Proofreader: Arya
Even a Cryptic realm cultivator wasn’t a match.
If that was the case, the realm demon’s power is insurmountable.
While Gu Qing Shan was thinking, he noticed something.
The chains that bound both Wan Er and Qing Rou were starting to tighten.
Both of these beautiful women scowled in pain as the shackles squeezed them.
Their restraints just got empowered.
“What’s going on?” he asked in a low voice.
“Because it’s currently Danger Hour, the cultivators of this world are most afraid of us slaves rioting at this time” Qing Rou answered.
Wan Er added: “During Danger Hour, no matter how powerful they are, they can’t use spirit energy to fight back, otherwise it’ll attract the realm demon”
“Which means mutual death” Gu Qing Shan nodded in understanding.
He does recall reading something like that in the information he was given.
The slaves who didn’t want to endure torture anymore suddenly rioted during Danger Hour, taking over a dozen cultivators to be eaten by the realm demon with them.
This caused cultivators of this world to become much more cautious.
The result of that were these restraint shackles that automatically binds the slaves tighter during Danger Hour, ensuring that they weren’t able to use any power at all.
These shackles were very intricately made, even Bai Hua Fairy had said that she wasn’t able to resist or undo them.
Gu Qing Shan suddenly realized something.
“When Danger Hour comes, does the cultivators not have any way to survive except going into the quarantine formations in time?” Gu Qing Shan asked.
“You can use Presence Concealment Techniques to ensure that not even a single bit of spirit energy escapes, otherwise if you’re noticed by the unconscious offshoots, there’s only death waiting” Qing Rou answered.
Shannu who has been silently listening on one side now appeared to be a bit anxious.
She asked in a low voice: “Gongzi, this world is too dangerous, do you really want to think of a way to save this world?”
“Save this world?” Gu Qing Shan was surprised, “why would I want to save it?”
Shannu looks at Qing Rou and Wan Er and answered: “Because of what you’ve always done, so I thought you’d do the same here as well”
When Gu Qing Shan heard that, he smiled: “First of all, I probably don’t have the ability to do that”
“Second, I’ve already understood the nature of this world, the people here only respect killing and slavery”
He gestured to Qing Rou and Wan Er with his chin.
“Useless people are killed, as for them——– only beautiful women like them are taken in as slaves and left alive, if only for a while”
“I have killed a lot of people, but I abhor this type of behavior”
Gu Qing Shan’s tone became indifferent: “Such a world should just be left to die”
Shannu nodded as she fell into contemplation.
Gu Qing Shan’s gaze fell downwards as he lightly touched the rocks on the ground.
“This quarantine formation is the most precious thing in Qi Yan’s entire private island?” he asked in thought.
“That’s right, formations like these are extremely valuable, the most valuable thing in this entire world” Qing Rou told him.
After hearing his words, her expression became slightly warm.
Although his cultivation wasn’t very high, but the things he did back in Shen Wu world were nothing but extraordinary.
The Tianma were well-known man-eating monsters, but they were still able to cooperate, and he was the proactive side.
At the time he was only at Rejuvenation realm.
And the Tianma he worked with was a Tianma Empress.
With that in mind, there was no way Qing Rou was going to underestimate this man in front of her.
Wan Er also actively replied: “Without Qi Yan’s permission, no one is allowed to be on this island, anyone that dares to will become a wanted person by Guang Yang sect itself”
“A quarantine formation… no wonder the cultivators of this world have to wear the large-brimmed hats.
Gu Qing Shan looked around.
The world was in darkness and silence.
None of the floating islands in the sky held any signs of life.
And it was now Danger Hour, so nothing could be done.
Gu Qing Shan spoke: “Since it’s like this, I’ll take a short rest, please wake me up after Danger Hour passes”
“Yes” Qing Rou replied.
Gu Qing Shan then sat down cross-legged, closed his eyes and slowed his breathing.
His expression slowly loosened, even the scowl at his eyebrows was going away.
Very quickly, his breathing became calm and periodical.
He fell asleep.
Qing Rou and Wan Er exchanged looks of understanding.
That’s right, he just went through a very tough battle.
He had to use everything he had, including his life, in order to lure the Virtualized realm Qi Yan into the world of Tianma, he’s worked hard.
He should get some rest .
But they didn’t know that Gu Qing Shan went through much more than just that.
After returning to Reality, the only time when Gu Qing Shan managed to relax was for a brief moment at the bar.
Right after that, he went with Ye Fei Li in the capital incident, then broke through Ascended realm in the desert, then came to the Fuxi Empire’s desert palace villa to find the Emperor’s secret, found the hints about the Frozen Hell’s coming, return to the Confederate to reveal the Emperor’s plans, stopping the world war, defeating the black-cloaked skeleton, help Empress Varona coronate and become Monarch, killing the Pope, welcoming the machines of Huang Quan, then at the last moments before the end of the world, he had no choice but to travel to Huang Quan alone…
Considering how rapid everything went, he barely had the time to stop and catch his breath.
At this very moment, he was trapped inside the quarantine formation, unable to leave for the time being.
But this had instead become the only chance for him to rest.
The world was silent.
Countless suspended islands floated in midair, like black shadows that populated the darkness of night.
Time slowly passed.
15 minutes later, a deep sigh could be heard from the ground below.
This sigh echoed across the sky, reaching all the way to places unknown.
Wan Er looked down at the talisman in her hand.
The “Xiong” character had disappeared, replaced by the “Ji” character”
“Young master, Danger Hour has passed” Wan Er called out.
Gu Qing Shan opened his eyes.
Stretching his back, he commented: “What a long nap that was, it’s been so long since I’ve slept so well”
“Gongzi, you only slept for 15 minutes” Shannu corrected him.
Gu Qing Shan was surprised: “Really? Why did it feel like I slept for very long?”
“You’re too tired” Shannu stared straight at him and said.
Suddenly, everyone went silent.
A large island was passing by the small island where they were.
Gu Qing Shan looked up to observe them.
The underside of the island was full of holes, just like a bee’s nest.
Each of those holes shined with different colored lights, occasionally a figure could even be seen.
Light drifted about the island, illuminating it like a star in the sky.
The island floated by without a sound and kept flying further away from them.
Danger Hour had passed.
Change began to appear in the sky.
Within the blanket of night, various islands began to light up with shining lights.
Their light spread across the sky above.
In just a few moments, the dim night sky had turned into a sea of stars.
“How majestic, this is the cultivation civilization of the Suspended world?” Gu Qing Shan praised.
But as he silently observed them, he started to scowl.
All the floating islands suddenly lit up at night made it seem like they were very bright.
But the closer you look, the duller you would find the islands to be.
“The light is dim and inanimate, why is that…?” he muttered.
“Because the ground no longer exists, there is no way to replenish spirit stones anymore” Qing Rou answered.
“All spirit stones must be used to maintain the floating formations during normal time, then adding another large-scale quarantine formation during Danger Hour”
“Because of that, normally the formations are only used at the bare minimum necessary to avoid waste” Wan Er added.
“If there’s no way to replenish spirit stones, would there be any sects that use up their spirit stones?” Gu Qing Shan asked.
Qing Rou and Wan Er exchanged looks.
“Very frequently” Qing Rou muttered.
“Low-ranked cultivators of such sects will be discarded or killed, only formation users and top-level cultivators are kept and absorbed by the other sects” Wan Er explained.
Gu Qing Shan nodded, then realized a very crucial detail.
“The people of this Suspended world should have conquered a lot of worlds, did all those worlds get fused with the Suspended world?” he asked.
“They did, but now all the fused worlds belong to the realm demon” Qing Rou answered
Wan Er was clearly scoffing at them: “They conquered every world that they saw, only to benefit the realm demon in the end, what a joy that was to know”
“They couldn’t find any new worlds anymore?” Gu Qing Shan asked.
“For the past few ten thousand years, every world that they managed to find was fused with this one”
“But Qi Yan had a way to refine a world all to himself?” Gu Qing Shan asked.
Qing Rou laughed: “That is a new refinement technique developed in the past few years, originally made to escape from this world…”
Wan Er also laughed: “But unfortunately for them, they already can’t find anymore new worlds to use it on”
After explaining that, both women had a look of clear satisfaction.
