Black flames swept through the ground.
The soldiers on the ground were either unconscious or experiencing immense pain.
They had no way to defend against such an attack.
Wherever the black flames swept through, the flesh and blood of the soldiers were instantly reduced to nothing, leaving only their skeletons behind. The skeletons would then continue to burn until they turned into ash, expelling their soul and all the powers previously within their body as black smoke.
After a bit, all the smoke from the bodies flew into the air and started converging.
They were converging towards Gu Qing Shan.
Gu Qing Shan stood still and let the black smoke pour into his body from every direction.
“Ugh…”
Gu Qing Shan uttered a curt grunt.
The power from thousands of soldiers had formed a massive wave that would overwhelm the bodies of any normal mortal if they tried to absorb it.
Waves of pain were radiating throughout Gu Qing Shan’s body, causing him to scowl.
——but his body was currently that of the Demon Dragon, having already absorbed the power of at least 3 other dragons, the current situation wasn’t that tough for him.
A few moments later.
Once he had finished absorbing all the black smoke.
Gu Qing Shan slowly closed his eyes as a giant dragon made of nothing but black smoke manifested behind him.
Burning text appeared in front of him—–
[One final soldier remains, hiding 3,900 meters to your Southeast, underground]
Gu Qing Shan muttered: “Hm”
The giant dragon behind him rushed forward and enveloped his body.
He then transformed into a giant dragon several hundred meters in length and flew into the air.
This dragon whose entire body was clad in razor-sharp scales flew Southeastward, then directly struck the ground with all his strength.
Rumble rumble rumble!
The ground itself intensely shook.
A small bit of black smoke flew out from the ground, silently entering the black dragon’s body.
“Hm…”
The black Demon Dragon grunted satisfactorily.
The burning text appeared again, asking doubtfully: [It was only a single soldier, why expend so much power?]
The black Demon Dragon turned back into Gu Qing Shan.
He released his inner sight to check his surroundings, confirming that there was no longer anyone left alive.
“Because Bloodkins mature very rapidly. I don’t want to deal with trouble in the future”
He explained.
The burning letters asked: [You’re afraid that the other party would return to kill you after maturing?]
“No, when a normal human turn into a dragon, the abrupt rise in power would result in a psychological imbalance, no one could predict what someone like that would do—— I can only feel assured with this power lying on my hands and my hands alone”
Gu Qing Shan replied.
——–since his conception, Demon Dragon should have been able to infinitely absorb power from all living beings’ soul and body using the Bloodkin power, but he was under constant restraints by the Bygone Era Humans.
Furthermore, his soul belonged to the Wraith realm and was under their control, whose ruling power made sure to suppress his growth as much as possible; even resorting to killing him off in the end.
Without these dual restraints, no one would be able to tell just how many living beings the Demon Dragon would have devoured and how powerful he would have grown.
This power, later on, fell into Gu Qing Shan’s hands.
He always made sure to keep the Demon Dragon Bloodkin power under check without abusing it because he knew just how vicious and terrifying this power was.
A gust of wind blew past.
The land was barren.
All the soldiers had died.
The battle was over.
“Did their deaths benefit you?” Gu Qing Shan asked.
Next to him, the burning cloaked figure almost seemed like it could manifest if they wished.
Burning text appeared in reply:
[My power is growing; the other Law Behemoths were able to sense my change and had been temporarily discouraged from offending me]
“That’s a good thing” Gu Qing Shan smiled.
The burning text abruptly paused a bit before changing:
[There are signs of death on your companions’ side]
Gu Qing Shan’s expression changed.
He pulled his aura back and directly used [Ground Shrink] to disappear from the wilderness.
…
There was a barren mountain at the edge of the wilderness.
Right as Gu Qing Shan reached the foot of the mountain, and found the cave, a cautious voice called out from inside: “Who is it!”
“It’s me”
The voice delightedly exclaimed: “Rhode, you’re back!”
Gu Qing Shan entered the cave.
This place was very narrow, there wasn’t even enough space to fully hide someone inside.
Shroud was lying on the ground, once again unconscious.
Epta and Scarlet were guarding him.
——Reneedol and Atley were nowhere to be seen.
“Where’s Reneedol and Atley?” Gu Qing Shan asked.
“Rhode, I don’t know how to tell you…” Epta replied.
“What’s the matter?” Gu Qing Shan was surprised.
Epta was sobbing, a bit speechless.
Scarlet patted her shoulder and calmly said: “I’ll explain”
“Atley finally managed to form a covenant with the Law Behemoth of Wind, becoming powerful enough to take us to this place”
“But then Shroud suddenly said that the Overlord of Radiance had died”
Gu Qing Shan nodded, then asked: “What happened after that?”
“After that, Shroud abruptly coughed up blood and fell unconscious, his body also weakened more and more”
“—–at that point, Reneedol noticed how bad things have gotten, so she immediately used her Fate ability to absorb Atley’s power and finally helped us escape pursuit”
Gu Qing Shan walked up and put his hand on Shroud’s head while examining him with his inner sight.
Shroud’s wounds haven’t gotten worse, but his life signs are growing weaker.
This is strange…
Gu Qing Shan said: “If there were two covenant bearers of the Law of Wind, our side should have gotten much stronger, so what happened? Why are both Atley and Reneedol missing?”
Scarlet lowered both her gaze and her head: “We ran into a group of unfamiliar Professionists. As soon as they found out that we came from the World Valley, they immediately wanted to kill us”
“In that battle, Reneedol was heavily injured”
Gu Qing Shan froze.
“Atley said that if everyone wants to kill us, we can’t continue like this”
“He left with Reneedol, saying that he wanted to find something to heal Reneedol’s wounds first”
“And then, you were left behind?” Gu Qing Shan asked.
“Yes” Scarlet replied.
Gu Qing Shan’s gaze became sharp as he casually asked: “Epta’s main specialty was in the field of healing techniques, and he still wanted to bring Reneedol to find someone else to heal her—— did Reneedol not reject?”
Scarlet coldly chuckled: “Reneedol said that if so many of us stay together, it would be too easy to find us, so splitting up was a good idea and that they would return to find us once her wounds are healed”
Gu Qing Shan didn’t say anything else.
Epta was a healing expert, Scarlet was a support expert, both of them had their specialties, but they weren’t great combatants.
Shroud had lost the power of the Overlord of Radiance and fallen unconscious.
And yet at this point in time, they wanted to split up!
Never mind Reneedol, what happened to Atley?
Gu Qing Shan paced around the cave.
Epta was already crying out loud.
Scarlet’s gaze remained on Gu Qing Shan as if glued to him.
Gu Qing Shan carefully considered everything that had happened recently.
Suddenly, he recalled something he saw in the past:
…
“Reneedol is too beautiful, the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen in my entire life. She makes me feel my youth once again, awakening my slumbering heart”
…
“I do not understand why I wanted to do this, but since it had gotten to this point, I——“
…
—–these were the words of the World Valley’s Grand Elder.
Such a character would have been already standing at the peak of this world, capable of obtaining whatever he wanted.
Would he have tried to capture a young girl for something as obscured as ‘feelings’?
The Grand Elder…
And then.
When I first arrived, Reneedol had allegedly been captured by bandits.
Later on, it was also her who led the enemies away.
The invisible army earlier as well, they originally had other goals, but one of them suddenly noticed Reneedol and caused the conflict.
And then, there was Atley.
A simple young man like him who would even prepare Shroud’s beddings on his own accord also volunteered to take Reneedol away.
Gu Qing Shan abruptly stopped pacing.
How could there be so many coincidences in this world?
Atley was a young man who wore his heart on his sleeves, up to now, he had displayed only the will to grow stronger and not a single bit of affection for Reneedol.
And yet, he changed immediately after he formed a covenant with the Law of Wind.
It wasn’t his fault.
It was Reneedol…
Reneedol must have some sort of hidden ability specifically for the sake of charming males.
From what I’ve seen so far, this ability is most likely infallible.
Fortunately, she’s still a bit wary of the Law of Death, otherwise, I might have been a target as well.
As he thought of this, Gu Qing Shan immediately said in his mind: “Shannu, if you notice me falling in love with Reneedol and trying to court her, I want you to stab me and use [Law Breaker] without hesitation”
Shannu coldly said: “Gongzi, I can’t stop you from loving whoever you like, but if you want me to stab you, I will definitely not hold back”
Gu Qing Shan felt like something was a bit amiss, so he explained: “Shannu, you might be misunderstanding something, there’s a possibility that Reneedol might have a charm-type Fate ability”
“Huh? What do you mean?” Shannu asked.
Gu Qing Shan analyzed the entire matter again.
“That’s true, it seems she really does have that ability” Luo Bing Li chimed in.
「 Indeed, I also feel like Gu Qing Shan’s analysis was correct 」the Earth sword added.
Chao Yin also vibrates loudly, seemingly agreeing with them.
Shannu paused slightly.
“So that was the situation, and here I thought gongzi had fallen in love with her”
Shannu’s voice was now a bit warmer: “Don’t worry gongzi, I will definitely not let that seductress tempt you or harm you in any way”
“Good, then I’ll leave that to you”
Gu Qing Shan said.
After that, he rethought through everything that had been occurring lately once again.
——when the Laws lost their effects, Reneedol abandoned Shroud without hesitation and even sent people to kill him.
——just now, when the Overlord of Radiance fell, Reneedol abandoned Shroud once again, taking Atley with her.
This woman had also stolen Little Dusk’s powers, and if I hadn’t been there, Little Dusk would have already lost her life.
Gu Qing Shan’s gaze was now filled with killing intent.
Grand Empress of the Pantheon… originally, I’ve refrained from using any assassination techniques out of respect towards a powerful Combatant…
But if you’re someone like this…
While Gu Qing Shan was silently pondering this, Epta abruptly called out: “Rhode, Shroud is going to die!”
