Time slowly passed.
Gu Qing Shan had sat on top of this cliff for about eight days in a row.
During these eight days, he had done nothing but focused on accumulating his inner spirit energy.
The ninth day.
He finally opened his eyes.
Deep blue light erupted around his body, then swiftly spread into the entire mountain, as it let out continuous sparks of electricity.
The arcs of lightning illuminated this entire dark world.
Gu Qing Shan slowly stood up and carefully examined the spirit energy inside his body.
It took him one day less than he had anticipated to reach the necessary amount of spirit energy for this breakthrough.
Among heaven and earth, a tiny sensation descended upon his body.
This sensation couldn’t be clearly discerned or described, it was like Reality itself was observing the individual called Gu Qing Shan.
At that moment, Gu Qing Shan stood alone on top of the cliff, being enveloped by countless rays of lightning as he silently waited for what would arrive next.
“Why do I feel a bit like my identity is being checked… War God UI, do you have any suggestions?”
Gu Qing Shan silently asked.
The War God UI lit up, then answered him: [Currently analyzing, please wait a moment]
A few moments later.
A line of glowing text appeared in front of his vision:
[Your inheritance is a fist technique resulting from ‘Ethereal’ and the Six Paths Great Mountain sword, but your utmost expertise is swordsmanship. The Laws of Reality are confused by sensing such a thing, so your breakthrough had become stagnated]
Gu Qing Shan was a bit speechless.
“The Laws of reality can’t even discern this?” he couldn’t help but ask.
[This world is a regular Cultivation-type world, its Origin power is incredibly weak, so it naturally has an influence on the process of your breakthrough] the War God UI replied.
“What are the solutions?” Gu Qing Shan asked again.
[You should enter a more powerful world—— any type of world will be fine. The Samsara will borrow the ample Origin power of more powerful worlds to manifest itself, only then would the process of your breakthrough be smooth enough] the War God UI answered.
[Remember, the more powerful the Origin power, the more powerful you would be after becoming a Star River Saint]
“Got it”
Gu Qing Shan stood on top of the mountain and silently pondered.
Should I go to the Tomb of Myriad Beasts?
There’s not enough time, I have to be teleported from inside the great tomb straight to the outskirts of Void City before.
I still haven’t returned to the Tomb of Myriad Beasts after I obtained [Fog Realm Descent], so I can’t use the technique to return to that world either.
Are there any other worlds that can be considered powerful?
Gu Qing Shan raised his hand and looked at the chaotic indigo pattern that the world spirit left on his wrist.
The Saint Spirit world was the most powerful world in its parallel world.
Now that it had fused with two other worlds, the Origin power of its Laws would only further increase.
At the moment, it is synchronizing with the current flow of time, thus becoming one of, if not the strongest world within the space vortex.
If I can advance in the Saint Spirit world, I will probably surpass every other cultivator who has reached Star River Saint realm.
And since my selection was Huang Quan, thanks to my understanding of this realm, I would be even stronger than those people after I finish Saint Selection!
Although the Saint Spirit world is currently in the middle of evolving, I could still try to contact it; what if I happen to succeed?
Gu Qing Shan took a deep breath and spoke to the indigo pattern on his wrist: “Saint Spirit world’s world spirit, I know that you’re in the middle of evolving, but I have a favor to ask, can I go to your world and face my Tribulation?”
No answer.
Gu Qing Shan tried again: “It’ll be very quick; I guarantee I won’t interfere with you”
No answer.
Gu Qing Shan tried negotiating: “Me becoming stronger is also a good thing, if you happen to run into any trouble in the future, you can call me, it’ll be a mutual benefit”
The Proof of the World remained completely silent.
Gu Qing Shan sighed: “Can you at least tell me if you accept or not?”
Suddenly, the Proof of the World erupted into a mass of light and became a gate in mid-air.
With a ‘hoh’ sound, Gu Qing Shan was sucked into the gate.
At the very next moment.
Gu Qing Shan found himself standing on top of a vast blue ocean.
There was only a single iceberg floating beneath his feet.
Thousands of voices sounded in his ears:
「 The ocean… you can use… The land is evolving, do not go 」
This was the world spirit’s voice.
Gu Qing Shan instantly answered: “Thank you, I’m also quite used to this environment, I don’t need to go on land”
No answer.
The world spirit had left.
Gu Qing Shan closed his eyes and resumed his breakthrough from the beginning.
A few moments later.
Blue arcs of lightning appeared around his body, striking in every direction.
Among heaven and earth, a tiny sensation descended upon his body.
The same sensation as before.
The ocean and sky both went silent.
Gu Qing Shan stood on top of the vast ocean, silently waiting.
Suddenly, he sensed a certain thought.
Rather than a ‘thought’, it might be better to say that he was enlightened of something.
“How speedy, as expected of the most powerful world”
Gu Qing Shan muttered.
——-in this world, almost as soon as he stimulated the Laws of Reality, he was recognized by the Samsara.
And now, the Saint Selection had begun.
A second later——
Gu Qing Shan suddenly looked up.
Only to see the world disappearing in front of his eyes as a sky-high ancient tree appeared in front of him.
「 My heavens, what is that? 」the Earth sword’s mountainous heavy voice resounded.
“Not sure”
Gu Qing Shan looked up at the tree.
Only to see that the tree’s top was completely out of his vision, while the tree’s roots were deeply sunken into a vast river of faint yellow water[1].
Innumerable dead people flowed along the river, heading towards a distant location.
The ancient great tree stood still within the river without moving.
“The Forgetting River… why would there be a tree inside the Forgetting River?”
Gu Qing Shan muttered with a serious expression on his face.
…
At another location.
After Gu Qing Shan was led away by the Saint Spirit world’s world spirit.
The dark Cultivation-type world returned to silence and stillness.
A few dozen minutes later, two figures appeared in this world.
「 No one’s here 」one of the figures said.
『 That’s right, I have also confirmed that the Dragon King of Atrocity Jail isn’t here 』another figure said.
The two of them remained silent for a few moments.
『 How strange, Xiao Die has a relatively good relationship with that fiend, I had thought that she borrowed a world for him 』
「 Seems like that isn’t the case, we need to search for that Dragon King of Atrocity Jail once again 」
As they were discussing, a female voice sounded behind them:
“There’s no need to search”
Xiao Die appeared from the darkness.
She appeared charming and refined, almost like a cute female student from any school, a stark contrast to this current world of darkness.
No one would be able to tell that she had already given birth, nor the fact that she was a particularly rare instance of an ominous demon.
「 Aha, Xiao Die, we heard that you borrowed a world from the Tower master, so we got curious and went to take a look 」
『 That’s right, we were going to ask if there was anything we can help you with 』
The two figures flatteringly said and showed themselves.
Two members of the Ominous Demon Tower.
The two adult men with burly figures smiled as they approached Xiao Die.
Xiao Die looked at them without changing her expression and leisurely drew a Card.
“No wonder he gave me this Card, saying that there might be an opportunity to use it” Xiao Die said in a low voice.
The two men’s expressions immediately changed as soon as they saw the Card.
One of them shouted: 「 It’s the discerning Card! 」
The other shouted: 『 Not good, hurry and flee! 』
Their figures flashed and disappeared from where they stood.
Xiao Die held onto the Card without being in any hurry to throw it out.
She examined the Card closely for a while and muttered in intrigue: “So this is a Card from the Inner Plane? I wonder if there are any Scroll Users in the Inner Plane, and what kinds of Scrolls they might have”
After a while, she finally put the Card away carefully.
Blood began to rain sporadically from above.
“Both of you looked down on people too much” Xiao Die sighed and shook her head: “Did you really think I needed to use this Card to kill you?”
In the sky, the two burly men were completely skewered by countless spikes of bone, restrained tightly in place.
These spikes of bones weaved into an entire network in the sky, only a single one of them reached down, connected to Xiao Die’s pinky finger.
——-all the bone spikes in the sky originated from her single pinky finger.
Xiao Die opened her mouth and lightly inhaled.
Two figures fell from the burly men’s bodies, rapidly falling into her mouth.
“No—–”
“I beg you!”
Before the two figures managed to say anything else, Xiao Die had already closed her mouth.
She only chewed twice before frowning.
“This taste…”
She licked her lips with her light pinkish tongue.
「 So? How does it taste? Are they good? 」
From the darkness, another voice asked.
“They’re wraith souls, the wraiths always give off a taste of expired food, they’re not very tasty” Xiao Die commented.
The voice said: 「 How about you give me that Card instead? I’m going to cleanse the entire Tower」
“No problem, Tower Master” Xiao Die tossed the Card to him.
The other person caught the Card and was about to go back into the darkness.
Suddenly recalling something, he stopped and said: 「 Xiao Die, I’ve found the 5th method for you to return to being human 」
Xiao Die wasn’t very concerned and asked: “Will I have to give up all of my ominous demon powers again?”
「 Yes 」the Tower Master affirmed.
“Then forget it, in this age of Apocalypse, as long as I gain enough power to protect myself, I don’t mind being a demon” Xiao Die replied.
「 I remember that you used to be a Scroll User, even after giving up your ominous demon powers, you would still be able to become a pure human Scroll User, you would remain as powerful as you currently are 」the Tower Master explained.
Xiao Die shook her head and sincerely replied: “Thank you for taking me in and taking care of me up to now, but my heart can no longer return to how it was, I don’t want to go back to being a weak human woman”
The Tower Master sighed as his figure slowly faded.
His voice remained in the world of darkness:
「 If the man you had met when you first went out to study was Dragon King of Atrocity Jail… I presume that many things would not be as they currently are 」
Xiao Die stood in the darkness and remained indulged in a long silence.
[1] previously, the description of the forgetting river’s water was mistakenly translated as “faint water”, since the meaning of “昏黄” was misunderstood, all descriptions from now onwards will include the color yellow as well
