Chapter 384: Who exactly are you, sir?

Gu Qing Shan hovered above the river for a long while.

It was only after the Demon Lord’s body floated downstream out of sight that he finally pulled his gaze back.

It was completely silent around here, nothing but the sound of wind and water currents.

Gu Qing Shan extended his gaze far.

The Forgetting River was so vast that the water surface occasionally let out mist, and his eyes were unable to see the edge of the river.

There was nothing but water within his vision all the way until the horizon.

Gu Qing Shan silently felt it strange.

According to legends, this great river of Huang Quan should be full of dead people.

All dead people will follow this river to either enter hell or reincarnation.

And there should be a ferry person on this Forgetting River.

Of course, in the cultivation world, that’s the skeleton girl who is the ferrywoman.

As for Reality, since those machines appeared, maybe it’ll be an actual ferry that comes.

Gu Qing Shan waited for a while longer.

But nothing showed up.

How strange, this place is supposed to be where all dead creatures come, even if the path is blocked, there should at least be one or two Divinities or something similar here.

Why is Huang Quan so empty?

Gu Qing Shan couldn’t help but ask: “System, why is there nothing living here?”

[Ting]!

The System answered: [Because everything inside Huang Quan is dead]

Gu Qing Shan continued: “I know that. What I mean is that why aren’t there any guards or managers of Huang Quan here?”

[The System also doesn’t know what happened in Huang Quan, please go ahead and investigate the world of Huang Quan by yourself]

Gu Qing Shan gave up on asking.

Then I should probably move quickly.

Suddenly, a few lines of glowing text scrolled past the War God UI.

[Attention]

[You’ve killed a Remodeled Demon Lord, something unprecedented within the 6 worlds]

[This historic moment was made known to many struggling worlds from their own specific methods]

[Since the Forgetting River is what killed the Demon Lord, you cannot gain any Soul Points from it]

[You’ve triggered the corresponding War God title Quest]

[Please keep trying your best and kill another Demon Lord to receive the corresponding title]

Reading that, Gu Qing Shan shook his head.

This was similar to how he received the title [Assassin].

War God titles are good, but what isn’t good is that the System refuses to even tell him the name of those titles before hand.

When Gu Qing Shan tried asking, the System doesn’t even respond.

At this time, another line of glowing text appeared on the War God UI.

[Your actions have garnered the attention of certain creatures in Huang Quan]

[Please treat this attention seriously, as it will determine your treatment in Huang Quan]

Just as he finished, Gu Qing Shan felt something and so he looked up.

A glowing number counter appeared on top of his head.

[0000]

Gu Qing Shan was surprised: “What is this?”

A voice replied: [Hello, I’m sorry to bother you, but as you entered Huang Quan, you have to be registered into my statistic databank]

“Who are you?”

[I am the Merit Accountant Machine, every dead person that comes into Huang Quan will be locked on to me in order to easily tell how much their Merit is at all times]

[When their Merit is negative, dead people must continue to suffer in hell]

[When their Merit becomes 0 or positive, they can leave hell and enter the samsara to reincarnate]

Gu Qing Shan nodded and pointed above his head: “Then why am I 0000?”

[Because you are still alive, only when you die can I start counting your Merit, this is called Closed Coffin Conclusions]

“This is a bit too eye-catchy, can you not display it?” Gu Qing Shan said.

“Of course” the Merit Accountant Machine replied.

Instantly, the numbers on Gu Qing Shan head went away.

“Why didn’t you go to the human realm?” Gu Qing Shan asked.

The Merit Accountant Machine answered: “My display function only works in hell, why would I go to the human realm?”

Gu Qing Shan thought it was reasonable, then casually asked: “I want to ask you a few things”

[I’m sorry, I cannot say anything unrelated to Merits]

“It’s just a few questions”

It didn’t answer.

Gu Qing Shan tried asking a few times.

The Merit Accountant Machine stayed silent.

Gu Qing Shan begrudgingly gave up.

He looked around.

Let’s just go investigate to quickly find out the truth of what happened in Huang Quan.

Thinking that, Gu Qing Shan used the Chao Yin sword to split the water again.

Since there’s nothing above the water, let’s see what’s below.

He jumped down towards the bottom of the Forgetting River.

The water flow avoided him but was still moving fast without stopping.

Occasionally, there were some strange things being washed away in the river.

Gu Qing Shan reached the bottom.

Beneath his feet was a hard grey-ish white rock material, Gu Qing Shan tried using the Earth sword to strike at it lightly.

A spark came out.

The rock material was unscathed.

The Earth sword with a striking force of 86,370,000 tons that could even fight against a Demon Lord, couldn’t leave a mark on the bottom of the Forgetting River.

「 Both the Forgetting River and this world’s rocks are the manifestation of Huang Quan’s Laws, so I can’t cut them 」the Earth sword explained with a rumbling voice.

“Hm, it’s fine, I was only curious” Gu Qing Shan said.

He sighed.

Finally I’m at Huang Quan.

He looked at the Soul Points that were quickly decreasing on the War God UI. Using [Even a sea of suffering shall pass] costs Soul Points as well.

Luckily, after the Chao Yin sword refined that drop of Forgetting River water, this cost became tiny, only ticking every once in a while.

So the 1000 Soul Points spent was worth it.

I also only have about 1000 Soul Points left.

Gu Qing Shan arbitrarily picked a direction and began to move.

He decided to walk across the river for a while, at least until he was far away enough from the dark tunnel before he gets out of the Forgetting River to check the situation.

Suddenly, a female voice came from behind him.

“Please wait”

Gu Qing Shan froze.

This voice wasn’t the Merit Accountant Machine from before.

He slowly turned around, but found nothing behind.

In the river, some inexplicable objects could occasionally be seen being washed away by the water current.

But Gu Qing Shan didn’t see anything around himself right now.

He has kept his inner sight up around himself ever since he entered the water.

Even now, his inner sight was still scanning a radius of a few hundred miles around himself.

Perhaps some strong cultivators would feel it too troublesome to keep up their inner sight and be cautious all the time, but Gu Qing Shan would definitely not make this amateur mistake.

His inner sight passed through three times.

But he still found nothing.

This made Gu Qing Shan cautious.

Gu Qing Shan clasped his fist and bowed, asking: “Perhaps we can meet in person to talk?”

“You are able to deal with a Demon Lord alone, so of course I would gladly meet you, but please wait a bit”

The tone of this female voice was quite cold, hiding a hint of caution and killing intent.

Gu Qing Shan precisely picked up on this killing intent.

He had a sudden thought.

“What numbered machine are you?” he asked.

“Ah? So you know about the machines of Huang Quan?” the female voice was surprised.

“Of course, I’ve met with the Prayers Trial Machine and the others”

“You mean you’re their customer?”

“No, I’m their ally”

“Is that so? But I can’t blindly trust you. Afterall, even a Demon Lord couldn’t catch you so there must be something special about you” the female voice was still cautious.

Gu Qing Shan calmed down.

This is probably one of the 88 machines.

So it can hide itself at the bottom of the Forgetting River, what a strange function to have.

Then a thought flashed through Gu Qing Shan’s mind.

Oh right, regardless of what happened in Huang Quan, if I can bring a particularly powerful machine back to the human realm, it might became part of the fighting force.

Thinking that, Gu Qing Shan seriously answered: “I really am your ally, I know that there are 88 of you, and this number is because there’s a superstitious Divinity that thought of this as a lucky number”

The female voice hesitantly replied: “You know that as well? Then, do you know what happened to that Divinity?”

Thinking back at the Prayers Trial Machine’s words, Gu Qing Shan replied: “He was the first to die”

“What else do you know?”

“The Prayers Trial Machine requires fresh blood to activate, ah, there’s a machine that likes to play pranks and practical jokes called the Anger Appeasing Machine, it’s also the Prayers Trial Machine’s husband”

The female voice calmed down, muttering: “You also know about the personal relationships between the machines, plus your soul is human, it seems you really aren’t an enemy”

The faint killing intent disappeared.

Rumble!

The ground shook.

Gu Qing Shan anxiously waited.

The hard grey-ish white rock split apart.

This rock material that the Earth sword couldn’t leave a scratch quickly formed a path.

A bubble of water-blue light covered in a chilling air slowly rose up from the ground.

The bubble split open to reveal an ancient palace maid.

She was wearing a blue neon dress, her figure slender with bright red lips and pale skin, her brows and eyes were sharp like a phoenix with a hint of indifference in your expression.

The blue-dress girl lightly bowed and asked: “Pardon me asking, but who exactly are you, sir?”