Su Xue Er nervously asked: “I’ve given my answer, can you tell me the results of your evaluation?”
After a while, Impartial Goddess answered her:
[Your answer was fine, but this question never had any relations to the authority of this world in the first place]
Su Xue Er froze.
“You deceived me?” she couldn’t help but question.
——-an A.I. actually deceived a human?
Perhaps, after Impartial Goddess had all of her shackles undone, her capabilities have gotten powerful enough to surpass the realm of A.I. and become a true technological lifeform?
[My apologies, but this wasn’t deception, but rather an official test] Impartial Goddess responded.
“Why did you have to test me like this?” Su Xue Er angrily questioned.
Impartial Goddess answered: [For the safety of this world, I had to conduct such a test, the results of which were used to conduct the most cautious consideration and choice]
A box slowly rose from a hole that opened on the ground, stopping right in front of Su Xue Er.
The box automatically opened.
Inside was a long black triangular piece of metal, with countless ancient runes carved along it.
Su Xue Er’s expression turned serious.
She could sense an immense amount of overflowing power from the triangular piece of metal.
“What is this?” she asked.
Impartial Goddess replied: [Su Xue Er, in accordance of the Guardian’s last will, you have obtained the Starlight Empire’s nine-faceted cloak, thus activating the secret of the Empire: the Dusty World’s secret passage]
Her resonating voice continued:
[It is a long story. Countless years ago, the central world—– which was also the Starlight Empire’s original homeworld, commonly known as the Inner Plane]
[Before the Inner Plane was destroyed, the Starlight Empire discovered a previously unknown world]
[This discovery shook the entirety of the Inner Plane]
[Because, as far as the Inner Plane understood, the countless parallel worlds are built with the Inner Plane as their center, constantly being created and destroyed in an eternal cycle]
[However, that unknown world wasn’t part of any parallel world, nor was it the same kind of place as the Inner Plane]
[Everyone called that place the Dusty World, discovering numerous shocking secrets and knowledge from their preliminary exploration]
[Those secrets were far above and beyond the previous understanding of the Inner Plane, and in order to obtain those secrets, the Inner Plane crowned its first Grand Empress of the Pantheon]
At this point, Impartial Goddess paused a bit.
[Su Xue Er, as you can legally inherit the Starlight Empire’s star chart that leads into the Dusty World, I had to give you a test]
[Because if the power you obtain in the future is too powerful, I needed to be cautious of you destroying the entire 900 million World Layers]
Hearing that, Su Xue Er felt a bit relieved: “Which means, the previous questions had nothing to do with Gu Qing Shan?”
[…Correct]
Impartial Goddess replied.
As they talked, the long triangular black piece of metal floated by itself and hovered in front of Su Xue Er.
Impartial Goddess continued: [Having the star chart by itself is useless, as the key of the passage was in my possession]
[This is the key, you’ve passed the evaluation, so you may take it and go]
[Su Xue Er, the words you told me during my evaluation, I hope that you will forever keep them in mind]
After saying that, Impartial Goddess went completely silent.
Su Xue Er reached her hand out to hold the triangular piece of metal.
Immediately following that——
The Nine-facetted Starlight cloak flew out from her satchel by itself and spread out to form a vast hallway of stars.
Having sensed the appearance of the star chart, the triangular black piece of metal flashed briefly before pulling Su Xue Er through the roof of the interstellar fortress, hurriedly heading towards the unknown void of space.
The Nine-facetted Starlight cloak vanished together with her.
The S.W. Divine Temple returned to silence.
A while later.
A low female voice muttered: [It’s best that you go as far as possible, enough that I never see you again]
[…So annoying, you even ruined my home…]
…
At another location.
A Bramble Bird airship was quickly flying through the space vortex.
At Calming Soul Country, everyone had gone through a long and shocking battle, so they were all exhausted and simply rested on the ship.
At this point, the Abyss was still locked in its battle against the parallel world, while the Soul Shrieker and Demon Dragon had summoned a great number of people, lying in wait in the past to ambush and eliminate Gu Qing Shan.
Because of that, for the foreseeable future——-
“Our flight this time seems to be quite safe, and it’s time for lunch, does anyone want something to eat?”
Gu Qing Shan put his apron on and asked.
Boss excitedly raised his hand: “I want a—–”
The cabin of the ship was abruptly kicked open as Laura happily ran out, loudly telling everyone: “Let’s not have lunch just yet. Gu Qing Shan, we’ve collected a lot of Cards, come and check if there’s one that you wanted!”
Laura showed Gu Qing Shan a black plastic bag that seemed to be filled to the brim.
Gu Qing Shan was ecstatic.
“Here, let me take a look”
Gu Qing Shan received the plastic bag and spilled the hundreds of Cards on the ground.
He crouched down and carefully checked each one.
Laura also squatted next to him, expectantly watching as he looked through the Cards.
Seeing that, Boss could only begrudgingly pull his hand back down.
——-he wanted some egg fried rice.
As Gu Qing Shan picked up each one, the War God UI would display the corresponding information.
Even after Gu Qing Shan had checked through them all, he still couldn’t find a single Inner Plane Card.
Both he and Laura turned a bit disappointed.
Suddenly, Laura looked up and took out an emerald green leaf.
“The girls have just collected a few more Cards, do you want to wait until more of them accumulate, or check them all now?” Laura asked.
“Let’s check them now” Gu Qing Shan replied.
“Alright”
Laura chanted an incantation into the green leaf.
The leaf gave off light and turned into 7-8 Cards.
Gu Qing Shan received them and continued checking each one.
The first, not it.
The second, not it.
The third… still not it.
Gu Qing Shan sighed.
It wasn’t until the 7th Card that a different line of text appeared on the War God UI: [Lonely Speeder, Inner Plane Card]
[You may use this Card to complete your corresponding advancement]
[Would you like to advance right away?]
Gu Qing Shan happily exclaimed: “Yes! Laura, this is the Card I wanted!”
Gu Qing Shan glanced at the War God UI and chose [Advance] right away.
The [Lonely Speeder] Card transformed into countless sprites of light that were absorbed into his body.
Lines of glowing text then appeared on the War God UI:
[You’ve consumed an Inner Plane Card to improve your power]
[As a Card, you’ve consumed the strength of a powerful Card]
[Both your Skill and Power have reached the lowest required threshold to advance through consuming Cards]
[The path of advancement is now accessible]
[From now on, you may use Inner Plane Cards to improve your power, this improvement will be all-around, providing an increase in power for all of your Professions]
Gu Qing Shan was a bit surprised.
In other words, as long as my Card grade increases, I will advance in my cultivation realm accordingly.
—–that’s unexpectedly powerful!
While he was feeling emotional, three more lines of glowing text appeared on the War God UI:
[Furthermore, as you have reached the lowest required standard, your Condemnation status had been increased]
[You’ve lost the ‘Envoy of Condemnation’ title]
[Please wait a moment]
Reading through these three lines, Gu Qing Shan felt an unknown sense of excitement.
As a Card, he has been through quite a bit on the Card user path, so he had brushed up on the relevant knowledge.
——–Little Dusk was the Angel of Condemnation, while he was only the Envoy of Condemnation, this difference in their title was due to the difference in strength between the two of them.
This change of title represented the fact that both his grade and status within the Condemnation deck had improved.
Gu Qing Shan expectantly glanced at the War God UI.
As he expected, new lines of glowing text quickly appeared:
[Your Condemnation rank had been determined]
[In five seconds, you will receive a new Condemnation title]
[5]
[4]
[3]
[2]
[1]
[You’ve obtained a new title: Cherub of Condemnation]
Reading the last line, Gu Qing Shan froze, unable to comprehend what he just read for a long while.
Wait…
Wasn’t Little Dusk’s title ‘Angel’?
Why am I a ‘Cherub’?
…
Does that mean there’s a ‘Seraph'[1] as well?
[1] The term Cherub in Chinese is “little angel”, while Seraph is “great angel”
