Within the empty wilderness.
The figure was standing still in place, apparently waiting for something.
Time slowly passed.
One minute later.
A streak of light flew in from afar and stopped in the air.
It was a patrol cultivator who was sent here to check the situation by his sect.
This place was so desolate that if anything unnatural happened, it was hard to sense it from several thousand miles away.
Not to mention that the figure only appeared for a few moments before all the paranormal phenomena disappeared.
The nearby sect only managed to notice a very faint change, which was why they sent this cultivator here to check it out.
As the patrol cultivator stopped in the air, he shouted: “Who are you? What are you doing here?”
He held his treasure tool tightly, preparing to attack.
The fact that a single person was standing alone in the middle of nowhere was extremely strange by itself.
「 You asked who I am? 」
The figure asked him back and looked up.
The patrol cultivator’s expression warped.
He hurriedly landed and prostrated on the ground in front of the figure: “I did not know you were here, please forgive me for my insolence, o’ benevolent God”
There is no mistake, a flame of light in between his eyebrows and clad in glorious light that obscures his appearance—— this is definitely a Divinity.
I actually shouted at a Divinity, this is a huge crime!
Thinking that, the cultivator was trembling.
The figure carefully observed the cultivator’s trembling appearance for a while before speaking with a pleased tone: 「 Hm, your attitude pleases me, it perfectly reflects the lowly existence of living beings from the Age of Old. I have decided to forgive and grant you a blessing 」
The cultivator was stunned as he didn’t understand what the first half of what he said meant.
But he understood the second half without fail.
The Divinity wants to grant me a blessing!
What a huge opportunity this is.
The cultivator bowed, again and again, speaking joyfully: “Thank you, benevolent God, for your grace, I am forever grateful”
The figure reached his hand out and placed it on the cultivator’s forehead.
「 Your gratitude is true, I can sense it so 」
Saying that the figure began to transform.
He had turned into the cultivator.
An exact replica that was perfectly the same, not even the closest people of this cultivator would be able to tell the two of them apart.
Except for one minor difference, a burning flame of light in between the eyebrows of one of them.
Apparently the figure had also noticed this.
He waved his hand over his forehead and made the flame of light disappear.
It was now that he spoke up: 「 Because of your humility and how you’ve given your identity to me, I shall grant you the blessing of a painless death——– it is very rare for me to grant such a thing to living beings, this is your honor 」
The cultivator was stunned.
He couldn’t understand what was happening at all.
He couldn’t do anything either, as his body slowly lost its vitality and turned into a grey statue.
A gust of wind blew past the statue and swept it away as it crumbled to tiny grains of ash.
He no longer existed in this world.
No.
There was still another ‘him’ here.
He waved his hand.
The treasure tool and Inventory Bag on the ground flew into his hand.
He put the items away before closing his eyes and carefully checked the cultivator’s memories.
「 That didn’t take too long, Gu Qing Shan, Xie Gu Hong’s eldest disciple, caused a great commotion in the Barren Cloud Heavenly Palace and drew the attention of Divinity… Hm, this period of time was quite sensitive so many Divinities are paying close attention to that sect, how troublesome, I cannot meet them…」
「 It seems I have to think of some other way to enter the Barren Cloud Heavenly Palace 」
After a bit of thinking, the cultivator flew up and away.
…
On another side.
The camp of humanity’s 23rd reserve corps.
It was currently night.
Gu Qing Shan paced back and forth around the camp before arriving at the camp’s gate.
When the cultivator standing guard saw the badge on his hip, he smiled.
“And here I was wondering why today’s food was so good, turns out we have a new cook”
“You praise me too much” Gu Qing Shan smiled.
“Where are you going now?” the guard cultivator asked.
“I’m probably going to take a random stroll around here since I’m not used to this place yet” Gu Qing Shan replied.
Hearing that, the guard cultivator patiently told him: “Don’t go North, that’s the direction of the other camps, you can’t trespass without permission; the West is just a huge barren land, there isn’t anything there. But there was a marketplace in the Southeast that was managed by several sects, it should be quite lively there right now, you can try walking around there”
“Thank you for telling me” Gu Qing Shan clasped his fist.
“Hm, you can go”
The guard cultivator opened the formation and let Gu Qing Shan out of the camp.
He first started to fly in the Southeast direction, carefully confirmed that there wasn’t anyone around before he started to head West.
After half an hour of flight.
Gu Qing Shan had gone deep into the barren mountain.
He picked out a relatively empty place, landed, and quickly arranged several layers of formations.
After silently meditating for a bit, Gu Qing Shan confirmed that he had made all the necessary preparations.
He put the Ice Cicada Silver Mask away, circulated his spirit energy, and began to break through to the next realm.
As heaven and earth sensed the change on his body, it started to react accordingly.
An intense wind began to pick up.
Dark clouds filled the sky.
Arcs of lightning could be seen flashing inside the clouds above.
Lines of glowing text scrolled past the War God UI in front of Gu Qing Shan’s eyes.
[You are attempting to breakthrough Virtualized realm to enter Cryptic realm]
[Heaven’s Tribulation is about to begin, please prepare properly to breakthrough]
[5]
[4]
[3]
[2]
[1]
[Begin!]
Boom———
A flash of lightning descended.
Gu Qing Shan stood still in place and commanded with his mind.
Two flying swords appeared from the void of space, flew up to the sky, and attacked the flashes of lightning.
The Tribulation Lightning was thoroughly cut apart.
But then, more Tribulation Lightning appeared from the Tribulation Clouds and struck down at Gu Qing Shan.
Gu Qing Shan silently prepared a hand seal in his mind.
The two swords turned into blurred flying images that quickly rushed through the lightning storm at full speed.
Countless orbs of lightning were hit and exploded on the spot.
The flashes of lightning and flying swords continued to clash!
…
Time passed.
The Lightning Tribulation slowly came to an end.
Gu Qing Shan knew exactly what was going to happen next.
He sighed and rubbed his face, making sure to make himself appear as amiable and approachable as possible.
A second later.
『 Wahahaha, Devil King Gu, you’re facing another Tribulation, what terrifying cultivation speed 』 a Devil King appeared from the void of space.
『…Old Gu, when this King came here this time, the Tribulation is suppressing this King’s strength a lot less. Seems like you improved quite a bit 』a huge Fiend King was crouching as he walked out from the void of space.
Followed by a Devil King who was wearing a Daoist robe that was perfectly ironed so that not a crease could be seen, gesturing to Gu Qing Shan as soon as he came out.
『 Boss Gu, come come come, now that you’ve reached Cryptic realm, the Tribulation finally summoned the big names, let me introduce you 』
Gu Qing Shan spread his arms wide and smiled: “Old Bloody! Hahaha, welcome, welcome, brothers, I’ve already prepared a lot of food and booze for this occasion, let us enjoy ourselves”
『 That’s what I’m talking about! As soon as I felt the Tribulation’s summon, I immediately went to steal a seat and got here, that’s how much I respect you, Old Gu 』
『 Gather around and make a table for yourselves, let us have a feast today, it’s been a while since I went out 』
『 Ah? Where’s the female Devil King from last time? 』
『 Ahaha, you fancy her? She has quite the taste for fiends like you, you know? 』
『 Hah… I actually also like to eat her kind of devil, but that’s just when I was young, I just want to have a nice conversation now 』
A female voice came: 『 A nice conversation? Or some nice flirting? 』
A female Devil King casually appeared from the void of space and drifted over.
She landed next to Gu Qing Shan, blew softly into his ear and told the other fiends and devils: 『 This Devil King only have eyes for someone as fierce as Devil King Gu, the rest of you can forget it 』
The evil creatures all laughed.
Gu Qing Shan offered a cup of liquor to the female Devil King and smiled: “Come, let’s drink”
His face was actually cramming up.
A huge feast was about to begin.
…Make no mistakes, this is indeed a Heaven’s Tribulation…
