After Gu Qing Shan’s group ventured into the God of Life’s ruin.
Calming Soul Country.
Night had fallen.
A faint shadow appeared from the back entrance of the palace, then quickly flew towards another direction.
No one managed to discover the shadow as it went on its way.
The shadow stuck close to a complicated winding road and eventually made it to a secluded corner of the city, right outside Xuan Ya’s house.
The shadow paused briefly before heading inside.
Shiiiiii——-
An invisible formation abruptly appeared and pushed the shadow back.
「 How careful, you actually arranged a cultivator’s formation around your own home for protection 」
「 However, you think you can stop me with only this much? 」
The shadow muttered, then abruptly sped up and charged forward again.
Bam!
Without anyone sensing what means he used, the formation shattered.
If Gu Qing Shan was still inside Calming Soul Country, he could immediately notice the formation shattering.
And he could instantly arrive.
However, as he was stuck inside the ruin, there was no way for him to sense anything happening outside.
The shadow slowly walked forward step by step, then briefly flashed and reappeared inside the house.
「 It is still exactly the same… Xuan Ya, have you been waiting for my return? 」
The shadow sighed.
He walked up to the child’s cradle and undid his camouflage to reveal his true face.
He was the handsome, tall prince!
The prince stared closely at the sleeping child and spoke in a gentle voice: 「 Xuan Ya, take a look. Can you see how well our child has grown, his visage and eyebrows are so familiar to you 」
However, the prince didn’t know that Xuan Ya’s wandering soul was standing exactly in front of him, across the cradle.
The soul displayed a sorrowful expression, seemingly having seen through something.
The prince continued: 「 Xuan Ya, this is a good child, I’ve always liked him a lot. In truth, I’ve always wanted to relieve you of your identity as a guardian, but regretfully, I later found out that this was a soul-bound covenant, and I’m helpless in changing it 」
「 Hah, yes, I’m helpless to change this…」
Saying so, the prince took out a luxurious dagger engraved with gems of many colors from his sleeves.
「 A child born through the bloodline of a royal family member and a guardian, if they ever make it past three years old, will surely absorb the power of two royal family members 」
「 The only members left of the royal family are Father and myself 」
「 Xuan Ya, do you know what it means to lose one’s power during this era? 」
「 You surely do, I don’t want to become crippled 」
Hearing that, Xuan Ya’s wandering soul couldn’t contain herself and tried to say something, a lot of something, in fact.
But how could the words of a wandering soul reach a living person?
And Ye Fei Li wasn’t here.
So the prince naturally heard none of it.
However, he seemed to have thought of something.
——-perhaps it was the unresolved issue between himself and Xuan Ya.
Watching his child, the prince muttered in a low voice: 「 That’s right, I shouldn’t have gotten so close with you, and definitely shouldn’t have conceived this child with you 」
「 But then, I had already fallen in love with you 」
His voice became emotional: 「 As excellent of a guardian as you were, even Father felt a sense of pressure, it was him who permitted me to come close to you 」
「 I have no regrets—– because you have truly become mine—— even if you are no longer of this world, even if your child is dead, that fact would never change 」
「 Forgive me 」
Saying so, the prince exuded intense killing intent.
He raised his dagger and suddenly thrusted it towards the sleeping child!
Kih——
The long dagger was blocked by a layer of light.
The light protected the child.
「 This is——- 」
Before the prince realized what happened, the covenant had already been triggered.
The covenant between the royal family and the Blade Edge Pledge!
「 Aaaaaaa! 」
The prince screamed in horror and pain.
「 No! How could you be a person of the Blade Edge Pledge!? You’re only three years old, you can’t possibly sign a covenant on your own accord! 」
The prince shouted in despair.
He had gone against their covenant on his own accord and tried to kill a member of the Blade Edge Pledge.
Earlier, both Laura and Boss had double-checked this covenant and confirmed that it was a very strict one without any loopholes.
And anyone who went against it would immediately lose their life!
The prince collapsed to his knees, his mouth opened wide as if someone was clutching his throat, unable to utter a single word.
The light that protected the child slowly expanded to envelop him as well.
Within the light, the prince turned into a pile of bones.
The light didn’t fade away.
The bones slowly continued to be eaten away until it was completely gone.
The prince was dead.
The child remained safe.
From now on, this young child would be the only royal family member in the entirety of Calming Soul Country.
Standing next to her child, Xuan Ya stood still and watched the prince until he was thoroughly dead.
She turned away, wiping the tears from the corner of her eyes.
…
At another location.
Looking at the golden ring on Gu Qing Shan’s hand, Zhang Ying Hao was a bit confused: “It wouldn’t do us any good with just the ring. Without the king’s memories, we wouldn’t be able to tell if we ran into any special locations”
Gu Qing Shan smiled.
“Do you think that there’s a technique that would allow every member of the royal family to hold a piece of sealed memory in their minds since birth?”
Hearing that, Zhang Ying Hao hesitated to answer.
After so many years, the weapons, treasures, and even servants that the God of Life left behind had been rendered completely useless.
If that was the case, how could a technique cast by a Deity over a hundred million years ago persist and enable the pieces of unsealed memory to remain within the minds of every royal family member after all this time?
This was a bit far-fetched.
Gu Qing Shan continued: “This ring was the key to restraining the Occultism spirit, when I wore it, the Occultism spirit couldn’t attack me at all—— so you can take a guess about what it’s capable of”
“Do you mean that…”
“Yup, it had always been this ring that the king wore from the very start”
Gu Qing Shan replied.
In his vision, lines of glowing text had already appeared for a long while:
[God of Life’s Ring of Memories]
[This ring contains the information left by the God of Life, only by arriving at the correct locations would the information inside be triggered and provided]
Gu Qing Shan skimmed through it, then looked at the rest of them.
But none of them showed any interest.
Gu Qing Shan was surprised: “What kind of expression is that? Aren’t you interested in the ruin of a Deity?”
Ye Fei Li replied: “Well, how could any leftover treasures and such excite us anymore?”
“Hm? What do you mean?” Gu Qing Shan asked.
“We have her majesty, Laura”
“…That’s true” Gu Qing Shan nodded and continued: “And in reality, we already signed a covenant with the king, we would help him explore the ruins in exchange for his help fighting against the four Deities, and the four fragments of the Card”
“Because of that, we can’t take anything inside this ruin anyways. Right now, we can only follow the information of the ring to reach the deepest chamber of the ruin and teleport back”
Everyone nodded.
Laura appeared excited:
“That’s great, this is a treasure trove leftover from a hundred million years ago, even if we can’t take anything, it would still be quite an experience checking it out”
Boss asked: “However, before that, what should we do with this ring after we get out?”
“Return it to a descendant of the God of Life” Gu Qing Shan replied.
At this point, Zhang Ying Hao seemed to have thought of something and displayed a hesitant expression.
“What’s with you?” Gu Qing Shan asked.
“My black cat can do more than just find the way to the deepest chamber of the ruin, we can actually find the direction to another place” Zhang Ying Hao replied.
“Such as?”
“Such as a different route to return”
“…Why do we need to take another route?” Gu Qing Shan asked.
Zhang Ying Hao cleared his throat and explained: “In the forest of corpse pillars, we ran into a Void Deity; in this garden, we met an Occultism spirit, who knows what else we would run into next? If we need risking our lives like this, we’ll really lose them”
Everyone else nodded in agreement.
Gu Qing Shan contemplated for a while before asking: “Boss, what do you think?”
Boss replied: “I’ll just say one thing. It is very rare for portions of the Abyss to separate from it. Just now, when I returned the garden to the Abyss, I obtained a Star Firefly, so if we can provide even more portions of the Abyss, we’d gain more benefits”
“What’s a Star Firefly?” Gu Qing Shan asked.
Boss explained it all again.
Just like Ye Fei Li and the rest from before, Gu Qing Shan also exclaimed in shock.
He then recalled something and asked: “That’s right, Boss, I’ve always had a certain question that I can’t find the answer to. Now that you’re here, I want to ask you about it”
“Go ahead”
“I’ve always assumed that the Eternal Abyss was a location, but from what I’ve learnt recently, I feel like it might actually be a type of advanced life form instead, so what exactly is it?”
After thinking deeply about it, Boss replied: “I can’t answer that, because entities that don’t belong to the Abyss cannot be allowed to learn the truth of the Abyss, unless—–”
“Unless what?”
“Unless you draw the attention of the Abyss, manage to pass its test, become a part of it, and obtain a unique Abyssal form of your own”
“Only then would you be qualified to learn the truth of the Abyss”
Boss continued: “Don’t think of this as an easy task. Even after several ten thousand years, the Demon Dragon still hasn’t managed to obtain an Abyssal form—— it could only retain its original form”
Hearing that, Gu Qing Shan recalled something Lin told him a while ago.
“Right, Lin once told me that the Abyss is observing me”
Gu Qing Shan commented.
The smile on Boss’ face vanished completely as he appeared very surprised.
“Is that really what she said?”
