When Xie Dao Ling tapped Gu Qing Shan between his eyebrows, a piece of information appeared in Gu Qing Shan’s inner sight.
At the same time, lines of glowing text appeared on the War God UI:
[Beginning from {Mahesvara King} realm, the Laws of Reality will begin to answer cultivators]
[Xie Dao Ling is a {Mahesvara King} realm cultivator, so following the Laws of Reality, her multi-individual Thaumaturgy had awakened]
[She can have a total of 48 Dependants]
[You have obtained a chance to become one of Xie Dao Ling’s Dependants]
[Are you willing to become her Dependant?]
“Yes” Gu Qing Shan replied.
——if there is anyone in this world who tries to harm me, it wouldn’t be Shifu.
The glowing lines of text appeared on the War God UI:
[You have become one of Xie Dao Ling’s Dependants]
[You can choose one Thaumaturgy, skill, technique, or any form of power manifestation to share it with Xie Dao Ling]
[Attention: The ability you share must be a Cultivation-type ability]
[Attention: When using that ability, Xie Dao Ling will use her own spirit energy, not your own]
[Attention: Xie Dao Ling using that ability will not affect you using that ability]
[Note: A {Mahesvara King} can only choose one ability every three days from their 48 Dependants to use]
Gu Qing Shan was surprised.
Every time a cultivator breaks through, they would need to be struck a few times by lightning; after advancing far enough, they’d reach Tribulation realm where they need to live every day in fear; after surviving through Tribulation, they would have to face the four Tribulations of Earth, Water, Fire, and Wind; then forced to enjoy themselves during the {Yama King} realm Tribulation; who would’ve thought that after all of that was over, the Laws of Reality would actually change their attitudes.
48 Dependants, which means a potential total of 48 abilities.
One ability can be used every three days.
For a cultivator, this was an unimaginable level of reinforcement!
Gu Qing Shan then started to consider which ability he should choose to share with Shifu.
Since it can only be a Cultivation-type ability, my most powerful one would be [Rahu’s Eclipse of Sun and Moon].
Unfortunately, Shifu’s weapon is a whip and not a sword, so it would be very inconvenient for her to use it.
——-I’m a sword cultivator, so all of my abilities are sword-based, what can I share with Shifu that she could actually use?
While he was thinking, Xie Dao Ling chuckled and told him: “No need to think too much about it, you can just share one of your spells through the Dependant link, after all, you’re a sword cultivator”
She continued: “In truth, I’ve taken Xiao Lou, Xiu Xiu, Qing Rou, and Wan Er as my Dependants already. This way, I’d be informed of your current state as soon as anything happens, the shared ability is only a medium for that”
Gu Qing Shan asked: “How would you know about our state?”
“When a Dependant becomes heavily injured or dead, I will lose the ability of that Dependant” Xie Dao Ling replied.
Gu Qing Shan nodded, but still carefully considered what he should choose.
[Shadow Shift] is a decent choice.
[Dreamjolt] is also a good choice.
For movement techniques, Shifu already has [Ground Shrink].
In battle, Shifu is already powerful enough, and she’s a whip user.
Gu Qing Shan continued that train of thought.
[Dreamjolt] is the Lightning Thaumaturgy that I had to go through many advancements in order to fully evolve.
This Thaumaturgy is definitely a Cultivation-type ability, and since it was obtained from [War God Thaumaturgy], it’s very powerful.
I can imagine Shifu wielding a long whip clad in arcing lightning and striking an enemy from afar.
The enemy would then be affected by [Dreamjolt] and couldn’t move.
Pah! Pah! Pah!
——wouldn’t that mean they’ll be whipped until death?
Hm, that’s a good choice.
Since Gu Qing Shan had decided, he closed his eyes and shared his Lightning Thaumaturgy with her.
This was a miraculous feeling, as if the Laws of Reality had entered his mind, made a copy of part of him, then sent it to Xie Dao Ling.
At first, Xie Dao Ling didn’t really mind what she received and simply smiled.
But soon, she sensed what she had received and opened a mouth slightly in surprise.
“Qing Shan, so your Lightning Thaumaturgy had evolved to this degree, how rare indeed, this would be excellent for restraining an enemy”
Saying so, she immediately summoned a whip.
Zi zi zi zi…!
Arcs of blue and white lightning travelled along the long whip.
Xie Dao Ling observed the arcs of lightning and swung her whip.
Sha—–
Boom!
A loud boom resounded throughout the palace.
All the dust in the palace was blown into the air as if lightning had truly descended.
Xie Dao Ling praised: “What a convenient Lightning Thaumaturgy!”
Gu Qing Shan: “…”
He had already begun to pray for Xie Dao Ling’s future enemy.
This was no longer being struck by a whip——- this was practically forcing someone to face a Lightning Tribulation!
Gu Qing Shan chuckled to himself.
He was glad that he could help his Shifu, even if only a little bit.
Xie Dao Ling put the whip away, then took out a talisman, giving it to Gu Qing Shan>
Lines of glowing text appeared on the War God UI:
[Attention, this talisman is triggering a conversation between Dependants]
Gu Qing Shan sensed a few different inner sights in his Thought Sea.
One of them was Xie Dao Ling, and the others were also very familiar.
All of a sudden, a female voice happily asked: “Third brother? Is it Third brother?”
Gu Qing Shan was surprised: “Xiu Xiu?”
“Yeah, it’s me! Third brother, did you meet Shifu?” Xiu Xiu asked.
Before Gu Qing Shan replied, Wan Er’s voice quickly followed: “Wait a minute, could it be that you’re currently breaking through to {Mahesvara King} realm?”
“That’s right, I just happened to run into Shifu here, Wan Er, it’s been a long time since we met” Gu Qing Shan smiled and replied.
Everyone on the other side was completely stunned.
{Mahesvara King} realm!
We knew that Shifu was monstrously talented, but who would’ve thought that Third brother would also be the same.
How are we supposed to catch up?
All of a sudden, one of the inner sights vanished.
Gu Qing Shan worriedly asked: “Who was that that just left?”
Qing Rou was the one who replied to him with a sense of gentleness: “Senior brother doesn’t need to worry; it was Second brother who felt a bit ashamed so he cut off his inner sight”
Second brother…
Qin Xiao Lou!
Gu Qing Shan held back his laughter and asked: “What realm is he at now?”
The three girls answered at once: “””Tribulation realm”””
“Tribulation realm is one of many deathly trials, tell him to be careful for me” Gu Qing Shan sighed emotionally.
“It’s ok” Xiu Xiu said, “Third brother doesn’t know it but Second brother hasn’t ever killed anyone, so he’ll be fine”
“That’s right, whenever he fought against cultivators of other sects, he wouldn’t ever win, it was always us who had to come to his reinforcement” Wan Er followed up.
After chatting for a bit more, everyone bid their goodbyes, knowing that Xie Dao Ling and Gu Qing Shan were in the middle of a Tribulation.
“Has our talisman craftsmanship reached this level?” Gu Qing Shan asked.
Xie Dao Ling giggled and shook her head: “This is the highest grade Communication Talisman we have, there are only a few of them in total, so make sure to keep this one well”
Gu Qing Shan then carefully put the talisman away.
“So? Did you miss them a lot?” Xie Dao Ling asked.
“I do. It’s truly nostalgic to think back to those days of peaceful cultivation” Gu Qing Shan replied.
Unfortunately, there is no returning to the past.
Gu Qing Shan was curious and asked again: “Shifu, a {Mahesvara King} has 48 Dependants, while a Sumeru Lord has 120 Followers, but what is a Follower?”
Xie Dao Ling replied: “The term ‘Follower’ actually means to ‘follow like one’s shadow’, in reality, it’s also a type of multi-individual Thaumaturgy——- a Sumeru Lord is able to take a total of 120 Followers, who can instantly bypass the limits of Space and Time to appear in front of the Sumeru Lord by their summon and join them in combat”
“So that’s what it was” Gu Qing Shan nodded in understanding.
This was a bit like a summoning technique, but there are more advantages to it.
——–bypassing the limits of Space and Time, as well as being able to summon those from the same race.
These two points alone are more than enough for it to be better than a regular summoning technique.
Gu Qing Shan stood up and excused himself: “Shifu, I’m going to go outside and see if I can obtain any information, if there are any issues, please use the Dependant Thaumaturgy to contact me”
“Very well, you are excused, I’ll be considering tomorrow’s matters” Xie Dao Ling replied.
Gu Qing Shan bowed and left the palace.
He strolled along the city streets.
The entire city was built in a traditional Cultivation-type manner, filled with old but well-kept buildings that exuded a sense of historical beauty.
Unfortunately, there was no one on the streets at night.
——this world no longer had any living beings.
As Gu Qing Shan glanced at the sky-high Heaven-supporting Pillar, he silently thought to himself.
There is no need to climb the Pillar To Heaven in a hurry because everyone will have to climb this pillar when Shifu faces her Tribulation anyways.
All of a sudden, the sound of fireworks resounded in the night sky.
Gu Qing Shan turned to look.
He saw various fireworks blooming in the sky but was quickly blown away by the heavy rain and wind.
“From where it was, that should be outside the city walls…”
Gu Qing Shan muttered and recalled something else.
Everyone reminded him not to stay outside the city by nightfall.
He didn’t have time to ask about it earlier, but now there were fireworks clearly erupting outside.
Alright, since I’m here to look for information anyway, let’s go to the city wall first and see what happened.
Gu Qing Shan lightly leapt into the sky and flew towards the outside of the city.
A few moments later.
He landed on one of the city walls.
There were 2-3 cultivators standing watch on top of the wall, observing the outside.
Gu Qing Shan walked forward to greet them.
While they were talking, one of the cultivators suddenly said: “Look, it’s coming”
Everyone turned to look outside.
Only to see a thin veil slowly manifesting outside the city walls, it covered the entire night sky and isolated Heaven Pillar city from the outer wilderness.
Everyone kept silent as they waited.
All of a sudden, an illusory world descended upon them.
So many people they almost seemed like a tide.
Numerous carts and carriages running after another like artificial dragons or snakes.
The light was bright, things became lively.
The entire world seemed to have come alive, displaying the scene of prosperity from ages ago.
Everyone were busily moving about, some were bargaining, conducting transactions; some were simply greeting their friends or acquaintances; somewhere cheering on a friendly competition in a pub; some were arguing, resorting to armed violence in the middle of the streets; etc. so many different scenes that perfectly painted a world filled with vitality.
Gu Qing Shan silently watched these people who donned ancient-styled clothing.
He found that he couldn’t hear anything at all.
Fireworks were still exploding in the sky, illuminating the night sky with their flickering lights.
A transparent dragon slowly manifested out of nowhere that started to circle around the night sky.
Gu Qing Shan turned his head in another direction.
At another side of the city wall, an invisible barrier had appeared.
This barrier also connected heaven and earth, isolating the city from the lively world of humans outside.
Another world manifested.
Jagged, strange-looking rocks.
Blue flames that stretched all the way to the horizon.
On top of the desolate land, numerous demonic creatures ran rampant, fighting against one another, killing each other, eating the bodies of those who lost.
Even further than that, another transparent barrier appeared.
Realistic illusory worlds manifested in front of the cultivators.
More and more worlds kept appearing one after another, dazzling the people in the city.
But the cultivators just silently stood on top of the city walls.
Suddenly, a beautiful woman from the marketplace took flight and flew to just outside the city wall.
She stuck close to the veil-like thin barrier and smiled: “My friends, please come take a look”
None of the cultivators moved.
Someone even whispered: “Remember, definitely do not step outside, if you do, you won’t be coming back”
Another person sighed: “Last time, fellow Dao seeker Huang… hah…”
No one continued.
Having reached {Yama King} realm, all of these cultivators were the cream of the crop, those who had been through numerous trials and hardships, people who had experienced and witnessed numerous extraordinary things.
But the scene unfolding in front of them couldn’t help but cause their hearts to freeze over.
Seeing everyone’s cautious expressions, Gu Qing Shan decided to reach his inner sight into his Thought Sea, lightly infusing it into the Devil King Warden Rod.
The Devil King Warden Rod didn’t react.
——–it seems this woman wasn’t a wandering soul.
If they aren’t wandering souls, then what are these entities?
Gu Qing Shan watched the woman and muttered: “How interesting”
