The night continued to be cold and sorrowful.
Standing in mid-air, Gu Qing Shan wielded his sword as he looked down towards the river.
“Finished?” Laura asked.
“No, he’s still alive” Gu Qing Shan answered with a solemn expression.
Laura was surprised: “That’s strange, he was clearly struck so many times by your sword, how could he not be dead?”
Gu Qing Shan replied: “——he’s coming, you had better hide behind me, there’s something wrong with this guy”
Corpses began to emerge from the river one by one.
These corpses were all young men or women at their prime, their hands and feet tied up while an expression of fear and despair could be seen on their faces.
Taking a simple count, he could see at least a few thousand of these corpses pushing up against one another on the surface of the river, even the surging river water couldn’t wash them away.
——–they seemed to be the knights that the old man mentioned.
They were buried inside the pillars of the bridge, making up this wailing bridge.
The old man slowly emerged from the water.
He examined the terrible wounds all over his body and spoke in an evaluating tone:
“Such cruel swordsmanship, no hesitation with every attack, each strike is enough to erase a life. Now I believe what you said about killing—– you’re definitely an expert in taking lives”
Gu Qing Shan didn’t say anything.
—–why isn’t he dead?
“Shannu, what happened earlier?” Gu Qing Shan asked.
“Gongzi, I don’t know either, I’ve clearly cut off all the Laws affecting his body” Shannu answered with a confused tone.
Gu Qing Shan remained silent and turned to the old man.
Only to see that the old man was completely soaked, slowly walking on the corpses to approach him.
Gu Qing Shan blinked.
Countless sword phantoms appeared from the void of space and slashed the old man’s body.
The old man didn’t move at all, his expression was completely calm as he took the hits, but his body was unfazed by the cuts.
He simply paused for a brief moment before continuing to approach Gu Qing Shan.
Gu Qing Shan furrowed his eyebrows.
—–how strange, in theory, any of my sword strikes could have cut his body apart, but why hasn’t anything happened?
The old man appeared to have realized something.
He stared closely at Gu Qing Shan like he just found some sort of treasure and said: “I finally understand. You are a newcomer who had just arrived in the Dusty World, so you’re ignorant about everything, but due to their own unique characteristics, the Dusty World has bestowed you the initial Title: [Pure Man]”
——his guess was spot on!
Gu Qing Shan turned his gaze towards the corpses.
Could he be borrowing power from those corpses?
Turning his hand around, he grasped the Chao Yin sword from the void of space and swung it downwards.
The water’s river suddenly erupted!
The river began flowing at a significantly faster rate, the water of the river began wrapping around these corpses as they rapidly flowed downstream.
The river surface was completely clean.
Only the rain continued to fall and caused ripples on top of the water.
The old man didn’t stop him and simply stood on top of the water, observing the entire process.
It was only until after Gu Qing Shan had completed this that he smirked: “A pure person like you is truly rare, just an opportunity for me to confirm a certain conjecture”
“How surprising, you didn’t give off the impression of a hypothetical researcher” Gu Qing Shan replied.
—–it wasn’t the corpses.
What is that old man relying on to stop my swords?
The Six Paths Great Mountain sword on Gu Qing Shan’s right hand disappeared.
The Earth sword appeared from the void of space, falling into his hand.
——–[Earth’s Choice] or [Sanctuary] should at least be able to do something.
「 It’s impossible Gu Qing Shan, I can already sense that you can’t kill him using me 」the Earth sword’s heavy mountainous voice echoed.
“Why not?” Gu Qing Shan couldn’t help but question.
「 I’m not sure… it’s really perplexing, could it be because he’s carrying the power of Occultism? 」the Earth sword was puzzled as well.
“What is the power of Occultism?”
「 Usually speaking, any power that can’t be explained or understood would be categorized as Occultism 」the Earth sword replied.
Gu Qing Shan turned towards the old man.
The old man was still staring down at the surface of the river.
The surface of the river was once again filled with corpses.
The old man appeared to be contemplating and muttered: “How can I cause a pure person to become fallen?”
——he seemed to be very concerned with this matter.
Gu Qing Shan was concerned about something else.
The power of Occultism.
All inexplicable powers are categorized as Occultism.
That’s too broad.
Gu Qing Shan silently thought.
This was similar to how insects couldn’t understand fire, how beasts couldn’t understand electronics, and how humanity couldn’t understand the Apocalypse.
But for some reason, Gu Qing Shan was feeling a bit excited.
—–powers that are completely inexplicable would be the same as the Sacrificial Dance.
And such power had manifested in front of him in a different form compared to the Sacrificial Dance.
The old man suddenly spoke up: “You seem to be excited for some reason?”
He was evaluating Gu Qing Shan.
“I am, I’ve never seen an entity like you ever before” Gu Qing Shan admitted.
“Ah, I understand, you’re probably wondering why you couldn’t kill me” the old man replied.
“That’s right, can you explain that to me?”
“What good would it do if you actually understood? In the end, there’s simply an insurmountable gap between you and I. No matter how advanced your skills are, you would still not be my match”
The old man casually replied.
A heavy shadow suddenly appeared in Gu Qing Shan’s mind.
Not good!
He caught Laura and manifested white fog around his body.
Fwoom——–
Far above the sky, a gigantic bloody maw descended and swallowed the entire region where Gu Qing Shan stood.
The old man spoke in a casual tone: “Accept your torture within the belly of the night beast, with your power level, you would never be able to resist its digestion. This shall be the outcome of a pure——–”
He suddenly stopped talking, his expression becoming grim.
“So he ran… I’d like to see just how far you can actually run”
The old man vanished.
…
At another location.
The gloomy alleyway.
As the white fog dissipated, Gu Qing Shan and Laura both appeared.
Without hesitation, Laura shouted: “Blessing!”
Two sets of armor appeared from the void of space, quickly donning themselves onto Gu Qing Shan’s and her body.
“It’s useless” Gu Qing Shan shook his head.
“Were we only a hair’s breadth from death earlier?” Laura asked.
“That’s right. That thing that fell from the sky was able to destroy any power around our body, we definitely cannot let it touch us” Gu Qing Shan replied.
“How do you know?”
“Instincts”
Gu Qing Shan’s expression was completely serious.
The other party was clearly significantly less skillful than I am, but I can’t kill him no matter what I do.
I can’t even touch him.
What exactly——-
Suddenly, a faint fluorescent blinking could be seen on the War God UI.
Lines of glowing text began to quickly appear:
[The UI didn’t expect that you’ve already begun to come into contact with this level, so in order to explain the current situation to you, the UI will begin collecting fees with each answer]
—–you didn’t expect this situation, so you’re going to start collecting fees now? How does that make sense?
After being speechless for a short moment, Gu Qing Shan sensed something and told Laura: “Shelter”
Without saying anything, Laura opened her flower umbrella to cover them.
They both vanished from under the streetlamp.
One second.
Two seconds.
At the end of the alleyway. A figure appeared.
——it was the old man.
Looking into the empty alleyway, he muttered in confusion: “Strange, they were clearly just here…”
Gu Qing Shan and Laura both stood motionlessly below the flower umbrella.
Laura’s expression was a bit pale.
It was very rare for her to see Gu Qing Shan avoiding a battle.
Truly——-
The other party is too eerie.
Gu Qing Shan stood still with a calm expression.
“What do you have to tell me?” he asked the War God UI.
The War God UI replied: [From your combat synopsis, let us begin with your first strike—— although your sword had cut through all the Laws on his body, what he used wasn’t the Laws, but power—— true power]
A certain amount of Soul Points was deducted on his UI.
The War God UI didn’t continue.
“True power, do you mean Soul Points?” Gu Qing Shan asked.
[No] the War God UI replied.
“Origin power?”
[No]
“Prayers?”
[Not that either]
——-his Soul Points were deducted three times consecutively on the UI.
Gu Qing Shan’s eyes twitched.
Fortunately, the War God UI continued explaining: [This is an unexpected situation, you had reached the true limit of power too early]
Its tone was solemn and emotionless: [Gu Qing Shan, you must discover everything on your own]
[This is the stage of those who can truly be considered the ‘strong’, countless existences are intently observing you. Following their own rules, they cannot act, having no choice but to wait for your outcome]
“What kind of outcome?” Gu Qing Shan asked.
[To either surpass the great difference in power and become their comrade; or to stop where you stand and remain as a regular, mundane savior of worlds]
[Gu Qing Shan, there is currently no one who can help you and Laura, as this is the fork road in your Fate]
[I must also remain silent and inform you nothing]
After that, the War God UI fell silent.
Gu Qing Shan silently sighed.
You said so much only to express that you have to remain absolutely silent during this?
And you still have the gall to take so many Soul Points?
——–at least there were still a few hints in there.
In front of the alleyway, the old man seemed to still be suspicious and slowly headed into the alleyway.
He approached Gu Qing Shan and Laura step by step.
Laura silently pulled on Gu Qing Shan’s sleeves and nervously said: “He’s coming”
Gu Qing Shan looked at the old man, then back at the sword in his hand.
He fell into thought.
