“Xie… Dao… Ling, I will make sure to remember it”
Gu Qing Shan looked at the little girl sealed inside the ice crystal and solemnly clasped his fist: “Please don’t worry, Master, as long as I’m alive, I will definitely protect her”
The Barren Cloud Heavenly Palace’s master nodded.
He was very pleased with this disciple.
With a flip of his palm, the ice crystal floating in the air disappeared without a trace.
Instead, a transparent, glittering bracelet made of ice appeared in his hand.
“This is a Heaven’s Grotto Band, it is connected to the subspace where she slumbers. There is nothing within that subspace but 81 mountains of spirit stones, constructed specifically to supply power to her ice crystal”
The Barren Cloud Heavenly Palace’s master gently stroked the bracelet, took a deep breath, then gave it to Shen Yang.
Shen Yang solemnly received the bracelet and put it on his own wrist.
Huang Zhan looked at the bracelet, then glanced at Shen Yang with a worried look.
Zhao Kuan glanced briefly at the bracelet before lowering his head.
At this time, the Barren Cloud Heavenly Palace’s master spoke to his three disciples: “Go, at the foot of the Heavenly Palace, the sect has prepared airships for the three of you to travel to the lower realms. It is best that the three of you go separately, and to ensure further safety, make sure to not contact each other under any circumstances, go now!”
Seeing how the three of them were still hesitant, their Master angrily shouted: “The destruction of the sect is already imminent, all three of you have already received your responsibilities, do you wish to stay here and die meaninglessly?”
“Go now! Otherwise, I won’t be able to die with my eyes closed!”
The three of them hurriedly responded: “Yes, Master!”
Huang Zhan couldn’t keep himself calm anymore, so he shouted to the sky to express his stifled emotions and dashed out.
Zhao Kuan hurriedly chased after him.
Gu Qing Shan turned and told the Barren Cloud Heavenly Palace’s master with a serious expression: “Farewell, Master. If all else fails, choosing to save yourself is also a choice”
The Master wasn’t angry this time, but smiled bitterly: “You fool, you think I need you to teach me that? Scram!”
Gu Qing Shan clasped his fist and bowed, then turned to leave.
All three disciples have now left the Heavenly Palace.
The gate closed.
The Master silently stood there.
A figure floating in mid-air appeared in front of him.
It was an old man with silver-white hair.
“Immortal King” the Barren Cloud Heavenly Palace’s master clasped his fist to greet him.
The old man nodded and asked doubtfully: “Sect master Xie, you were originally going to pass the inheritance on to Shen Yang, so why did you give it to Zhao Kuan in the end?”
The Master sighed: “Zhao Kuan is considerate and meticulous on all sides, the only thing lacking about him is that his five desires burn too brightly, causing a defect in his Dao heart, so his swordsmanship cannot reach great attainment. Since that was the case, I decided to leave him the responsibility of forming a new sect in the lower realms and continue passing the torch”
“Huang Zhan is an excellent spell user of the highest calibre, with a genuine heart and sincerity. Furthermore, he’s a trustworthy person, so I can only be relieved with leaving the Earth sword to him”
The Master then had a complicated expression as he continued: “As for Shen Yang, without great wisdom and great will, how could one give up on everyday life to pursue Dao? Shen Yang would naturally be the best choice for a leader of the sect, but with the current situation where Divinities are looking to kill us and we’re mounting resistance against them, it is best to hide him away. Away from the responsibilities of the sect, away from the distractions of life, so that he may continue cultivating his martial arts and perhaps one day he would surpass us”
The old man sighed: “I truly hope that he can surpass us and defeat the Divinities, at least that way I wouldn’t have to arrange for my own death so laboriously”
The Master chuckled bitterly: “I have no doubt that he would be able to surpass me. But to surpass you, Immortal King, it will depend on his fate”
…
On another side.
Gu Qing Shan followed the memories and headed towards the foot of the Heavenly Palace mountain.
He was a bit doubtful.
What meaning does what I’m currently doing have?
Or to be precise, my choice, my actions right now, will they truly affect the history of what happened in the Age of Old?
If I have truly returned to the Age of Old and replace Shen Yang, will everything I do cause the future to change?
Everything in the next several ten thousand years would completely change, how completely unimaginable.
Gu Qing Shan fell into thought briefly before silently shaking his head.
According to what I learnt so far, during this time period, the power of humanity as a whole had just only reached a point where it could barely threaten the position of Divinities.
And from what I’ve learnt, Divinities are unable to change or affect the flow of time.
Following this vein of thought, humanity would also be unable to achieve such a thing as well.
And so I should currently be in a reproduction or simulation of a real event that happened in the past.
I’m currently Shen Yang.
If this really is a test…
Then the goal of the test should be to see how much better or worse I could do compared to Shen Yang.
Gu Qing Shan ran through his thoughts once again and confirmed his conjecture to most likely be correct.
At this time, he had just arrived at the foot of the mountain.
Several grey airships were docked here, each engraved with a unique pattern of runes used to enable inter-realm travel.
When this airship was activated, it would directly bypass the limit of the world and head directly towards another realm among the Samsara world.
Depending on the difference between the engraved runes, some airships would take him to the Asura realm, while others would take him to the human realm.
Heaven, Human, Asura are the upper three realms, so whenever a cultivator decides to travel to another realm, they would choose one of these three.
As for the Wraith, Animal and Huang Quan realm, they were considered the lower three realms, where no one would normally be willing to travel to.
The elders were already there, arranging everything.
Numerous young disciples of the sect were being led onto their respective airships.
Whenever an airship was filled, a leading cultivator would activate it, let it open the void of space and fly towards another world.
One of the elders noticed the three of them coming.
“So it’s you three, come, here are your airships”
The elder led them towards three small-sized airships.
“All of you have your own responsibilities to fulfill, so the sect arranged you three separate ships”
“The first one is for Zhao Kuan, the second is for Huang Zhan, and the last one in the corner is for Shen Yang, make sure not to get on the wrong one”
Boom!!!
As they were talking, the ground began to shake.
Far in the sky, a thunderous voice came.
「 Barren Cloud Heavenly Palace, for disrespecting a Divinity, for scheming to surrender to the Desolate world, your sins deserve death! 」
A glorious light descended from the sky, pulling the curtains of the night sky away.
The elder’s expression warped and shouted: “Hurry! Leave, all of you!”
His figure flashed before disappearing from the three of them.
They didn’t hesitate any more and quickly got on their own airships.
Zhao Kuan hurriedly threw two jade tags towards Huang Zhan and Gu Qing Shan.
He spoke quickly: “Junior brother Huang, junior brother Shen, once we arrive in the lower realms, our original communication talismans won’t be usable anymore. Take these jade tags, it can sense my location, we will meet up again in the lower realms!”
Huang Zhan nodded and put the jade tag away.
Gu Qing Shan also put the jade tag into his Inventory Bag.
As they were in a hurry, the three of them said nothing else and activated the formations on their airships.
With a sharp howl, the ships ripped open the void of space and headed for the lower realms.
…
The space vortex.
Once again in the space vortex.
As soon as his airship ripped the void of space open, Gu Qing Shan watched as the other two ships headed for different directions.
Seems like the destinations of the ships weren’t the same.
He then carefully observed his surroundings.
Within the gloomy space vortex, the wind blew without end.
This was a part of space that existed outside of the world, a place where any strange or eerie creature could appear.
But the space vortex of this era was much different from how it was in the future, besides the wind, Gu Qing Shan wasn’t able to see anything else.
Perhaps it was because wars were frequent in the Heaven realm that the unusual creatures have already learned to avoid this part of space.
Gu Qing Shan loosened his tense mind.
Making use of this brief moment of peace, he sat down cross-legged and began to meditate.
He was quickly going through all of Shen Yang’s martial arts in his mind.
Gu Qing Shan began to think about how to use these martial arts and techniques.
He was planning to absorb Shen Yang’s martial arts and make it part of his own fighting style.
Time slowly passed.
While Gu Qing Shan was silently simulating battle techniques in his mind, an airship appeared.
The airship also seemed to be surprised as it carefully circled around a few times before getting closer.
Gu Qing Shan stood up and looked at the airship.
It was a familiar airship.
The person riding it was even more familiar.
“First brother?” Gu Qing Shan was surprised.
“What a coincidence, third brother. It seems our destinations are very close” Zhao Kuan spoke up.
Gu Qing Shan grinned: “That is great, as long as we brothers stand together, there is nothing in the human realm that could stop us”
Zhao Kuan also grinned and spoke: “I think so as well. What do you say I put my airship away and come onto your ship, that way when we land, we’ll be in the same place”
Gu Qing Shan excited replied: “That’s how it should be”
Zhao Kuan put his airship away, leapt up towards Gu Qing Shan’s airship.
Gu Qing Shan tapped his Inventory Bag and took out the jade tag.
“Senior brother, this jade tag won’t be needed anymore, I’ll return it to you”
He threw the jade tag to Zhao Kuan.
Zhao Kuan squinted his eyes at the jade tag.
That certainly is the same jade tag I gave him before, the one that allows us brothers to sense each other’s locations.
“That is true, this jade tag won’t be necessary anymore”
Zhao Kuan laughed and reached his hand out to receive the jade tag.
Suddenly.
Pah!
The jade tag vanished, and Shen Yang was now standing right in front of Zhao Kuan.
Divine Skill, [Shadow Shift]!
As soon as Shen Yang appeared, he grabbed Zhao Kuan’s hand.
Zhao Kuan’s expression warped, but his entire body felt completely numb, so much that he couldn’t even move a finger, his spirit energy also completely went out of control.
[Severance]!
At this point, Shen Yang struck Zhao Kuan.
In an instant, he punched Zhao Kuan so many times that he couldn’t even count, so much that the defences Zhao Kuan set up around his body were glowing brightly as they were stripped away bit by bit.
Zhao Kuan shouted in pain, but couldn’t mount a single bit of resistance.
When three seconds were about to be over.
From the void of space, a girl with an indifferent and aloof expression appeared with a sword in her hand.
She thrust it forward without hesitation.
[Severance]!
The sword that Zhao Kuan had just managed to summon was swept away by the space vortex, vanishing in just the blink of an eye.
He lost control of his body again!
The punches never stopped.
With an expressionless face, Shen Yang continued to pound Zhao Kuan with his full strength.
At this point, the defences around Zhao Kuan’s body were already completely broken, and he didn’t have the ability to take anything else out to replace them.
Taking that chance, Shen Yang struck and shattered all the joints of his bones to dust.
The final kick.
Bam!
Zhao Kuan was sent flying.
Shen Yang disappeared and reappeared far away in the space vortex, caught Zhao Kuan and dragged him back, throwing him onto the ship.
Zhao Kuan was completely powerless to resist.
He spat out some blood, shouting: “Shen Yang! You are betraying the sect and our Master!”
“Betraying the sect and our Master?” Gu Qing Shan asked with a light tone.
“Yes! Master chose me as the next master of the Heavenly Palace, but you ambushed me when I let my guard down! Do you want to be Palace Master that badly!?” Zhao Kuan shouted questioningly.
Gu Qing Shan slowly crouched down in front of him and shook his head: “The one who betrayed the sect and our Master was you, wasn’t it?”
Zhao Kuan furiously snapped: “Bullshit! This Zhao Kuan has always been completely loyal and devoted to the sect. Never once was there any doubt about that, don’t sling mud on other people!”
Gu Qing Shan chuckled and spoke in a low voice: “Then let me ask you. Master told us to go separately, then for the sake of safety, we would have to cut off all communications between us as well, so why did you give me a jade tag to contact you?”
Zhao Kuan froze.
Gu Qing Shan then continued: “Let’s give you the benefit of the doubt. If the two of us were really supposed to arrive in the same place, why would the sect arrange three separate airships? Isn’t that drawing legs on a snake?”
He sighed: “Senior brother Huang is honest and sincere, so during these turbulent times, his mind was clouded. Furthermore, as you are our senior brother, he wouldn’t have put up his guard, that’s why he was deceived”
“Zhao Kuan, hah, Zhao Kuan, do you really think I would be so easily fooled like senior brother Huang?”
Zhao Kuan stared at Shen Yang with his mouth wide open, unable to say a single word.
