgetting River, I will buy you some time and temporarily ensure that Huang Quan won’t be disturbed…”

“This is our only chance, Gu Qing Shan”

“I’ll leave it to you!”

After these words, everything vanished without a trace, as if nothing had happened at all.

Gu Qing Shan then felt the fish hook abruptly speeding up.

At the very next instant, the scenery around him changed.

He found himself violently crashing into a cold stony surface.

Two voices cheered:

“Rhode is back!”

“We finally managed to save him, that’s great!”

Gu Qing Shan slowly pulled himself back up and looked around.

Only to see that Xiao Lang and Liu Li had respectively put their fishing rod and glazed lamp away, both with an excited expression on their faces.

“You guys… how were you able to save me?” Gu Qing Shan asked.

“Huang Quan bestowed us a great deal of Merits, allowing us to promote our Deific Authorities as well as our strength, so we combined our powers to invoke a Divine Skill to retrieve you” Xiao Lang explained.

Liu Li waved her hands dismissively: “No need to thank us, it’s just that uncle is such a good meal ticket that we can’t just lose you like that”

Gu Qing Shan felt a sense of warmth from the bottom of his heart and smiled: “Thanks a lot, both of you”

He began to observe his surroundings and found that this was one of the side halls of the Hall of Reincarnation; there were several Deities with various equipment and tools in their hands, seemingly trying to assess something.

Their gazes were filled with caution.

One of the Deities stood ahead of them all, seemingly the one in charge of this matter.

Noticing Gu Qing Shan’s gaze, Xiao Lang explained: “It’s ok, they’re just worried that we might have carelessly summoned the enemy here as well”

“They might ask you a few questions, just answer honestly” Liu Li added.

As soon as they said that, the leader Deity approached.

「 Rhode, there is a worry of an unknown monster attaching itself to you and trying to sneak into this realm; furthermore, we also want to collect data about your battle, so I will be asking you a few questions 」

The Deity began to operate a jade tray in his hand while solemnly explaining to him.

“Got it” Gu Qing Shan said.

「 Your task 」

“A suicide mission”

「 Please explain in detail your combat situation 」

Gu Qing Shan then explained everything from beginning to end.

The Deity nodded continuously, then finally sighed: 「 Part of the reason why you were able to survive was that the monster underestimated you, only leaving its subordinates to kill you; the other part was that your improvisation abilities were impressive, and finally that the two Deities here saved you 」

“Does that count as deserting?” Gu Qing Shan asked.

「 If it did, you would have been dead as soon as you returned—— no one can deceive the Laws of Huang Quan 」the Deity replied.

He then curiously asked: 「 How come when that monster chanted the same incantation, it was still restrained and was unable to escape like you did? 」

“Ah, about that. Actually, that incantation requires a corresponding catalyst in order to invoke; since that monster only chanted the incantation, it naturally couldn’t escape” Gu Qing Shan explained.

He casually showed him a Card.

The Card depicted a group of impoverished people whose entire bodies were clad in tattered clothes while being surrounded by fog, all of which were kneeling while praying devoutly to the sky; in the air above, a man with wings of light was looking down pitiably on them while radiating brilliant white light.

Indeed, this was a Card from the Condemnation Codex, the evolved form of [Divine Word – Cleanse].

When he first saw the starlight enemies, when the Book of the Sea said that he still owed ‘3000 years of debt’, it automatically flipped open to display this Card to him.

Being the shrewd person that he was, Gu Qing Shan naturally understood what it wanted to say.

Since the Saint Pillar book didn’t explain anything, it was obviously something that couldn’t be revealed.

But even though it didn’t say anything, it handed him this Card, which shows that it still wanted to help Gu Qing Shan.

After all, with it previously being the Condemnation Codex, it had accompanied him for a very long time.

—-it wasn’t until Gu Qing Shan found both of the Death God Pendants that it was awoken.

The Deity nodded and looked down at his jade tray.

The tray was completely empty, as pristine as new.

The Deity declared: 「 Very well, there are no issues, you can leave now 」

He stowed the jade tray away and whispered: 「 You may leave—– by the way, there might be some minor trouble when you leave the Hall of Reincarnation, if you can’t deal with it yourself, simply call out and our people will appear 」

Gu Qing Shan felt surprised, but nodded: “Thank you very much”

The Deities all retreated.

Only the three members of the Hells Department remained in the side hall.

Xiao Lang held up her fishing rod and muttered anxiously: “What kind of trouble is it exactly?”

Gu Qing Shan whispered under his breath: “Since the people of the Hall of Reincarnation didn’t say anything clearly, they probably want to see whether or not we can resolve it ourselves as well as display our mettle as their cooperators—– I believe it won’t be anything especially big”

The three of them left the side hall and entered the main hall.

There were still as many people here as it has ever been, lively and crowded.

All of a sudden, somebody called out: 『 The people of the Hells Department are here! 』

Over ten people swiftly gathered and surrounded the three of them.

“What’s the matter?” Gu Qing Shan calmly asked.

A burly man with a ferocious face stood out and grunted: 「 You bunch in Hell are sure good at your jobs, you took our Merits, but two of my subordinates didn’t return after going out for their tasks! 」

Gu Qing Shan thought briefly and just chuckled: “There are specific machines responsible for matters like these, you should go and ask them if you have any questions”

The burly man angrily shouted: 「 You’re still laughing? This is two lives we’re talking about! If you can’t give us a clear explanation, don’t even think about leaving! 」

『 That’s right, don’t think that’s the end! 』

“You people must have done something wrong that Hell didn’t rescue our people”

「 Don’t let them run! 」

Everyone called out with dissatisfaction one after another.

More and more people were gathering around, giving Gu Qing Shan displeased looks as they understood what happened.

Gu Qing Shan chuckled again and replied: “The only condition I set for not rescuing someone was if there was an issue with their credibility, everyone else——- even if they only had a single point of Merit, would still be rescued”

“You probably still don’t get it, this is Huang Quan”

「 So what if this is Huang Quan?” 」the burly sternly scoffed.

“That’s right, no matter what world it is, justice still exists”

『 Frauds aren’t welcome anywhere! 』

Everyone else called out one after another.

Gu Qing Shan looked around, then slowly said: “All living beings must return to Huang Quan to be judged after death. Did you really think that transferring your Merits ahead of time, or any other tricks you came up with could actually escape Huang Quan’s eyes? Know that everything is within the calculations of the Huang Quan machines, as they are the manifestation of Huang Quan’s will itself”

“You reap what you sow, don’t come crying to me”

After saying that, Gu Qing Shan began to leave with the two girls.

The only thing he wanted to do was head out in search of Chao Yin, not to mention the Primal Chaos’ feedback that he hadn’t checked, so he really didn’t have time to waste here with these people.

But those people still surrounded them without moving out of the way.

「 I don’t believe you, you can’t leave 」the burly man said.

“Why is that?” Gu Qing Shan asked.

「 Those people died under your care, if you can’t give a satisfactory explanation, don’t even think about leaving the Hall of Reincarnation today! 」the burly man grunted.

“And what explanation do you want?” Gu Qing Shan asked again.

「 Merits. Reimburse our Merits 」the burly man said.

Gu Qing Shan silently laughed.

“You bunch… actually came up with the idea of asking Hell for reimbursement… Very well, today I’ll make an offering to the flag of Hell, just to make sure people know that after I came, Hell is no longer the same Hell of the past”

With the giant corpse’s words as assurance, he took out the Delimitation Divine Sword without worry.

「 So you want to fight? 」the burly man seemed excited.

Gu Qing Shan didn’t even bother to look at him before stowing his sword away and openly left with the two girls.

The burly man didn’t try to give chase.

He and the subordinates around them stood completely still without moving.

Beads of cold sweat as big as peanuts suddenly appeared on his face.

「 Quickly, someone give me medical treatment! I’ll pay with Merits! 」

He loudly shouted.

Everyone took a closer look at him.

Only to see that there were subtle lines of blood at the connecting joints between his extremities and his torso.

It turned out that during his last question, all of his extremities had already been cut off.

——-because of how fast the sword strikes were, they were still temporarily ‘connected’ to his body without falling off.

And it was the same with the rest of his subordinates.

All the surrounding Combatants burst out in laughter.

Not only did they fail to throw a tantrum for compensation, they were even taught a lesson, so it was certainly something worth laughing at.

Very quickly.

Some Combatants who were good at healing took Merits as payment and patched them back together.

“—–That Rhode fellow is quite the swordsman, don’t try to mess with him again” a Combatant tried to give them some friendly advice.

「 Tch, I was only trying to discuss business with him, so I didn’t expect him to act so ferociously. I’ll make him pay for this 」the burly man declared, clearly irritated.

“That’s right!”

「 We’ll follow you, boss 」

『 We have to get justice on our side! 』

His subordinates swiftly followed up.

All of a sudden, several illusory swords manifested out of nowhere.

Before anyone could react, these illusory swords had already pierced through their heads.

Their complaints instantly ceased.

All of them were dead on the spot.

—–without being able to defend against it at all.

The entire rowdy hall gradually fell silent.

Seeing how they died, as well as how the illusory swords faded away, none of them could say anything.

“They already left and another strike still came”

Somebody muttered to themselves.

The top Combatants who were there all had solemn expressions on their faces.

With their experienced eyes, they were naturally able to see how impressive that final strike was.

Ordinary people could only pray that they weren’t on the receiving end of this strike, otherwise, the only possible outcome was a one-way trip to reincarnation.

——this was an infallible Causality sword technique.

The sword technique from the Bygone Era.

[Causeless].