——you must enter the city before sundown.
This was the sincere advice of the cultivators to Gu Qing Shan before they left.
Gu Qing Shan put the letter away and looked up at the sky.
Night would soon descend.
Gu Qing Shan sped up his flight.
——-there was sufficient time so he felt no need to reveal a Divine Skill like [Ground Shrink].
He simply flew across the lower layer of clouds, through the frigid winds and the large numbers of ruined cities.
At some point, it began to rain and gradually turned into a heavy downpour.
In the wilderness, large quantities of rainwater washed through the ruined walls and structures.
After some observation, Gu Qing Shan noticed that these structures were all created from some especially tough material, some of which still radiated a unique power fluctuation.
Perhaps it was because of this that they were still able to retain their original appearance after being destroyed countless years ago.
However, what exactly destroyed these cities?
A large-scale war?
Natural disasters?
Or something else entirely?
Gu Qing Shan carefully observed those ruined structures.
Almost all of the roofs of buildings had been flipped over, the various items inside tossed strewn all over the ground.
Some places seemed to have items that attracted attention, as there were traces of organization and selection.
This was definitely the work of someone who arrived later.
So much time had passed and so much had been tampered with by the people who came later on that many traces of the past could no longer be observed.
Under this situation, Gu Qing Shan couldn’t draw any solid conclusions for the time being.
“Oi”
All of a sudden, a voice resounded in his Thought Sea.
Gu Qing Shan was startled so he stopped in the air and asked: “Who?”
“It’s me”
A young man arrived flying from afar.
Gu Qing Shan first observed his appearance, then the tortoise shell on his back, and exclaimed in shock: “Young Tortoise! Why are you here!?”
Indeed, this young man was none other than one of the four Divine Beasts of the Barren Cloud Heavenly Palace, the Spirit Tortoise.
Young Tortoise flew in front of him and said: “Your master was in a hurry that she forget to tell you something, so I came to deliver her message”
“What is it?”
“You must go into the city before nightfall”
“Ah, I know about that, but why is Young Tortoise here?”
Young Tortoise replied: “It’s because you obtained the twin swords Heaven and Earth. Since all of the duties entrusted to me had been fulfilled just in time when your master returned to the Primordial Heaven Realm, I moved back to your world with her”
Gu Qing Shan asked: “Then, you came here with Shifu in order to help her pass her Tribulation?”
“That’s right!” Young Tortoise replied.
At this point, the rain had gotten so heavy that the scenery was completely white-washed in front of their visions, making them unable to see anything outside the range of a few meters.
The sky had gotten a bit darker.
Young Tortoise urged him: “We’ll talk as we go; we can’t delay any further”
“Yes”
The two of them started flying towards Heaven Pillar city.
“Is my Shifu here to face the {Mahesvara King} realm Tribulation or the Sumeru Lord realm Tribulation?” Gu Qing Shan asked as he was flying.
“Didn’t you already meet her?” the Spirit Tortoise asked.
Gu Qing Shan explained: “I didn’t, she arrived through an incarnation technique, I couldn’t judge her power at all”
“Ah, is that so? She’s here to face her Sumeru Lord realm Tribulation”
The Spirit Tortoise lowered his voice and continued: “Your master seemed to have run into quite a unique opportunity, insisting on facing her Sumeru Lord Tribulation. No matter how much the other disciples and I tried to convince her, she wouldn’t listen.
Gu Qing Shan was confused, and couldn’t help but ask: “Aren’t cultivators supposed to face their Tribulations? Since she’s looking to breakthrough, of course, she would need to face her Tribulation, why did you stop her?”
The Spirit Tortoise glanced at him and replied: “Your master refined a golden lotus into a golden light that was absorbed into her Thought Sea, from that point onward, whenever she wished to advance, she only need to directly breakthrough, no need to face any Tribulations”
“No need to face a Tribulation and directly breakthrough?” Gu Qing Shan thought that he misheard, so he tried asking again.
The Spirit Tortoise nodded.
Gu Qing Shan was shocked.
When Xie Dao Ling was born, a golden lotus was born with her, manifested from the essence of heaven and earth which drew the ire of the Divine race, who placed a malicious curse on her.
Xie Gu Hong final’s solution was to seal her in crystal ice and let her slumber, only waking up after her curse had been dispelled.
This was the extent of Gu Qing Shan’s knowledge.
He just didn’t think that his Shifu’s talent would be so heaven-defying that there wasn’t even a need for her to face the Tribulation whenever she wanted to break through!
Gu Qing Shan hurriedly asked: “Then why did my Shifu come here to face the Tribulation?”
The Spirit Tortoise sighed and replied: “Because of Shen Wu world——- after all, Shen Wu world doesn’t have any decent cultivation scripture that would allow cultivators to reach the realms after {Yama King}”
“Then how did my Shifu——-”
“She had few scriptures, but apparently they were only suitable for her. So, she decided to come here and obtain some cultivation scriptures from cultivators of other worlds and help the living beings of Shen Wu world quickly grow stronger”
Gu Qing Shan nodded in understanding as he listened.
At this point, a huge black mass appeared in front of them from within the showering rain.
They had finally arrived at Heaven Pillar city.
The two of them flew up the walls of the city and steadily landed.
The Spirit Tortoise sighed in relief.
The group of cultivators from before were already waiting here.
“How great, you had managed to arrive before sundown” one of them happily said.
The others also nodded, apparently relieved of their worries.
Gu Qing Shan felt a bit surprised and clasped his fist: “Fellow Dao seekers, could it be that you had been waiting for us here?”
A male cultivator replied: “We have. The {Mahesvara King} realm Tribulation isn’t just a normally dangerous trial, the more people we have, the more assured we’d feel in passing it”
The female cultivator standing next to him seemed to be his Dao companion as she followed up: “If there are too few people, I’d rather retreat a realm and cultivate again for a few hundred years”
A monk explained: “Amitabha, according to the records of our world, to successfully reach the summit of Mount Sumeru, the more people we have, the better chance we’ve got”
Seeing everyone else’s reactions, Gu Qing Shan saw the same expression of agreement, so he understood.
These people were waiting here for him to see if he was able to reach this place safely.
——-they were taking a headcount.
Gu Qing Shan tried asking: “That person who took our Inventory Bags, don’t they count as one as well?”
He was asking this mainly because he was afraid that these people might recognize Shifu as the thief, so he was probing their reactions first.
Gu Qing Shan understood his Shifu’s intention, and he would definitely take his Shifu’s side when it came to this matter.
The other cultivators exchanged glances, all of them seemed hesitant.
The thief didn’t really take anything from us and only accessed our cultivation scripture jade tags.
But then…
“I examined my cultivation scripture jade tag” a cultivator said, “With the fluctuation that remained on the jade tag, I discovered that a copy had been made of it”
“Hmph, me as well, they also made a copy of mine—— they stole this humble one’s unique scripture, so this humble one swears to never see them eye to eye” someone coldly snorted.
Another person also mentioned: “I don’t mind having some spirit stones taken from me, but a scripture is a cultivator’s root and foundation, since they had stolen my scripture, I swear to never cooperate with them”
“Right!”
“That’s how it should be!”
The other cultivators followed up in agreement, their reactions triggering even more emotions from their surroundings.
Gu Qing Shan shook his head, glanced at the Spirit Tortoise, and was about to leave.
At this point, a cultivator laughed out loud, boasting triumphantly: “This humble one’s scripture is the most precious of our sect, one that requires daily studies and comprehension, so this one had always been on a lookout, that person never managed to take it”
“Ah? So you didn’t put your jade tag in your Inventory Bag?” another cultivator asked.
The boasting cultivator said: “You are free to take a look!”
Everyone looked in his direction.
Only to see layers upon layers of runes manifested as formations in the void of space above his head.
Among the numerous runes, a single jade tag was hovering up and down.
That cultivator explained: “With so many formations around it, even I would have to waste a lot of effort to take the jade tag, let alone a thief who could only act during a short window when I’m not paying attention”
“Furthermore, as soon as any of these formations are triggered, the jade tag would immediately be transported back to my world, inside the sect’s library”
“Even if I die, nothing would ever happen to the scripture jade tag”
The cultivator boasted again: “This is a foolproof plan, no matter how good that thief is, they would never be able to steal my jade tag”
The cultivators thought about it for a bit, and sure enough, they couldn’t think of any method.
“Hm, that is indeed a good choice”
“Hidden in the void, protected by formations, never kept on one’s body, what a wondrous way of thinking”
“Ahaha, that thief will definitely not expect it”
“That thief deserves it, wasting effort without obtaining anything from you, how wonderful it feels”
The other cultivators also laughed in derision.
“If we ever catch that thief, this humble one will definitely torture them to release this sense of irritation”
“Yes, indeed”
“We’ll kill them if they’re a man, and if they’re a woman, hek hek, we’ll show her who she’s messing with”
“That’s right, bahahaha”
Gu Qing Shan silently listened and scowled.
You people——–
I can understand your irritation from having your scriptures copied.
But you’re insulting my master in front of me…
If that’s the case…
“Young Tortoise, let’s go” Gu Qing Shan told the Spirit Tortoise.
“Ah, ok”
The two of them leapt up and flew towards the inner city.
In about a cup of tea’s worth of time, they had entered the inner city, reached a palace, and arrived in front of Xie Dao Ling.
“Shifu, why did you shrink?” Gu Qing Shan asked in surprise.
Xie Dao Ling’s main body still looked like a 7-8 years old little girl.
“Hm, it’s only a technique, since it’s very useful to me, I’ve decided not to dispel it for now” she replied.
At this point, a huge commotion resounded from the city walls, which soon reached the entire city.
The Spirit Tortoise couldn’t help but wonder: “How strange, they were still fine when we left, so why are they suddenly acting rowdy now?”
“Because of this” Gu Qing Shan casually replied.
He showed his hand.
A jade tag was silently sitting there.
Gu Qing Shan infused his inner sight into the jade tag and memorized the content.
Sure enough, it’s a very decent scripture.
He tossed the jade tag into the air and let it hover in front of Xie Dao Ling.
“Shifu, the scripture in this jade tag seems to be quite extraordinary, I won’t be able to return to Shen Wu world after this since I have some business to attend to, so I’ll ask Shifu to take it back to our sect” Gu Qing Shan said.
Xie Dao Ling received the jade tag, glanced at it, and smiled.
“Very decent indeed, the content of this scripture encompasses Elemental techniques, Secret Arts, Blades, swords, staves, as well as Thaumaturgies, it will be very useful for our world”
She put the jade tag away.
The Spirit Tortoise only needed to glance at the jade tag to recognize that it was from the man who boasted earlier.
He couldn’t help but ask: “Gu Qing Shan, how did you get that jade tag?”
Gu Qing Shan lightly cleared his throat and replied: “The world is full of wonders, and I am good at borrowing them”
Xie Dao Ling’s eyes immediately lit up, repeated those words, and slapped the handle of her chair: “Those words were wonderfully said. Scriptures are realized from nature, that which belong to nature are free to be borrowed, this was not obtained from the hands of other, but from nature”
“Indeed, indeed, Shifu had said it very well!” Gu Qing Shan praised her.
The Spirit Tortoise glanced at Xie Dao Ling, then at Gu Qing Shan.
—–not only did this pair of master and disciple have unique skills for the sake of stealing, but the words they spout are also completely ostentatious.
Didn’t the inheritance of Bai Hua sect originate from Barren Cloud Heavenly Palace?
We were a righteous sect whose inheritance goes back several ten thousand years!
We were supposed to be frank and upright!
“I can’t believe I was almost convinced” the Spirit Tortoise emotionally sighed to himself and muttered in a lonely manner: “You master and disciple pair of Bai Hua sect are truly beyond any words”
