The black market.
A lot of people had the 7 Holy Bibles opened right in front of them, flipping through while scowling in thought.
There were also those who gathered and exchanged information with one another.
A few disappeared into the darkness, silently leaving.
Less and less people were in the black market as time passed.
One Professionist suddenly had a feeling and looked up, asking in confusion: “Huh? Why do I get the feeling there are fewer people left here?”
Another person beside him was focused on their Holy Bible and didn’t bother to look up, but answered him: “Most likely they already found all the poems of divination and figured out where the labyrinth is, so they’re probably on their way”
The man exclaimed in shock: “You mean we already lost our chance?”
His companion answered: “Not necessarily, this is a labyrinth set up by the Gods, not something you can just waltz in and find a Divine Armament———- so quit talking and quickly find the remaining poems”
…
The door of the labyrinth was pushed open.
Inside the long hallway, statues armed with weapons lined the two sides.
At the very center of the hallway, a giant statue stood still.
It was a statue of a fully-armoured giant.
A large battle-axe was held in his hand, raised upwards as if preparing to attack someone.
Although this battle-axe wasn’t being used by anybody, faint overlapping shadows could be seen drifting about the edge of the axe, leaving black rip marks all over the void of space around it.
“This is a Soul Artifact”
Little Dusk pointed at the battle-axe and told Gu Qing Shan.
Gu Qing Shan nodded.
He recalled back in Triste’s collection world, Laura once gave up a Soul Artifact as a form of payment for Li Yang’s cooperation.
At the time, afraid that he might not understand just how precious a Soul Artifact was, Li Yang specifically gave him a detailed explanation.
Soul Artifacts contained all sorts of unimaginable power, the stronger their wielders were, the more power a Soul Artifact could manifest.
Soul Artifacts are well-known to be precious treasures above all else.
Within the Strife Zones, besides the 1001 numbered coins, only this level of precious items had universal circulation value among the races.
Gu Qing Shan’s gaze fell onto the giant’s statue.
“This is a warden from the Abyss of Sin, I’ve met him once before, the others around here are all of his servants” Little Dusk told him.
“Seems like when someone’s soul gets imprisoned by that creature, their bodies will turn into stone statues like this” Gu Qing Shan commented.
Little Dusk urged him: “Let’s go in quickly, otherwise if the creature possesses this warden’s body, it’ll be a lot more troublesome”
“You’re right, it will probably come back soon” Gu Qing Shan agreed.
The individual power of every warden in the Abyss of Sin was fearsome, and this one even carried a Soul Artifact——— although it wasn’t clear what level it was, any Soul Artifact is tough to deal with.
He took Little Dusk’s hand and flashed.
Divine Skill, [Ground Shrink].
The two of them appeared on the other side of the hallway.
They quickly left the hallway only to find themselves in a garden of flowers on the other side of the gate.
The seven lights were still giving off their glorious glows.
But unexpectedly, snow was falling.
The intense snowy weather brought with it chilling winds that blew across the garden.
There were various paths within this garden that lead to over a hundred other gigantic structures, including a towering mountain——- yes, this labyrinth contained inside it a mountain, complete with a great waterfall on its side with several buildings and towers at the top of it.
Various statues of the wardens of the Abyss of Sin were scattered around the garden.
The statues stood still without moving, protecting entrances of each path.
“As expected of a labyrinth, there are at least 10 open paths just here alone, with so many structures, you’re going to need to lead the way for us to find where the Divine Armaments are” Little Dusk glanced around and commented.
Gu Qing Shan carefully looked around.
Every path was covered in a thick blanket of snow without a single footprint on it.
——–it seems these wardens from the Abyss of Sin have been taken over for quite a while.
Furthermore, these structures were all constructed based on the style and scale of the Holy Churches, and according to the memories he got from soul reading the dead General, it was possible to guess what a few of these structures were used for by their appearance alone.
Following the three directions reported by his [Miracle Search], Gu Qing Shan picked out the closest structure.
It was a library connected to a church.
Indeed, the very first Divine Armament was hidden inside a library.
Gu Qing Shan pointed: “Should be that direction”
“Let’s go” Little Dusk was about to go out ahead.
Then Gu Qing Shan stopped her.
“What are we waiting for?” Little Dusk asked him in confusion.
“If we consider the time; that creature should have already returned, two people aren’t as covert as one, so turn back into your card form and hide on me, I’ll call when I need you” Gu Qing Shan offered.
“Alright” Little Dusk agreed right away.
She took a step back as a rectangular lapis border manifested around her.
She then quickly turned into a lapis-coloured card and fell into Gu Qing Shan’s hands.
Gu Qing Shan put the card away and turned into a snow hawk.
The snow hawk took to the air, flying as high as it could in the air.
Nothing reacted inside the garden.
The creature had already turned all of the wardens into statues.
——–and statues couldn’t possibly fly in the sky.
Even if one of the statues noticed this snow hawk, they wouldn’t be able to attack it right away, as it was flying so high.
So if the creature suddenly appeared, Gu Qing Shan would still have some time to react.
The snow hawk flew over the library.
It then transformed into a honey bee mid-air.
The bee landed on a snowflake, descending slowly with the wind, only ever flapping its wings when absolutely necessary.
The snowflake silently landed on top of the library building.
The bee crawled in through the thick blanket of snow.
As it reached the ceramic tiles that lined the top of the building, it turned into an ant, which was smaller in size.
The ant suddenly stopped.
He released his inner sight and sensed something in the garden.
A warden from the Abyss of Sin who was giving off a terrifying presence began to walk around.
——-the creature had returned.
The ant stood still for a while.
It patiently waited; until the creature finally entered one of the buildings
At that point, the ant finally crawled through a tiny hole between the tiles and reached an air duct.
The ant entered the air duct.
Following the long air duct, it slowly made its way to the air vent on the ceiling of the library.
It then stopped shortly after and peaked its head out to look below.
Countless books neatly lined the many bookshelves around the library.
A single statue was sitting at the center of the library.
The light from the fireplace peered out, illuminating him, highlighting his aged and sorrowful features.
———this was a human man with a cloak and staff.
To be able to become a warden of the Abyss of Sin as a human, this man must be exceedingly powerful.
The ant quickly pulled back after a glance.
The statue didn’t react at all, but it was better to be safe than sorry.
Because he didn’t know if the man below was a wizard or warlock.
If he was a wizard, Gu Qing Shan could choose to fight in close-range, swiftly killing him in a few blows.
———as a wizard, he had to first return from being a statue before casting his spell, more than enough time for Gu Qing Shan’s [Life Seeker] to do its job.
But warlocks weren’t the same.
Warlocks didn’t just know how to use magic.
Quite a few warlocks were equally potent in close combat as they were at magic.
With his current strength, Gu Qing Shan personally admitted it would be tough to kill a warlock at the same level as the black scorpion.
And turning into the scorpion right now would be a waste of Soul Points.
If I could help it, I’d rather save as much Soul Points as I can.
And even more importantly, even if he killed this old man, other wardens would quickly come to replace him.
While he was wondering what to do, a female voice came from inside his mind.
Little Dusk asked: “Have you found the Divine Armament yet?”
She was curious where it could be hidden.
Gu Qing Shan sent his voice: “I did, right next to the statue, hidden in the wall behind the fireplace”
Little Dusk was surprised: “Why was it hidden so deeply?”
Gu Qing Shan replied: “Just now when the Divinities gave me the coin, they also gave me a hint”
“What hint?” Little Dusk asked.
Gu Qing Shan replied: “They said that they built this labyrinth and buried the 3 Divine Armaments inside—— ‘buried’ was the keyword”
Little Dusk commented: “Seems like the Divinities were afraid that the Divine Armament would fall into the hands of the creature——- because it would definitely have destroyed the Divine Armament”
Gu Qing Shan said: “Seems like the Divinities understood this creature quite well, they knew that with the creature’s mental capacity, it wouldn’t have thought that there were things hidden inside the walls”
Little Dusk asked: “If we go down there right now, do you think the creature would know?”
“It will definitely know” Gu Qing Shan answered.
“Why are you so sure about that?” Little Dusk asked.
“Because the creature specifically left a statue here, meaning that as long as a statue is present, it will most likely have the ability to know everything that happens, as well as being able to possess the statues at will” Gu Qing Shan replied.
“Then what do we do now?” Little Dusk asked.
“I’m still thinking about it” Gu Qing Shan told her.
Little Dusk suggested: “How about I lead him away?”
Gu Qing Shan shook his head: “With your current strength, you’ll definitely be stalled until a more powerful warden arrives to kill you”
Little Dusk smiled and said: “It seems you still don’t understand how an Envoy of Condemnation fights”
A card appeared out of nowhere in front of the ant.
There was nothing depicted on this card, only three lines of text.
[Angel of Condemnation – Dusk is requesting to become your first summoning card, do you accept?]
[The summoning contract is as follow: non-binding]
[If you agree, please lightly touch this card]
The ant paused for a second before touching the card with its antenna.
The contract card then turned and glowed in a lapis coloured light before shrinking and hovering in front of the ant.
Little Dusk was now standing in the card, laughing as she covered her mouth.
The ant was stunned.
“Alright, you got me, I’m shocked” Gu Qing Shan sent his voice.
“What is there to be shocked about, an Envoy of Condemnation would naturally have the ability to sign summoning contracts” Little Dusk explained.
“What do we do now?” Gu Qing Shan asked.
Little Dusk boastfully spoke: “Here, let big sis teach you… first, you need to call me…”
…
Inside the silent library, a huge explosion suddenly came.
The ceiling broke and collapsed as a white-dressed girl descended from above.
She was already holding several cards in her hand as she fell down.
“[Forging Sunbeam]!” she uttered.
A card was thrown out.
The card scattered and turned into intense scorching flames that burned the statue.
As soon as the girl appeared, the statue had already returned to life.
The old man swung his staff and summoned freezing air to cover himself.
“I’m going to kill you!” the old man shouted.
The white-dressed girl stuck out her tongue at him, turned and ran.
She broke through the door of the library and ran into the garden.
The old man tapped his staff on the ground several times.
A black snake suddenly manifested from below, carrying him to chase her with incredible speed.
The two of them quickly went away from the area.
At this point, a person appeared in front of the fireplace.
Gu Qing Shan.
He lightly swung his sword at the fireplace.
Wherever the sword passed, the wall was easily cut.
A beautiful box appeared, silently embedded inside the wall.
Gu Qing Shan lightly waved his hand and put the box inside his Inventory Bag.
A split second later, Gu Qing Shan disappeared.
The entire process took a single second.
He returned to the air duct and uttered: “Dismiss summon!”
The garden just outside the library.
As Little Dusk was still fleeing, her body turned into mist and disappeared from the old man’s sight.
He was stunned.
“Damn it!”
He shouted and blasted where Little Dusk originally stood with a spell.
Boom——-
A hole was drilled into the ground.
On the other side.
A summoning card appeared in front of the ant.
Little Dusk stood beautifully inside the card, smiling while waving at the ant.
A few moments later.
The old man finally remembered something and angrily stormed back to the library to check.
Only to see nothing but a large hole in the wall.
At this point, a butterfly had already flown out from the top of the library, borrowing the wind to glide towards another building.
