This was the bank of a large river.
Almost a dozen cultivators were standing here, silently watching Gu Qing Shan.
When Gu Qing Shan looked around, he found that besides the river itself, there were also mountains that rose from the base of the river.
This place was indeed the Barren Cloud Heavenly Palace.
And Xie Dao Ling was dreaming of this place.
“Stand up, let’s talk” Xie Gu Hong told him.
Gu Qing Shan slowly stood up from the ground.
The great cultivators began to whisper among themselves without any reluctance.
“This is my first time meeting a Three Thousand Worlds realm cultivator that’s still so young”
“Indeed, to be able to figure out our arrangements with a single hint, a truly insightful person”
“Old Xie, this young man is a sword cultivator, and from his sword will I can feel the signature of Barren Cloud Heavenly Palace, he’s probably a disciple from your sect in the future”
“I can also feel that he’s very decent, what do you say we confirm it now?”
“I have no objections”
“No objections”
“Sure”
“I agree”
The great cultivators quickly made their decisions.
Gu Qing Shan didn’t know what they were talking about at all.
At this time, Xie Gu Hong looked towards him and smiled: “Are you a disciple of Barren Cloud Heavenly Palace?”
“I am” Gu Qing Shan replied.
“Who is your Shifu?”
“My Shifu is your daughter. But to be exact, within the phantom images, you once took me in as your disciple”
Xie Gu Hong looked at him hesitantly and didn’t say anything for a while.
Gu Qing Shan abruptly drew his sword and thrust it towards Xie Gu Hong.
This was obviously a simple thrust without any force behind it, but Xie Gu Hong’s eyes practically glowed as he saw this strike.
He also drew his own sword and received Gu Qing Shan’s attack.
Kih!
A metallic sound rang as the two swords met.
“1200 sword styles at once that scattered into the void of space, so you’ve already reached the peak of being a Sword Saint, how do you intend to continue forward?”
“Master, you once taught me that after 1000 swords is a single sword”
“Did I say that now?”
Xie Gu Hong put his sword away with an even brighter smile.
Gu Qing Shan sincerely answered: “Indeed you did”
The other great cultivators exchanged glances.
Xie Gu Hong finally nodded: “Hm, I truly did leave a strand of my soul inside the phantom images, but I never imagined that I would be able to wait until the day when I get a disciple”
Hearing that, Gu Qing Shan froze.
“Leave a strand of my soul inside the phantom images”
Does that mean my current location isn’t inside the phantom images anymore?
A great cultivator noticed his confusion and smiled: “This place is a certain fragment of the broken Samsara, and the current time is immediately after the destruction of the Heaven realm. This is the real world, but we’re still inside a dream for now”
Gu Qing Shan spoke: “In other words, this is still the Age of Old, but after everything had ended?”
“Correct” Xie Gu Hong replied.
Gu Qing Shan hurriedly asked: “Then what was the results of the final campaign? Who obtained the Heaven sword?”
“No one knows, because that final moment was already hidden away, not only can none of us locate it, but none of those terrifying monsters can find it either” Xie Gu Hong replied.
Gu Qing Shan looked at him in disbelief.
To hide a certain moment away so well that no one could locate it again.
What kind of immense power is this?
Was humanity this powerful?
He couldn’t help but think back about the phantom images.
Billions of phantom images, all of which were fragments of a true parallel world, this was quite simply unimaginable.
Purely because they were parallel worlds.
I only briefly met other versions of myself from parallel worlds when I was facing the four Tribulations.
If humanity could really connect to parallel worlds, why was there a need for them to avoid the Abyssal monsters?
“I know you must be feeling extremely shocked right now. Truthfully speaking, we’re also very shocked” Xie Gu Hong told him.
He had a look of reminiscent and displayed a clear state of complicated emotions.
The other great cultivators also appeared very troubled.
“Just what exactly happened?”
Gu Qing Shan couldn’t help but ask.
“The root of the problem lies with the twin swords Heaven and Earth” Xie Gu Hong explained.
Another great cultivator continued: “Truthfully, the phantom image where the Earth sword and Palace Master Xie’s daughter left the Primordial Heaven Realm was deliberately selected by the Immortal King for a cultivator from the future to experience. After that moment, humanity had immediately gone into our final moments of destruction”
Gu Qing Shan muses: “In other words, before the Earth sword was brought away, something crucial happened”
“Indeed, when the Earth sword was brought away, the Heaven sword’s forging process was already near completion” Xie Gu Hong said.
“According to what we learnt from the blueprints, to awaken the Earth sword’s true Thaumaturgy, the Heaven sword was necessary”
“So we brought the Earth sword to where the Immortal King was forging the swords, so that he could personally watch over it”
“When the Heaven sword was about to be complete, both swords began to display paranormal phenomena”
“Several impossibly powerful monsters showed up out of nowhere”
“They fought against one another while summoning several weapon components out of the void, almost as if to integrate the twin swords into a completely different weapon”
“Since the Immortal King was the one who was in charge of the forging process, he was the one who wielded the newly created weapon at the time. In a short time, they weren’t able to kill him, not to mention they were more interested in competing against one another”
“The Immortal King naturally realized how dangerous the situation was, so he split the twin swords apart and had Palace Master Xie bring the Earth sword away”
“While he used the power that the weapon granted him to stop the rampaging monsters”
“Afterwards, we had guessed that those terrifying monsters weren’t aware that the weapon would be able to achieve such a thing either, so they made the mistake of underestimating the Immortal King”
“What was that weapon able to do?” Gu Qing Shan asked.
All the great cultivators fell silent.
It seems they still felt their hearts beating faster whenever they thought back to that event.
Finally, Xie Gu Hong told him: “When the twin swords Heaven and Earth were combined with the other components and turned into a new weapon, it directly ripped Space-Time apart, brought countless fragments from the parallel worlds and created the phantom images”
“Taking that chance, the Immortal King invoked another ability of that weapon: [Eternal Moment]”
“The so-called [Eternal Moment] is the ability to completely hide a certain moment of this world away. Only a person who achieves a certain condition would be able to enter, and no other”
Gu Qing Shan couldn’t help but ask: “But hiding it away wouldn’t do anything, those monsters are still there”
Xie Gu Hong replied: “But I’ve already taken the Earth sword away, so they no longer have both the Heaven and Earth sword to produce that weapon again”
Another great cultivator continued: “Furthermore, the Heaven sword’s forging process wasn’t complete, there was still one last crucial process”
“And so, not only did the monsters failed to obtain the Earth sword, but they also failed to obtain the Heaven sword”
While they were speaking, Gu Qing Shan suddenly noticed that these people were all smiling.
“You…”
“It’s fine” Xie Gu Hong said, “we’re only feeling emotional as the ultimate victor was still humanity in the end”
The cultivators’ figures slowly became blurred.
“That’s right, now that you are here, we can perform the seals to trigger the final jade disk and pull your body here as well” another great cultivator told him.
“Once you are fully here, we will destroy the tunnel for good. That way, the monsters would never be able to discover the existence of anything in this place”
“We will put all of our knowledge and techniques into the jade disk and teach them to you”
“From then on, you would be able to safely stay in this era to live and cultivate. You can lead humanity in this place to prosper and grow, until one day when you finally surpass our era”
Gu Qing Shan hurriedly spoke up: “I can’t, the reason I came to the Age of Old was to save the Earth sword”
At this point, everyone else’s figures had already become transparent to the point of vanishing, only Xie Gu Hong temporarily remained.
Xie Gu Hong then said: “Naturally, you also have another choice, that is to return the way you came. We will place the method to enter the true final moment inside this jade disk”
His figure also started to become faint.
“All of us here are nothing but a strand of our souls, but we still have the power that the Immortal King bestowed upon us, to either help you remain in this era or to head towards the true final moment of history”
Gu Qing Shan asked: “After giving me this power, all of you will die, won’t you?”
Xie Gu Hong chuckled and shook his head: “As a cultivator, death for us is only another way to rest. We are simply entrusting our hope to the future before we leave”
His figure became transparent.
“To remain, or to fight, that is for you to decide; and also, please help me look after Ling’er. After this dream is over, she will appear inside her own dream”
Xie Gu Hong sighed, for the first time, his nonchalant voice carried a hint of regret.
“The dream is about to end, unfortunately, I don’t have the time to wait for her”
After remaining silent for so long, Gu Qing Shan spoke up: “Don’t worry, she will live a fulfilling life in the future. She had already taken in a few disciples, and she treats us disciples like she does her own family”
Xie Gu Hong smiled softly with a look of relief.
“That is good”
After saying that, he completely vanished from Gu Qing Shan’s sight.
Gu Qing Shan stood still and waited for a while.
At some unknown point, he was already holding a jade disk in his hand.
With this jade disk, he would be able to return on the same path and head into the final moment of history.
Naturally, he could also escape from Xie Dao Ling’s dream and pull his real body from the Grand Divine Palace into this world, thus living on from this era as a real part of history.
Gu Qing Shan stroked the jade disk and carefully placed it into the deepest place inside his Thought Sea.
The monsters of the Eternal Abyss wouldn’t be able to find this jade disk even if they went to the end of Space-Time and back.
This was the most precious treasure.
This was the Earth sword’s only hope of survival.
It will bring me into the final moment of the decisive battle in history, to where I can find the Heaven sword.
