The torrent of metal proceeded forward.
Gu Qing Shan was right in the middle of them all.
『 Is our Saint a newcomer who came from outside the Dusty World? 』
An old man wearing a white robe who was riding an armored horse asked.
“I am” Gu Qing Shan replied.
The old man kept one hand on the reins while wielding his scepter with the other, declaring to the sky above: 『 World Gate, open yourself to welcome a newcomer! 』
The gates at the end of the sky quickly started to open.
It was now practically no longer a door, but a thin straight line that appeared in the void of space.
The torrent of metal charged forward and swiftly made their way through to the other side, entering a completely new world.
Darkness.
Followed by a sudden flash of light.
The world started to appear after that.
The foul stench of blood mixed with burning fire drifted towards them following a gust of wind.
Loud growling and howling could be heard from every direction.
Gazing forward, one could see that they were actually masses of crimson light that had gathered to form a gigantic and transparent figure, one without any clear facial features. Only a pair of blank eyes and a gigantic toothy maw could be seen whenever the giant figure moved around.
This monster made out of pure light was about the size of a large football field, it was currently lying on top of countless corpses and using its hand that was manifested from masses of light to catch and consume these corpses one by one.
“A corpse eater” Gu Qing Shan muttered.
Almost immediately, the monsters abruptly looked up and noticed Gu Qing Shan.
「 The living… must all die… 」
It mumbled.
Numerous rays of grey light were then shot towards Gu Qing Shan.
These rays of light were a bit strange, as they didn’t directly attack Gu Qing Shan, but instead manifested a glowing dark prison around him.
One angel behind Gu Qing Shan reacted extremely quickly and immediately called out: 『 With this holy power, Magic Break! 』
Bang!
The prison of light immediately shattered.
Another large mass of light that had manifested into a hand swung heavily towards Gu Qing Shan.
The knights around Gu Qing Shan swiftly merged into one to form a giant that stood to shield him.
『 YAAARRRRRH! 』
The giant uttered a resounding shout and firmly stopped this hand with both of its own hands.
Seeing this, the monster opened its large maw to spit out a mass of mist-like light.
The mist swiftly manifested into sharp arrows of ice that shot towards Gu Qing Shan.
The other angel behind Gu Qing Shan lightly sighed and uttered: 『 Protective barrier, manifest! 』
A glowing yellow illusion of a shield manifested in front of Gu Qing Shan and completely stopped all of these arrows.
Gu Qing Shan was still sitting on horseback without doing anything and all of the enemy’s attacks had already been neutralized.
He sighed.
—-so this was what it means to defend.
Laura’s voice was suddenly heard:
“Gu Qing Shan, should I use [Infinite Worlds Shelter] on you?”
“There’s no need for that in such a minor skirmish!” Gu Qing Shan replied.
As he declared so, his swords had already attacked the monster like two flashes of light that appeared out of thin air.
Before his swords even reached the monster, his Iris Technique had already taken effect!
A bluish white arc of lightning appeared on the monster’s body and spread around it, followed by numerous sword phantoms that continuously slashed it.
At this point, the two swords arrived to join the sword phantoms as well.
In one mere breath’s worth of time, [Realm Spirit Descent] was continuously triggered and summoned numerous realm spirits.
The bloody giant was the first to break through the void of space and appeared next to the light monster.
He glared at Gu Qing Shan and loudly asked: 「 Your frequency of battle is a bit too high, don’t you know how to rest? 」
“I’ve been very busy recently, it can’t be helped—–”
Gu Qing Shan shrugged, then loudly asked in return: “Why are you the only one who talks to me every time? What about the others?”
He was pointing towards the other realm spirits who appeared.
「 They are also me, just more advanced forms of ‘me’. We’re all actually the same being——– 」the bloody giant explained.
He then furiously roared and swung his fist towards the light monster.
The realm spirits also began to leap into action.
Phase Realms that correspond to each realm spirit manifested one after another, coordinating with the realm spirits to unleash attacks of peerless power before fading away from the main world like an illusion.
Roar——
The monster was hurt and began to grunt continuously.
Its attacks also became more reckless.
Numerous layers of light manifested around Gu Qing Shan, rapidly spinning around where he stood.
Qiu!
A curt and sharp howl was heard.
The layers of light moved forward, manifesting into gloomy bones that started crawling around Gu Qing Shan’s body.
Gu Qing Shan tried to remove them several times, but these bones seemed to be extremely resilient as they couldn’t be removed no matter what while his movements began to be greatly restrained.
The bones slowly started to gather together and form unique patterns around the surface of his armor, just a step away from manifesting into form.
——-this seems to be some sort of Spirit Art!
Right at this point, one of the angels behind Gu Qing Shan shouted:
『 With my holy power, remove all wickedness! 』
A long-handled hammer that exuded golden light appeared on the angel’s hands.
The angel tightly held onto the hammer and started to swing it towards Gu Qing Shan’s body——-
「 NO! 」
A sharp shriek resounded from the bones.
All the bones were reduced to dust by a single strike of this hammer, which then onto the ground one by one.
Gu Qing Shan remained standing still without a single wound on his body.
——but he naturally understood just how dangerous things were earlier.
If it wasn’t for this suit of armor, I would have probably needed to spend a lot of effort to escape from that Spirit Art earlier, perhaps even fighting the monster that almost manifested from those bones.
Laura’s voice asked him again:
“Gu Qing Shan, should I use [Infinite Worlds Shelter] now?”
“It’s against etiquette to only receive without repayment, let me deal with it first!”
Gu Qing Shan uttered a curt shout and clenched his fist, throwing a punch towards the monster from afar.
[Ethereal – Grand Mountain]!
The monster of light instantly became inert and blankly stood still, allowing the Blood Sea spirits to rain down their attacks on its body.
A few moments later.
Thud!
The monster’s body collapsed on the ground, causing the earth itself to tremble.
His swords return next to him.
Lines of glowing text instantly appeared in the void of space:
[You’ve defeated an Ancient Light Demon and obtained 100 Realm Points]
If that’s the case——
I’d like it if I could kill a few more.
As soon as he thought that, Gu Qing Shan noticed several masses of light beginning to move within the faraway darkness.
The light around their bodies abruptly became brighter to illuminate the entire night sky.
However, a few of the monsters that were relatively closer to him were being attracted by the cavalry army and were fighting against them.
Whenever the knights were struck by the monsters, their bodies would fade into illusions and escape from the main world.
They had turned into golden rays of light that flew across the sky, once again returning to Gu Qing Shan’s armor.
—–the Sanctum resides upon the armor [Embrace of the Saint].
More and more golden rays of light returned.
After not too long, all the knights had disappeared.
The monsters turned their attention towards Gu Qing Shan one by one——
「 Ba… nish… 」
One monster declared first.
「 Banish! 」
「 Banish! 」
All the monsters swiftly followed up.
They were standing at a distance and didn’t try to approach him at all.
Gu Qing Shan silently waited for a bit.
Laura’s mocking voice could be heard from the void of space next to him:
“So this kind of monster scared Liao Xiao Pao into running away?”
Gu Qing Shan was a bit unsure: “They all know Spirit Arts, and there were quite a few of them, so Liao Xiao Pao probably realized that he was no match”
Behind him, the two angels exchanged glances before speaking in unison: 『 Our Saint, let us grant you the power to witness the truth form of wickedness 』
Gu Qing Shan’s eyes were suddenly engulfed in golden flames.
He suddenly noticed something, looked around, then slowly looked up towards the sky.
“… I… think I know why Liao Xiao Pao ran away earlier…”
Gu Qing Shan muttered.
The boundless darkness above wasn’t the night sky, but a body that eclipsed the sky.
The empty location where they’ve been fighting wasn’t the world’s original ground, but a hand.
Those ‘monsters’ were nothing but some of the hand’s ominous aura that had manifested into form.
It——-
Was as grand as Mount Sumeru, but it exuded boundless wickedness and omens.
Its single eye was like that of a blood moon that had been observing the entire battle from the very beginning.
The full moon faced Gu Qing Shan’s gaze, then slowly became distorted and became narrow, which exuded a heavy sense of indifference and disdain.
——it was the same gaze as someone who noticed an insect that just happens to fly closer.
A mocking voice echoed in Gu Qing Shan’s mind:
『 So you finally noticed me… pitiful insect. You struggle and bite the things on my hand, but you haven’t even lived for a million years, nor have you seen the rotation of the worlds, nor do you know any valuable secrets, isn’t that right? 』
Gu Qing Shan instantly noticed some sort of approaching danger, so he answered with the first that thought came to his mind: “I live my entire life collecting the most valuable secret, and the moment I utter this secret, I would die——– that is the meaning of my existence”
『 SECRET!? A being of your caliber dares look down upon secrets! 』the other party’s voice became filled with even more disdain.
A heavy sense of pressure as endlessly dark and cold as the ocean abyss had completely enveloped Gu Qing Shan.
He could practically see the steps of death already.
Gu Qing Shan curtly replied: “Of course, I only know a single secret relating to the Saint Realm”
The other party abruptly paused.
『 Saint… Realm… how could you know of that place.. 』
The tone was clearly dismissive, but the sense of suffocating pressure had subsided somewhat.
Gu Qing Shan silently sighed in relief.
——-finally, I managed to give myself a few seconds to survive.
『 As an insect that’s slightly bigger than normal, have you come to this world in search of extreme torture beyond mortal bearings? Or in search of suffering beyond the soul’s limit? Reveal the secret of the Saint Realm and I shall fulfil your wish 』
The blood moon looked straight towards Gu Qing Shan as if observing some sort of joke.
Gu Qing Shan was quickly thinking of how to deal with this then another voice sounded in his ears:
“Gu Qing Shan, what’s the situation now? Should I——”
Laura asked again.
Gu Qing Shan this time really sighed in relief.
“Don’t ask anymore, your majesty, quickly deploy your umbrella”
He whispered.
