1822

1824 The Death God’s beckoning

The water tides drifted like a gust of wind around a single sword.

The sword circled rapidly around Gu Qing Shan several times before it stopped in front of him and hovered motionlessly.

——it seemed to be cautiously evaluating something.

Gu Qing Shan asked with surprise: “Ah? Did you get thinner?”

The sword froze.

Gu Qing Shan reached his hand out to gently stroke the sword.

The shaft of the sword was thin with a dim color, constantly radiating a sharp sense of ‘will’.

The hilt of the sword had the words [Chao Yin] engraved onto it in an ancient language, which emanated a faint sense of ferocity.

Gu Qing Shan grasped the sword tightly and casually swung it.

[Water Severance], [Full Moon Slash], [Drawn Shadow], [Swallow Returns], [Torrent], [Despairing Rise], various Secret Arts were manifested from the sword one after another, but they all swiftly faded away without being released.

Oong———

The sword gave off an excited ring.

It’s him!

His appearance is no longer the same—–

But this kind of disguise is one of the most expert shameless skills in his repertoire!

Everyone else also appeared surprised.

From how the sword reacted, it seems to have already known this Death God.

Do they have history together?

As they were still pondering, the skull woman had already spoken: 『 I had no idea such a sword was hiding within the Forgetting River at all 』

Gu Qing Shan smiled and replied: “I thank your grace for bestowing me this sword, I will remember this favor”

——the skull woman never guaranteed that she would agree to bestowing him the sword.

This meant that Gu Qing Shan was willingly owing her a favor to take this sword before anything happened.

The only thing now was to see if the skull woman would accept it or not.

Was a favor from the Death God important, or was a random sword more important?

The skull woman pondered briefly and clapped her hands before speaking: 『 This sword was hiding in a deep pond within the Forgetting River, so most likely it wanted to absorb the cold nether aura of the river; I can see that it is at the cusp of its breakthrough——- if you feel comfortable, hand me that sword and I will help it complete its breakthrough 』

“Thank you, High Deity” Gu Qing Shan replied.

Without any worry, he tapped the Chao Yin sword and gave it some advice: “Go, this is your opportunity, do not waste the High Deity’s goodwill”

Chao Yin gave off a ring in response and flew out, landing in front of the skull woman.

The skull woman reached out a boney hand to grab the sword’s blade as she mumbled something under her breath.

Some supernatural phenomena began to manifest——–

Layers upon layers of watery light silently appeared around the tower pagoda before they were absorbed into the Chao Yin sword.

Various mystical runes started to manifest from the void of space, flickering in and out of their visions as they gradually formed a long chain of runes.

The dual-blade man hesitantly said: 「 This is—–」

The hall master of the Hall of Reincarnation praised: 『 These are incantation runes manifested from the essence of Huang Quan, they are exceptionally rare, this is also the first time I saw them with my own eyes 』

The dual-blade man said with admiration: 「 How do you know so much? 」

『 Kill less and read more, you’ll know just as much 』the Hall of Reincarnation Master replied.

The dual-blade man turned his head away.

The skull woman suddenly stopped her chanting.

『 For you! 』

She then tossed the sword back to Gu Qing Shan.

As Gu Qing Shan caught the sword, several lines of bloody red text appeared in front of his vision:

[Ancient sword, Chao Yin]

[This sword is in the final stages of its evolution and will soon reawaken]

Gu Qing Shan skimmed through the text and felt relaxed.

This makes sense when I think about it.

Back when I first met Chao Yin, it was in an underground cavern in the Shen Wu world.

At the time, it was trapped in a dried-up pond of spirit water, barely breathing its last breaths.

——-and I saved it by giving it a spirit spring.

It could already be seen back then that it had affinity with water.

Not to mention the water of the Forgetting River that contains one of Huang Quan’s primary Laws, considering its boundless powers, it would naturally be willing to remain here as long as possible to strengthen itself and evolve.

And now, with the High Deity’s aid, it has finally completed its evolution and is about to awaken.

It seems I really do owe her a great favor this time.

Gu Qing Shan then clasped his fist towards the skull woman: “I won’t say any excessive words, I will definitely repay this favor one day”

——-these words carried a lot of weight as they came directly out of his mouth.

The skull woman nodded and asked: 『 If you have anything else you don’t understand, we can get things straight and begin the preparations for war immediately 』

Gu Qing Shan said: “Although I don’t know much about the Samsara, I’m not an idiot, so I was still able to learn of some common knowledge after I entered Huang Quan——- I heard that the Heaven realm rules over all with the Heavenly Emperor as its master——- whether it’s the previous Heavenly Emperor or the current Heavenly Emperor, are they the ones who orchestrated all of this?”

The skull woman shook her head.

『 The Heavenly Emperor isn’t capable of something to this caliber. In truth, I also want to know the answer to this, but we’re currently bearing the full brunt of attacks from the monsters in this Boundless Void, I can’t afford any free hands to investigate the matters of the Human realm 』the skull woman explained.

“Are they really that powerful?” Gu Qing Shan asked in confusion.

The tower pagoda suddenly descended into silence.

Everyone had an indescribable expression on their faces.

「 The situation can only be described as eerie… you’ll know after you head into the battlefield a few times… 」the dual-blade man begrudgingly complained.

A certain thought flashed through Gu Qing Shan’s mind: “Numerous entities within the Boundless Void covet our Samsara, do the monsters of this Boundless Void also want the same?”

『 You are correct to first attempt to decipher their goals, but I must tell you that they want nothing more than to thoroughly destroy the Samsara 』the Hall of Reincarnation Master replied.

This time, Gu Qing Shan was truly surprised.

Up to this point, he had only ever heard about how each and every entity coveted the Samsara.

And yet the entities of this Boundless Void only wanted to thoroughly destroy it.

A line of bloody red text suddenly appeared in front of his eyes:

[The other party are not Apocalypses]

“They want to destroy even though they aren’t Apocalypses?” Gu Qing Shan silently asked.

[Apocalypses will return all to Primal Chaos and have them succumb to eternal destruction, but the entities of this Boundless Void have their own agendas] the Sequence replied.

Gu Qing Shan glanced over everyone’s faces.

As they said, when it comes to the Samsara, there are simply too many secrets.

It’s fine even if I don’t know them, I just need to keep fighting and winning.

Fei Yue suddenly chimed up: “Death God, the reason why Huang Quan has been losing so terribly in the war was that recruitment couldn’t keep up with the loss of troops; ever since you arrived and invented the method to return to Hell, we’ve managed to gain some breathing room…”

Hearing the implications in her words, Gu Qing Shan slowly stood up and said: “Everyone can be at ease, I will now immediately release all Professionists within the River of Death to participate in this war”

Everyone appeared glad.

The Twin Rivers of Life and Death used to be a complete world system.

After a few billion years, the number of Professionists that are slumbering within the River of Death had become uncountable.

If all the slumbering beings within the River of Death were to be awakened at once——

Huang Quan’s temporary peace would be guaranteed!

Everyone would also not have to work so hard to maintain the frontlines.

Gu Qing Shan read their expressions and suddenly had a sense of epiphany.

So that’s why.

The reason for my privileged treatment as soon as I joined, as well as how the High Deity personally helped me forge my weapon, it was all simply because I joined at such an opportune moment.

『 Death God, do you require any support? 』the skull woman asked.

“I won’t need support, but awakening all the dead beings will be a grand undertaking, so I hope that I won’t be disturbed” Gu Qing Shan replied.

The skull woman rubbed her chin: 『 This will be the number one priority for all of us. Virtuous Deities, you shall be stationed around the vicinity of Hell to guard the Death God; Death God, the two Partial Deities Soul Reaper and Life Seizer1 will accompany you in awakening the dead 』

Everyone stood up and clasped their fists: 「 『 “Understood” 』」

…

Standing in midair, Gu Qing Shan was gazing down the River of Death.

Xiao Lang and Liu Li were standing respectively to his right and left.

Xiao Lang said: “Those Virtuous Deities earlier were so polite——- I’ve never seen them show such attitude to anyone other than the High Deity”

Liu Li proudly replied: “Of course, our Death God is about to turn the entire tide of war by himself, which is the same as saving their lives. Isn’t that more than enough to make them act politely?”

“Hmph hmph! From now on, we of the 18 Hells will have our own Virtuous Deity as well” Xiao Lang was grinning ear to ear.

Liu Li’s eyes displayed a look of admiration: “Just in time as well, our Soul Reaper and Life Seizer positions have been promoted to Partial Deity, while the Death God is a Virtuous Deity; since the three most basic Deific Authorities of Hell have been established, Hell will gradually become more and more prosperous!”

Gu Qing Shan felt a bit helpless, but also a bit glad.

With how these two girls were pouring their hearts out without reserve, it was clear that they already considered him as family.

“The more renowned one becomes, the more careful one must be” Gu Qing Shan advised them.

The two girls both vocalized in response, clearly taking his advice to heart.

Gu Qing Shan silently chanted an incantation.

Boundless black flames began to radiate from his body before condensing in the air to form the shape of a giant black dragon.

Xiao Lang curiously asked: “Is your true form a dragon?”

“Yeah” Gu Qing Shan replied.

It couldn’t be helped, the Death God must display their true form when performing the [Awaken Dead] spell, so his Demon Dragon form was seen by the two girls.

Xiao Lang silently examined his form and muttered: “It feels like it’s not just a dragon­—–”

“Shh, that’s a secret, can the two of you help me keep that secret?” Gu Qing Shan whispered.

The two girls both nodded.

—–in truth, it was fine for a secret of this level to be revealed, but Gu Qing Shan was instinctively obscuring his information to as many people as possible.

“We’re starting!”

Gu Qing Shan grunted and vanished.

In the sky, the black dragon manifested from black flames was instantly awoken.

It flew down and hovered over the River of Death.

「 Awaken… the Death God orders you… 」

The black dragon chanted the incantation in a harrowing low voice.

The River of Death ceased flowing at once, causing the entire vast body of water to become deathly still.

“Look!” Xiao Lang exclaimed under her breath.

A gloomy cluster of light began to illuminate at the depths of the dark river.

More and more gloomy clusters of light appeared one by one, making the River of Death appear almost like a river of stars that was illuminated by countless sprites of light.

However, unlike a river of stars, these gloomy clusters of light gave off a sense of cold chill.

Liu Li scanned through the entire area with her eyes, unable to help herself muttering: “What is that…?”

“They are eyes… They’ve all been awoken…”

Xiao Lang muttered with awe in her voice.

From within the River of Death, powerful presences began to emerge one by one.

Seven men with crowns on their heads were now hovering above the water.

They were the seven strongest beings within the River of Death, each ruling over a kingdom of powerful beings. They stood at equal positions, each ruling over a portion of the River of Death as their own.

The black dragon cladded in black flames slowly descended and looked at the seven kings:

「 Death bestows upon you a place to slumber, in return, you shall lead your Kingdoms of Lull and fight 」

The seven kings looked up at the black dragon, then they all knelt down on one knee and bowed:

「 If such is your will, we shall follow it 」

1824 The Death God’s beckoning

The water tides drifted like a gust of wind around a single sword.

The sword circled rapidly around Gu Qing Shan several times before it stopped in front of him and hovered motionlessly.

——it seemed to be cautiously evaluating something.

Gu Qing Shan asked with surprise: “Ah? Did you get thinner?”

The sword froze.

Gu Qing Shan reached his hand out to gently stroke the sword.

The shaft of the sword was thin with a dim color, constantly radiating a sharp sense of ‘will’.

The hilt of the sword had the words [Chao Yin] engraved onto it in an ancient language, which emanated a faint sense of ferocity.

Gu Qing Shan grasped the sword tightly and casually swung it.

[Water Severance], [Full Moon Slash], [Drawn Shadow], [Swallow Returns], [Torrent], [Despairing Rise], various Secret Arts were manifested from the sword one after another, but they all swiftly faded away without being released.

Oong———

The sword gave off an excited ring.

It’s him!

His appearance is no longer the same—–

But this kind of disguise is one of the most expert shameless skills in his repertoire!

Everyone else also appeared surprised.

From how the sword reacted, it seems to have already known this Death God.

Do they have history together?

As they were still pondering, the skull woman had already spoken: 『 I had no idea such a sword was hiding within the Forgetting River at all 』

Gu Qing Shan smiled and replied: “I thank your grace for bestowing me this sword, I will remember this favor”

——the skull woman never guaranteed that she would agree to bestowing him the sword.

This meant that Gu Qing Shan was willingly owing her a favor to take this sword before anything happened.

The only thing now was to see if the skull woman would accept it or not.

Was a favor from the Death God important, or was a random sword more important?

The skull woman pondered briefly and clapped her hands before speaking: 『 This sword was hiding in a deep pond within the Forgetting River, so most likely it wanted to absorb the cold nether aura of the river; I can see that it is at the cusp of its breakthrough——- if you feel comfortable, hand me that sword and I will help it complete its breakthrough 』

“Thank you, High Deity” Gu Qing Shan replied.

Without any worry, he tapped the Chao Yin sword and gave it some advice: “Go, this is your opportunity, do not waste the High Deity’s goodwill”

Chao Yin gave off a ring in response and flew out, landing in front of the skull woman.

The skull woman reached out a boney hand to grab the sword’s blade as she mumbled something under her breath.

Some supernatural phenomena began to manifest——–

Layers upon layers of watery light silently appeared around the tower pagoda before they were absorbed into the Chao Yin sword.

Various mystical runes started to manifest from the void of space, flickering in and out of their visions as they gradually formed a long chain of runes.

The dual-blade man hesitantly said: 「 This is—–」

The hall master of the Hall of Reincarnation praised: 『 These are incantation runes manifested from the essence of Huang Quan, they are exceptionally rare, this is also the first time I saw them with my own eyes 』

The dual-blade man said with admiration: 「 How do you know so much? 」

『 Kill less and read more, you’ll know just as much 』the Hall of Reincarnation Master replied.

The dual-blade man turned his head away.

The skull woman suddenly stopped her chanting.

『 For you! 』

She then tossed the sword back to Gu Qing Shan.

As Gu Qing Shan caught the sword, several lines of bloody red text appeared in front of his vision:

[Ancient sword, Chao Yin]

[This sword is in the final stages of its evolution and will soon reawaken]

Gu Qing Shan skimmed through the text and felt relaxed.

This makes sense when I think about it.

Back when I first met Chao Yin, it was in an underground cavern in the Shen Wu world.

At the time, it was trapped in a dried-up pond of spirit water, barely breathing its last breaths.

——-and I saved it by giving it a spirit spring.

It could already be seen back then that it had affinity with water.

Not to mention the water of the Forgetting River that contains one of Huang Quan’s primary Laws, considering its boundless powers, it would naturally be willing to remain here as long as possible to strengthen itself and evolve.

And now, with the High Deity’s aid, it has finally completed its evolution and is about to awaken.

It seems I really do owe her a great favor this time.

Gu Qing Shan then clasped his fist towards the skull woman: “I won’t say any excessive words, I will definitely repay this favor one day”

——-these words carried a lot of weight as they came directly out of his mouth.

The skull woman nodded and asked: 『 If you have anything else you don’t understand, we can get things straight and begin the preparations for war immediately 』

Gu Qing Shan said: “Although I don’t know much about the Samsara, I’m not an idiot, so I was still able to learn of some common knowledge after I entered Huang Quan——- I heard that the Heaven realm rules over all with the Heavenly Emperor as its master——- whether it’s the previous Heavenly Emperor or the current Heavenly Emperor, are they the ones who orchestrated all of this?”

The skull woman shook her head.

『 The Heavenly Emperor isn’t capable of something to this caliber. In truth, I also want to know the answer to this, but we’re currently bearing the full brunt of attacks from the monsters in this Boundless Void, I can’t afford any free hands to investigate the matters of the Human realm 』the skull woman explained.

“Are they really that powerful?” Gu Qing Shan asked in confusion.

The tower pagoda suddenly descended into silence.

Everyone had an indescribable expression on their faces.

「 The situation can only be described as eerie… you’ll know after you head into the battlefield a few times… 」the dual-blade man begrudgingly complained.

A certain thought flashed through Gu Qing Shan’s mind: “Numerous entities within the Boundless Void covet our Samsara, do the monsters of this Boundless Void also want the same?”

『 You are correct to first attempt to decipher their goals, but I must tell you that they want nothing more than to thoroughly destroy the Samsara 』the Hall of Reincarnation Master replied.

This time, Gu Qing Shan was truly surprised.

Up to this point, he had only ever heard about how each and every entity coveted the Samsara.

And yet the entities of this Boundless Void only wanted to thoroughly destroy it.

A line of bloody red text suddenly appeared in front of his eyes:

[The other party are not Apocalypses]

“They want to destroy even though they aren’t Apocalypses?” Gu Qing Shan silently asked.

[Apocalypses will return all to Primal Chaos and have them succumb to eternal destruction, but the entities of this Boundless Void have their own agendas] the Sequence replied.

Gu Qing Shan glanced over everyone’s faces.

As they said, when it comes to the Samsara, there are simply too many secrets.

It’s fine even if I don’t know them, I just need to keep fighting and winning.

Fei Yue suddenly chimed up: “Death God, the reason why Huang Quan has been losing so terribly in the war was that recruitment couldn’t keep up with the loss of troops; ever since you arrived and invented the method to return to Hell, we’ve managed to gain some breathing room…”

Hearing the implications in her words, Gu Qing Shan slowly stood up and said: “Everyone can be at ease, I will now immediately release all Professionists within the River of Death to participate in this war”

Everyone appeared glad.

The Twin Rivers of Life and Death used to be a complete world system.

After a few billion years, the number of Professionists that are slumbering within the River of Death had become uncountable.

If all the slumbering beings within the River of Death were to be awakened at once——

Huang Quan’s temporary peace would be guaranteed!

Everyone would also not have to work so hard to maintain the frontlines.

Gu Qing Shan read their expressions and suddenly had a sense of epiphany.

So that’s why.

The reason for my privileged treatment as soon as I joined, as well as how the High Deity personally helped me forge my weapon, it was all simply because I joined at such an opportune moment.

『 Death God, do you require any support? 』the skull woman asked.

“I won’t need support, but awakening all the dead beings will be a grand undertaking, so I hope that I won’t be disturbed” Gu Qing Shan replied.

The skull woman rubbed her chin: 『 This will be the number one priority for all of us. Virtuous Deities, you shall be stationed around the vicinity of Hell to guard the Death God; Death God, the two Partial Deities Soul Reaper and Life Seizer1 will accompany you in awakening the dead 』

Everyone stood up and clasped their fists: 「 『 “Understood” 』」

…

Standing in midair, Gu Qing Shan was gazing down the River of Death.

Xiao Lang and Liu Li were standing respectively to his right and left.

Xiao Lang said: “Those Virtuous Deities earlier were so polite——- I’ve never seen them show such attitude to anyone other than the High Deity”

Liu Li proudly replied: “Of course, our Death God is about to turn the entire tide of war by himself, which is the same as saving their lives. Isn’t that more than enough to make them act politely?”

“Hmph hmph! From now on, we of the 18 Hells will have our own Virtuous Deity as well” Xiao Lang was grinning ear to ear.

Liu Li’s eyes displayed a look of admiration: “Just in time as well, our Soul Reaper and Life Seizer positions have been promoted to Partial Deity, while the Death God is a Virtuous Deity; since the three most basic Deific Authorities of Hell have been established, Hell will gradually become more and more prosperous!”

Gu Qing Shan felt a bit helpless, but also a bit glad.

With how these two girls were pouring their hearts out without reserve, it was clear that they already considered him as family.

“The more renowned one becomes, the more careful one must be” Gu Qing Shan advised them.

The two girls both vocalized in response, clearly taking his advice to heart.

Gu Qing Shan silently chanted an incantation.

Boundless black flames began to radiate from his body before condensing in the air to form the shape of a giant black dragon.

Xiao Lang curiously asked: “Is your true form a dragon?”

“Yeah” Gu Qing Shan replied.

It couldn’t be helped, the Death God must display their true form when performing the [Awaken Dead] spell, so his Demon Dragon form was seen by the two girls.

Xiao Lang silently examined his form and muttered: “It feels like it’s not just a dragon­—–”

“Shh, that’s a secret, can the two of you help me keep that secret?” Gu Qing Shan whispered.

The two girls both nodded.

—–in truth, it was fine for a secret of this level to be revealed, but Gu Qing Shan was instinctively obscuring his information to as many people as possible.

“We’re starting!”

Gu Qing Shan grunted and vanished.

In the sky, the black dragon manifested from black flames was instantly awoken.

It flew down and hovered over the River of Death.

「 Awaken… the Death God orders you… 」

The black dragon chanted the incantation in a harrowing low voice.

The River of Death ceased flowing at once, causing the entire vast body of water to become deathly still.

“Look!” Xiao Lang exclaimed under her breath.

A gloomy cluster of light began to illuminate at the depths of the dark river.

More and more gloomy clusters of light appeared one by one, making the River of Death appear almost like a river of stars that was illuminated by countless sprites of light.

However, unlike a river of stars, these gloomy clusters of light gave off a sense of cold chill.

Liu Li scanned through the entire area with her eyes, unable to help herself muttering: “What is that…?”

“They are eyes… They’ve all been awoken…”

Xiao Lang muttered with awe in her voice.

From within the River of Death, powerful presences began to emerge one by one.

Seven men with crowns on their heads were now hovering above the water.

They were the seven strongest beings within the River of Death, each ruling over a kingdom of powerful beings. They stood at equal positions, each ruling over a portion of the River of Death as their own.

The black dragon cladded in black flames slowly descended and looked at the seven kings:

「 Death bestows upon you a place to slumber, in return, you shall lead your Kingdoms of Lull and fight 」

The seven kings looked up at the black dragon, then they all knelt down on one knee and bowed:

「 If such is your will, we shall follow it 」