1 hour before the beginning of the coronation ceremony.
The earth abruptly trembled.
Without any signs of warning, the world began to collapse.
As powerful Combatants realized that it was the end of the world, they hurriedly made their way to check the situation of this world.
The royal palace.
The attention of every Combatant was drawn by the earthquake, leaving the royal palace to appear very lonely.
——-the situation this time was quite unique, the old king was already dead, while the new king was only three years old and still hadn’t received the throne, so the kingdom’s officials were in a hurry to enter the palace.
Because of this, as well as the coming of the end of the world, there weren’t too many people left in the entire palace.
At this moment, in a relatively secluded area of the palace.
A certain tower-shaped structure.
A voice emerged from the void of space:
“Crown of light”
Following the command, the tower-shaped structure opened to allow Gu Qing Shan’s group entry.
They followed a stairway up to the top of the building.
This was a library, one that stored the most precious books of the royal family.
Everyone stood among the dusty books and looked around themselves.
“Where?” Laura asked.
“I’ll look for it——- here” Gu Qing Shan replied.
He walked up to a certain bookshelf and pointed at an extremely dusty thick book.
“The Previous Kings didn’t trust me, but the two guardians had already sworn allegiance to the royal family, so they knew about where the Previous Kings were hiding” Gu Qing Shan said.
“Won’t they know that we’re here?” Zhang Ying Hao asked.
Gu Qing Shan grinned: “They were also afraid of being discovered by the monster and the four fake Gods, so they’ve temporarily retracted all of their presence to hide inside this book———- only after coronation ceremony had begun would they awaken and meet up with me”
“Is that so? No wonder I felt this book to be a tool for nurturing a dead soul’s soul power” Ye Fei Li stared closely at the book.
Laura opened her backpack and took something out.
———- a small and intricately made hourglass that contained glittering pink sand.
“Let me”
Gu Qing Shan received the hourglass and placed it on the book.
Laura chanted the incantation:
“[Short moment of affectionate time], activate!”
A faint mist of sand abruptly manifested from the hourglass and went into the book.
“There, this is an extremely rare temporal sealing Soul Artifact. It’ll slow down the time flow within a 3-meter area around itself” Laura explained.
“How long will the delay be?” Boss asked.
“One hour in reality will become two hours within its range” Laura replied.
“Two hours? That’s enough” Gu Qing Shan said.
A time of two hours should be long enough, by the time the Previous Kings awaken to activate all of their arrangements and kill the God of Life, the entire party would be over and every dish would’ve already gone cold.
“Why do we need to get rid of these kings like this? Can’t we borrow their powers instead?” Laura curiously asked.
Gu Qing Shan sincerely taught her: “Laura, try to think about it———- these are several hundred men of great wits, for the past countless years, they would have spent an untold amount of effort to arrange an uncountable amount of means within this world”
“Allowing these guys to get involved would be wasting our efforts without any returns”
“Furthermore, our only goal from the beginning had been to claim the Card, then successfully escape from this world”
Laura hesitated: “But then, wouldn’t it be enough just to avoid these issues?”
Gu Qing Shan replied: “We aren’t afraid of fighting, but if we can make things simpler for ourselves, we should”
——-having dealt with this, Gu Qing Shan also felt things to be a lot easier.
The Previous Kings were the biggest variables within this entire matter, as long as they could be excluded from the battle, a lot of unsure factors could be gotten rid of entirely.
Zhang Ying Hao praised: “Indeed, this is how it should be. We don’t have any grudge with them, killing them won’t give us any benefits, helping them won’t earn us any money, so it’s best to stay as detached from them as much as possible”
Laura slowly nodded.
“What do we do now?” Ye Fei Li asked.
“The life of Xuan Ya’s son is directly related to the God of Life’s survival, but since the God of Life is busy saving the world, the only individuals she can truly trust are most likely the four fake Gods” Gu Qing Shan replied.
“Then, let’s go” Boss declared.
Laura opened her flower umbrella.
The group vanished.
The tower-shaped building returned to silence.
Both the hourglass and the book were buried deep within the library; unless one specifically went to look for them, they wouldn’t be able to locate either of these items.
——-and this place was one of the most secluded locations in the royal palace where very few people frequented.
Not to mention, today was the day of the new king’s coronation.
In other words——-
For the sake of this day, the Previous Kings had prepared for countless years.
But when the day actually arrived, the kings were forcefully removed from the equation through a simple and direct method by Gu Qing Shan.
They collectively missed their chance.
…
Gu Qing Shan’s group quickly made their way through the royal palace.
Until a certain point.
They stopped.
30 meters ahead of them was the coronation ceremonial platform.
The door leading to the platform from the palace was already opened, showing the 3-year-old king sitting neatly inside the palace, a crown on his head as he let the maids arrange his ceremonial clothing without moving.
It seems like he had been through a lot, these past few days.
Seeing that, Xuan Ya felt extremely sorrowful, almost unable to contain her tears.
“Don’t worry, it’s all going to be over soon” Gu Qing Shan lightly told her.
He exchanged glances with Boss.
The two of them released their hands from the umbrella at once and revealed themselves.
“Who are you!?”
“Drop your weapons, surrender yourselves!”
As soon as they appeared, several royal guards appeared and blocked their paths.
The guards were clearly anxious as they shouted.
“We… I think we came to assassinate the king?” Boss replied.
“Right, assassinate the king” Gu Qing Shan nodded.
He drew the Earth sword from the void of space and lightly swung.
Convergence realm! [1]
[Sanctuary]!
Taiyi sword array!
This strike arrived without any warning, all they saw was a slight warp in the void of space before intense gusts of wind abruptly swept them away.
The intense wind didn’t relent.
Before the knights managed to react, they had already been blown away.
In the air, their weapons and armors were completely destroyed by the tiny blades of wind that swept them away, leaving them naked.
“Aaaaa—–”
“What kind of swordsmanship is this!?”
“That’s impossible!”
With various panicked shouts, they were taken away by the great wind.
Gu Qing Shan put his sword away.
This strike was so finely controlled that it didn’t leave even a single scratch on any of the knights.
This strike was so powerful that it didn’t leave them any room to resist.
This single strike was more powerful than all of his strikes in the past, combined!
Seeing this, Boss had no choice but begrudgingly let go of his black trident.
——-this trident was a powerful Divine Armament that belonged to the Occultism spirit that was supposed to display its brilliance during the skirmish just now.
Unfortunately, a single strike from Gu Qing Shan easily dealt with the situation.
The two of them continued to walk towards the king.
All of a sudden, they both stopped.
Four figures had surrounded them.
「 Foolish mortals 」Wind God appeared.
「 You dared to cause a commotion in Calming Soul Country 」Earth God appeared.
「 Even if Godmother isn’t here, it isn’t an issue for us to take your lives 」Fire God declared.
「 You shall lay your lives down right here! 」Water God added.
The four fake Gods had appeared at once!
Boss nodded: “Sure enough, they were protecting the royal family, but then…”
“Then what?” Gu Qing Shan asked.
“Why do I get the feeling that we’re actually the villains?” Boss doubtfully questioned.
“We’ve always been the villains” Gu Qing Shan replied.
He raised his other hand that was hiding inside his robe.
One golden.
Three silver.
He was wearing the Ring of Sovereign as well as the three Rings of guardians at once.
The four rings resonated with one another.
Gu Qing Shan shouted: “I wield the absolute authority of the kingdom, the king of all Demis. Within all of your souls hide obedience towards the power of royalty, as it is the Law decided by your Deity!”
“I command you all, kneel!”
The four rings emanated brilliant light.
[1] the swordsmanship realm above Sword Saint was to converge a thousand strikes into one, thus Convergence Realm
