Chapter 745: Fitting With The Rules
When the man clad in divine light appeared in the sky, an impressive and boundless power flowed from his body outwards.
Every cultivation sect was able to sense this power.
Quite a few powerful cultivators of other sects personally took to the sky and headed for the Barren Cloud Heavenly Palace.
In the void of space, countless mysterious creatures had also silently arrived.
All of their gazes were focused on the Barren Cloud master peak.
The four Divine Beasts were prostrating below the clouds, solemnly listening to the Divinity’s questioning.
Gu Qing Shan also silently looked up at the Divinity, observing him.
It was said that Divinities created humans from their likeness, so the countless races within the infinite worlds use the human form as the common ground for communication.
The difference between a Divinity and the others are probably between their eyebrows.
There was a golden burning fire in between this Divinity’s eyebrows.
As for the divine light surrounding him, Gu Qing Shan actually knew what that was.
Among creations of the Divinities, invisible ones were the greatest, and this brilliance was the manifestation of their dignity.
Which means that divine light must be the Divinity’s armor.
Back in Triste’s collection world, he had already donned such an armor.
At this point, the Divinity had fished his question.
The Golden Dragon responded: 「 Benevolent Life God, we are not killing human cultivators, but rather following the orders of the Heavenly Palace master to protect the true heritage of the Heavenly Palace 」
The Life God questioned: “An order from the sect master? I seem to recall that the Barren Cloud Heavenly Palace master is still at the frontlines”
The Golden Dragon answered: 「 According to the rules of the Barren Cloud Heavenly Palace when the sect master is not present, we need to listen to the order of the sect master jade disk 」
The Life God looked to Gu Qing Shan.
Without waiting for the Life God to say anything, Gu Qing Shan respectfully bowed and told him: “O’ benevolent God, I am only acting in accordance to the rules of the sect, the four Divine Beasts have also agreed”
“O’ great and merciful God, you descended upon us with pity in your heart, but as the rules of our sect dictates, these people must be executed, they do not deserve your mercy”
Silence.
Silence across the entire Heavenly Palace.
Everywhere, every great cultivator, every Divinity, every mysterious creature that was silently paying attention here fell silent.
He’s insane.
He must be, to try and talk to a Divinity that way.
Divinities very rarely interfere with internal matters of human sects.
No, in fact, before this very moment, there has never been a case where that happened.
And yet, the very first time that a Divinity interfered, he was so flexibly and lightly stopped by a young human before he could even try.
The Life God’s voice was also a bit warped: “I ask you, these are powerful cultivators of humanity, the peak masters of your sect, while you are a mere disciple. On what basis do you condemn them to death?”
As soon as Gu Qing Shan heard that, he recited quickly and clearly, as if he was waiting for exactly this moment: “According to the rules of our sect, no one is to set foot on the Barren Cloud master peak without being summoned by the Palace Master, this is the first”
“Arbitrarily constructing things on the master peak without permission is desecration, a great crime, this is the second”
“As the Eldest Disciple of the sect, when I personally asked about the master peak, they ignored me, this is disrespectful to the Barren Cloud Heavenly Palace as a whole, this is the third”
“While the sect master is not here, they instigated the three disciples of the sect master to kill one another, this is open maliciousness and an act of rebellion, this is the fourth”
“The fifth…”
“Wait”
The Life God cut him off.
Unable to hear any more, the Life God silently regretted giving Gu Qing Shan the chance to speak.
The Divinity then declared in front of everyone: “You said that they instigated the disciples of the master peak to kill one another, that is not so. It was for the sake of aiding humanity that we provided the quotas for cultivating in the Divine Palaces”
The Ancient Dawn peak master immediately continued: “This was a unanimous decision of the peak masters after much discussion to provide the master peak with two quotas, that is the reason why there was a need to compete among the disciples of the master peak. In fact, every peak is the same, I do not see any acts of rebellion here”
Gu Qing Shan slowly spoke: “If it was a competition among disciples of the master peak, this should have been conducted by my Master. Since Master wasn’t here and I had the sect master jade disk, as well as the status of Eldest Disciple of the sect, according to the 9th, 15th and 31st rules of the sect, this should have been decided, prepared, and conducted by myself. It had nothing to do with any of you, and what right do you have to do this on the master peak? If I remember correctly, acting on behalf of the sect master without having the sect master jade disk can only result in being executed”
The Ancient Dawn peak master forcefully insisted: “We were worried that a young man like you wouldn’t be able to arrange it appropriately, making your junior brothers hold discontent towards the sect”
Gu Qing Shan responded: “I have already decided to give up competing for the quota, directly giving Huang Zhan and Shen Yang the quota to cultivate in the Divine Palace”
The peak masters were stunned.
He gave up on the chance to enter a Divine Palace.
He is only a teenager, how could he have given up such an opportunity?
Wouldn’t that mean all of our schemes were for naught?
Gu Qing Shan somberly continued: “Even after I have finished arranging this, you still insist on doing this and that on the master peak, planning to make the master peak’s disciples kill one another in front of everyone. Who gave you the nerve to do such a thing!?”
He raised his voice: “The sect master jade disk is right here. As masters of the peaks, you attempted to act on behalf of the sect master while he isn’t here without the permission to. Following the rules of our sect, you should be directly executed. Four Divine Beasts, please!”
The four Divine Beasts howled in response but stayed still in the sky.
They were carefully glancing at the Life God.
The Life God lightly shook his head towards them, trying to think of an excuse.
There were too many people watching this place, and they were currently at an important point in the war, even someone like him needed to come up with a reasonable excuse in order to save these people’s lives without damaging his own dignity.
At this point, Gu Qing Shan suddenly bowed deeply to the Life God.
He spoke with respect: “O’ benevolence creator, he who humanity worships, our peerless God, naturally, we always listen to you before all else, as your decrees are the truth of the world. If you feel that they are correct, then they are correct. Even when my Master is risking his life at the frontlines and is currently nowhere to be found, as long as you give the words, these people can, in fact, ignore the rules of our sect and enforce the authority of the sect master as they wish”
He opened his palm to show the sect master jade disk in front of everyone.
“O’ benevolent God, your words are absolute, but then we will be troubled”
“This isn’t easy at all… because what good will this sect master jade disk be? Humanity wouldn’t need the existence of a sect, we can simply struggle for power among ourselves. There would be no benefit to going to the frontlines when there are people waiting to constantly backstab you to the point that you can’t even protect your own disciple”
Saying so, Gu Qing Shan tossed the sect master jade disk in the air.
He slashed at it with his sword.
Everyone’s expressions changed.
The great cultivators of other sects, the sect masters, Divinities in the sky, including the Life God, as well as the peak masters were all completely stunned.
With this slash, if the jade disk really breaks, it will be a huge scandal across the entire world.
This would signify that Divinities can and will interfere with humanity’s sects, causing every sect to be plunged into chaos that came from within.
Because Divinities will get the final say in every internal human matter.
The meaning of having sects would be lost.
The frontlines will be thoroughly divided.
And then, most importantly, Xie Gu Hong was connected to the sect master jade disk through his soul vessel, so if he was still alive, he would be able to sense that the jade disk had been broken.
Regardless of what he was doing, as long as he was still alive, he would hurry to return.
At this moment, countless people want to stop Gu Qing Shan, but at the same time, countless people don’t want to stop him.
No one knows for sure whether or not Xie Gu Hong was dead.
If Xie Gu Hong really was dead, this action of his disciple would be considered disrespecting the sect master jade disk, by which he can easily be branded and punished.
If Xie Gu Hong wasn’t dead.
Then it would be a lot more interesting.
As the Barren Cloud Palace Master, famous as the best sword cultivator in the world, Xie Gu Hong’s relationship with these peak masters who insulted his disciple would inevitably become irreconcilable until death.
The number one sect in the world, Barren Cloud Heavenly Palace will be caught in internal discord.
Causing it to quickly decline and fall to ruin.
Ruined by the intervening hands of a Divinity.
Time seemed to freeze in this very moment as countless thoughts went through everyone’s minds.
Until finally, when Gu Qing Shan’s sword was about to touch the jade disk.
No-one stopped him.
When it was only a hair’s width away from the jade disk, Gu Qing Shan’s sword suddenly stopped.
Because he felt inner sight coming from inside the jade disk.
The true owner of the jade disk was Xie Gu Hong.
So this inner sight must also belong to Xie Gu Hong.
His voice came from inside the jade disk: “Qing Shan, I’ve finished what I needed to do and will soon return to the sect. How has your cultivation been recently? Have you been teaching your junior brothers properly?”
While Gu Qing Shan’s facial expression remained unchanged, he was smiling ear to ear in his mind.
What wonderful timing Master has, being able to coordinate so perfectly at this exact moment.
The current situation is even better than if I had broken the jade disk.
Gu Qing Shan then clasped his fist to the jade disk: “Yes Master, everything is going swimmingly, the two junior brothers are also very diligent with their cultivation, but there are a lot of matters in the sect that will need you to take care of”
“Very well, I’ve eliminated the monster. I’ll soon make my return to the sect” Xie Gu Hong spoke.
The voice disappeared from the jade disk.
It then fell back into Gu Qing Shan’s hands.
Everyone was discussing among themselves.
Xie Gu Hong said he had eliminated the monster.
What exactly has he been doing?
“That’s not possible” the Ancient Dawn peak master muttered at a loss, “he should’ve already fallen in the Desolate World, how did he…”
At this point, something else happened.
Countless streaks of flames were flying through the air, landing in the hands of the great cultivators of each sect.
Communication talismans.
A large number of communication talismans.
Following the talismans was a streak of light that stopped in the sky above the sect.
It was an armored cultivator.
He first bowed towards the Life God before excitedly declaring to everyone: “We achieved a great victory in the frontlines! The Ruler of Seven Swords, Xie Gu Hong infiltrated the Desolate World with a group of elite troops and successfully assassinated the Desolate Saintly Demon King! Seizing the chance when the Desolate world was in chaos, our troops launched an all-out attack and managed to kill countless enemies!”
The sound of discussions became louder.
Everyone appeared incredibly glad.
This was the first and greatest victory for humanity for the last several years.
After this campaign, humanity would once again regroup with renewed morale, obtaining a long period of strategic reorganization.
Gu Qing Shan’s grin was as bright as can be.
It was natural for Xie Gu Hong to be OK.
Countless years later, he will even spar against a Divinity and win by half an exchange.
Because of that, he knew very well that as long as he doesn’t blow this matter too much out of proportions, there was no way he would be killed.
Even if the other party was a Divinity.
During a public situation like this, without appropriate reasons, even a Divinity wouldn’t be able to do anything to him.
While Xie Gu Hong was risking his life at the frontlines, there were people in the back scheming against him, pushing his disciples into a dangerous situation where they might be forced to kill one another.
And then those people were saved from any repercussions by the Divinities.
If something like that really did happen, who’s going to be willing to go to the frontlines?
Who’s going to risk their lives for the sake of Divinities anymore?
Who’s going to use their own bodies to pile on and kill the Desolate monster?
The peak masters’ faces were now ghastly pale, unable to say even a single word.
Gu Qing Shan thought briefly before clasping his fist and bowed at the peak masters.
“I’m very sorry, as the Eldest Disciple of the sect, I was too emotional”
“I was indeed in the wrong today”
Under everyone’s scrutinizing stares, he appeared embarrassed.
“As a disciple, I really shouldn’t have acted that way towards the peak masters or become so emotional, regardless of what happened”
“So it would be best to wait for Master to return and take your lives himself, that would only be fitting with the rules”
Gu Qing Shan very sincerely said.
