Laura yawned loudly and asked: “Gu Qing Shan, how much longer are we going to stand here?”
“A little bit longer” Gu Qing Shan said.
He was observing the entire city with a serious and focused expression.
“Do you trust that chicken that much?” Laura asked.
“There’s no harm in being careful, and I need to observe this city closely so that if anything out of the ordinary occurred, I would be able to detect it before anyone else” Gu Qing Shan replied.
——the colorful rooster was actually the manifestation of the [War God Intelligence] function, so he had no choice but to trust it.
“But we’ve already been standing here for 10 minutes——”
Halfway through, Laura suddenly stopped.
A loudspeaker echoed across the entire city:
[Attention please, the city-wide charity auction is about to begin]
[All Professionists who have come to Black City can bring out your most precious treasures in to be publicly auction off]
[Attention, this is a charity auction that’s only held once every 3000 years]
[Black City will not take the usual 50% royalties, the entirety of your auction profits will go to yourselves]
[Recite ‘Black City Manager’ to summon the auction menu]
[Treasure this opportunity]
[The auction will begin now!]
The entire city fell into a brief moment of silence before breaking out into a large commotion.
Everyone went practically berserk.
Black City not taking any royalties, this is a literal one-in-thousand-years chance!
“Is it this?” Laura asked.
“Probably” Gu Qing Shan remained standing on top of the skyscraper and muttered: “Black City Manager”
A ray of gentle light was projected from above and appeared in front of him as a concave screen.
[Mister Gu Qing Shan, as you are a Combatant who had comprehended Realm Force, I have provided you with the esteemed guest interface]
This line of text was displayed on the screen.
“Thank you, what can I do here?” Gu Qing Shan asked.
[You may provide items to be auctioned off, or see the list of auctioned items to participate in them] an electronic voice replied.
Gu Qing Shan said: “I want to see the list of auctioned items”
Several ten thousand items were instantly displayed in front of him——–
There were over 100 pages of weapons of various types; defensive items were categorized through use and function, taking up over 400 pages; various cultivation methods, minerals, plants, unique covenants, works of art, machines, historical records, recipes, formulas, information, intel, mechanisms, slaves, wondrous items, structures, airships, ruins, certificates, bloodlines, samples, Apocalyptic images, specialized knowledge, etc. were all over the list.
As time went by, even more auction items showed up, rapidly expanding the list in a visible manner.
Gu Qing Shan thought briefly before asking: “Can I filter the auction items?”
[Naturally] the electronic voice answered.
Gu Qing Shan said: “In the Dusty World, there used to be world systems that existed for a very short time before disappearing. I want to focus on items that those world systems had left behind”
——Shroud had once discussed the Dusty World with me.
It was about when he entered the Dusty World to retrieve the fake Divine Artifact for Reneedol.
He said that when he left, the entire base of the Pantheon in the Dusty World completely crumbled to dust and no longer exists.
——but they surely left certain things behind.
After thinking for a while, the only thing that Gu Qing Shan could think of that had a connection to him in the Dusty World from countless years ago was the Pantheon.
The Pantheon was essentially insignificant in the Dusty World, and Shroud had only gone there once, so what kind of connections would such a place have with me?
[Currently filtering, please wait a moment] the electronic voice said.
Many of the listings on the screens started to disappear.
——-there were only about a thousand listings left on the auction list.
They were displayed to Gu Qing Shan one by one through both writing and image.
Gu Qing Shan solemnly observed each of them, removing them from the list one by one.
Time slowly passed.
Gu Qing Shan had removed over seven hundred listings.
In reality, the Pantheon wasn’t the only world system that had attempted to hide in the Dusty World, there were also many others.
For that reason, Gu Qing Shan still had to look over numerous artifacts of various natures.
——but none of them had any connection to him.
Laura obediently sat on his shoulder without uttering a peep.
She knew what Gu Qing Shan had done in the Age of Immemorial, so she was scanning through the items together with him in silence.
Suddenly, she noticed that Gu Qing Shan was a bit different.
“Gu Qing Shan?”
Laura whispered.
No answer.
She leaned forward, only to see that he was staring straight at something on the screen with an expression of disbelief.
Following Gu Qing Shan’s gaze, Laura also noticed that auction item.
It was a pendant with a black string.
The face of the pendant was a stone effigy.
The effigy depicted an old man with a peaceful expression, nodding off while sitting on top of a rock with one hand propping up his face and the other holding a long-handled scythe.
It was the Life Exchange Contract, the relic of the Death God.
“No! That’s clearly—–” Laura exclaimed out loud.
She quickly realized and shut her mouth.
——–I definitely cannot expose any secrets in front of the Black City Manager.
She moved her gaze towards the description of the pendant:
[Pendant of the Death God, named Life Exchange Contract, a treasure left behind by the Pantheon]
[Description: Those who hold this item will have their life prolonged by the Death God before his death. Such a miraculous ability wasn’t without restrains, as the Death God will siphon twice as much vitality from the previous owner of this item as the price]
Gu Qing Shan regained his calm and said: “I want this pendant of the Death God”
The electronic voice answered: [This is an artifact of the Grand Archive, estimated to be 8 million Evil coins in value]
Gu Qing Shan replied: “I’ll provide some precious gems, please help me exchange them into Evil coins”
[No problem, your grace Gu Qing Shan] the electronic voice answered.
Without wasting much time, the pendant of the Death God was brought in front of Gu Qing Shan.
Gu Qing Shan didn’t take a careful look at it.
He simply focused himself on looking over the rest of the auction items, selected a few of them, then completed the transactions on the spot.
After this was done, he changed to another category, buying a number of other strange and unusual items.
It wasn’t until he had bought a total of 100 items that he finally stopped.
“How long will the auction continue for?” Gu Qing Shan asked.
[Three days] the electronic voice answered.
“Very well. I want to take a rest, please find me an accommodation of absolute peace” Gu Qing Shan replied.
[No problem. The best accommodation in Black City, the Demon Saint Hotel has a King room open, the room number is 99219. If you want it, I can provide the room key for you right away] the electronic voice said.
“Do it” Gu Qing Shan replied.
A few moments later.
A room key card was in Gu Qing Shan’s hand.
[Demon Saint Hotel is an establishment co-owned by the spirits, absolutely no one would attempt anything here, nor would anyone spy on or disturb your grace’s rest] the electronic voice explained.
“Very good”
Gu Qing Shan lightly waved the room key card.
A flash of teleportation light flickered.
He vanished from where he stood.
Gu Qing Shan reappeared inside an extremely luxurious hotel room that looks out upon the scenery of the entire Black City.
Laura opened her backpack and rapidly moved her hands around inside it for a bit.
“Ok, Gu Qing Shan, that pendant——-” Laura whispered.
“We need to check if this room was safe or not first” Gu Qing Shan told her
“Don’t worry, I’ve already used a total of 691 types of examination treasures as we entered the room and found no issues. But to be doubly sure, I’m going to activate 1535 obscurement treasures and finally use my umbrella!”
After saying that, Laura shifted her flower umbrella so that it was over Gu Qing Shan’s head.
[Infinite Worlds Shelter] was now in effect!
Gu Qing Shan sighed in relief, then took out the pendant of the Death God earlier and showed it in his palm.
“Big sis Anna said that she last put this pendant over your neck herself, using that to determine whether or not you were safe” Laura said.
“Yes, and I’ve always been carrying it with me” Gu Qing Shan replied.
He reached his hand near his neck to pull out a black string.
Very quickly the face of the pendant was in his hand.
Two pendants of the Death God that looked exactly the same were silently lying on his hand.
“Why are there two of them?” Laura confusedly said.
After a moment of silence, Gu Qing Shan said: “Rather than asking why there were two of them, it’s better to ask who made these two pendants”
Laura was a bit startled and realized: “That’s true, you are the Death God of the pantheon, so if you weren’t the one who created this pendant, who was the one who impersonated the Death God to create these two identical pendants?”
Gu Qing Shan didn’t say anything.
He turned his gaze to the War God UI to read the lines of glowing text hovering there:
[You’ve obtained two pendants of the Death God]
[The conditions were activating this tool has been fulfilled]
[A certain power hidden within the pendant of the Death God had been activated]
[A certain vision of the past is about to manifest]
[5]
[4]
[3]
[2]
[1]
Fwoom——–
A yellow aura filled every corner of their visions.
The vision began to overlap with reality.
Everything started to become clearer.
Gu Qing Shan and Laura looked around, only to be stunned at the same time.
Under the Grand Tie Wei Mountain, the banks of the Forgetting River.
Fog and mist continuously swirled, the tides washed up and down the shores.
Dead people bobbed up and down within the river as they were being carried along the stream.
The sky was gloomy, there wasn’t a single person to be seen except a single lonely figure.
It was a girl.
She seemed to have been sitting in wait on these banks since the Age of Immemorial.
No one knew what she was waiting for.
She was merely sitting on the banks while blankly looking over the river.
After an unknown amount of time, a mass of fog appeared behind her as a different white-haired girl emerged.
The white-haired girl walked up to her and sat down, accompanying her as she gazed upon the unending flow of the Forgetting River.
“Do you really intend to continue waiting?” the white-haired girl asked.
“Hm” the girl answered.
The white-haired girl sighed, then gently said: “An… no, Scarlet, listen. I have something here I want to show you”
Scarlet turned her head towards the white-haired girl next to her.
“I can sense the power of Death emanating from your body, are you the Death God of later eras?” Scarlet asked.
“That’s right, and now I’m going to hand something over to you, you need to remember it well” the white-haired girl said.
She took out a pendant and put it into Scarlet’s hand.
—–the pendant of the Death God.
“I can sense the power of Death that fills it… using one person’s vitality to replenish another’s, that is its function” Scarlet commented.
“That’s right, it will become the token of trust between you and Gu Qing Shan, connecting your lives together” the white-haired girl said.
“Why… are you doing this?” Scarlet asked.
“Scarlet, I want you to remember this. After you reincarnate, once you meet him, you must give this item to him—— this is very crucial” the white-haired girl answered.
“How crucial?” Scarlet asked.
“It’s related to his survival” the white-haired girl replied.
“Why should I trust you?” Scarlet asked again.
The white-haired girl smiled and gently answered: “It’s actually a very long story, but since you know that he originated from a later era, it’s much easier to explain”
“Right, my name is Su Xue Er, everything began on the day I graduated from high school…”
The two girls sat by the banks of the Forgetting River, one talking, the other listening.
After an unknown amount of time, Scarlet looked down and gazed at the pendant of the Death God in her hand.
She stared intently at the pendant, as if to carve it as deeply as she could into her soul.
So that she would never forget.
