As the giant claw tried to close in, it was stopped by two swords.
The two swords were like strands of hair compared to the giant claw full of boney jagged spikes.
But regardless of how much it tried, the claw couldn’t close up.
The voice spoke from within the sea of skeletons again:
「 Who would’ve thought, a mere human cultivator had such power? 」
Sharp killing intent exuded from within the sea of skeletons.
A faint, terrifying figure could almost be seen moving along the sea of skeletons, as if it could lunge forward at any moment.
“You’re looking forward to killing me so much? Aren’t you afraid of killing those from the same side?” Gu Qing Shan asked.
The large figure stopped and instinctively questioned: 「 From the same side? 」
“That’s right, fool, you still haven’t noticed?” saying so, Gu Qing Shan’s throat slowly became thicker and eventually grew into a rough and vicious voice: “I merely turned into this human to test out my new Thaumaturgy”
As he stood on top of the tree, his entire visage grew larger.
In just a few moments, a thin tiger that was 3 meters tall and 9 meters long abruptly appeared.
The thin tiger was giving off a greyish white flame as his killing intent sharply skyrocketed.
He roared: “You tried to ambush this general, so I suppose that you want a fight, or am I wrong?”
The boney claw immediately drew back.
The sea of skeleton ‘boiled’ for a bit.
A wave of something that was of the same nature as inner sight scanned through the thin tiger a few times before retreating.
Right after that, a surprised voice asked: 「 Why are you here? 」
The thin tiger replied: “Ambushing the human military camp, stopped on the way to eat a few cultivators to fill my stomach”
—–and the thin tiger was doing exactly that.
The voice was surprised: 「 No wonder I kept seeing human corpses on the way, all disgustingly half-eaten like you usually do——– it truly was your doing after all, what a great Thaumaturgy! 」
Ro ro ro ro ro——-
The giant moment from before slowly rose from the sea of skeletons.
——human face, scorpion body, bone tail.
This monster stared closely at the thin tiger, half-jokingly, half-apologetically said: 「 I’ll admit I was wrong this time, but that’s also because you never said that you had such a Thaumaturgy before 」
Its eyes then turned to the two floating swords.
It hesitantly asked: 「 Since when did you—– 」
Without waiting for it to finish, the thin tiger tossed one of the swords over.
The monster caught the Chao Yin sword and carefully observed it in its hand.
The Chao Yin sword naturally pretended to struggle.
「 My word, so it had an artifact spirit—– no, this is a Divine Armament, you actually obtained a Divine Armament! 」the monster couldn’t help but exclaim.
The thin tiger also tossed the other flying sword over.
The monster caught it and carefully looked at it as well.
Another Divine Armament!
Detestable Ghost Feeder Tiger King, he actually got fucking fortunate enough to get his hands on two Divine Armaments at once!
The monster gazed at the thin tiger with eyes full of envy.
The thin tiger remained on top of the tree and asked: “What’s the current situation?”
The monster held the swords tightly and replied: 「 No issues, the humans will collapse very easily, the final encampment had also been destroyed, we only need to quickly march forward 」
As the thin tiger was about to continue acting formal, a female voice suddenly resounded in his Thought Sea.
“Gongzi? Where are you?”
The thin tiger was surprised.
This was Shannu’s voice.
Shannu was his sword so he naturally could communicate telepathically with her.
But since the distance between them was too great, there shouldn’t be any way for her to reach him.
Unless she’s using some sort of special means or artifact to communicate with me.
Under normal circumstances, Shannu would never do this.
Because she knows that I would be frequently stuck in dangerous situations that required all of my attention.
—–in other words, something very troublesome must have occurred on her side, otherwise Shannu would never bother me like this!
All of this flashed through Gu Qing Shan’s mind in a split second.
The Heaven sword had entered Gu Qing Shan’s Thought Sea earlier, so Luo Bing Li’s cheerful voice resounded: “Shannu, it’s been a while, are you ok?”
Shannu replied: “Bing Li, we’ll talk later, I have something important I need to tell gongzi”
Gu Qing Shan quickly replied: “Shannu, what is it? Are there any issues?”
Shannu hurriedly explained: “Gongzi, we have a bit of trouble on our side, Laura couldn’t help but use a unique artifact for me to contact you”
“The Deity of [Chaos], the Soul Shrieker had discovered that we have all gathered at the Bramble Bird Kingdom without making any moves, so it seemed to have changed its mind and is returning from the past”
“Boss received information from the Abyss that the Soul Shrieker is being accompanied by the Demon Dragon and God of Life, leading the army of [Chaos] to return to our era at noon”
“Their destination is the Bramble Bird Kingdom, they want to surround and eliminate all of us here!”
Gu Qing Shan immediately said: “You need to quickly return—–”
He stopped.
To return to the past, thus avoiding the Soul Shrieker, Demon Dragon, and God of Life, there is only one thing they could do, which was using the three coins and their corresponding powers.
But Little Dusk’s power had already been drained and fallen into slumber, while Laura only had access to the Bramble Bird Tree.
——all three coins are currently with me.
If they want to return to the past, they have to use both the power of the [Cherub of Condemnation] and [Demon King Order] that belongs to me.
If I don’t return, nothing can be done.
Gu Qing Shan quickly asked: “Who’s currently at the Bramble Bird Kingdom?”
Shannu replied: “Barry and Kitty brought a lot of people, Anna is also here, as well as Boss, Zhang Ying Hao, Ye Fei Li, and Laura”
“Gongzi, when can you return—–”
Her voice suddenly became unstable.
A series of electronic noises erupted.
Zi—– zi—- boom!
He could faintly hear Laura’s exclamation: “Oh no, the distance is too great, this thing got overloaded and died!”
The voices stopped.
The connection disappeared from his Thought Sea.
Gu Qing Shan froze.
At this point, the monster that came out from the sea of monsters was still mumbling to itself:
「 General Tiger, I’m the vanguard for this campaign, do you want to join me, or go alone for your pleasure? 」
Gu Qing Shan looked at it.
The Soul Shrieker, Demon Dragon, and God of Life.
Damn it!
Laura’s group couldn’t possibly handle all three of them!
But since I’m currently in the middle of my Tribulation, if I leave right now, the {Mahesvara King} realm Tribulation will fail, and it might even affect Shifu.
It had been a few thousand years since someone managed to pass the Sumeru Lord realm Tribulation.
Every supporter that Shifu loses means she has to face more danger.
——-how could I just give up and leave?
“War God UI, can I use the three coins to return to this moment?” Gu Qing Shan silently asked.
The War God UI replied: [You cannot. The Divine Mountain of Sumeru does not exist within normal Space-Time, this is Heaven’s Tribulation for only cultivators, which houses the foundational secret of cultivators; it is under strict protection that ensures you may not return to this time period once you have left]
Gu Qing Shan sighed.
He turned to the monster below and spoke: “I’ll join you”
As soon as he said so, the flying swords in the monster’s hand erupted into cold sword phantoms, one of them slashed open its claw, while the other slashed through its neck.
The monster’s head flew into the air before falling to the ground.
The two swords returned to the thin tiger.
A crimson glowing spear then stabbed straight into the monster’s body.
Immediately, a faint figure flew out from the body and was reduced to dust in the void of space.
The power of Evil Suppressor!
Far within the sea of skeletons, a resounding roar echoed: 「 WHO! WHO DARED KILL MY VANGUARD! 」
The thin tiger remained silent and slowly returned to human form.
The Earth sword’s heavy mountainous voice asked: 「 Didn’t you intend to infiltrate the enemy ranks and gradually scout the situation? Why did you suddenly attack? 」
Gu Qing Shan replied: “There’s not enough time”
Luo Bing Li then explained the situation in a simple manner.
The Earth sword sighed: 「 At noon… there’s definitely not enough time, you will have to choose between one or the other 」
After saying that, it returned to silence with the other two swords.
On one side, it was his Shifu in the middle of her tribulation; on the other side were many of his comrades in the middle of a dangerous situation.
But Gu Qing Shan currently had no choice but to give up one or the other.
“Shifu took me into Bai Hua sect at my lowest point, and had poured her heart out to teach and shelter me like her own family member, I can’t be assured by leaving her here alone” Gu Qing Shan replied.
The Earth sword said: 「 Then you will have to face the Tribulation first 」
“No” Gu Qing Shan slowly said: “If I don’t return, Laura and the rest would have no choice but to flee, but where could they flee? The Abyss is currently at war with the parallel world, unable to guarantee their own safety. Even if they flee to the Abyss, there was a very real chance for them to die in battle”
“Other than the Abyss, they have no other place to turn, nor could they resist against the three Deities”
“Then, we’re going to return?” Luo Bing Li cautiously asked.
Gu Qing Shan remained silent for a long while.
A few moments later.
He suddenly smirked with an extremely bitter smile: “I’ve already understood a certain principle since a long time ago, but couldn’t predict that I’d still be bleeding all over because of it today”
「 What principle? 」the Earth sword resounding voice asked.
Gu Qing Shan replied: “In the apocalypse, being weak itself is a sin”
While saying so, his sleeves began to flutter without any wind as two faint figures manifested behind his back.
The black figure was the power of the Demon Dragon.
The dark blue figure was the power of the Azure Dragon.
The two figures coiled against one another, spiraling upwards tirelessly.
Luo Bing Li suddenly felt cautious: “Gu Qing Shan, what are you trying to do! This won’t end well!”
Gu Qing Shan summoned the [True Crimson Demon Spear] and said: “I’m assuming that no matter how strong the monsters within this Mount Sumeru is, they couldn’t possibly be too much stronger than Sumeru Lord realm, otherwise, this Tribulation would be impossible for anyone to face”
“In other words—— the power of two dragons should be enough to deal with everything”
Right as he said that, two black and dark blue figures both crashed into Gu Qing Shan’s body at once.
Lines of terrifying blood-red text appeared on the War God UI:
[Emergency reminder!]
[You have actively sped up the absorption of both the Demon Dragon and Azure Dragon powers]
[The power of the Dragon race is too great and will put an unprecedented burden on both your body and spirit]
[You will suffer pain worse than being cut by a thousand blades, the likes of which will surpass the limit of what a human can take]
[Even if you are a {Yama King} realm cultivator, you can easily lose your life from this level of torturous pain!]
Gu Qing Shan suddenly uttered a resounding roar of pain and fury:
“AAARRRGGHHHH!”
Hoh——–
An intense gust of wind descended from above, crashing down on his body and spread into his surroundings with him at the center.
The numerous skeletons all over the ground were blown away together with the snow, revealing a huge chunk of the empty ground below.
The sea of skeletons soon noticed the change at this location.
Soon, more skeletons rushed towards Gu Qing Shan and piled up to form a small mountain.
A gigantic figure quickly dived through the sea of skeletons and climbed on top of the skeletal mountain.
A scorpion.
A gigantic pale-white scorpion with a human face.
It observed Gu Qing Shan and shouted: 「 I am—– 」
Something flashed in the air and cut it off.
If time could be stopped at this moment, over ten giant sword phantoms could be seen stabbing into the monster’s body at the speed of light.
Boom!!
Before this monster could even finish a sentence, it had vanished together with the entire skeletal mountain.
The blinding sword phantoms converged into one, dashing through the sea of skeletons and continued towards the horizon, then kept moving until it left the range of his vision.
Secret Art, [River Traversing Iron Sword]!
[Heaven’s Choice], 9 consecutive attacks!
Gu Qing Shan clenched his teeth and endured until fresh red blood started to seep from the corners of his mouth, then finally looked up to the sky and roared again to vent the intense pain from both his body and Thought Sea.
“AAAARRGGGGHH!”
The blue and black shadows erupted from his body in an explosion, turning into violent gusts of wind.
In just a bit of time, the gusts of wind turned into a fierce storm that swept the sea of skeletons back towards him.
The skeletons flowed and crashed against one another like tidal waves, quickly forming into another high wall of bones.
All the skeletons remained still as they observed Gu Qing Shan.
Another line of blood-red text appeared on the War God UI:
[Gu Qing Shan, there’s a very real chance that you will die, you must stop right away!]
Gu Qing Shan coughed out a mist of blood and stood up: “From this moment on, stop telling me nonsense”
He leapt forward, crashing with all his strength towards the wall of skeletons!
