As soon as the scroll gathered enough power, a blinding light erupted from it that enveloped all of the remaining members of the bounty hunter squad.

With a thunderous boom that cracked open the earth—-

Like a speeding comet, the blinding light took off and headed faraway.

With a few flashes of light, they disappeared out of sight, completely couldn’t be seen anymore

They ran away.

“…” Gu Qing Shan.

“…” Little Xi.

They were fully prepared to take a desperate attack, but not for this.

“That’s quite an impressive speed, we probably won’t be able to catch up” Little Xi commented.

“Hm, they really are too fast to catch up” Gu Qing Shan agreed.

The grey giant didn’t lie at all.

——- with that impressive of a runaway technique, combined with those acting skills and shamelessness enough to put lawyers to shame, no wonder their bounty hunter squad managed to survive for 700 years without being destroyed.

While standing in the sky, Gu Qing Shan suddenly felt like something inside his mind was gradually passing.

New vitality rushed around his body, forming a mad tide of spirit energy unlike ever before.

Gu Qing Shan realized.

So my karmic adversity has already passed.

A group of several dozen bounty hunters who vastly overpowered me came specifically for my head, but were beaten black and blue thanks to Little Xi’s [Duo Image] and were forced to run away.

So I made it through my adversity.

“I need to settle down for a bit” Gu Qing Shan said.

Without even landing, he arranged several dozen formations in the sky, sat cross-legged, and began to manipulate the overflowing spirit energy in his body.

In just a few moments, he fell into deep meditation.

He broke through, gradually but irreversibly, his strength was growing.

This was a breakthrough that could be accomplished without needing to face a Lightning Tribulation.

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But his three karmic adversities weren’t any less dangerous than a Lightning Tribulation. In fact, if Gu Qing Shan had a choice, he would rather face a Lightning Tribulation rather than a karmic adversity.

And this only went so swimmingly because Gu Qing Shan’s personal merits were so great that he only needed to go through three karmic adversities.

Cultivators who frequently did evil things usually lost their lives during Tribulation realm—— because they had at least several hundreds of these karmic adversities to go through.

They could literally choke and die while drinking water.

Their lives were simply unimaginably miserable.

A minute later.

Gu Qing Shan opened his eyes.

I’ve finally reached Virtualized realm!

Lines of glowing text quickly scrolled past the War God UI.

[Your advancement is complete]

[You’ve successfully reached Virtualized realm]

[You are now a Virtualized realm cultivator]

[Due to your natural spirit sense being passively increased during Tribulation realm to be able to sense karmic adversities, your spirit sense has been overworked and will fall dormant for a short period of time, the duration of this dormant state differs from one individual to another]

[Special attention, breaking through Projection realm, Tribulation realm and Virtualized realm will not bring any opportunities to awaken a new Thaumaturgy. You can only awaken another Thaumaturgy after breaking through Cryptic realm]

After displaying the message, the glowing text faded away.

Gu Qing Shan wasn’t too concerned about his Thaumaturgy since he already knew about that when he broke through to Tribulation realm.

His spirit sense becoming dormant might prove to be a challenge.

Since cultivators had a habit of using their instinct to feel the connection between them and the outside world, he would have to get accustomed to suddenly losing spirit sense like this.

He looked around.

Little Xi appeared to be extremely sleepy, already bobbing her head back and forth, but was still forcing herself to maintain clarity and silently protect him.

“I’m done here” Gu Qing Shan said.

“Great, you’ve finally advanced” Little Xi yawned.

“Why are you so tired to this degree?” Gu Qing Shan asked.

“Because of [Duo Image]”

“[Duo Image]? But I don’t feel like I was affected at all”

“Of course you aren’t affected” Little Xi rubbed her tired eyes and explained: “Your level is so low that you couldn’t activate cards to fight, so during [Duo Image] battle mode, I had to bear all the expenditures for the usage of both of our cards by myself”

“I’m sorry, then tell me how to become stronger as an Envoy of Condemnation, I’ll do my best to get stronger and share the burden with you next time” Gu Qing Shan spoke apologetically.

Little Xi answered: “There are three ways to get stronger. The first is like what you’re doing and naturally advance; the second is to consume other cards; the third is to find any heritage of the Old Gods from the Age of Old and use them to increase the grade of your card”

Heritage of the Old Gods?

Gu Qing Shan suddenly recalled what happened not too long ago.

In Triste’s collection world, the [Demon King Order – Origin] schemed and plotted to its best abilities to obtain a heritage of the Old Gods, successfully evolving into [Revolution].

Who would’ve thought, one day I would be the same as an [Order] and need something like that to advance.

Little Xi continued: “Natural advancement is the slowest, consuming other cards is much faster—– but not every card will do, you need to find cards that have relative suitability to yourself in order for the consumption to work. As for the third way, using a heritage of the Old Gods from the Age of Old will be fastest, but those things usually are secrets wrapped within secrets, they aren’t something you’re going to find randomly”

“Bah, I said enough. I’m deathly exhausted, going to sleep for a while”

Little Xi left those words before turning back into a lapis-colored card and fell into Gu Qing Shan’s hands.

Inside the card, she had already changed into another cute pajama, snuggly laid on her bed sleeping.

Gu Qing Shan gently placed the card back into his jade box and put it inside his sleeves.

He looked at the War God UI.

Currently, a card has appeared in the middle of the UI.

It was a grey card, depicting him dual-wielding swords, hovering in the center.

[Grey card sword cultivator Gu Qing Shan]

[Grade: Grey card Lv0]

[Partner: Condemnation Angel – Xi]

[Residence deck: Fugitive Deck]

All the information suddenly disappeared.

A line of text appeared below the card.

[Your personal strength has increased, leveling up from lv0 to 1 star]

[You became a 1 star card]

[You received the grey-grade ability card: The Injury Deepens]

A grey card with grey background appeared on the UI.

At the center of the card, a Blade was depicted with a gleam that periodically appeared on its edge.

[Ability card: The Injury Deepens]

[When using this card, whenever you deal damage to your opponent, your opponent will receive an extra 3 points of damage]

[Note: This is a grey passive ability card when you equip this card in battle, its effect will persist until you cancel it]

[As a grey card, it is already trying its best]

Reading the effect, Gu Qing Shan couldn’t help but feel that his card was a lot weaker compared to Little Xi’s cards.

…it’s alright, I’m still low-leveled, having a card to use at all is already a good thing.

Gu Qing Shan silently consoled himself.