The monster had completely blocked their path.
It raised its weapon, but due to being affected by the Dragon Hex, it was too slow and was unable to catch Gu Qing Shan.
Gu Qing Shan continuously circled around and attacked the monster.
His sword had reached the limit of speed.
Sometimes, a ‘riiiip’ sound would be heard around the monster’s body, almost like the sound of heavy fabric being ripped away.
But the monster remained standing.
「 What insignificant power, do you really intend to fight against me with such little power? 」the monster mocked.
Gu Qing Shan didn’t answer it and instead sped up the swing of his sword further.
While continuing to receive his strikes, the monster stepped forward and angrily roared: 「 The eulogy is complete, your time of death has arrived! 」
Countless hallucinations instantly filled the entire world.
Gu Qing Shan looked at the corpses all around him to see that they had formed a gigantic formation, loudly reciting a eulogy in unison.
——-it was as if they had already begun their recital from the very first moment of battle, but since they were in a different world, Gu Qing Shan couldn’t notice them at all.
It turns out the monster had also been stalling for time!
Gu Qing Shan’s pupils abruptly became dilated as he felt his body slowly losing control.
A transparent figure emerged from inside his body.
—-what?
They can force my soul out of my body?
At that moment between life and death, Gu Qing Shan abruptly turned to the monster.
Only to see that the monster was being protected by numerous layers of corpses and grandly made its declaration: 「 My judgement is—–」
“GO!” Gu Qing Shan screamed out loud.
In an instant, three figures emerged from behind him.
——the three skeletons flew into the air through all the corpses, then rapidly struck the monster’s body with their swords.
—–1200 strikes in a single moment!
An enormous sword phantom emerged from the void of space and directly pierced through the monster’s body.
Bygone Era Swordsmanship, [Causeless]!
The monster’s eulogy was interrupted.
It stood completely still, its body trembling slightly.
In an instant, all the hallucinations disappeared into smoke.
The corpses continued to eye Gu Qing Shan with a hateful gaze full of the unwillingness to accept.
Gu Qing Shan retrieved the skeletons, took a few steps backwards, then turned to the void of space again.
Lines of glowing text appear one by one:
[Your Causeless Sword had struck the other party]
[Due to the vast difference in power between the two sides, Causeless Sword could not kill the other party]
[This strike had drained all of your power to cause your enemy to fall into a short period of paralysis]
[Your Soul Points had reached 0]
[Your power and Huang Quan Original power had reached 0]
Gu Qing Shan used one sword to prop himself up while wiping the sweat from his forehead with the other hand, sighing deeply.
—-this dead-end again.
Just why was this the case?
Why can’t I kill the other party, but they can easily trap me to death at any moment?
“Laura, we’re going” he calmly said.
“Got it” Laura replied.
At the very next moment, Gu Qing Shan’s figure vanished without a trace.
The monster gradually regained its freedom.
It uttered a terrible howl, rapidly moving back and forth on the road.
But Gu Qing Shan didn’t appear again.
The monster couldn’t do anything except roar: 「 No, you’re not going to escape. The entire monastery had already known of a living person’s arrival, no matter where you go, the only thing waiting for you would be death! 」
A few dozen meters behind it, Gu Qing Shan was drinking a bottle of elixir.
Laura sat on his shoulder, one hand holding up her umbrella while fanning him with her other hand.
“You’re done well. Your battle earlier was very well-fought, but that monster was just too powerful”
After finishing the elixir, Gu Qing Shan regained his spirit somewhat and said: “Now I’m even more curious about their powers”
“Then, where are we going next?” Laura asked.
“Didn’t the knight earlier already tell us? There is only one place in the monastery where we would be provided free food and drinks, this statement must have implied something, so we’re going to look for it” Gu Qing Shan replied.
“…Alright”
The two of them proceeded to ignore the monster’s roars and followed the road towards the inner parts of the monastery.
At the end of the road, it split off into smaller paths that headed towards several different structures.
The closest building complex to the main path was so high that its peaks went through the clouds. It appeared a bit like a cathedral, but its two wooden gates were tightly closed, obscuring everything inside.
Gu Qing Shan and Laura circled around the cathedral, a bit surprised to find that there weren’t any other entrances.
“How about we break that door down and go in to take a look?” Laura suggested.
“No, did you already forget about the old man? [Infinite Worlds Shelter] might be able to obscure their senses, but we’d still be in a lot of danger if we were to walk into an established trap” Gu Qing Shan cautiously told her.
The sky continued to remain dark.
Within the profound darkness of the night, inside a nearby smaller structure, some flickering flames could be seen from the distance, as well as a constant sound of metallic striking.
Gu Qing Shan and Laura continued to head forward, quickly reaching the smaller structure.
The door of this structure was also tightly closed, but some light could be seen reflected through the windows.
Faintly, they could see a large figure who was continuously striking something like a blacksmith.
Numerous desperate screams could be heard resounding up and down following the striking.
“Gu Qing Shan, should we save those people?” Laura nervously asked
“No, those desperate screams aren’t the screams of living people” Gu Qing Shan replied.
“How do you know?”
“Trust me, I know”
The two of them went past this building and continued forward.
They reached a slightly short tower with a pointy peak.
Sha sha sha——-
The sound of dirt and sand being dug up could be heard from below the tower.
Gu Qing Shan silently approached to take a look while bringing Laura with him.
Several two-horned monsters were digging up graves.
They tossed each of the corpses they dug up onto a rickety old wooden cart. Whenever the cart was full, they would be wheeled towards the structure that gave off flickering flames from before.
Sometimes, whenever these monsters dug up a relatively intact corpse, they would examine it closely, take a few bites out of it, then throw them onto the cart.
——-without a doubt, this was the monastery’s cemetery.
Gu Qing Shan only observed it for a bit before silently retreating.
The two of them followed another forked path and reached a relatively open main square.
This place was completely silent, but there were numerous monsters and people standing here.
They were all standing around the center of the main square reciting something under their breaths, if one took a closer listen, they would find that it was some sort of incantation.
Gu Qing Shan focused his attention again to see that the open main square was actually empty without anything but a blob of blood in the middle.
The blood was still continuously moving as if it was alive.
This scene was so indescribably eerie that Gu Qing Shan and Laura couldn’t help but want to observe it a bit longer.
As their reciting voices became increasingly louder, Gu Qing Shan realized that something was occurring.
——my body seems to be losing control again.
Not good.
I can’t continue to remain here!
Gu Qing Shan silently retreated and left the main square.
After returning to the main road, he stood still and observed the layout of the surrounding buildings a bit, then began to head in another direction towards a relatively secluded region of the monastery on a small unpaved road.
“Why are we going off the path?” Laura nervously asked.
“I feel like the location that the knight mentioned couldn’t have been one of those structures that were close to one another” Gu Qing Shan replied.
“But there were so many other paths, so why did you head down this unpaved road?” Laura asked again.
“Because all the other paths were paved with stone slabs, presenting an orderly state or action, while the road we’re currently taking seemed to have been naturally made through walking—– since it was so different, there must be a reason” Gu Qing Shan replied.
“You mean, the provided free food and drinks?” Laura said.
“Perhaps” Gu Qing Shan confirmed.
As the two of them followed the small road, a mass of fog slowly appeared in front of them.
Laura took out a bazooka and wore it diagonally on her back.
Gu Qing Shan glanced at her.
“This is the reinforced version of Brother Cannon, it can destroy several worlds in a row”
“That won’t be of any use, the power those monsters carried was very strange—– eerie and inexplicable, I think Technological weapons wouldn’t be any good” Gu Qing Shan told her.
Laura replied: “I’m not greedy, it’ll be good enough if it can cause a bit of chaos”
She then sighed: “Now I finally know just exactly how terrifying Occultism is. Regretfully, there are simply too few Occultism artifacts within our 900 million World Layers”
“You should be feeling glad instead of regretful because of that” Gu Qing Shan replied.
The two of them entered the fog.
After moving through, the scenery in front of them suddenly became clear.
This place was simply a corner of the monastery, other than a few withered trees, there wasn’t anything else here.
“Seems like we’ll need to head back again” Laura commented.
Gu Qing Shan scanned through this area with his inner sight and confirmed that there wasn’t anything.
After staying silent for a while, he approached and stopped in front of a tree.
“What’s the matter?” Laura asked.
Gu Qing Shan pointed at one of the trees and gestured for Laura to look.
While holding onto her flower umbrella with one hand, Laura propped herself up by putting her hand on Gu Qing Shan’s head and got closer to the tree.
A small, green sprout was growing from the tree.
—–even though the sprout was only the size of a fingernail, it was still the only source of life within the entire monastery.
The two of them exchanged glances, then began to circle around the other withered trees.
Laura tried taking out various investigative artifacts—– Cards, analysis devices, magic staves, gem glasses, treasure-seeking dolls, etc.… but still couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary.
“There’s nothing” Laura regretfully said.
Gu Qing Shan thought briefly and told her: “Try putting your flower umbrella away”
“Oh? Ok!” Laura was surprised but still followed his instructions.
As soon as she closed her flower umbrella, the effects of [Infinite Worlds Shelter] disappeared.
Their figures could now be seen under the tree.
They simply stood still without doing anything for a while.
——still nothing happened.
“What now?” Laura asked.
“I’m feeling a bit hungry, how about we eat something first?” Gu Qing Shan suggested.
Laura opened her eyes wide and stared closely at him.
You’re really extraordinary, Gu Qing Shan, you know that?
How can you actually feel like eating in a terrifying place like this?
But speaking of which, I’m feeling a bit hungry as well.
“Alright, then let’s eat” Laura agreed.
Suddenly——
A timid voice emerged from the tree:
『 I have some free food and drinks here, would you like some? 』
