A large tiger head fell to the ground rolling for 2-3 meters.
Gu Qing Shan put the [True Crimson Demon Spear] away, then clasped his hand towards the void of space: “Corporal of the Southwest 15th observation tower, Gu Qing Shan, reporting for duty”
The void fluctuated.
That tiger head quickly vanished, followed by a low shout: “Come in quickly”
Gu Qing Shan took a few steps forward and entered the formation.
Only to find that there were cultivators all over this military camp, each of them wearing their armor and frigid expressions on their faces.
Several enforcer cultivators were shouting orders, urging squad after squad of cultivators to stand up and enter the warp formations to retreat to the backline.
As Gu Qing Shan entered, he saw some scout-looking cultivators examining the tiger head.
“It has been confirmed, it is the Ghost Feeder Tiger King” a scout stood up and reported.
Hearing that, the General who was standing with his commanders laughed: “How great! I had heard of Corporal Gu’s rapid breakthroughs in cultivation, but I did not know that Corporal Gu was in charge of securing the rear today, otherwise, I wouldn’t have had to send scouts in search of the Tiger King”
Gu Qing Shan clasped his fist and calmly replied: “Chang Yu Li and Bai Zhuo have most likely fallen victim”
The General’s smile immediately faded, a sense of sorrow could be felt from his eyes.
Everyone else also went silent.
Gu Qing Shan looked at the group, observing that they all had been injured to some degree, weapons ready in hand, and slightly exhausted spirit.
Seems like this was the final camp responsible for securing the rear as the main army retreated.
A jade tag appeared in the General’s hand.
While reading it, he muttered: “Corporal Gu, the war situation is urgent, so I’ll make it short”
“Please” Gu Qing Shan replied.
The General continued: “This morning, all posts reported a rumor that the Corporal easily and successfully faced your Tribulation, thus becoming a {Yama King} realm cultivator. Unfortunately, before we could confirm it, the frontline had already collapsed”
Gu Qing Shan didn’t reply and simply listened.
The General muttered: “{Yama King} realm… very well, I will now give you three choices”
“First, you may follow the previous plan and retreat to the backline, once your contributions are fully tallied, you will be promoted and would resume duties as ordered”
“Second, official promotions and positions can be left for after the war situation had settled down, I will provide you a group of subordinates in advance, temporarily instating you as a Sergeant; by which you will immediately resume active duty”
“Third, because you were able to eliminate the Ghost Feeder Tiger King by yourself, furthermore, a sword cultivator; in consideration, that commanding troops will affect your strength in combat, I will instate you as a scout. By this, you will gain freedom of movement, your orders will be to scout any information of the enemy, as well as assassinating any powerful monsters that you might be able to”
Gu Qing Shan thought for a bit, then clasped his fist: “This humble one will join the scouts”
——in his original plan, Gu Qing Shan was supposed to immediately move and meet up with his Shifu, but now the situation had changed.
During this defeat, I’m right in the middle of the frontlines, so as long as I go back, I should be able to obtain information directly related to the battle of Mount Sumeru.
Not only would this be more direct, but it would also be easier to reach the turning point of this world.
Gu Qing Shan was also an expert at commanding troops in battle, but after the obtained the cultivation inheritance from the world fragments, his swordsmanship, cultivation, spell techniques, and the six arts had been advancing at a rapid rate through ‘enlightenment’.
Right now, whenever he entered the ‘enlightenment’ state, it would be very easy for him to look past matters in the outside world.
And this was highly inappropriate if he was placed in charge of a team.
So it would in fact be better if he went alone.
Seeing such an attitude from him, the General praised: “Good, for cultivators like us, cultivation level alone doesn’t mean much, only those willing to traverse into enemy territory alone can be considered great men!”
Gu Qing Shan continued: “I have a condition”
The General asked: “What kind of condition?”
Gu Qing Shan replied: “I need supplies, and I’ll most likely need quite a bit of supplies of all kinds”
The General’s eyebrows relaxed and laughed: “That is no condition at all. A {Yama King} realm cultivator would be allotted more supplies regardless, and since you’re going into enemy lines by yourself, this General would guarantee that you have enough even if we’re a bit lacking”
“——men, bring me a badge”
Very quickly, a black badge was brought to the General.
The General wrote the military decree on it with red ink before tossing it to Gu Qing Shan.
As Gu Qing Shan received it, he saw the words written: [Roaming Cavalry Independent General]
Everyone was surprised.
Because this meant that Gu Qing Shan had been promoted to the ranks of commander.
Even if the ‘Independent’ rank was the lowest commander rank, it was still above that of a soldier.
At the same time, Gu Qing Shan noticed a change.
The jade badge that Mount Sumeru provided him that was in his Thought Sea also shook a bit and changed.
Some information was transferred from the jade badge to his Thought Sea.
Gu Qing Shan immediately understood.
Mount Sumeru had borrowed the hands of these cultivators to help him settle his place in this world.
Compared to when he first came in, he now had access to more resources and a certain amount of influence.
This change in status meant that he was gradually being recognized by Mount Sumeru.
The General swung his hand.
“Go, receive your supplies and return to the frontlines, kill as many monsters as you can and report any findings you come across through talisman”
“Sir, yes sir”
Gu Qing Shan clasped his fist and left.
An armament officer brought him to the armory, then provided him the supplies in accordance to his Roaming Cavalry Independent General rank: two sets of formation plates, a stack of talismans, five bottles of pills, two sets of armor, a row of ancient coins, and an appropriate amount of spirit stones.
“Only these?” Gu Qing Shan asked.
The armament officer carefully replied: “Ah, yes, these are all important items on the battlefield, the last bit of supplies in the camp, do you have any other requests?”
Gu Qing Shan replied: “I’m not the kind of person who knows only greed, but there are things that I can’t use, so I’d like to exchange them for something else”
The armament officer smiled and replied: “That is fine, as long as General Gu is willing to exchange them for the appropriate price, we still have two very good offensive artifacts, I can guarantee their power. General Gu can exchange for either of them”
Gu Qing Shan shook his head: “I want some ingredients and cooking utensils”
“What? Ingredients, foodstuff?”
The armament officer was surprised, afraid that he might have misheard.
Under Gu Qing Shan’s insistence, the armament official took back all of his talismans and one formation plate in exchange for a large amount of cooking ingredients as well as a set of kitchen utensils.
Everything was properly prepared.
“Thank you for the arrangement”
Gu Qing Shan was pleased as he clasped his fist.
The armament officer also clasped his fist, his mouth opened and closed a few times, unsure of what to say.
He wiped the sweat off his forehead as he watched Gu Qing Shan leave.
…
The night turned deeper.
At this point, it had stopped snowing, allowing the frigid air to freely permeate everything under the sky.
While flying, Gu Qing Shan touched his face.
It felt completely cold.
His spirit energy barrier wasn’t able to block out the natural cold from the atmosphere, this was the first time Gu Qing Shan had ever seen such a thing occur.
In this place, the Earth sword’s full power strike couldn’t break the earth too deeply.
This Divine Mountain world’s Origin must be truly vast and unbreakable.
—–Which leads to the Laws and Reality in this place being unimaginably powerful as well.
On the other hand, there was a difference in the Origin of each world in the 900 million World Layers, but it wouldn’t be too great.
This was because the Divine race’s world creation was stable throughout, making sure not to create any outliers.
Comparing them, Gu Qing Shan had a sudden thought.
Before entering the Divine Mountain, I noticed that the worlds within Mount Sumeru were interconnected.
Could it be—–
Some sort of huge problem occurred as these worlds connected to one another?
Gu Qing Shan abruptly stopped this train of thought, formed a hand seal, and fully concealed his presence.
He leapt onto a high treetop, took out a formation plate, and arranged a camouflage formation in the blink of an eye.
——Gu Qing Shan had been directly ‘enlightened’ and gained the greatest knowledge of many cultivation worlds, so after his modifications, this formation plate could be used in ways that the cultivators from before couldn’t possibly imagine.
He silently remained on top of the tree without moving.
A second later, three flying swords appeared from the void of space.
Gu Qing Shan made a ‘careful’ gesture.
The three flying swords remain still, circling around him.
A few moments later.
A slight tremble could be felt from the ground.
From the frontlines, a boundless tidal wave was sweeping in across the land.
This tidal wave moved like a tsunami, growing faster and faster as it moved.
——-a sea of skeletons.
Innumerable skeletons moved along the ground, bobbing up and ground while swallowing up everything in their path.
Clack clack clack clack clack!
They swept forward along the ground beneath Gu Qing Shan’s feet, giving off a mind-numbingly loud series of repeated noises.
While glancing down at the skeletons, Gu Qing Shan also used the Devil King Warden Rod within his Thought Sea.
The scepter vibrated a bit and remained still.
——-they aren’t the souls of the dead.
Then what exactly are these things?
Gu Qing Shan shook his head and glanced afar.
In the darkness of the night, the mountain was so vast that only a small portion of it could be observed through his inner sight.
However, this sea of skeletons eventually covered the entire mountain, and were gradually growing stronger and stronger without any end in sight.
This was such an unprecedented sight; Gu Qing Shan hadn’t witnessed such a sea of skeletons even in the 18 layers of Hell.
“How bizarre…”
Gu Qing Shan muttered, taking out the Roaming Cavalry Independent General armor, and put it on.
As soon as he did, he turned around as if sensing something.
A sky-high fire rose from the direction of the military camp.
In that direction, the ground was turning faint and illusory.
At the same time, the faint image of another world appeared to overlap it for a few moments.
Gu Qing Shan narrowed his eyes to look.
He saw various kinds of strange and eerie creatures that he had never seen before in that illusory world.
All of a sudden, the two illusory worlds fully overlapped, and the mirage disappeared.
Everything on top of the military camp, including trees, snow, and grass, disappeared without a trace.
Gu Qing Shan’s expression changed.
I’ve seen this before.
It was exactly like when that red gate from Huang Quan performed the Divine Skill – [Circulation of Life and Death].
The exact same thing happened back then.
Was everyone in the military camp taken to Huang Quan?
No.
That isn’t right.
That world earlier wasn’t Huang Quan!
「 Ah? Did a fish slip through the net? 」
A heavy voice resounded.
A giant claw reached out from the sea of skeletons, swiftly went through Gu Qing Shan’s formation, and grabbed him.
