Gu Qing Shan sat on top of the cliff looking down towards endless darkness.
——-this was a completely barren and desolate world, other than the space vortex in every direction, there were only layers upon layers of mysterious runes that occasionally glowed in the darkness.
Isolation runes.
This entire world was in a state of isolation.
Xiao Die stood behind him, explaining: “This is a Cultivation-type world in our Ominous Demon Tower’s possession, while there are no longer any people here, the world’s Origin remains”
Gu Qing Shan said: “Thank you for lending me this world”
Xiao Die nodded: “Then I won’t bother you any longer, seize your time and advance—— there wouldn’t be any environment that is perfectly safe like this once you’ve arrived in the Wraith realm”
“Yeah, I’ll do my best” Gu Qing Shan replied.
Xiao Die’s figure flashed and disappeared into the darkness.
She had left.
The only person left in this world was Gu Qing Shan.
Gu Qing Shan took out a cushion, laid it out on the floor, and silently pondered as he sat on it.
It was fortunate that he obtained Fei Yue’s jade tag as well; since the City Lord’s manor had a collection of cultivation scriptures which was a lot more complete compared to many of the Cultivation-type worlds he had gotten into contact with.
It was only now that Gu Qing Shan had a clear understanding of the breakthrough to the Star River Saint realm.
To achieve this cultivation realm, three conditions were necessary.
Firstly, the cultivator’s total spirit energy reservoir must be twice as much compared to that of Sumeru Lord realm.
The more spirit energy one had, the more powerful techniques one would be capable of unleashing, so this improvement in total spirit energy reserve was the most basic requirement.
Gu Qing Shan silently circulated his spirit energy and soon arrived at an answer.
——-thanks to his battles in the Saint Spirit world, he was able to bask in that world’s powerful Origin power and collected just about enough spirit energy.
As long as he continued to cultivate normally for about ten days, he would be able to reach the required spirit energy limit.
However, just having the spirit energy wasn’t enough, a second condition must also be fulfilled.
—–that was to have a Samsara inheritance.
The Samsara had numerous inheritances, as many as stars in the sky, so as long as one was able to obtain a single one among them, they would be able to trigger the power of the inheritance itself and aid in the process of breaking through.
Other Cultivation-type worlds also had access to Samsara inheritances, but those inheritances were mostly normal, not powerful like the Tomb of Myriad Beasts to the point that the wraiths wanted them, nor did they hide any risks of being taken over by other entities.
Gu Qing Shan was silently glad about his trip to the Tomb of Myriad Beasts.
In that place, he obtained the Samsara inheritance: [Ethereal].
This inheritance seemed to have been the strongest one among the top-level inheritances in the great tomb.
According to the War God UI’s notifications, this inheritance even represented a kind of identity that would allow him to participate in the Samsara Clash for Supremacy.
With both spirit energy and inheritance ready, there was only one final requirement for breaking through to Star River Saint.
Saint Selection.
The description for this was quite simple, it only consisted of one sentence:
To choose a suitable realm as your path.
There was also a detailed note following that:
[All powerful Cultivation-type worlds know about the importance of Saint Selection. Most choose the Heaven realm or the Beast King realm; because according to legends, the Heaven realm was the most powerful; while in reality, the Beast King realm had the highest rate of fusion, which benefited a Star River Saint’s enlightenment]
Recalling the words on the jade tag, Gu Qing Shan couldn’t help but sigh.
He waved his hand, summoning the Chao Yin sword, Earth sword, and Six Paths Great Mountain sword from the void of space.
“Gongzi, why did you summon us?” Shannu asked.
Gu Qing Shan said: “I have something that I need your suggestions with”
「 Go ahead 」the Earth sword said.
Gu Qing Shan paused a bit, then said: “Among the realms of the Samsara, if I had to choose one of them, which one do you think I should choose?”
The Earth sword replied: 「 That would depend on what you’re choosing the realms for 」
“What do you mean?”
「 If you want to drink away your days, pick up girls, and generally enjoy yourself, then the Human realm with all its hustle and bustle would definitely fit you best 」the Earth sword replied.
“I also need a realm that can represent the path that I choose” Gu Qing Shan said.
“Gongzi, then you definitely need to pick the Heaven realm. You’ve seen a few Immortal Crafts and even experienced the extent of these techniques’ power; the Heaven realm is surely the most powerful one” Shannu suggested.
Gu Qing Shan thought for a bit, then said: “Speaking of which, after travelling to so many worlds, we’ve only seen the Samsara of my homeworld to be near-perfect”
「 Indeed 」the Earth sword affirmed him, 「 Your homeworld also had a Wraith realm of its own, although those wraiths were feeble and weak, they were still true Wraiths 」
“But the residents of your homeworld’s Heaven realm were the descendants of the Inner Plane’s Deities, which is highly unusual” Shannu added.
“According to the records of the jade tag, the Heaven realm of every Samsara world was empty, those Demis most likely took residence there later on” Gu Qing Shan replied.
The Earth sword also said: 「 The only residence of the Tomb of Myriad Beasts were also humans, there weren’t any truly powerful beasts or animals 」
Gu Qing Shan followed up: “The Wraith realm also had nothing but humans, there aren’t any true Wraiths there”
Shannu suddenly commented: “But the Huang Quan realm had real dead people, Hell, the Forgetting River, and the Grand Tie Wei Mountain, it was not that different from a real Huang Quan realm”
Gu Qing Shan was slightly startled.
“That’s true…” he muttered, “Other than Huang Quan, we actually don’t understand the other Samsara worlds very well either”
Tapping his Inventory Bag, Gu Qing Shan took out the Devil King Warden Rod.
He lightly stroked this scepter and muttered to himself: “For some reason, while I’m thinking about choosing a Samsara realm, only when thinking of the Huang Quan realm would I feel a bit at ease”
「 So you don’t intend to choose other realms? 」the Earth sword asked.
“Right” Gu Qing Shan slowly made his decision: “I have the Deific Authority of the Huang Quan Devil King, as well as the Divine Sword representing the grand mountain encompassing the Samsara, both of these are powers of Huang Quan”
“Then, does gongzi intend to choose Huang Quan?” Shannu asked.
Gu Qing Shan fell silent.
Countless years ago, the Samsara was broken apart.
Either by the Apocalypse or something else entirely, something had still managed to destroy the entire Samsara, causing its countless fragments to scatter into the space vortex.
——wait, no.
Gu Qing Shan suddenly narrowed his eyes as a different aura rose from his body.
He had been so busy dealing with one situation after another, it was only now that he had the chance to silently ponder everything over again.
He noticed a discrepancy.
The Wraith realm had destroyed many parallel worlds to use Fate Corrosion as a means to attack the Eternal Abyss.
—-could the fragments of the Samsara have actually spread throughout numerous parallel worlds instead?
After all, the parallel worlds were only a ‘masquerade’.
Taking it one step further, would many of the Samsara’s secrets be hidden within parallel worlds as well?
The Tomb of Myriad Beasts claimed that they had fused 99% of the Beast King realm’s fragments, but what emerged from it was a large tomb.
Could it be—–
They had actually only managed to fuse the majority of the Beast King realm’s fragments from this parallel world?
While there were actually numerous other fragments still hidden in other parallel worlds?
The real clue to answer this would be that great tomb.
But the great tomb is currently hiding many Apocalypse, temporarily sealed away by the Wraith artifact spirit, while the Delimitation Divine Sword has been completely broken and brought back to the Wraith realm.
To find the truth of it all, I need to head into the Wraith realm and find that Delimitation Divine Sword.
Other than that—–
If the Tomb of Myriad Beasts themselves don’t fully understand the secrets of the Beast King realm, how could someone else from another realm understand?
It’s simply impossible.
The results of this would be that many cultivators who choose the Beast King realm during their Saint Selection were also completely blind.
The Beast King realm they know of was actually only the Beast King realm that humans reside in, not the true Beast King realm.
If I were to choose the beast King realm, even if I manage to complete the Saint Selection, I would be going the long way due to ignorance just like many others.
Gu Qing Shan shook his head.
If I hadn’t discovered the truth of Tomb of Myriad Beasts, I might have chosen this realm as well.
—–in reality, after comparing the six realms to one another, the one I understand the most relatively would still be the Huang Quan realm.
“I’ve decided, I’ll choose the Huang Quan realm” Gu Qing Shan said.
“It’s fine as long as gongzi is the one who made the decision” Shannu said.
「 Then prepare to break through, we’ll remain cautious and guard your surroundings 」the Earth sword said.
Oong!
The Chao Yin sword vibrated.
Gu Qing Shan nodded, then closed his eyes and began to accumulate his spirit energy
His breathing gradually became lighter, until it completely faded away.
——ten days.
I’ll need only ten days to complete this process and begin breaking through to Star River Saint realm.
…
At another location.
In the normal flow of time.
In the middle of a vast palace structure covered by fog and mist.
Xie Dao Ling stood under a garden of peaches, her hand lifting six transparent crystal beads.
Staring at the six beads, she muttered:
“Heaven, Human, Asura, Animal, Wraith, Huang Quan, six realms in total…”
“Four among them do not fit me”
She took away four beads, leaving only two in her hand.
One as pristine as white jade, one as translucent as mist.
“Heaven is the strongest, while Huang Quan is undefeated”
Xie Dao Ling’s gaze fell onto the translucent bead, hesitated briefly, then muttered: “Qing Shan has the proof of the Huang Quan Devil King, most likely he will walk this path”
She put the translucent bead away as well.
At this point, only the pristine jade bead remained in her hand.
“Then for Saint Selection, I shall choose the Heaven realm”
