Six scattered legs.
A jet-black full-body carapace, which contained rotten flesh.
Pus was flowing from the mouth that had turned into a cross shape, all the teeth had been altered to become more irregular.
—–as well as the shape.
This was a wraith who had been infected by the plague.
Right at this moment, Gu Qing Shan sat crouched in front of the corpse, carefully examining it again.
“Alright, the corpse had been very thoroughly treated, and also very clean. Everything extraneous had been confiscated, even the layers of hidden runes on his body had disappeared”
Observing the corpse, Gu Qing Shan felt pleased.
“Gongzi, what do you mean by hidden runes?” Shannu curiously asked.
“Protective techniques”
Gu Qing Shan pointed at a part of the monster’s body for Shannu to see.
A layer of that portion seemed to have been skimmed off, leaving the muscles inside exposed.
“When we fought, I paid close attention and saw that there used to be runes here, most likely the wraith’s Life Talisman or something of the same nature, but now they’re nowhere to be seen” Gu Qing Shan explained.
“They’d be willing to go so far as to strip every piece of skin away rather than leaving the runes for others to see, for what reason?” Luo Bing Li asked.
“To hide the wraiths’ true strength” Gu Qing Shan replied.
He stood up, muttering: “No protective Life Talismans, no weapons, no armor, literally nothing of any value. With a corpse so clean, no wonder they were so willing to give it to me”
——-saying that, he drew the Heaven sword.
“You want to use [Chaotic Flow]?”
Luo Bing Li’s voice sounded from the Heaven sword.
“That’s right, I’m sorry, but you’ll probably have to sleep for a few days” Gu Qing Shan replied.
“—–Before I sleep, I want to know exactly what you’re planning” Luo Bing Li asked with interest.
Gu Qing Shan cleared his throat, then answered: “The wraiths have always been highly cautious, I’ve already known that since arriving at Void City, as they forbid nearly everyone from going into their world”
“In this world where time had been reset, they are displaying the same level of caution, only giving me the corpse after cleaning it up in every possible way—— and this was done after I had already begun to practice their archery technique, in consideration that I would soon become one of them”
“That’s why this will be the only opportunity”
“An opportunity for what?” Luo Bing Li asked.
“I suspect that they have an entire squad responsible for the preparations of switching my soul, and this body happened to be the one responsible for observing me within that squad—— as far as I know, for a poor border village like Ramon, other than the young man who was about to become the Baron, there should be no reason for them to be in this place. Furthermore, a wraith immediately showed up as soon as I killed the wolf, this meant that they were originally in my vicinity”
“—–which brings up a certain possibility, would the one preparing to switch with me also be part of this squad?”
“Why do you think that person would be in this squad?” Luo Bing Li asked.
“Because they need to understand everything there is to understand about Rhode and constantly know his every move, only then would they be able to switch with Rhode and not be exposed by Rhode’s acquaintances or even close subordinates” Gu Qing Shan replied.
After a bit of thought, Luo Bing Li agreed: “That’s indeed the case, so you’re going to act now?”
Gu Qing Shan’s expression was a bit cold as he muttered: “I’ve always acted on the premise of having enough intel, but the wraiths have always operated so carefully that they never leave any loose ends. Even if I manage to kill them, it would still be exceedingly tough to collect any intel from them, so I had no choice but to patiently wait and find an opening”
“——and this would be the opening you’ve been looking for?” Luo Bing Li asked.
Gu Qing Shan nodded: “A rare opportunity”
Luo Bing Li didn’t say anything else, but the Heaven sword gave off a light chime.
This was her expressing that she was ready to activate [Chaotic Flow].
Gu Qing Shan immediately began to act.
He took out the Chao Yin sword and Six Paths Great Mountain sword, thrusting both of them into the plague monster’s body and pinned it tightly to the ground, then arranged several more restraining formations using his formation plate.
With everything ready, he raised the Heaven sword——–
[Chaotic Flow] activate!
[Chaotic Flow: At any moment that the Heaven sword strikes an entity, you may force that entity to skip to any moment in time of your choosing]
With a single slash, the monster’s gigantic body quickly shrank until it returned to human form.
The man slowly woke up and opened his eyes, only to see nothing but dirt.
All his powers had been completely restrained by dozens of formations, unable to exert them or use them to even check his surroundings.
He abruptly howled in pain: “Arrrggh!”
He was currently facing the ground, pinned down by three swords, not only was he unable to move a single muscle, but he also had to experience intense pain.
At this point, Gu Qing Shan had taken out a black handbook, holding onto the back of the man’s head with one hand and the book with the other, quickly chanting:
“The creation and destruction of all things are but a single moment, with my power of Condemnation, your suffering shall surely be atoned for——”
“[Divine Word: Cleanse]”
Boom!
A gloomy burst of light instantly appeared from the man’s body, then faded into nothingness.
Gu Qing Shan’s eyebrows twitched, then shouted: “Shannu, [Law Breaker]!”
“Understood!”
Shannu replied as the entire Six Paths Great Mountain sword gave off faint and sharp sword phantoms.
Cackle!
Several layers of gloomy light glowed but quickly became dim.
7-8 techniques had just been dispelled at once!
Gu Qing Shan put the black handbook away, wielded the sleeping Heaven sword, and thrust it through the man’s heart.
The man’s eyes opened wide.
“Who exactly…” he spat up blood, completely clueless of what was going on.
—–you clearly resurrected me, so why did you suddenly kill me again?
Who exactly are you?
Why won’t you even let me see anything?
Sensing the man’s life slipping away, Gu Qing Shan reached his hand out and pressed against the back of the man’s head again.
[Soul Reading], activate!
Countless chaotic images filled Gu Qing Shan’s Thought Sea.
Gu Qing Shan was taking every last memory from this male cultivator of the Wraith realm.
One breath.
Two breaths.
Three breaths.
The male cultivator slowly lost his consciousness, about to die.
Finishing his soul reading, Gu Qing Shan still didn’t let him go and shouted: “Shannu, Chao Yin sword, protect my body!”
The two swords flew out from the corpse, protecting his front and back.
Gu Qing Shan sat down with his legs crossed, each hand forming a different seal.
——-Secret Art, [Sealed Body Yin Shift]!
——Secret Art, [Soul Comes Soul Goes]!
These two techniques must be activated at the exactly same time, leaving no room for mistakes.
Both of Gu Qing Shan’s hands finished the seals at the same time, stopping at the very last one.
His breathing stopped, his body temperature decreased, his spirit energy receded into this Dantian, his heart became still.
At the same time, he opened his eyes.
Gu Qing Shan’s soul had left his body, hovering in mid-air.
“Kill”
He spat out that single word.
The Earth sword slashed and erased that male cultivator’s body from existence.
Only a soul was left.
Before the soul even understood what was going on, Gu Qing Shan wielded the Earth sword and unleashed another full-power slash.
The soul was instantly slain.
Since Gu Qing Shan was now a soul, he was able to see a single spark left of the other party’s soul, which was quickly fading into the void of space.
——that was the final spark of a soul, which would eventually return to Primal Chaos!
Gu Qing Shan clenched his fist, shouting: “Come!”
A line of glowing text quickly flashed through the War God UI:
[As you’ve received the blessing of the past worlds and dedicated the power of over a hundred million dead souls to Primal Chaos, Primal Chaos has appeared before you]
Boundless unreal wind filled his vicinity as a golden waterfall descended from above, drifting around Gu Qing Shan’s body.
Primal Chaos!
Gu Qing Shan completely ignored his magnificent sight, instead, he narrowed his eyes to carefully search.
Suddenly, Gu Qing Shan discovered the soul spark from before!
Wielding the Earth sword, he quickly said: “Earth sword, leave no scrap behind!”
「 Got it! 」the Earth sword responded.
A cold gleam.
[Earth’s Choice]!
As the spark was struck, it broke into fine dust and became scattered into Primal Chaos.
[Earth’s Choice] was capable of slaying any entity, but an individual would turn into a soul after their death, and the soul would turn into a spark after being destroyed. This was the rule of the three layers of destruction determined by Primal Chaos, one that not even the Earth sword could bypass to directly erase someone.
That was why Gu Qing Shan had turned into a soul in order to eliminate each of these layers one by one, killing that wraith a total of three times and erasing every last trace of his existence.
Only after that was done could Gu Qing Shan finally relax.
He descended and returned to his body.
His eyes opened.
Everything was as normal.
“Gongzi, did you succeed?” Shannu asked out of concern.
“Hm, this person was originally corroded by the Plague Apocalypse, then resurrected by me and killed three times in a row. All of his traces have been erased, there won’t be any other issues” Gu Qing Shan replied.
He looked up at the sky.
It was profoundly dark, the darkest moment of the day.
There was still quite a bit of time until dawn.
“Let’s go” Gu Qing Shan said.
“Where to?” Shannu asked.
“When I used soul reading earlier, I found one of their bases, so we’re going to head there and see the wraith that’s about to try and take over my body” Gu Qing Shan casually replied.
The swords all returned to his Thought Sea.
Gu Qing Shan’s figure slowly shrank, turning into an orange cat.
Picking out a direction, the orange cat immediately began to head deeper into the wilderness.
From above, its body looked like a ghostly shadow, which then quickly disappeared into the boundless shadow of night.
