Chapter 766: A Sudden Encounter

The midnight wind was intense.

The lonely moon hung high above the sky; illuminating the ground below in a boundless cold light.

A young man was moving along a series of ruins all by himself.

——–these ruins weren’t part of a destroyed city, but rather was a floating island that had crashed and broken apart.

Besides Gu Qing Shan who had transformed into a young man, there wasn’t any living person left on this floating island.

He has been moving around the ruins for over half an hour already, but still hasn’t found the intel he wanted.

He needed to know which time period he was in.

Time was the most important factor in traveling through history, as knowing the time period also meant knowing the crucial events that happened around that period.

Gu Qing Shan had already gone through the escape of the Heavenly Palace, the years of cultivating under Xie Gu Hong, and the destruction of the Heaven realm. During his travels among the phantom images, he had already taken note of various points in history.

——–all of which were crucial turning points.

But despite looking for so long, he still couldn’t find anything that would tell him what this period of time in the Age of Old was.

At some point, Gu Qing Shan stopped.

He stood still and didn’t even dare to breathe.

His spirit sense was constantly telling him that the omens of death were already over him without any warning.

Gu Qing Shan still didn’t move.

He didn’t know where the attack would come from.

But that didn’t stop him from preparing.

——-his inner sight was already released and covered the area several hundred feet around himself, so he concentrated it on around a collapsed wall.

The collapsed wall replaced him where he previously stood.

[Shadow Shift]!

Almost at the very same time, a dull screech came out.

The wall was instantly struck by a blurred figure and crumbled into fine dust.

When Gu Qing Shan reappeared several hundred feet away, he observed the giant figure that tried to attack him with his inner sight.

A pair of faint, transparent wings, six legs attached to its long snake-like body.

Looking at its head alone, one would find that it had a pair of vertical irises and an appearance similar to that of a dragon——- but when one saw its six feet and its wings, one would realize that it was only similar.

One of these creature’s wings was already stuck on its back, unable to move anymore.

Something had already cut open a huge wound on the back of its head and almost severed it, its head was only barely clinging on to its neck.

Two cold flashes of light appeared.

The two swords struck directly into the monster’s deep wound at the back of its neck at the same time.

The monster’s head was still attached by a thin layer of skin that refused to be cut off.

But its life had reached the end.

The monster tried to crawl forward to escape, but after a few times, it went limp completely.

The two swords continued to slash the monster’s body, all the way until its head was completely severed from its body.

A few hundred feet away, Gu Qing Shan was holding his breath.

He was kneeling on one knee, unable to move for a while.

Red blood was flowing from the top of his head, soaking through his clothes.

Even as his swords returned, he remained unmoving.

It had been a very long time since Gu Qing Shan was met with such a situation.

No warning, no preparations, not even time to react.

This was a sudden battle of life and death that only lasted for a single split second.

Fortunately, the monster was already heavily wounded.

—–this was natural, even Desolate monsters wouldn’t be completely unharmed if they tried to completely destroy one of the bigger cultivation sects in the Primordial Heaven Realm.

That monster probably got wounded very badly and was afraid of being eaten by its fellow monsters that it silently hid itself all this time, until Gu Qing Shan got close enough.

Gu Qing Shan sighed.

He took out a formation plate and quickly arranged a defensive formation around himself while carefully observing his wounds with his inner sight.

His spirit energy had gathered at the wound and closed it up.

—–I’ve clearly avoided its attack, why did I still get wounded?

The blood seems to be flowing from the pores on my head.

Which means that wasn’t a physical attack.

Could it be that screech before it attacked?

When that monster screeched, I was briefly stunned for a short moment, unable to even trigger my Iris Sword.

If I remember correctly, the void of space above my head was also disturbed ever so slightly…

Gu Qing Shan felt cold sweat on his back.

He had just fully analyzed the monster’s attack.

In that split second, the monster used three types of attacks.

Firstly, it used a soul vessel attack to cause the target’s consciousness to briefly dull.

Secondly, an invisible spatial rending attack. Gu Qing Shan didn’t know what it used to trigger this attack, but it almost took his life.

Thirdly, a full-power physical attack. The wall was completely destroyed by the monster’s leap and was turned completely into fine dust.

In a single moment, three types of different attacks were unleashed at once.

—–fortunately, I managed to activate [Shadow Shift] to avoid its attacks.

With my swords, in its wounded state, the monster wasn’t able to win in a head-on battle.

Gu Qing Shan slowly stood up.

Following his thoughts, his flying swords attacked the entire area of 10 miles around the monster’s corpse with powerful sword phantoms.

No reaction.

At this point, Gu Qing Shan approached the monster’s corpse to carefully observe it.

This monster’s heavy wounds were shocking.

It was already dead, but various Elemental wounds still lingered on its body, as well as all sorts of bludgeoning, slashing, and piercing marks by various weapons.

It had obviously suffered countless attacks.

Gu Qing Shan put the monster’s corpse away, feeling a bit emotional.

As a cultivator, one needed to go through Qi Training, Foundation, Golden Core, Rejuvenation, Ascended, Sainted, Projection, Tribulation, Virtualized, Cryptic, Chaotic Star, Origin Aspect, Radiant Soul, and Void Beholder, a total of 17 realms.

At this point, Gu Qing Shan had reached the final step of what he knew and achieved Void Beholder realm.

A Void Beholder realm cultivator had the ability to break through the void of space to gaze upon the infinite worlds with a wave of their hand.

He had already reached where Xie Dao Ling stood before he left for the Strife Zones, only missing one final step to break out of the birdcage and becoming a true powerhouse of the 900 million World Layers.

But even so, when faced with a heavily wounded Desolate monster, he was just a split second away from being killed.

Anyone else at the same cultivation realm as he was would definitely die under the same circumstances.

——-if all the monsters that humanity had to face were like this, that is…

Gu Qing Shan shook his head.

Even the notification on the War God UI that said [Soul Points +300,000] didn’t make him feel any better.

——I need to keep breaking through!

Xie Gu Hong was able to infiltrate the Desolate world to kill a Desolate army leader, I have to also be able to do the same!

Gu Qing Shan silently swore to himself.

Half an hour later.

Another side of the ruins.

Gu Qing Shan still hasn’t been able to obtain any more clues.

He found a secluded spot, took out a pill, and slowly chewed it.

This wasn’t a pill with some sort of unique ability, it was just a Fasting Pill that Gu Qing Shan made himself.

This pill contained various nutrients necessary for a cultivator’s body to function, at the same time slightly stimulate clarity of the mind and spirit.

He was feeling a bit tired, and since he had no time or mood to cook, he could only use these pills for sustenance.

After he swallowed the Fasting Pill and rested for a bit, Gu Qing Shan had regained his strength.

He began to organize the intel he had obtained.

According to the tattered clothes of these corpses as well as the way the destroyed treasure tools were made, Gu Qing Shan had managed to determine which sect this floating island belonged to.

In the Age of Old, only the most powerful sects owned large-scaled floating islands like these.

These included the Barren Cloud Heavenly Palace, the Drifting Moon Immortal Sect, and the Brilliant Jade Steeple.

The Barren Cloud Heavenly Palace’s sect garment was completely black, Drifting Moon Immortal Sect only allowed Daoist grabs, while Brilliant Jade Steeple’s disciples liked to wear colorful clothing because the disciples of this sect were mostly female.

The only clothing that Gu Qing Shan managed to find within the bloody ruins were Daoist garbs.

This meant that this was clearly the floating island of the Drifting Moon Immortal Sect.

But the Drifting Moon Immortal Sect was destroyed twice in history.

The first time this happened was quite early on when the Divinities had only just made contact with humanity and helped them rebuild this sect destroyed by the Desolate monsters.

The second time was a few years after he joined the Barren Cloud Heavenly Palace.

At the time, the war situation was very intense, many great cultivators lost their lives during this period of time.

Because of how close the Drifting Moon Immortal Sect was to the frontlines, during one crucial campaign, their entire sect was destroyed by the Desolate monsters.

“Which time… is this exactly?”

Gu Qing Shan muttered to himself.

He only fell into thought briefly before taking out a formation plate and arranged consecutive concealment formations around himself.

He patiently waited.

If this was the first time, quite a few humans and Divinities would soon arrive at this place.

If this was the second time…

Gu Qing Shan sat cross-legged inside the formation with his eyes closed, cultivating while he waited.

As time slowly passed, one day went by.

He dispelled the formations, stood up, and sighed.

No one came to check the situation here, and no Divinities came with cultivators to help rebuild this sect.

This meant that the war was still ongoing, and at a very tense pace as well.

This can’t be the first destruction.

This must be the second time.

During the Drifting Moon Immortal Sect’s second destruction, no Divinity came to save this sect.

At the time, the entire frontlines had collapsed.

The most powerful cultivators had to gather, even Divinities were forced to act.

The Barren Cloud Palace Master, Xie Gu Hong had to halt all of his duties in the sect, even ignoring the two newly-inducted disciples and brought many of the sect’s forces to the frontlines.

At the time, Xie Gu Hong entrusted his two disciples to Gu Qing Shan and had Gu Qing Shan teach them for him.

Wait a minute… if it was this point in time…

At the time, Huang Zhang and Shen Yang had just returned with me to the Barren Cloud master peak, and I asked them if they knew what was happening in the frontlines.

What did Huang Zhan say at the time?

Gu Qing Shan recalled what happened.

…

Huang Zhan spoke in a low voice: “I heard that the war situation is getting desperate. A Divinity went missing, most people assume that he was surrounded and slain by Desolate monsters”

Shen Yang also chimed in with a heavy voice: “This was the first time that a Divinity had died in battle, so the great sects are currently in shock and panic”

…

Gu Qing Shan slowly nodded.

The Drifting Moon Immortal Sect was destroyed, one day later, the frontlines collapsed, and half a day later, a Divinity was killed.

Following that, the Divinities brought all the great cultivators of humanity to the frontlines to battle against the Desolate monsters.

This point in time should be around when the frontlines collapsed.

There should be about half a day’s worth of time left until the Divinity was killed.

——-how strange, didn’t the Divinities have a treaty with the Desolate monsters?

Why did the Desolate monsters kill a Divinity?

…and this was the first time that a Divinity had been killed.

How were they killed?

This should be an extremely crucial piece of intel.

Gu Qing Shan went silent briefly, slowly stood up, and looked towards the direction of the frontlines.