Secret Art, [River Traversing Iron Sword]!
A gigantic faint yellow sword phantom cut through the fog and slashed horizontally against all the shadows.
The shadows were halted in place by the attack.
—–but that was it.
「 Insignificant power like that of insects… 」
A shadow muttered, then suddenly vanished.
At the very next moment, it appeared in front of Gu Qing Shan.
「 JOIN US! 」
It screamed out loud.
The shadow reached out with both hands, trying to embrace Gu Qing Shan.
Gu Qing Shan then exerted his full power and thrust his sword forward a single time.
Bang!
A curt dull noise.
The shadow was flung backwards and fell among the other shadows.
The faint yellow sword phantom was plunged into its chest, causing the smoke around its body to disappear.
The shadow’s true appearance was revealed——
It was the tattered corpse of a knight with a look of desperation on his face.
The corpse stared closely at Gu Qing Shan for a while and shouted:
「 Even if you have this level of skill, you still cannot possibly fight against that despairing level of power, you would only end up the same as we do 」
Gu Qing Shan was surprised: “Who are you? Why can you use the corpse to talk to me?”
Wielding the Earth sword, his footwork was skillfully light as he danced while approaching the numerous shadows.
Following his dance steps, female humming voices echoed throughout the void of space.
The sound of upbeat drumming continuously resounded.
The voice of the corpse suddenly changed—-
“Save—– hurry and save me!”
The corpse hurriedly called out.
It then flashed a cruel smile and said: 「 Care to guess what I am? 」
Gu Qing Shan’s dance steps became faster and swung the sword in his hand again, asking: “Care to guess whether or not I’ll guess?”
On one side, there was a bloodthirsty monster, while the other side was a fleet-footed happy dancer. Such a stark contrast on the two sides of the tug of war gave off the feeling of fever dream.
The corpse grinned to bear its teeth and made a gesture to the other shadows.
「 Forward! 」
The dark smoke from before once again enveloped its body and turned it into a shadow.
All the shadows had begun to move.
They all moved together like a large curtain of darkness, rushing towards Gu Qing Shan like a storm.
Gu Qing Shan turned his hand around to grab the Heaven sword tightly and heavily swung while also turning his body——
Secret Art, [Nine Layers Drawn Shadow]!
An uncountable number of sword phantoms bloomed like flowers that cut apart all the shadows in the void of space!
The curtain of darkness was cut apart, but didn’t pause at all as they reformed to once again circled around Gu Qing Shan like clusters of smoke.
In an instant, they had already surrounded Gu Qing Shan.
Numerous corpses appeared from the black smoke one by one, leaving no gap for Gu Qing Shan to escape from.
Wielding his swords Gu Qing Shan unleashed numerous sword phantoms to send all the tattered corpses flying.
Unfortunately.
It was useless.
——-not a single one of these corpses was killed at all.
As time went by, the corpses’ attack became even more ferocious.
Haaaaaahhhh——
A high female voice began to harmonize within the void of space.
Gu Qing Shan’s killing intent also sharply rose as he shifted his figure to produce a transparently skeletal figure on his left shoulder.
This skeleton was wielding a sword with half of its body inside Gu Qing Shan’s body, its upper half continuously swinging a sword to continuously attack.
Right after that, another skeleton appeared on his right shoulder, continuously unleashing Secret Arts one after another with the sword in its hand.
[Water Flow Severance], [Crescent Slash], [Seven Stars Flowing Dragon], [Drawn Shadow], [Swallow Returns], [Torrent], [Silver Star], [Life Seeker], [River Traversing Iron Sword], [Full Moon Consecutive Slashes], [Despairing Rise]——-
The numerous Secret Arts were performed as fluidly as a pen on paper, almost as if Gu Qing Shan himself was performing them.
At this point, Gu Qing Shan looked no different from a monster with three heads and six arms, the only difference was that the other two heads and torsos he had belonged to skeletons.
Three people, six swords, numerous Secret Arts.
This eruption of techniques caused the corpses in the shadow to howl in pain, unable to remain inside the black smoke and received wounds all over their bodies.
After another short while of combat, Gu Qing Shan grunted.
The two skeletons began to give off intense black flames filled with the aura of death.
Power of the Death God!
——using Huang Quan Origin power to activate his sword seals, then reinforce them with the power of the Death God, causing the six swords to abruptly surge in power.
His swords were as indiscernible as shadows, unleashing over a hundred thousand slashes in a short period of time.
The corpses were finally unable to surround Gu Qing Shan anymore, being hit so much that they scattered in every direction as puffs of smoke that struck the walls and rolled all over the ground.
Gu Qing Shan could see severed limbs everywhere in his vision.
Doong daga doong daga doong daga doong!
The sound of drumming became quietly more rapid, almost like the sound of rain.
Gu Qing Shan stood while remaining in one place.
——-since the battle had temporarily paused, the two skeletons disappeared back behind him.
“Gu Qing Shan, you were so cool just now” Laura’s excited voice could be heard.
“Remain hidden for now——– I haven’t actually dealt any damage to them” Gu Qing Shan replied.
“WHAT!?” Laura was shocked.
The severed limbs all over the ground swiftly gathered together before being enveloped by the black fog all over the ground.
They had returned to normal.
The leading shadow stepped forward and said to Gu Qing Shan: 「 Impressive skills, but you cannot possibly use this swordsmanship without limit. After all, a living being would run out of strength sooner or later 」
“And so?” Gu Qing Shan asked.
「 Surrender, you’ll be granted a good position within the monastery 」the shadow told him.
Gu Qing Shan went silent briefly.
——during the battle earlier, I wanted to test the Sacrificial Dance’s new changes, but it seems the Sacrificial Dance wasn’t quite complete.
Currently, the Sacrificial Dance can be performed even without Prayers, but another problem had surfaced instead:
——–the mystical and eerie power of the Sacrificial Dance had also disappeared.
Could the esteemed lady have been able to predict the enemy I would face and take away the Sacrificial Dance’s mystical powers?
If that was the case, then certain facts could be confirmed.
——for example, like the War God UI had said, I cannot rely on anyone else other than myself to break through this difficult situation.
Seeing him remain silent, the shadow had thought that Gu Qing Shan was wavering and continued: 「 Think about it, the entirety of the city’s authority lies within the monastery, as long as you surrender, you’d enjoy all of the benefits without needing to worry about anything else again 」
「 Come, join us. Or die! 」
All the shadows called out loudly at the same time.
Looking at the shadows, Gu Qing Shan said with annoyance: “You think you can be loud just because there are many of you? Did you think being louder makes you right or something?”
He clapped his hands loudly.
The sound of drumming suddenly stopped.
Another skeleton appeared from the void of space.
Just like the two skeletons from before, this skeleton flew down and entered his body and vanished as well.
The shadow leader howled: 「 State your answer! 」
Gu Qing Shan put up his guard with his sword: “I’m not like you at all, I’m pure”
The shadow solemnly declared: 「 Then there is only one outcome for you, that is death——– 」
All the corpses once again turned into a black curtain and washed towards Gu Qing Shan like a tornado.
They surrounded Gu Qing Shan, circling around him attempting to find a chance to attack.
Gu Qing Shan stood completely still without changing his expression: “Come here”
Oong——-
As if to answer his call, all the shadows attacked him at once!
Instantly, a skeleton appeared on his left and right, followed by one on his back as well.
—-he now looked like a four-sided monster.
Lines of glowing text appeared on the War God UI:
[You’ve grasped a new form of the Sacrificial Dance: Four-sided Demon King]
[——Using your steps as their footwork, skeleton with 70% of your strength will manifest on your left, right, and back to fight by your side]
Four bodies, eight arms, sixteen swords!
Billions of small sprites of light completely erased the curtain of darkness, turning the corpses into a curtain of blood and blowing them away within the sword-infused wind.
Gu Qing Shan remained still without moving.
The three skeletons disappeared from around him again.
“——Did you win yet?” Laura asked with clear anxiety.
“No, they were actually parts of the same entity, which was the curtain of darkness earlier—— after being forced back like this, it will probably act for real this time” Gu Qing Shan replied.
Sure enough, as he sent his voice, all the tattered corpses gathered together into a gigantic body.
A monstrous body whose entire body was steaming with blood.
It was as large as the entire cathedral and wore a suit of armor made from corpses. It had no head, only a piece of sharp bones that protruded from its neck.
The monster began laughing hysterically in a low voice and drew a pale giant sword from the ground.
「 Why must there always be clueless mortals who force me to use my true power? 」it quickly approached Gu Qing Shan.
Gu Qing Shan cracked his neck a bit and raised his hand: “Stop!”
The monster slowed down its steps and uttered a resounding mocking laugh: 「 What is it, regretting already? Unfortunately, I’ve already decided to no longer accept you as a servant of Decadence. There will be only one outcome for you, and that is to be devoured by me 」
“No——– there was actually something else. I don’t know if you’ve actually noticed or not” Gu Qing Shan said.
「 What? 」the monster questioned.
“Listen” Gu Qing Shan replied.
From the void of space, the faint sound of music grew increasingly more rapid, as if urging something.
Gu Qing Shan turned his gaze to the void of space:
[Your Deathmatch Dance is growing stronger]
[You can now summon one type of power from your past to imbue into the Sacrificial Dance]
Without hesitation, Gu Qing Shan let go of his swords and clapped his hands: “We now need a bit of cheering and hype”
As soon as he said that, a voice could be heard from the void of space, rapidly reciting: “Yo! This is the first time I rap because we don’t got any time and it’s too urgent so I’m going to talk fast although I’m not used to it to rock you in speedy rhythm listen to me…”
Gu Qing Shan turned towards the monster.
The monster was completely frozen in place, seemingly not sure about what was happening.
But the Dragon Hex had already done its job.
[You’ve triggered a past Thaumaturgy: Azure Dragon Shadow Hex – Binding!]
[You used incomparable speed to perform this Thaumaturgy]
[Your enemy’s movement speed and attack speed had both been reduced by 10%!]
Three skeletons appeared behind Gu Qing Shan, all of which wielded their swords tightly.
Gu Qing Shan also reached his hand forward to grasp the twin swords Heaven and Earth from the void of space, laughing as he spoke: “If you aren’t going to move, I’ll be coming to you!”
Instantly, he vanished from where he stood and appeared behind the monster.
Eight swords gave off a cold sharp strike at the same time!
