The Human realm.
Luo Shui city had already been leveled to the ground.
There was nothing but barren land for miles in every direction.
On top of that barren land was a single table made out of Immortal Jade, on top of which there was a pot.
A pot that was steaming with spicy broth.
Qin Xiao Lou was sitting at the table with a bowl and chopsticks in his hand, cheerfully dipping some beef into the hotpot.
He was sweating from the spiciness and occasionally taking a sip of alcohol from his cup, seemingly having the time of his life.
“Third Brother is saved”
“Sister Li An said that the matter in the Human realm has concluded, and all Chosen Saints have gone to participate in the next round of competition—-”
“In other words, I have nothing left to do!”
He picked up another piece of meat from the hotpot and happily ate.
I still have a large stockpile of spirit stones, regular money, and even various cultivation supplies.
The Human realm is now at peace, my junior sisters and brother are nowhere to be seen.
Shifu——
Is also not here.
I can finally head into a real brothel and immerse myself in music, art, and ladies—- all sort of nice ladies!
Now that’s living!
With that in mind, Qin Xiao Lou couldn’t help but hum a melody: “Life is beautiful——”
Suddenly, a female voice interrupted him from behind:
“What happened here?”
“Whoa, Shifu! Why did you appear without warning, you almost scared me to death!”
A green gate of light had just opened up in the void of space, from which Xie Dao Ling emerged with a key in her hand.
“The city is destroyed… what exactly happened here?”
Xie Dao Ling frowned and asked.
Qin Xiao Lou swiftly prepared a set of utensils for her, led her to the host seat, then started explaining: “It was like this…”
He then recounted all the events so far.
Xie Dao Ling asked: “Do you still have a base in another city?”
“I do, I’ve set up a base in all the prosperous cities on the land. What does Shifu want to do?” Qin Xiao Lou quickly answered.
Xie Dao Ling sighed and sat down at the hotpot table.
Qin Xiao Lou waited for a while, only to see that she was very earnestly placing a flavoring pill into the pot, so he couldn’t ask.
He then helped her add more coal for the fire, prepared more side dishes, dipped more meat, poured more alcohol, and carefully waited on her.
I thought that Shifu was just being herself like always, but something seems to be different this time.
Xie Dao Ling was simply seated there, not picking up any food, nor eating anything.
It was as if she was stumped.
This was a very rare state to see Xie Dao Ling in.
Qin Xiao Lou cautiously asked: “Shifu… does it not suit your taste?”
Xie Dao Ling regained her senses and replied: “That’s not it, but I believe your Third Brother is stuck in quite a predicament… our situation isn’t that much better either, so I’m trying to come up with a solution”
“What exactly is the situation?” Qin Xiao Lou worriedly asked.
Xie Dao Ling muttered: “I’ve always thought that it was a legend… but I didn’t think that the legends were actually true…”
“Legend? What kind of legend?” Qin Xiao Lou asked.
Xie Dao Ling explained in a low voice: “During the previous era, there was a legend that spoke of three extremely secretive disciplines. It was said that if someone managed to cultivate these disciplines to the extreme, they would undergo an unbelievable transformation and sublimate to become supreme void arts”
“These three supreme arts… one of them was called the Parallel World Art, capable of creating countless realities within the River of Time, all of which would contain different living beings with different Fates, and the worlds within them would also actually exist, truly a profound mystical feat, hailed as the top defensive technique within the Boundless Void”
Hearing her explanation, Qin Xiao Lou couldn’t help but feel mesmerized.
Creating an infinite number of parallel worlds, using billions of worlds and living beings to defend oneself, what an unimaginable technique!
Thinking about it for a bit, he couldn’t help but comment: “I think I’ve heard Third Brother describe such circumstances before”
Xie Dao Ling replied: “Indeed, someone had performed this Art within the Reality Gate that we previously resided in…”
“Was it because Shifu discovered traces of this Art that you feel troubled?” Qin Xiao Lou asked.
“No—— in reality, I actually saw another of the supreme Void Arts” Xie Dao Ling answered.
“Another Art?” Qin Xiao Lou exclaimed.
Xie Dao Ling sighed and explained: “That’s right, our enemy possesses a supreme Void Art comparable to that of the Parallel World Art”
“In the legends, it was called the One Being Myriad Lives Art, the second of the three supreme Void Art”
Qin Xiao Lou pondered: “One Being Myriad Lives? Why does that sound similar to Shifu’s incarnation technique?”
“No, it is completely different, as it’s a type of offensive technique…”
While she was speaking, Xie Dao Ling abruptly slammed the table and sternly declared: “We have an emergency in our hands, we need to come up with a way for the other ‘me’ to find me as soon as possible”
“…Huh… huh?” Qin Xiao Lou couldn’t keep up with the pace and looked at Xie Dao Ling in shock.
——emergency?
Why did the situation suddenly become an emergency?
Xie Dao Ling stood up and stated: “Dear disciple, we need to head to the nearest city and open a restaurant to enact your ‘number one spirit cooking restaurant’ plan, only then would we be able to lead the other ‘me’ to us”
“Why can’t we simply go and search for her?” Qin Xiao Lou asked.
“There is a Miracle separating me and her, we wouldn’t be able to reach her no matter what, only the reverse is possible” Xie Dao Ling explained.
Her gaze appeared slightly heavier.
Not only does the enemy possess the Pendant of Fire, but they’ve also concealed themselves by wielding a supreme Void Art only heard of in legends.
——how are we supposed to fight against that?
“Don’t worry, Shifu, your disciple will reopen the Green Building and become the number one in the realm as soon as we reach the next city!”
Qin Xiao Lou patted his chest with pride.
…
The underside of the Human realm.
Countless tombstones and graves could be seen dotting the ground, with a gloomy frigid river flowing between all of them on top of the barren wasteland.
A grand city stood firmly on the bank of the river.
Heavenly Palace city!
The elongated skull was charging towards this grand city——–
From a distance, it had already unleashed its Apocalyptic Emptiness powers to attack Heavenly Palace city.
Dooo!
A heavy sound of impact could be heard from inside Heavenly Palace city.
The paper sheet floating above Heavenly Palace city was releasing light to shield it against the Apocalyptic power of the elongated skull.
『 Hah, let us see just how much Merit they can waste 』Li An coldly scoffed.
All the Chosen Saints within Star Gazer city all had devious expressions on their faces.
—–so you bunch of Heavenly Palace city attacked us earlier huh?
Good, I’d like to see if you can still act so high and mighty when Star Gazer’s City Lord draws that horrifying Apocalypse towards you!
The barrier around Heavenly Palace city was glowing increasingly brighter, firmly shielding it from the elongated skull’s attack without giving a single inch, allowing it to sit immovably on the bank of the river.
「 They sure possess a lot of Merit 」an evil creature commented.
But more of them were silently laughing.
Such mindless expenditure isn’t going to resolve the issue.
After all, no matter how much Merit they have——
It’ll eventually run out.
“They’re definitely done for this time, aren’t they?” Shan Hai Qi Xia asked Gu Qing Shan.
But Gu Qing Shan only showed a strange expression on his face.
Being a City Lord, he understood the power that the two cities possessed.
They were cities built by the Samsara itself, both containing unimaginable power within, but they needed to slowly unlock their functions and continuously evolve until they eventually turned into the ultimate shelter and weapon of war for living beings of the Samsara.
But during these early stages, the two cities are still very weak, requiring the protection as well as the support of Chosen Saints to mature.
And yet the Heavenly Emperor is remaining passive.
For what reason?
Gu Qing Shan’s gaze became grim.
At this point, something finally occurred.
Layers upon layers of colorful heavenly light emerged from inside Heavenly Palace city, followed by four divine beasts that took flight above the clouds.
They were the Vermillion Bird, the Black Tortoise, the Azure Dragon, and the White Tiger.
They equally distanced themselves from one another before releasing a talisman.
『 Suppress! 』
The Vermillion Bird declared.
The form of a new world was derived from the four talismans, temporarily being summoned from the void of space.
“Ah, so it was a Phase Realm, what do they intend to do?”
Gu Qing Shan muttered to himself.
A ray of light suddenly emerged from inside that world, which traversed the distance to strike the elongated skull.
In an instant, the elongated skull was sucked into that world.
「 Retrieve! 」
The Azure Dragon declared.
The four talismans were then retrieved into the four divine beasts’ mouths.
But the talismans were all radiating chaotic light, almost as if something was trying to struggle free from inside.
Without wasting a single moment, the four divine beasts immediately fled as far as they could.
They gradually went far enough that no one could see them anymore.
——-Heavenly Palace city was safe.
The Chosen Saints were still a bit unsatisfied and turned to Gu Qing Shan again, wanting to see what else he intended to do.
Gu Qing Shan walked up to the edge of the warship’s deck and shouted towards Heavenly Palace city:
“Oi! You might have managed to survive this time around”
“But if you tried to attack our Star Gazer city again, I’ll be drawing more Apocalypses your way!”
His voice travelled far into the distance, reverberating across the night sky.
Only the Heavenly Emperor’s scoff could be heard from Heavenly Palace city in reply, there was nothing else.
Gu Qing Shan turned around and declared to the Chosen Saints on his side:
“Alright, show’s over, time to explore the great tomb”
The Chosen Saints all began to make their moves.
——-this was still the Samsara Clash for Supremacy, and now that the great tomb had just resurfaced, it was the best opportunity to earn Merit and unseal their strength.
Who wouldn’t want to regain their powers as soon as possible?
Numerous rays of light streaked across the night sky before landing on the ground as the Chosen Saints scattered in every direction.
The same sight could be seen from Heavenly Palace city as well.
Nobody had the patience to worry about others, so they were all randomly picking a direction.
——-the exploration of the great tomb had officially begun!
Gu Qing Shan turned to those around him and said: “I’m going to rest a little bit, you all should head out as well”
“Alright” Shan Hai Qi Xia replied before taking her group with her.
Gu Qing Shan turned around, looked for a resting chamber and closed the door behind him.
He sat down directly on the cold metal floor.
The look of triumph that was previously on his face was gone.
It was now grim.
Li An flew directly through the door and silently sat down next to him.
『 What’s the matter? 』she asked with concern.
Gu Qing Shan took a short glance at her.
She is a descendant of the previous heavenly being race, she has made an unbreakable vow with me, and we’ve faced the two Unfathomable Apocalypses together——-
“…Did you notice that things were a bit strange today?” Gu Qing Shan pondered shortly and asked.
『 What are you referring to? 』Li An asked.
“The Heavenly Emperor didn’t use the power of Miracles—— he usually prefers to use the power of Miracles to resolve his problems; but today, during such a crucial moment, right when it was time to make a show out of his strength for all to see, he had instead opted to not touch the power of Miracles” Gu Qing Shan commented.
『 Perhaps he had other considerations 』Li An suggested.
Gu Qing Shan said: “I feel very disappointed…”
『 Disappointed? 』Li An asked in surprise.
“That’s right” Gu Qing Shan continued: “I remember back in the Elements War Zone, he managed to prepare several traps far ahead of time, just to take my life——- and he almost succeeded”
“In the past, he had the patience to wait for the perfect moment to attack my Shifu and take the position of Heavenly Emperor for himself, so why did he attack so recklessly today?”
“I consider him an opponent who I can go all out against, and I’ve always faced him with everything I have, in what I consider the battle of our lives. And yet today, his choice to attack was so reckless that he couldn’t possibly be a worthy match for me, why?”
“How could a scheming and shrewd character possibly act so clumsily today?”
Li An was unable to respond at all.
She couldn’t answer any of the questions that Gu Qing Shan had posed.
Gu Qing Shan silently sat there, pondering for a long time before suddenly appearing shocked.
『 Have… you thought of something? 』Li An asked.
Gu Qing Shan slowly stood up and muttered: “This opponent is one that prefers to devise multiple plans to be put into action, betting on more than one gate, so that no matter which choice his enemy made, it would always be him who would benefit in the end”
He continued: “Two cities… to achieve this, there should only be one reasonable strategy”
『 What strategy? 』Li An asked.
Gu Qing Shan remained silent for a moment.
The sense of confusion and loss he had earlier had disappeared, instead replaced by determination and killing intent: “The real Heavenly Emperor is hiding in our Star Gazer city”
He finally said.
