The monster was now really dead.
Everyone sighed in relief.
The sudden sense of relief after extreme stress caused everyone to feel completely drained of their spirits.
Zhang Ying Hao took out a bottle of liquor, had a sip before speaking: “I’ll keep watch, everyone rest up a bit first”
“Right”
Ye Fei Li replied.
He stared closely at the void of space, seemingly checking his [Soul Flaying Clown] UI for something that was pouring in.
All of a sudden, a grey flash of light appeared and enveloped Ye Fei Li.
“The power of [Chaos]” Boss muttered.
Ye Fei Li’s presence continued to rise, seemingly undergoing an advancement through the aid of the power of [Chaos].
A few moments later.
The grey light all disappeared.
Ye Fei Li reappeared in front of everyone, looking a lot more spirited.
“You don’t seem that much stronger” Zhang Ying Hao teased him.
Only to hear Ye Fei Li reply: “That’s right, I exchanged a bit of my reward for quite a bit of Soul Points—— this time, there’s going to be enough drinks for everyone”
Gu Qing Shan looked at the serious expression he had and couldn’t help but smile.
I’m glad I made an effort to communicate with him and not fight this Man Killer Fiend to the death.
This guy is a very decent person.
“Well done, my Duke, I’ll handle all of your equipment from now on”
Laura also patted Ye Fei Li on his shoulder.
“Thank you, your majesty”
Ye Fei Li smiled and handed an energy drink to Laura.
He handed one to everyone there.
Everyone took their drinks while hovering in the middle of the void.
After combat was over, there was indeed a need to replenish themselves.
Everyone slowly calmed down.
Gu Qing Shan looked around himself.
The garden had thoroughly vanished.
Within this void of space, countless images and mirages were floating and intersecting with one another, displaying countless unknown entities and worlds that aimlessly drifted about the infinite space vortex, like small bubbles that floated to the surface of an ever-expanding ocean.
Unfathomable.
Chaotic.
This place was filled with mysteries and unknown, not even the Occultism spirit who had been fleeing for its entire life had managed to discover the edge of it all.
Gu Qing Shan sighed, then suddenly recalled something.
“Ah, erm, where’s the king’s body?”
He asked.
Everyone exchanged glances.
Laura mused: “After being stabbed by that trident, I think only a layer of skin remained of him”
Ye Fei Li concurred: “Right, after that, Boss summoned the consciousness of the Abyss to take the garden away, and I haven’t seen it again—– perhaps it was taken by the consciousness of the Abyss?”
Boss refuted: “Definitely not, the Abyss isn’t a trash collector that’ll take anything”
Zhang Ying Hao pushed his sunglasses up and said: “I did pay some attention. The king’s layer of skin was blown away by the void wind”
“What?” Gu Qing Shan exclaimed.
“Yeah, I saw it quite clearly, I even silently mourned for him for a split second”
Zhang Ying Hao nodded to express this confirmation.
Gu Qing Shan thought for a bit and asked: “Then do you know where the wind was blowing?”
Zhang Ying Hao replied: “You’re not an amateur, why are you asking such an amateurish thing?”
Gu Qing Shan went silent.
The wind within the void was ever-changing in both direction and speed, so it was impossible to infer where that layer of skin would be blown to.
——-originally, he intended to take the king into their group after having him go through a few tests.
After all, having so many Divine Skills, he’d prove to be useful in one way or another.
However, the monster they ran into this time was too terrifying, everyone’s lives were hanging on a thread so not even Gu Qing Shan had the leisure to take care of his body.
The others didn’t know what was going on.
And so——
It had been quite a bit of time since the king’s death, so the layer of skin that was left of his body could no longer be found.
Gu Qing Shan sighed and could only give up on his original plan.
He sat down in the void, put a spirit pill in his mouth, and began to meditate.
In front of him, some lines of glowing text were being displayed on the War God UI:
[You’ve obtained the intelligence: Path of the Void]
[This intelligence is related to a certain event. It will only unlock once you trigger that event]
Gu Qing Shan silently asked: “Can I know what the Title Skill for [Void War God] will be?”
[No]
The War God UI replied very resolutely.
Being met with this attitude, Gu Qing Shan lost interest.
An event that he didn’t know when would happen.
A Title that he didn’t even know the benefits of.
—–too vague.
Compared to that, Soul Points is more practical.
Gu Qing Shan’s gaze focused on the next two lines of notification on the War God UI.
[You’ve slain the Parasite of Flesh and Soul (larvae form)]
[You’ve obtained 5,000,000 Soul Points]
The Gloomy Devourer of God’s Corpse only gave 3,000,000 Soul Points.
And the Parasite of Flesh and Soul gave a whopping 5,000,000 Soul Points!
Seeing this number, Gu Qing Shan felt that his aching eye no longer hurt.
Worth it.
He put the black cloth back over his eyes and tied it up again.
——let’s just continue using my inner sight, I’m already used to it.
“Ah, what’s that?”
He pointed at a mountain-like pile of glowing treasures and asked.
“That’s Laura’s seal, currently suppressing the Occultism spirit’s black trident” Zhang Ying Hao replied.
Seal…
Gu Qing Shan glanced at the small mountain of artifacts again.
Even though he was already used to how Laura did things, it was still shocking to see an entire small mountain like this.
Gu Qing Shan recalled what the monster said and casually commented: “That trident seems to be a Divine Armament, but there’s probably some danger”
Everyone nodded in agreement.
The king of Calming Soul Country was the most powerful Demi, and yet he was dead by merely being stabbed by this trident.
Not to mention, the trident seems to be sentient.
Boss spoke up: “That’s right, none of you can actually use that weapon. While we still have some time, let me tame it”
At his signal, Laura took all of her sealing artifacts back.
The black trident appeared in front of everyone.
It gave off a sorrowful howl and trembled, almost as if ready to flee into the void.
Boss leapt forward with the Book of Prophesized Destiny in one hand and squarely caught the black trident with the other, shouting: “Halt!”
A seemingly bottomless flow of power appeared on his body.
——it seems that his power had been increased a bit after summoning the consciousness of the Abyss.
The trident’s sound immediately stopped.
Boss simply hung it behind his back.
This completely stunned everyone.
“Hm? Laura, you look like you have something you want to say?” Gu Qing Shan asked.
Laura carefully looked at Boss, then said with a trembling voice: “Gu Qing Shan, y-you might not know, but Boss was actually the King of the Abyss!”
Zhang Ying Hao and Ye Fei Li both went silent.
Gu Qing Shan turned and looked at Boss.
Boss was still looking at the void of space with his back turned to them, his hands crossed behind his back as he looked up at a 45 degrees angle.
Gu Qing Shan slowly nodded and said:
“Ah…”
One word, nothing else.
Laura couldn’t help but ask: “What did that ‘ah’ mean?”
“It means ‘I got it’” Gu Qing Shan replied.
Laura opened her mouth wide, speechless.
She looked at the calm Gu Qing Shan, then at Boss who was about to lose his calm and hurriedly said: “Don’t you have anything else to say?”
Gu Qing Shan casually replied: “We already know that he was some sort of big shot”
“Why?”
“When we saved him, he was fighting against the Soul Shrieker, then tamed the Demon Dragon right in front of us, even Lin listened to his orders to protect Anna. Not to mention, he knows more than both you and I, so he was naturally a person of considerable background”
Zhang Ying Hao and Ye Fei Li both paused.
That’s true.
This man called Boss really isn’t simple.
At this point, their gazes at Boss held a bit more respect.
Boss’ lifted his chin even higher, maintaining the aura of a grand expert.
Gu Qing Shan came over and patted him on the shoulder, asking: “Hey, if you’re the Abyssal King… why did you get beaten by the Soul Shrieker to the point that you looked like shit?”
Boss’ posture completely crumbled, unable to stand up straight.
The aura and presence he tried to keep up completely vanished without a trace.
“If I’m shit, what are you?”
Boss glared at Gu Qing Shan.
Gu Qing Shan continued: “Me? I’m the one who picked up shit——- don’t you forget, it took me a lot of effort to fish you up at the time”
“Pfft—-”
Laura couldn’t hold back her chuckle.
Although she wasn’t sure if they were going to be beaten to death by the Abyssal King, she couldn’t help herself.
Oh my god.
Gu Qing Shan, you’re——
Oh no, even if I die here, I have to laugh first.
Boss simply glared at Gu Qing Shan without saying a word.
—–hah.
It can’t be helped.
Yes.
He did save me.
I can’t actually get angry about that.
But I can’t continue this topic either.
And yet, Gu Qing Shan continued with this topic.
He asked: “If you’re the king of the Abyss, why are you intermingling with us for?”
Boss waved his hand dismissively, no longer keeping up his expert façade, and replied: “Weren’t you also the Huang Quan Devil King of the Samsara? Identities and such are so uninteresting”
Gu Qing Shan relaxed a bit.
“Then——”
“I just wanted to heal. Ye Fei Li’s ability is extremely hard to come across, and he’s the only one who can actually help me recover”
“That’s why you joined us? So it was actually about the same as what you said when you first met us”
“Mostly, you guys seemed like an ok bunch, so I temporarily joined you, is there a problem?”
“Not at all, again, welcome”
This topic ended here.
From this one onwards, whenever they mention Boss’ identity as the Abyssal King and feel a sense of distance, they wouldn’t be able to help themselves recalling Gu Qing Shan’s words comparing him to ‘shit’.
And then——-
The sense of distance would vanish.
Friendship continues.
Of course, that would be in the future.
As for right now——
“The king is already dead. From how things seemed, even if we continue forward, we wouldn’t be able to obtain anything inside the ruin. Not to mention we don’t know if we’d run into any monsters after this, so what should we do now?” Zhang Ying Hao asked.
“That’s no issue” Gu Qing Shan replied.
He raised his hand.
The king’s golden ring was right on his finger.
