The Apostle is indeed heavily injured.
And the strength of one called Gu Qing Shan is nothing to write home about.
The King understood very clearly that he was the strongest among everyone in the room, capable of crushing them all as long as he wanted to.
There was no question about that.
——-I had even held myself back to prevent my presence from crushing these people right away.
Because that would draw the attention of the monster.
But the battle started and ended very abruptly.
The king was now lying on the ground, still haven’t regained his senses.
Originally, I wanted to use my overwhelming power to suppress these people and force them to kneel in front of me.
But then,
Why did,
Things turn out this way?
The king was unable to accept the current situation.
But with a scepter poking out from his chest, the constant searing pain was constantly reminding him that it was all true.
A sense of unprecedented fear was plaguing the king’s mind.
This was the instinctive fear which every living being felt as they faced the judge of death.
——–the sensation of his life and death being held in another person’s hand, the sensation that extended even to his soul.
Some people would cry, sob, and beg as they faced this situation, trying to do everything they could to live.
But some people chose differently.
The king glared at Gu Qing Shan and groaned in fury:
「 Do it, kill me if you really can! 」
「 I am the ruler of the God of Life’s holy country, the servant of God, the king of Calming Soul Country, I am not afraid of death! 」
As he looked down on him, Gu Qing Shan held a bit of praise in his eyes.
At least, this king still had a bit of merit to him.
Keeping his hand on the scepter, Gu Qing Shan put up an index finger and slowly moved it from side to side.
“You’re misunderstanding something” Gu Qing Shan replied: “I never said I wanted to kill you”
The king froze.
“It’s true” Gu Qing Shan continued, “We definitely won’t kill you; you need to keep that in mind”
The king slowly breathed out in relief, feeling like this heroic act just now was just for the blind to see while he couldn’t help but feel relieved from the bottom of his heart.
It was naturally a good thing being able to survive.
Gu Qing Shan simply watched as his emotions switched several times before going on: “And also—— truthfully speaking, we need to thank you as well”
Thank me?
The king froze again but hesitated to respond to that.
Gu Qing Shan sincerely explained: “Just think about it. You had your subordinate sneak us a piece of paper and made sure we were on our guard ahead of time, then sent her to the secret passage to wait for us and prepared a way for us to leave. Although we used a different way to escape in the end, that didn’t change the fact that you were doing all of this for our sake”
“Regardless of what schemes you were hatching against your subordinates, this was the undeniable truth”
“The only reason why we fought with you just now was to show you that we don’t want to become your subordinates, that’s all”
The king coldly replied: 「 You really think I’m going to believe these pathetic excuses? 」
Gu Qing Shan answered indifferently: “It doesn’t matter whether you believe them or not. Because I only have one question for you, after you answer, we’ll act like this never happened at all. You can return to being the king, and after we take what we want, we’ll leave Calming Soul Country”
「 What do you want? 」
“Information. Everything you know about that monster and the four Deities. I want it all”
The king found that unexpected.
「 You really don’t want anything else? 」he tried asking.
“No, I only want information about the monster and the four Deities” Gu Qing Shan answered right away.
「 What do you want that for? 」
“To kill them. I want the Card they hold”
The king displayed a pondering look.
Card…
So, the reason they came here was for the Card fragments that the four Deities are keeping.
The king had an unconvinced look on his face and asked: 「 Are you really not after the authority and wealth of Calming Soul Country? 」
Gu Qing Shan cleared his throat and replied, a bit embarrassed: “I’ll be frank. This place of yours is simply destitute, including that monster. All it took was a single Soul Artifact for it to become hysterical, so there really isn’t anything here that’s tempting to us”
The king froze again.
This was the first day in his long life that he was shocked so many times.
At the same time, he felt a strange sense of relief.
If they aren’t after Calming Soul Country, I still have a chance to survive.
—–and in hindsight, that monster has truly been madly collecting Soul Artifact.
But considering how precious Soul Artifacts are, there weren’t many of them in Calming Soul Country in the first place, all of which had already been taken by the monster.
The king scoffed: 「 We’re destitute you say? What do you actually know? We were originally extremely wealthy; our kingdom had a total of 12 Soul Artifacts of great power, but all of them were taken by that monster 」
Gu Qing Shan continued looking at him, but started to show pity on his expression.
The king’s cold smirk slowly went stiff.
Gu Qing Shan’s attitude made him a bit unsure.
“Hah—— Laura, come” Gu Qing Shan called out.
“Got it, master!”
Laura ran over, turned her backpack upside down, and shook it.
——-clink, clang, cling, clank!
A huge amount of treasures started to pour out from the bag, slowly stacking into a small pile around the king.
They all gave off mystical power fluctuation, clear to anyone with a bit of knowledge that they were indeed the ultimate treasures of great value within the 900 million World Layers.
Soul Artifacts
They were all Soul Artifacts.
Even with rough estimation, anyone could tell that there were hundreds of them right here.
The king opened his eyes wide, unable to comprehend what was happening in front of his eyes.
If it weren’t for the constant pain in his chest, he’d have actually believed that this was a dream.
The king opened his mouth, trying to say something, but found himself speechless.
And I tried using 12 Soul Artifacts to refute them just now.
How pitiful.
Gu Qing Shan took a glance at him, then casually said: “Here’s an advice—— staying for too long in a small corner of the world will affect your sense of value”
The king felt like he just received a heavy punch to the gut.
He closed his eyes, then abruptly opened them again, feeling a burning sensation in his heart.
Who had ever dared to talk to me that way!?
And yet, with so many Soul Artifacts in their hands, they truly do have the qualifications to talk to me that way!
Damn it!
The king couldn’t contain himself and shouted: 「 Wealth is only a part of it. That matter I mentioned to you earlier, I refuse to believe that you don’t want a part of it! 」
“Which matter?” Gu Qing Shan asked.
「 Do you really not want to know the secret of the God of Life? 」
Gu Qing Shan waved his hand and scoffed: “If the Deities themselves couldn’t kill that monster, then their secret won’t do me any good either”
“Not to mention, when it comes to secrets, the more you know the more troublesome it becomes, so I’d like you to spare me with that”
The king froze, then spoke up again: 「 Facing that monster, you won’t be able to escape, only the ruin of the God of Life— 」
“Frog in a well” Gu Qing Shan sighed and muttered.
These words successfully roused the king’s anger.
「 Do you really think you can go against that monster? 」 he loudly mocked.
Gu Qing Shan shook his head with an annoyed look on his face as if he was talking to some newbie who didn’t understand a single thing.
He clapped his hand.
Zhang Ying Hao walked forward, pulled out a long shining shoulder-mounted cannon, and lightly tapped it against the king’s face.
“Can you sense its power?” Zhang Ying Hao whispered.
The frigid metallic sensation completely silenced the king.
The raging flames in his heart were instantly doused.
As a ruler of a powerful country, he naturally recognized a weapon of mass destruction when he saw one.
This Technological-type weapon can indeed destroy an entire world.
If Calming Soul Country gets destroyed, the monster would naturally be heavily injured.
This way, even if they couldn’t kill it, they would be able to buy enough time to escape!
And they were carrying such a weapon around!!!
The king felt his heart greatly tightened, feeling nothing but frustration.
This was even more frustrating compared to when he was stabbed by the scepter and believed that he was about to die.
—–he naturally didn’t know that this was a treasure that Laura obtained from the border of the unending abyss of broken worlds.
To obtain this treasure, Laura even broke her vow of not grabbing any treasures.
Even the assault handgun respectfully referred to this weapon as Cannon Brother.
It was the only one of its kind!
Gu Qing Shan waved his hand.
Zhang Ying Hao put Cannon Brother away and stepped back.
Gu Qing Shan cleared his throat again and told the king: “Alright, give me all the information you’ve collected about the four Deities to me, and our little grudge here can be considered over with”
「 Truly? 」asking this, the king sneaked a glance towards the others.
None of the others seemed to have any objections.
The little girl only poured a bunch of Soul Artifacts out before ignoring everything again.
The man only came forward to show off a world-destroying weapon before going back and pulled out a cigarette, only to sigh and put it away again.
Quite obviously, he was a smoking addict.
Nobody cared about the Soul Artifacts that were all over the ground.
Damn it, these are Soul Artifacts! Soul Artifacts that even the monster would go crazy over!
The king slowly calmed down.
No wonder the one called Gu Qing Shan called Calming Soul Country a destitute place earlier.
Comparatively, Calming Soul Country was truly destitute.
Even that terrifying monster would be nothing but a poverty-stricken fellow.
——-seriously, what’s wrong with these people?
Is there really no one but myself in this room that cares about the wealth of Calming Soul Country?
They don’t even care a little bit about the ruin of the God of Life?
This is a ruin left behind by God!!!
The king felt himself a bit unable to keep up.
He felt similar to a bandit that went through an untold amount of effort in order to steal and secure a treasure trove, only to be discovered by an enemy at the last possible moment and couldn’t help but enter desperate combat against them.
In the end, he was completely defeated, pinned to the ground unable to move at all.
It was now that the enemy told him that they didn’t want his wealth or treasure, pointing out that it was all nothing but trash.
Utter trash that wasn’t even worth their attention.
The enemy only had a single demand.
——-they were forcing him to talk with them about whether or not the weather today would be good or it would rain.
About whether or not the rain would be that heavy…
Yes, only something equivalent to small talk.
The king felt his eyes becoming a bit wet.
He stared straight at Gu Qing Shan and questioned in a low voice: 「 I want to confirm something again. If I give you the information you wanted, you will let me go? 」
Gu Qing Shan replied: “Of course, we’ll sign a covenant on it—— I also hope that you will tell me what I want and not any lies…”
The king said nothing.
He pulled a scroll out from the air with his hand.
Gu Qing Shan glanced at the scroll, randomly took it with his hand, and handed it to Laura.
After looking over it, Laura gave it to Boss. Boss also nodded and gave it back to Gu Qing Shan.
“No problems” Laura said.
“A very strict scroll” Boss added.
“——-Great”
Gu Qing Shan unrolled the scroll and wrote the following clauses on the scroll:
[As long as the king provides the correct information, neither sides will do anything against one another]
He cut the tip of his finger and dripped some blood onto the covenant.
The scroll was then given to the king.
The king did the same.
A flash of light appeared on the scroll.
“There” Gu Qing Shan said.
The king felt relieved.
From this point on, as long as I give them actual information, they wouldn’t be able to take my life any longer.
However, the king still couldn’t accept how relaxed Gu Qing Shan was about all of this.
His mind was quickly moving.
Right now, I don’t have anyone that I can mobilize.
As Calming Soul Country had always been closed off, other than the royal family, everyone had already fallen into the monster’s tight grasp.
It was out of pure coincidence that these people appeared in this place.
They were the only entities within Calming Soul Country that would not be discovered by the monster.
Although they weren’t particularly powerful——–
They have unique abilities.
Wealth.
Powerful equipment.
And an excellent leader with an actual head over his shoulders.
In other words, they’re the only hope.
——–my only hope of exploring the ruin!
The king took a deep breath and took out a piece of crystal.
「 The information regarding the four Deities are all in here 」
“Very well”
Gu Qing Shan received the piece of crystal.
The covenant scroll was instantly burnt to a crisp.
——-the covenant had been formed.
From this point on, neither side can harm the other.
Gu Qing Shan pulled the Devil King Warden Rod from the king’s chest.
“Sorry if I offended you” he said apologetically.
The king covered the hole in his chest and slowly stood up.
If it weren’t for the unique power of that scepter, this wound wasn’t anything significant to him.
After a moment of hesitation, the king finally made up his mind: 「 I have something else I would like to form a covenant with you 」
“About what?”
「 I need you to help me explore the ruin of the God of Life 」
“I refuse. This matter is completely unrelated to us, so we won’t waste our efforts on it” Gu Qing Shan shook his head.
After a moment of silence, the king continued: 「…Didn’t you say you wanted to get rid of the four Deities? 」
“Indeed”
「 If you help me explore the ruin, in exchange, I will also help you get rid of the four Deities—— after all, they are also my enemies 」
“If that’s the case… it’s not completely out of the question. If you are willing to shoulder all the cost, we’ll take some time and seriously consider it”
「 The cost is no issue. I will be staying in the royal palace. If you are willing to cooperate with me to explore the ruin, please use this to find me 」
The king handed Gu Qing Shan a teleportation scroll to Gu Qing Shan, stared deeply at him for a long while, then disappeared.
The room returned to silence.
No one said anything.
After a while, Laura finally couldn’t contain herself anymore: “Can someone tell me what just happened?”
“What’s the matter?” Zhang Ying Hao asked.
“That king came to find us with killing intent, right?”
“Hm, if we didn’t surrender, he was ready to kill us, there’s no question about that”
“But that wasn’t the case when he left”
“Why do you think that?”
“He gave us the information, then volunteered to shoulder all the costs just to invite us to explore the ruin of God, promising to form a covenant to help us get rid of the four Deities——— did he suddenly go mad?”
“He wasn’t mad, he just ran into a true conman”
Saying so, Zhang Ying Hao went out of the room with a small pack of cigarettes.
It should be safe for now.
One of the two biggest forces in this world will no longer try anything against us, while the other biggest force is still struggling to conceal the truth of the monster.
I can finally have a smoke.
