Cold rain continued to buffet the ground.
The sound of rain grew increasingly louder while the alleyway was plunged into stifled darkness.
The old man stood with his hands clasped behind his back in front of the alleyway.
A few moments later.
His technique ended and the darkness faded away.
But he still couldn’t find anything.
“…Not here, where exactly have they run to?”
The old man confusedly muttered.
After a moment of silence, he abruptly shouted: “Find them! Even if you have to dig up three meters, I want you to find that [Pure Man]!”
In an instant, numerous shadows flew out from his body and spread to every corner of the city.
The old man stood still and waited.
Standing just a bit further in front of him, Gu Qing Shan and Laura remained still, but he couldn’t see them at all.
“Gu Qing Shan, what now?”
Laura asked.
Gu Qing Shan fell into thought, unable to answer her right away.
Power…
Within the Space Vortex, ‘power’ is divided into many forms.
For example, Magic, Technology, Savagery, Cultivation, Nihility, Mysticism, etc.
——–Occultism refers to powers that cannot be explained.
Since things that ‘cannot be explained’ can be categorized into a form of power of their own, the chaotic nature of the Space Vortex’s power system could be seen.
During combat, all Combatants can only rely on the most basic form of defense against the opponent’s form of power.
Most of the time, the only way to tell whether one person was stronger or not was to actually fight it out.
——unless there was a significant difference in power between the two sides.
From our battle earlier, it’s likely that the old man never actually exerted his true power.
Because he knew for sure he’d win.
Gu Qing Shan paused.
How?
What kind of power would allow him to completely ignore my swordsmanship and believe that I can’t win no matter what?
“Laura”
“Hm?”
“Hold onto your umbrella tightly, I’m going to try him out again”
“Ah, ok”
Laura stood up on Gu Qing Shan’s shoulder and raised her umbrella high.
Gu Qing Shan took a deep breath, then grasped the Earth sword from the void of space.
He slowly approached the old man step by step, continuously adjusting his state.
After ten meters.
Gu Qing Shan had fully receded his killing intent.
Twenty meters.
The Huang Quan Origin power that constantly drifts around his body had been completely focused inside his Dantian.
Thirty meters.
His body suddenly became a few centimeters taller, his eyes flickered with spirit and light.
——-this was a natural reaction when the Origin power inside one’s body was concentrated and focused to the very limit.
Gu Qing Shan walked past the old man, then stood firmly behind him.
At this point, the old man looked like a completely normal person, but also a monster that can’t be reasoned with at the same time.
This was the first time that Gu Qing Shan had faced this form of intercepting hallucination.
“I can feel my heart suddenly beating faster, Gu Qing Shan, what exactly do you want to do?” Laura complained.
“Endure a bit longer, I’m going to perform an attack at my full power” Gu Qing Shan smiled.
He raised the Earth sword and pointed it towards the old man’s neck.
The old man didn’t notice it at all.
Occasionally, some shadows would fly towards him from around the city and enter his body.
——he was still trying to search for Gu Qing Shan and Laura.
Gu Qing Shan closed his eyes.
Skill.
Experience.
Wisdom.
——–and also, Power.
Gu Qing Shan took a deep breath as his eyes abruptly glowed.
Boom!
A blinding yellow sword phantom erupted from the Earth sword’s tip, causing the void of space itself to tremble.
This was an attack with all of Gu Qing Shan’s power concentrated into it!
Without Laura to obscure it, this attack would have already manifested large-scale supernatural phenomena and caused this entire city to shake!
“Die!”
Gu Qing Shan grunted.
The void in his path scattered away as the sword swung towards the old man’s head in an insurmountable manner.
A dull thud could be heard.
The sword stopped right at the old man’s neck, drawing a small bit of blood, but couldn’t move any further.
Time stopped right at this moment in their eyes.
Gu Qing Shan looked at the old man in shock.
Laura wouldn’t stop herself from covering her mouth with her hand either.
——–such an attack still couldn’t cut through his neck!
The old man turned around and looked at the void of space behind him while flashing a terrifying and eerie smile.
“So you were here, I’ve got you this time”
In a flash, dark shadows manifested into metal chains that wrapped around Gu Qing Shan’s body and restrained him.
Gu Qing Shan instantly disappeared, switching places with the old man so that he was the one being restrained by the metal chains.
[Shadow Shift]!
After evading, Gu Qing Shan turned his hand to grasp the Heaven sword and swung backwards.
——-Heaven sword, [Heaven’s Choice]!
Sword phantoms erupted from the Heaven sword, each of them split off into nine more copies of itself to end up with 1200 sword phantoms in total.
The sound of endless slashes resounded like overlapping waves. In a mere breath’s worth of time, 1200 strikes had been completed.
The old man was completely intact, the chains around his body began to fly towards Gu Qing Shan.
He said with a mocking tone: “Useless, this time, you’re not running any——–”
He was cut off.
An intangible sword phantom suddenly appeared out of nowhere, thrust through his forehead, and emerged on the other side.
The old man’s look of disdain was frozen stiff.
—–Bygone Era Swordsmanship, [Causeless].
In one breath’s worth of time, Gu Qing Shan had attacked 1200 times with the Heaven sword and triggered this Causality Law Divine Skill!
But after performing this strike, Gu Qing Shan fell to his knees while soaked in sweat.
He couldn’t even hold the Heaven sword properly, letting it fall out of his hand.
Realizing the terrible situation, the Heaven sword hurriedly flew up and disappeared behind his back.
“Gu Qing Shan!” Laura shouted.
“Go——–”
Gu Qing Shan grunted in return.
A mass of white fog swiftly manifested around himself and Laura, preparing to take both of them away.
All of a sudden, countless black curtains appeared in the void of space around them and fully encased the white fog inside.
The white fog couldn’t leave.
A girl in ancient Chinese clothing suddenly appeared behind Gu Qing Shan, declaring as she wielded a sword: “Don’t worry, gongzi!”
She swung her sword and attacked the curtains with full power.
The curtains seemed to not be very stable as they were flickering without stopping.
——the old man had only just triggered this trapping technique when he was stabbed by [Causeless Sword], that’s why it hadn’t been completed yet.
“Shatter!” Shannu grunted.
All the curtains swiftly broke.
The white fog was freed and took the three of them away in a flash.
Turning back to the old man———-
The old man was struggling to reach his hand up to the intangible sword in front of his forehead, exerting strength to pull it out.
Shu!
A splash of pungent black blood fell onto the ground.
As the black blood touched the brick-laid path, it began to sizzle and exuded white smoke.
The old man appeared to be in pain and muttered to himself:
“I let my guard down…”
He looked down, only to see that the intangible sword had already vanished.
…
At another location.
Gu Qing Shan and Laura had returned to the main street, sitting down next to a streetlight.
Shannu stood on one side protecting them.
At this point, the rain had gotten really heavy, completely obscuring the city in a gloomy shroud of rainwater.
There wasn’t anyone on the streets.
Even the patrolling knights from before were nowhere to be seen.
“Gu Qing Shan, are you ok?” Laura was practically sobbing as she asked.
Sitting next to the streetlight, Gu Qing Shan’s hands were trembling, he didn’t even have the strength to stand back up.
The first strike was concentrated with all of his power, so the second strike was something he only performed by overexerting himself, barely managing to manifest [Causeless Sword] from it and using that chance for them to escape.
“I’m fine, I just used too much strength, I’ll recover after a bit of rest” Gu Qing Shan tried to squeeze out a smile.
Laura pulled a small backpack from the void of space, wore it in front of her chest, then pulled out a golden bottle.
“Drink this!” Laura hurriedly told him.
Gu Qing Shan didn’t ask and simply accepted the bottle, drinking its entire content.
Right away, he stopped sweating, his hands also stopped trembling.
Gu Qing Shan felt as if his body had returned to its peak state.
“Gongzi?” Shannu worriedly asked.
“I’m ok” Gu Qing Shan replied.
Shannu nodded, turned back into a sword, then disappeared into the void of space again.
Laura also sighed in relief, continuing to hold onto her flower umbrella with one hand while squeezing Gu Qing Shan’s hand with her other hand, whispering: “It’s a good thing you weren’t injured”
“What’s wrong with being injured?” Gu Qing Shan asked.
“That old man had a power that I’ve never seen before. Even with all the precious elixirs I have, I’m not confident in being able to heal a wound he inflicts” Laura worriedly replied.
“He truly was impressive, I’ve never seen someone like that before” Gu Qing Shan lamented.
——-they were only a hair’s breadth away from not being able to escape just now, literally a tiny line between life and death.
Gu Qing Shan shook his head and turned to the void of space.
Lines of glowing text had already appeared there:
[Your Causeless Sword had struck the enemy]
[Due to the vast difference in power between you and the enemy, Causeless Sword was unable to kill this enemy]
[This strike had drained all of your power, causing your enemy a temporary state of paralysis]
[Your Soul Points had reached 0]
[Your power and Huang Quan Origin power had reached 0]
[You drank the ‘Pixie Royal family’s secret nectar’]
[You’ve recovered your strength]
Gu Qing Shan thought briefly before standing back up.
He put Laura on his shoulder again, telling her: “Come on, let’s go to the monastery”
Laura sighed in relief and asked: “We’re not fighting that monster anymore?”
“Yeah, it’s useless to do things blindly. We need to understand more about this city and find some useful information” Gu Qing Shan replied.
Laura nodded: “The monastery should be safe. We saw those knights earlier, so we might be able to meet their superior as well, perfect for us to collect information”
Gu Qing Shan smiled inexplicably.
“Laura”
“Yes?”
“Don’t relax, prepare to fight at any moment. You might have to use all of the treasures you’ve collected so far”
Laura opened her clear eyes wide and looked at Gu Qing Shan in shock.
“Do you mean——–”
“That’s right, the monastery was actually a trap”
“But why!?” Laura exclaimed.
“The Wailing Bridge was only 500 meters away from the monastery, but it managed to remain without being destroyed this entire time. I don’t think such a wicked thing would be unknown to the monastery” Gu Qing Shan replied.
Laura froze.
Gu Qing Shan continued: “The knights said that nighttime was incredibly dangerous and that they had to be ready to fight evil at any moment—– but during my battle against that monster in the river, the entire bridge was destroyed and a huge flood had washed over both banks of the river, and yet no one came to check it—— which made no sense”
“Furthermore, we were in no danger since the moment we came out of the alleyway, it wasn’t until we met the knights and followed their instructions to go to the monastery that we face that monster”
“The monster was waiting for something on the bridge”
“It was waiting for us”
“Perhaps my guess was wrong and the monster hadn’t actually taken control of the monastery, it might all just be a misunderstanding, but a certain thing is very clear”
“—–There is no forces inside this city that stands on our side”
“That’s why, the monastery might not be safe either, it might just be a trap”
“Laura, do you understand now?”
Laura thought through everything from the beginning and began to feel cold sweat soaking her back.
“Then, why are we still heading to the monastery?” she asked.
Gu Qing Shan took something out from his chest.
The knight’s badge.
The badge was giving off a holy white glow in the middle of the knight.
“——I don’t know if you’ve noticed. Those knights each carried a badge, but all of them were completely dark, even this one only started glowing when it came into my hands” Gu Qing Shan replied.
“Then, are we going to look for such holy artifacts?” Laura asked.
Gu Qing Shan answered: “Yes. Perhaps the era had already changed, but if a knight’s badge can still resonate with my Title, then there must still be other holy relics remaining since the past era”
“Even if they’ve fallen into slumber for a long time, I should still be able to awaken them”
“I think——”
“This was an implication of my Title”
