A communication talisman appeared in Gu Qing Shan’s hand.
He reported the entire situation in detail, infused the talisman with his spirit energy, and sent it out.
This is urgent, I must let Master know immediately! The communication talisman turned into a flame and flew away.
Not too long later.
A black dot appeared on the faraway sky.
In the blink of an eye, the black dot disappeared and Xie Gu Hong appeared in front of Gu Qing Shan.
Seven swords hovered behind his back and he was wearing a full-body armor covered in blood.
From the look of it, he seemed to have come here directly from the battlefield.
Xie Gu Hong looked at Gu Qing Shan with an emotional look in his eyes.
“Master, what I told you in the communication talisman was all true” Gu Qing Shan said.
“I know” Xie Gu Hong replied.
Seeing his calm demeanor, Gu Qing Shan suddenly asked: “So you already knew?” Xie Gu Hong nodded, turned around, and walked to the edge of the hill where it started to slant downwards.
Looking at the vast mountain range in front of himself, he sighed: “For the sake of our own survival, humanity worships Divinities and fights the invasion of the Desolate world at the frontlines. But despite going on for so long, the war still hasn’t ended or stopped even once, so we felt suspicious”
“Who would’ve thought, the intel that we paid such a great price to get was obtained so easily by you. Furthermore, you even found it out in greater details than we did”
Xie Gu Hong turned around, the look he had when looking at Gu Qing Shan was full of emotions and praise.
“Qing Shan, this place can’t exist any longer. You must listen carefully to what I’m about to tell you”
“Master?” Gu Qing Shan was a bit puzzled. Xie Gu Hong muttered: “We were able to notice part of the truth but we weren’t able to confirm whether or not it was the whole truth, so before the Age of old was completely destroyed, we made preparations for both situations”
Hearing that, Gu Qing Shan raised his eyebrows.
——-Xie Gu Hong said ‘before the Age of Old was destroyed’.
Does that mean he had already escaped from this era’s phantom image and saw the true ending of history?
When Gu Qing Shan wanted to ask, Xie Gu Hong raised one hand to stop him.
“There isn’t much time, we need to talk quickly”
At this point, far above this mountain, the sky itself split open as a voice echoed across the entire world.
Human cultivator Zhang Xiao Yun had betrayed the Gods and became a spy for the Desolate world, an irredeemable crime, all great cultivators are to find and eliminate this person, those who hear this must report immediately! ,
[This God will oversee this himself! ]
Hearing that, Xie Gu Hong pulled his gaze back and shook his head.
He continued: “Listen, Qing Shan, the situation has become very urgent, not only are the Divinities starting to look for you, even the Barren Cloud Heavenly Palace had been infiltrated by an unknown ‘something’ that wants to capture you, so you no longer have anywhere to go”.
When Gu Qing Shan wanted to say something, Xie Gu Hong once again stopped him.
The voice of Divinity in the sky once again echoed: T All high-ranking cultivators are to report immediately!
Numerous streaks of light could be seen flying towards the Divinity.
Xie Gu Hong ignored the Divinity’s summon and waved his hand to arrange a sound-proofing formation.
His tone was becoming more and more hurried: “In the final years of the Age of old, the only Immortal King of humanity had arranged a certain measure, through the combined efforts of we cultivators, we successfully managed to activate the space-time phantom image illusion right before the Primordial Heaven Realm was destroyed”
“As time passed, the phantom image illusion would split itself into countless versions to deceive both the Divinities and the Desolate monsters”
“While the Divinities and Desolate monsters might be able to notice their existence, these countless phantom images will make sure that they won’t know which is the real one, thus unable to find out what we actually did moments before our deaths”
“Qing Shan, you must travel through these countless phantom images through a certain secret order to arrive at the final destination”
Xie Gu Hong paused briefly as his expression turned absolutely serious.
“We concealed the final moments of the Age of Old inside the countless phantom images. That is where you must go”
“Once you reach that place, you will have travelled back in time to the actual missing time, the final moments before the destruction of humanity in the Age of old”
Gu Qing Shan couldn’t help asking: “What am I going there for?”
Xie Gu Hong silently glanced at him before answering: “The Heaven sword. It was fully forged at the very last moment before humanity perished, you must come and take it”
“Master—–“
“You have the true Earth sword on you, I can sense it”
Xie Gu Hong took out a jade disk from inside his chest and placed it in Gu Qing Shan’s hand.
Gu Qing Shan looked down.
The jade disk felt warm to the touch, apparently carrying immeasurable power.
Two words were carved on the outside of the jade disk: (Qian Nine[1]]
Xie Gu Hong continued: “Among the countless phantom images, only this jade disk can take you to the next unique phantom image, you must survive through that phantom image to receive the next jade tag, all the way until the final moment of the Age of Old and take the Heaven sword”
Holding the jade disk in hand, Gu Qing Shan didn’t know what to say.
Being surrounded by both Divinities and Desolate monsters, at the final moment before their destruction, humanity was still able to come up with this method, all to pass the hope on to the next era.
He gritted his teeth and held the jade disk tightly.
“Master, in the end, are you a phantom image or—–“
“I am a piece of remnant soul that was left behind before I died. Left to wait countless years for this very moment”
Xie Gu Hong’s figure slowly turned transparent.
“I will destroy this phantom image and erase all the traces of your existence to make sure that nothing notices you”
He finally smiled: “To be able to take in a disciple such as yourself truly does put my mind at ease. I hope that you will be able to accomplish what our generation couldn’t”
Cra-rik——
Xie Gu Hong’s figure shattered into countless pieces and turned into a cloud of fog.
The entire world turned into an obscure image before slowly fading away. The jade disk in Gu Qing Shan’s hand suddenly began to glow.
It was constantly blinking as if calling out to something.
The disciple jade disk Gu Qing Shan received from the Spirit Tortoise inside his chest suddenly jumped out and overlapped itself with the one Xie Gu Hong gave him. As the two jade disks completely overlapped, a 7-colored light erupted from them and enveloped Gu Qing Shan. Choosing a direction, the jade disk quickly carried Gu Qing Shan through the fog and out of sight.
Let’s rewind time a bit.
On another side.
The Barren Cloud master peak.
A cultivator silently appeared from the ground below.
He went through all the defensive formations without a sound and infiltrated the master peak. No one noticed this at all.
After looking around for a bit, he found the mountain valley.
[ According to what was known, Gu Qing Shan should be secluding himself inside the Sword Abyss right now, cultivating…] he muttered.
Apparently sensing something off, this cultivator closed his eyes and carefully sensed his surroundings.
Everything was normal.
While he was a bit puzzled, he quickly made up his mind and moved towards the valley while shifting his appearance.
As he reached the entrance to the valley, he had returned to his original appearance.
——-a burning fire between his eyebrows and a body cloaked inside glorious light.
After a long journey he was finally here.
This Divinity reached his hand out and lightly tapped the void of space.
Bam!
The defensive formation surrounding the valley was instantly destroyed.
No one would be able to stop him from going down there and kill Gu Qing Shan now!
At this point, a figure flew up from the bottom of the valley, looking at him in surprise.
Gu Qing Shan.
Gu Qing Shan had appeared.
“Who are you? How did you get in here?” Gu Qing Shan questioned.
The Divinity looked at him and subconsciously smirked.
[ Gu Qing Shan, your everything ends right here, the future will no longer change because of you!
The Divinity solemnly declared.
He raised his hand.
Just as he was about to act, the entire world was suddenly plunged into chaos.
Gu Qing Shan’s body turned into white mist.
Following him, the entire world also turned into dense white mist and disappeared from in front of the Divinity as well.
——this entire Age of old phantom image had vanished!
The Divinity wasn’t panicked, only standing at the edge of the void and silently fell into thought.
Why did the world vanish at this point in time? Where did Gu Qing Shan go…]
While thinking that, a figure of light manifested in the void of space.
[ Who are you? , the Divinity shouted.
Sense my aura, do you recognize who I am now?, the figure of light spoke.
You are… the collective consciousness of our race , the Divinity muttered.
[ Correct, I’ve waited for countless years in this place for this very moment, the figure of light said.
What are you waiting for? , the Divinity asked.
For someone of our race to come——- during the very last moment of the Age of Old, humanity left behind countless era phantom images. We don’t know exactly what they did, but the omens they showed before their destruction have left us in a long period of unease]
After a brief moment of silence, the Divinity replied: T I know what they left behind ,
Then that is good j the figure of light tossed him a coin.
I Go, this Desolate coin is the real deal, it will help you sense where your target is. The only downside is that there is a certain deviation of position ]
The Divinity received the Desolate coin and carefully checked it.
Hm… this is indeed real, he muttered.
Putting the coin away, the Divinity once again smirked: [ Some deviation is fine, as long as I can reach him, he would not escape from death ]
Humanity’s past and future will both be squashed by my own hands! ]
[1] Qian – “” is one of the 8 lines of the 8-trigrams. You can read more about the 8-trigrams on wikipedia.
