The ground had been dyed completely white by the blanket of snow and frost.
However.
A winding dark river had manifested and was slowly spreading over the snow-white ground.
Standing on opposite sides of the river, the glowing cloaked skeleton and Gu Qing Shan were both continuously summoning the dead.
[Death God, you’ve left it alone for far too long, the current River of Death no longer belongs to you]
Under the gigantic black wall, the glowing cloaked skeleton laughed in a harrowing voice.
The axe in its hand had turned into a scepter of bones that gave off black fog, rapidly spreading over the dark river.
[Rise, king of giants, regardless of life or death, the Apocalypse requires your allegiance!]
The glowing cloaked skeleton quickly recited.
Doong! Doong! Doong!
Following a series of heavy footsteps, a giant in heavy full body armor emerged from inside the river.
Standing on the ground, the giant howled: 「 I am the king of giants within the River of Death, the dead who had pledged your allegiance to me, I command you to show yourself and help me kill my enemy! 」
A deafening roar echoed across the entire Doomsday Necropolis.
As time went by, numerous dead people continued to emerge from within the dark river.
The numerous species that had been in slumber within the River of Death were climbing onto the banks of the river with frigid glowing eyes as they glared straight at Gu Qing Shan.
Gu Qing Shan was a bit surprised when he saw the giant.
He was clearly dead, but the giant carried both the aura of the Apocalypse and Death, so it wasn’t quite clear whether he was a dead man or an Apocalyptic monster.
——-has the Apocalypse corroded the River of Death to such a degree?
Gu Qing Shan’s heart felt a bit heavy.
As the giant climbed onto land, he declared with a harrowing voice: 「 Death God, your era has—— 」
While he was declaring war, Gu Qing Shan had already put this hand forward and recited: “The flames of death consume the dead, bring them back to eternal slumber”
A mass of black flames manifested in his hand.
Gu Qing Shan casually tossed it forward.
The black flames left a long trail of fire behind it, which suddenly expanded into a gigantic sphere of flames that immediately struck the giant’s body.
The giant had to take a few steps back, roaring in an effort to fight the power of the Law of Death.
He now looked like a mass of walking flames.
「 I still have the power of Apocalypse, do not think of using Death to restrain me! 」
The giant began pushing back towards Gu Qing Shan.
Gu Qing Shan openly clapped his hands.
“Explode”
He whispered.
Boom———
The flames rose all the way to the sky with a series of loud crackling noises.
The giant’s advance gradually slowed down until he started to collapse.
While his body was melting away, he still called out:
「 With my slumber, I summon the sovereign of the River of Death to lead the dead and kill the Death God! 」
Following that declaration, the giant’s entire body turned back into a mass of black water that fell back into the dark river.
——he would return to slumber deep within the River of Death until there was power strong enough to reawaken him again.
GGOAAARRRDDDD!!!!
All the dead people uttered a resounding howl as if they were welcoming some sort of noble entity.
An indiscernible aura manifested.
The surging river parted itself to reveal a figure from within.
——-it was a human male.
Looking at the other party, Gu Qing Shan’s gaze slowly became grim.
“Rhode, you didn’t think it was me, did you?” the man said.
“I truly did not think it would be you who would arrive, Atley” Gu Qing Shan replied.
“There’s no way around it. You helped Shroud, but easily left me to die during that era” Atley coldly said.
——in the Age of Immemorial, he was the young man who had grown up and faced numerous dangers together with Shroud and Gu Qing Shan, Atley.
Gu Qing Shan slowly snuffed out the flames on his hand and explained: “I’m sorry, I left that era for such a long time because I had something extremely urgent that I had to do”
Atley silently sneered, then slowly spoke: “When I was killed all those years ago, I was put directly into the River of Death, hoping that you would be able to take care of me as the Death God, but throughout the extremely long years, I’ve faced too much hardship without you showing up even once”
Gu Qing Shan silently listened.
Atley pointed at the numerous dead people who were still climbing out of the River of Death and furiously continued: “As the Death God, you’ve never once protected any of these dead people, so how are you qualified to become the Ruler of the River of Death?”
The dead were all howling and roaring with an unpleasant tone, seemingly condemning the sins of the Death God.
Gu Qing Shan didn’t say anything and simply looked around himself.
The River of Death continued to surge and boil, slowly swallowing up the sand and dirt around it to turn them into a part of the river.
—–the entire Doomsday Necropolis was being converted into the River of Death!
The River of Death should not be able to manifest itself in the Realm of Life, but since the glowing cloaked skeleton had used the power of the Apocalypses to build a wall around the Doomsday Necropolis, it had turned this place into a unique area.
Within this isolated area, there was now a continuously expanding River of Death as well as a wall of ever-expanding Apocalypses.
—–just like the rooster said, this place was truly becoming the beginning of destruction!
“You probably can’t say anything, but that’s ok, there’s already nothing else for us to say to one another”
Atley grinned and waved his hand towards the River of Death.
“The Death God had disregarded the River of Death, but fortunately, the Apocalypse appeared and helped me, it even gave me power and allowed me to gradually grow stronger”
Following his explanation, a dragon whose body exuded grey smoke emerged from the water and took flight.
Gu Qing Shan’s pupils become dilated.
There’s another dragon?
A dragon that has pledged itself to the Apocalypse?
He immediately became cautious.
Dead Fatty hurriedly wrote a signboard and put it in front of him:
[Brother Gu, that is a dragon that the Apocalypse created using me as the blueprint, it’s my replica]
Gu Qing Shan whispered: “Does it have your exact same powers?”
Dead Fatty wrote another signboard and raised it up:
[No, I discovered the Apocalypse’s scheme and made sure to hide part of my abilities, so this dragon only knows how to physically fight and roar, it doesn’t understand the true method of fighting for us dragons]
Dead Fatty tilted his chin up and raised up another signboard: [It’s a contraband fake—– and a fake that’s been made extremely poorly so that it’s significantly inferior to my true self, you should know, brother Gu]
Gu Qing Shan glanced at him.
Both of their eyes conveyed the same message that wouldn’t be said out loud.
“So that was the case, that’s good to hear” Gu Qing Shan sighed in relief.
——Dead Fatty is so cautious that he refuses to speak, afraid that he might hurt people.
If that kind of Dragon Hex was replicated, the results would simply be unimaginably heavy.
Fortunately, Dead Fatty is shrewd.
——-the entire dragon race is shrewd.
The glowing cloaked skeleton raised its voice: [Death God, why did you think I was fighting against you earlier? This is now time for me to reveal the answer]
It plunged the bone scepter in its hand into the black wall behind it and shouted: [Shadow Apocalypse, manifest through the power of countless worlds!]
A figure slowly emerged from inside the wall.
This figure swiftly walked through the wall and revealed itself to everyone.
—–Gu Qing Shan.
It was another Gu Qing Shan.
He knelt in front of the glowing cloaked skeleton and spoke in a harrowing voice: [I’ve grasped all the combat skills that he displayed, including the authority over the power of Death has been replicated]
Hoh——
A burst of black flames erupted from his body.
The power of the Death God!
The replica of three flying swords also appeared behind Gu Qing Shan.
It had grasped even the power of the swords!
The glowing cloaked skeleton looked at the real Gu Qing Shan and loudly declared: [Death God, you’ve discarded the dead within the River of Death, and we’ve now created a completely new Death God to command them!]
A few lines of glowing text scrolled through Gu Qing Shan’s eyes:
[Attention: You’ve been replicated by the Shadow Apocalypse]
[This Apocalypse will only take effect once, but it is capable of replicating all abilities that you’ve shown]
Gu Qing Shan silently skimmed through this and thought about all the abilities he had shown so far.
The glowing cloaked skeleton laughed out loud.
It lightly tapped the kneeling replica Gu Qing Shan with its bone scepter.
The replica Gu Qing Shan stood up and leapt down, landing next to Atley.
[Dead people! You shall now serve a new Death God, he will not disregard you, he will lead you through all obstacles, and support you unconditionally] the replica Gu Qing Shan declared to all the dead people.
[I’ve learnt all of that guy’s abilities, we’re going to focus our power to deal with him once and for all!] the replica then told Atley.
Atley nodded, then thought briefly before raising his voice to Gu Qing Shan:
“Rhode, before you die, do you have anything else you wish to say?”
Gu Qing Shan sighed.
He shook his head: “I do have something I need to tell you clearly——- including all of the dead people who pledged themselves to the Apocalypse as well, this is for all of you to hear”
Atley stood on the Death Dragon’s back and looked down at Gu Qing Shan.
The dead were also silently staring at him.
Gu Qing Shan loudly declared: “The reason why I did not come to the River of Death to see you was because I had something extremely important that I needed to do, otherwise, the entire River of Time would have been destroyed. But that’s not important, what’s important is that——-”
His tone suddenly became stern:
“Right here and now, I will officially show you all my stance——-”
“Regardless if you are dead or alive, you should not be wishing for the Death God to shelter you”
“The Death God shall never support you, or actively shelter any dead people among you all, regardless of your identity”
Hearing this frigidly cold declaration, Atley and the dead all fell silent.
Gu Qing Shan then continued:
“Unless——–”
“You take up your weapons and retaliate against the Apocalypse for the sake of everything that’s worth protecting”
“Only then, would the Death God be on your side”
