The ghostly being had disappeared.
It left a single yaksha mask hovering in front of Gu Qing Shan.
This yaksha mask was the manifestation of the last of the ghostly being’s power, so it was completely different from any other yaksha masks Gu Qing Shan had ever seen.
It was not disgusting.
It was a pure-white mask painted with a pair of thinly opened eyes using black shade, other than that, it was blank.
If one took a careful look, they would find that the shades that made up the irises of the mask flickered between red and black, appearing like they were both moving and not, highly animated.
Lines of glowing text quickly appeared on the War God UI:
[This is a unique yaksha mask, never before seen within the lengthy flow of history]
[Samsara Wicked Guise: Jade Cultivation]
[This mask is able to unleash the Wraith realm Divine Skill: Jade Cultivation Deep Shadow (one-of-a-kind)]
[Jade Cultivation Deep Shadow:]
[Jade Cultivation: You are able to choose any treasure to have the mask gain that treasure’s ability, forming a Guise Hex that’s stored within the mask to be used as you wish]
[Deep Shadow: The ability you gain will be automatically improved by one stage, always more powerful than compared to the original, but this fact will be hidden and not displayed on the mask. Furthermore, by wearing this yaksha mask, your power will be converted to a form of your own choosing, others will never be able to see through your backgrounds]
[Attention: A Guise Hex must be activated using a power of the Samsara, or one of the two great Origin powers. For example, your Huang Quan Origin power, or origin power of the soul]
[Guise Hexes are infallible]
[Special note:]
[A single-use spell had been affixed to this mask: Single Temporal Teleportation, it will activate in ten breaths’ worth of time, please wear the mask and prepare yourself]
Single Temporal Teleportation!
Gu Qing Shan carefully pondered the implications of these words.
Why ‘single temporal’, and not ‘single directional’?
Without much time to think, Gu Qing Shan couldn’t do much but said:
“Xiao Seng, we’re going to be teleported away very soon, can you take refuge within the Cang Hai Heavenly Ark?”
“Teleport where?” Zhao Xiao Seng asked.
“I don’t know either—- I have no idea where this would transport us—— most likely, it will be like earlier, the kind of risk and romance that you said you liked” Gu Qing Shan replied.
Zhao Xiao Seng didn’t say anything.
He took out the glittering golden Cang Hai Heavenly Ark, placed it in the void of space, then silently formed a hand seal.
At the very next moment, he disappeared.
The Cang Hai Heavenly Ark firmly flew into Gu Qing Shan’s hand.
Zhao Xiao Seng’s voice sounded from the ark:
“Benefactor Gu, you can go ahead and seek romance, please let me out when it’s safe again, Amitabha”
Gu Qing Shan looked at the heavenly ark in his hand speechlessly.
There wasn’t much time left, so he put the heavenly ark away and put the Jade Cultivation mask on.
After two breaths’ worth of time, the mask suddenly gave off spatial fluctuations.
Gu Qing Shan disappeared from where he stood.
After he left, the entire bone platform began to collapse and soon completely disappeared into the endless darkness.
…
Heaven and earth turned around themselves.
Gu Qing Shan suddenly found himself standing on top of solid ground.
It was blurry around him with barely any light.
On the ground, there were several corpses that were already rotten a long time ago. It was a mystery how long ago they had died, but overall, no one cared about them.
Various tools laid scattered all over the ground, which included a pickaxe, a basket, a wheel barrel, a rucksack, and a small box with a talisman on the cover.
A faint breeze blew past him from deep inside the cave, mixed with the sound of rocks being hit by metal.
Gu Qing Shan only managed to check the situation very briefly before he suddenly heard a sharp sound of something slicing through the wind behind him.
Someone is ambushing me!
A sharp sensation could naturally be felt, so the other party was extremely malicious, prepared to kill in one strike!
Gu Qing Shan had already been cautious, so he drew the Earth sword without any hesitation and swung upwards behind himself.
A cold gleaming sword phantom abruptly manifested in the darkness.
Bam!
The assailant was sent flying, crashed into the rocky wall, and stopped moving.
Gu Qing Shan continued to wield his sword and slowly stepped forward.
The man was a wraith cultivator with tattered clothing, his mask had fallen off from being struck by Gu Qing Shan’s [Life Seeker] Secret Art, freezing his malicious expression on his face.
He was dead.
His weapon was a pickaxe, which had also been cut in half by Gu Qing Shan’s sword and sent flying into the distance, now fallen on the ground.
“Strange, why did he want to kill me?” Gu Qing Shan whispered to himself.
He released his inner sight to look through this series of tunnels and passages made of rock, observing the entire underground situation for several hundred miles.
Wherever his inner sight reached, he saw corpses laid all over, quite a few cultivators who were still alive were avoiding everyone else, specifically choosing secluded underground tunnels, hiding.
They were cautiously protecting their own baskets which contained a mixture of minerals and rocks.
——-these people are attacking each other to compete for these rocks?
They aren’t particularly powerful either, as they were assigned to dig for rocks and minerals in this place. Most likely, even in the Wraith realm, these people are at the very bottom of the social ladder.
The very bottom…
That is the perfect unassuming beginning, no wonder that ghostly being teleported me to this specific location.
Gu Qing Shan retracted his inner sight and once again observed the corpse in front of him.
Suddenly, Gu Qing Shan felt an indiscernible fluctuation coming from his own mask.
—–[Jade Cultivation] had been activated!
Gu Qing Shan was able to sense two items.
A pickaxe.
And a yaksha mask.
——–they belonged to the cultivators who ambushed Gu Qing Shan, the only items that cultivator had.
Gu Qing Shan sensed it briefly and quickly recognized the power that those two items possessed.
The pickaxe naturally had the ability to break through rocks to reach minerals, so it wasn’t anything special.
The yaksha mask also didn’t contain any surprising ability, only a single supportive Guise Hex:
[Mineral Location]
[While wearing this Guise Hex mask, your ability to sense minerals would be greatly improved]
In a few short moments, Gu Qing Shan pondered numerous possibilities and immediately chose this ability.
“I want this”
He silently said in his mind.
Following his thought, a grey mass of fog quickly appeared from his mask.
[Deep Shadow] had activated!
Gu Qing Shan’s mask slowly gained more markings and designs until it became the exact same mask as the yaksha mask on the ground!
To gain the same Guise Hex, it was natural that the mask had to gain the same appearance!
“That’s perfect, I might truly be able to…”
Gu Qing Shan suppressed his emotions and looked into the void of space.
Lines of glowing text had appeared on the War God UI:
[Your Jade Cultivation mask had gained the Mineral Location mask’s ability]
[Due to the effects of Deep Shadow, that ability had been improved by one stage]
[You’ve obtained a Guise Hex of one higher level:]
[Mineral Pinpointing]
[Wearing this Guise Hex mask will grant you the ability to see through the mixed energy of rocks and ore, directly sensing the locations of precious minerals]
The line of glowing text flashed and disappeared.
Gu Qing Shan released his inner sight to observe himself and found that his mask appeared exactly the same as the mask on the ground, having not changed at all despite the improved Guise Hex.
Gu Qing Shan silently stood there for a long while before he sighed and muttered to himself:
“Finally, I can be considered to have truly entered the Wraith realm”
He crouched down and put his hand on the cultivator’s body.
[Mystery of All Beings Equal], activate!
He quickly transformed into the exact same cultivator on the ground.
His face, his physique, his characteristics.
—–and the exact same yaksha mask!
Gu Qing Shan hid the body away, then draped the tattered clothes around his body and before he secured his mask.
“So, now I should probably start digging?”
He picked up the pickaxe and the basket, before heading deeper into the mines.
