Edited by: Juicetin
Proofreader: Arya
The arcs of lightning in the sky were getting thicker and thicker, striking down one after another.
Gu Qing Shan turned up the volume in his earbuds, swinging his swords to create blinding sword phantoms that destroyed the striking lightning.
This battle has gone on for about half a day.
The Tribulation lightning hadn’t stopped.
But the rain did.
Gu Qing Shan’s face changed.
The rain just HAD to stop in the middle of his Ascension, not any later or sooner.
Whenever the rain stops, the world would always be met with a great unknown change.
New monsters, new disasters will appear to devour all of humanity’s civilization.
But it’s already at the moment when the Tribulation is most intense, even someone like Gu Qing Shan couldn’t take his mind off for other things right now.
Gu Qing Shan gritted his teeth and used a Secret Art.
[Drawn Shadow]
An endlessly blooming flower of black sword shadows appeared, making short work of the approaching lightning.
Only now did Gu Qing Shan have a short moment to take out his Holo-Brain.
“Impartial Goddess”
[I’m here sir]
“Are there any other places in the world that’s still raining?”
[The rain has fully stopped]
“Immediately gather data from all satellites around the world, display any abnormal situation on the screen for me”
[Sir, everything is as normal, there are no anomalies]
Gu Qing Shan was stunned.
Nothing?
How is that possible?
In the past life, whenever the rain stops, there would always be a disaster that follows immediately after.
“Nothing happened yet?”
[Everything is normal]
While they talked, the blooming black sword shadows had already dissipated as the lightning came striking down once again.
Gu Qing Shan couldn’t help but put the Holo-Brain away and swung his sword to disperse the Tribulation lightning.
“Just what could it be? Damn it!” Gu Qing Shan said irritated.
But he can’t actually do anything right now.
There was no more rain in the sky, but the thick Tribulation clouds were still silently gathering, increasing in power.
There was no rain, no wind, only a devastating lightning storm that didn’t stop.
Gu Qing Shan couldn’t do anything but calm himself down and raise his sword.
About half an hour later.
The downpour suddenly restarted and persisted without end.
It’s raining again.
Gu Qing Shan stood completely stunned in the rain, his heart beating chaotically.
The rain poured without any mercy.
As the thick droplets of water fell, it was visually quickening, the noise becomes deafening.
The frigid wind once again started to blow as the downpour pelted the sandy ground around him.
The rain should’ve already stopped. According to his knowledge from the past life, after the rain stopped to signify the coming of a calamity, there shouldn’t be any rain that follows for a short period of time.
But now, the rain had restarted.
This is something that hadn’t happened in the past life!
Could it be, two calamities will follow each other and erupt at the same time?!
Distracted by his dread, Gu Qing Shan almost got hit by an arc of lightning.
The arc slipped through a hole in the weave of sword phantom he created and struck him.
When Gu Qing Shan managed to react and raised his sword again, it was already too late.
[Shadow Shift]!
The Tribulation lightning fell onto the ground behind him.
———booom!
The desert itself was being blown away by the impact, shaking as the wind and rain water shifted a dune of sand like a real wave in the sea.
“I can’t keep going like this, no more distractions”
Gu Qing Shan knew very well that his mental state shouldn’t be disturbed right now.
Facing the Tribulation, he had to fully concentrate and not get distracted by any calamity that’s about to come.
He tapped his Inventory Bag.
A light golden armor donned on himself.
“Impartial Goddess”
[I’m here]
“Change the music to Rock ‘n’ Roll”
[Didn’t you say you need calming music sir?]
“Right now, I need to hold my spirit together”
[Understood]
The drumming, guitar riffs and screaming quickly came.
Gu Qing Shan ate a Spirit Replenishment pill.
“Temporarily, I can’t be distracted by anything. Keep your eyes close on the world situation, if anything out of the ordinary happens, immediately report to me” Gu Qing Shan said.
[Understood sir] Impartial Goddess replied.
Another arc of lightning came down, this time, Gu Qing Shan held up his sword to fully concentrate on dealing with it.
Time slowly passed.
The long day was finally over.
When Gu Qing Shan started his Ascension, it was nighttime.
And when he finished, it was nighttime again.
The Tribulation clouds started dispersing.
Only the hailstorm was still pelting the ground.
Gu Qing Shan closed his eyes to feel the overflowing power inside himself.
After a while, he opened his eyes again.
From today onwards, he’s an Ascended realm cultivator.
Gu Qing Shan won’t need to run away from the Pope again if he meets her.
Although his opponent still has the advantage of numerous types of God’s Chosen Skills, Gu Qing Shan is still a sword cultivator
One sword to deal with all problems.
They can actually just fight it out to see who truly is the stronger person.
Gu Qing Shan stood still, waiting for a few breaths.
But his soul vessel still didn’t leave his body to move into the space vortex.
“Hm? Strange, its wounds haven’t healed yet?” Gu Qing Shan muttered.
This is a very normal breakthrough, but the 100,000 years’ giant corpse didn’t act to pull him into the space vortex.
Being able to breakthrough without any problems, Gu Qing Shan actually felt a bit strange.
Last time, after revealing the huge secret to him, the corpse seemed to have received quite an intense lightning shock.
Looks like the wounds were quite serious, enough for it to not have enough strength to take me to it yet.
Gu Qing Shan owes the corpse two favors.
Not only did it tell Gu Qing Shan about the secret between worlds, it even gave advice regarding Bai Hua Fairy’s destiny.
Yet this type of existence was being imprisoned in a sub-world, unable to even move or struggle.
Just who imprisoned it?
Gu Qing Shan shook his head, knowing that he still doesn’t have the qualifications to interfere with this yet.
He can only wait until he becomes stronger in the future to think of a way to rescue it.
While Gu Qing Shan was thinking, he heard a chime.
[Ting]!
It came from the War God UI.
[Detected user to have successfully broken through to Ascended realm]
[User maximum Soul Points increased to 300]
[User can now awaken Sword Manipulation]
[To awaken Sword Manipulation, required Soul Points is 500, would you like to awaken it?]
Sword Manipulation is the foundation of being a Sword Saint, the most basic of all techniques, it is mandatory to be able to use this technique if one is to walk further on the path of the Sword Saint.
Gu Qing Shan answered: “Awaken”
[User has spent 500 Soul Points, Sword Manipulation awakened]
[Remaining Soul Points: 6810/300]
[Because user has grasped Sword Manipulation, Secret Art: Silver Star can be awakened]
[To awaken Secret Art: Silver Star, Soul Points cost: 110]
[Would you like to spend 110 Soul Points to awaken Secret Art, Silver Star?]
“Awaken”
[Remaining Soul Points: 6700/300]
[Secret Art, Silver Star has been awakened]
After awakening both [Sword Manipulation] and [Silver Star], Gu Qing Shan had become much stronger.
This life, he had finally made it back to the realm of Ascended, once again standing at the large gate.
Gu Qing Shan began to slowly savor the scenes of his memory.
Then he suddenly made a hand seal.
[Sword Manipulation]
The Earth Sword turned into a streak of light, dancing back and forth in the sky.
Gu Qing Shan changed his hand seal.
5 shining sword phantoms suddenly appeared from the Earth Sword’s shaft, jetting through the sky like falling stars and disappeared in a bright flash.
Boom, boom!
The sword phantoms stabbed into the desert floor, creating 5 craters.
The strikes were so deep that the sand around tried to flow down to cover them up, but couldn’t manage to do so in a short time.
This is Secret Art, [Silver Star], which can only be invoked through [Sword Manipulation].
At this point, Gu Qing Shan now has a grasp on a total of 7 Secret Arts, in order, they are [Water Flow Severance], [Crescent Slash], [Seven Stars Flowing Dragon], [Drawn Shadow], [Swallow Return], [Torrent], [Silver Star].
Gu Qing Shan changed his hand seal again.
The Earth Sword flew back into his hand.
Gu Qing Shan stood holding his sword, looking at the deep craters with a complicated look on his face.
So I have finally managed to take the first step into the realm of Sword Saint.
But invoking sword strikes with hand seals is nothing but the very first basic.
As a Sword Saint, one thought is all it takes to summon a thousand swords.
In the cultivation world, despite how many Ascended realm late stage sword cultivators there were, many couldn’t advance to become a Sword Saint.
There used to be a Sainted realm sword cultivator, but even he wasn’t considered a Sword Saint.
This isn’t a matter of cultivation.
Only when a person’s swordsmanship reached a high enough point, their understanding and control of the sword taking that final leap to the next level, will they truly evolve into a Sword Saint.
To become a Sword Saint, talent, foundation, comprehension, opportunity and effort, all of these are required.
In the entire cultivation world, there were over billions of players, but only a mere 10 of them were Sword Saints.
But Sword Saints very rarely use their true power.
Because what follows the overwhelming strength of their swordsmanship is the immense energy cost.
One person once estimated that in order to fight as a Sword Saint for one full minute, they’d need the total spirit energy reserve of a Sainted realm cultivator.
But in the game, the amount of experience required to reach Sainted realm was despair-inducing.
No player had ever managed to reach Sainted realm.
Because of that, the power of a Sword Saint is usually only seen for a split second, a single burst like a fireworks explosion.
Following that, they would be too drained to fight.
———clearly, they had overwhelmingly powerful sword techniques, but no spirit energy to support the Sword Saints’ abilities over the drawn-out battles that they’re most accustomed to. This feeling of powerlessness and frustration could drive anyone mad.
In the past life, this was called the Sword Saints’ sorrow.
