Chapter 826: Zhi Luo

The Asura Palace.

“You don’t seem like you want to stop me from facing my Tribulation” Gu Qing Shan’s voice could be heard.

Followed by the voice of a female.

“Of course I don’t, I’m here to help you”

The female Asura poured a cup of tea she made herself for Gu Qing Shan.

Gu Qing Shan received it, took a sip, and commented:

“I thought a person would ever only shed a tear when they’re sad, I’ve never even considered that it could be an ability”

The female Asura giggled: “The Tear of Asura allowed me to see that you would surely face a trial of life and death, so I came here early to make some preparations”

“A trial of life and death? I’ve been through a lot of trials of life and death”

“Indeed, I felt dizzy just looking at them. But I noticed that the Mahesvara realm was the most suitable place for me, so I came here”

Gu Qing Shan doubtfully asked: “But I’m currently inside a phantom image from the Age of Old, how did I travel through several ten thousands of years to meet you here inside the Fire Tribulation?”

“What is a phantom image?” the female Asura asked.

“A… particularly unique and powerful technique” Gu Qing Shan replied.

The female Asura answered: “The Lightning Tribulation only needs the natural power of a world to trigger, the Wind Tribulation requires the power of the Wraith realm to trigger, and the Fire Tribulation has already broken through the restraints of Space-time to forcefully pull your soul vessel back into the present, then brought you into this heavenly realm among many to face your Tribulation”

Gu Qing Shan thought about what she just said.

Indeed.

The phantom images were only a technique.

And this technique only retains only a single actual moment of the Age of Old.

But I still haven’t arrived at that moment.

So when the Fire Tribulation was triggered, my soul vessel escaped the influence of that technique to return to the real timeline.

My soul vessel returned to the present to face the Fire Tribulation, but my body is still stuck within a phantom image of several ten thousand years ago!

This really is——

The female Asura noticed his gaze and nodded: “You need to return quickly, your time flow is so chaotic that there’s a chance of the Tribulation Fire triggering ahead of time and burning you to death”

“Fortunately, since I came here before you did, I’ve already made the preparations for you”

She brought Gu Qing Shan through the maze-like palace, went past countless mechanisms and gates before entering a secret path at the end of the maze. Where they reached the deepest part inside the heart of the mountain.

There wasn’t anything here but a single stream of frigid, silent cold water.

The two of them stopped by the stream.

“This is an Ice Serenity Sentiment Extinguishing Divine Spring that I spent a lot of effort to obtain. It can only be used once, but everything inside your Fire Tribulation will be extinguished by this spring water, allowing you to immediately pass this Tribulation” the female Asura explained.

Gu Qing Shan silently sensed the uniqueness of the spring water and spoke emotionally: “You didn’t have to do so much for me”

The female Asura lowered her head: “In truth, I spent a lot of time thinking before I entered reincarnation and finally decided to use the Tear of Asura”

“But why?”

“Forgetting everything to begin anew sounds like a really dumb thing to do for me. I would rather remember you and wait for an eternity, for this moment when we would meet again”

Her voice was graceful and calm, but it contained an indomitable will that wouldn’t be changed.

Gu Qing Shan sighed: “I remember telling you that I already have a girlfriend”

The female Asura glanced at him and asked in surprise: “Was that the truth? I can tell that you’re still a virgin”

Gu Qing Shan’s voice became a lot weaker: “Is that… really important?”

The female Asura didn’t let him feel awkward for long and followed up: “The King of Mahesvara has 48 Dependents, while the Lord of Sumeru has 120 Followers. I’m not greedy so I will simply ask to be one of them”

“I’m not the King of Mahesvara, nor am I the Lord of Sumeru” Gu Qing Shan replied.

The female Asura laughed.

“You are already at Void Wanderer realm, above that are the realms of Void Revolution, Three Thousand Worlds, and Paragon. Even further than that are the {Yama King} realm, the {Mahesvara King} realm and the {Sumeru Lord} realm[1]——— you are a man that I recognize, you will surely continue to become stronger and reach the same ranks as the Kings and Lords from the legends”

“Once you’ve achieved the {Yama King} realm, under the effect of Prayers, your 48 Dependents will be no one but those closest to you. What I’m doing is simply taking up one of those spaces early”

Gu Qing Shan smiled bitterly: “How are you so sure that I would become such a powerful existence?”

“Of course you will, because you are the man I chose”

The female Asura smirked.

Gu Qing Shan had nothing to say to that, but then he thought of something and asked: “How did you reach the Mahesvara realm in the first place? Surely the Tear of Asura alone wouldn’t be enough to achieve this”

“Of course it wouldn’t. During the battle in Huang Quan, I was the one who discovered the scheme of the Heavenly God, I brought the Devil King Warden Rod to you in the human realm and help you control the quadrillions of dead people; when the circumstances changed, it was I who encouraged the dead people with the sentiments of the human mother and son, keeping them in the human realm——- among the countless dead people, I earned the most Merit out of them all. So I was able to pour all my Merit into the Tear of Asura and gave it unprecedented amounts of good power, which brought me here to the Mahesvara realm, waiting for you”

“Waiting for me…” Gu Qing Shan muttered.

When the other party was still only a dead person, she helped me without hesitation many times, after the battle of Huang Quan, she further gave up all of her Merit just to wait here to help me face a Tribulation.

Gu Qing Shan was truly speechless.

The female Asura looked at him longingly and said: “There’s already not enough time, you should return quickly”

“Your name” Gu Qing Shan abruptly said, “I still don’t know your name”

The female Asura was a bit surprised as she silently shed a single tear.

She wiped the tear away, smiled softly at Gu Qing Shan and gently told him: “My name is Zhi Luo, I will wait for you right here until one day when you achieve the realm of King Mahesvara”

Saying so, she shoved Gu Qing Shan into the stream.

Hoh——-

Almost immediately, the boundless karmic fire[2] appeared around Gu Qing Shan’s body.

The true Fire Tribulation had begun!

The fire manifested as faint images that constantly roused Gu Qing Shan’s soul vessel and body.

———-these were the sins he had committed ever since he was born, chaotic emotions and feelings erupted almost all at once.

But as Gu Qing Shan was already thoroughly doused with the icy cold water, no matter how brightly the karmic fire burnt, it couldn’t quite reach his body.

All of a sudden, Gu Qing Shan felt like he returned to a familiar place.

Shen Wu world.

Everyone had died in battle.

Xie Dao Ling’s body laid dead on the ground, Qin Xiao Lou was crying as he hugged Xiu Xiu.

——Xiu Xiu was also dead.

In the far distant, countless terrifying and gigantic Soul Shriekers were heading towards them.

No!

Gu Qing Shan’s eyes became bloodshot.

All of a sudden, a frigid essence struck his mind and caused his faintly wavering mind to become clear again.

He immediately understood.

This wasn’t real.

Shifu and the rest are still far away from the 900 million World Layers, they should still be alive and well at the moment.

While he was thinking that, the image suddenly faded.

Another image appeared.

Gu Qing Shan’s body and mind were immersed within it again.

Without him knowing, he was now inside a grand banquet.

He was holding Anna’s hand as he invited the guests to drink.

Su Xue Er suddenly jumped out.

Right in front of Gu Qing Shan, she committed suicide.

Gu Qing Shan’s mind wavered, but before he could react, another wave of coldness struck him.

This was fake as well!

As he realized the truth, the entire image immediately vanished.

While he was feeling fortunate and fearful of what was being shown, another image had unfolded in front of Gu Qing Shan.

His homeworld.

All humans were dead.

Ye Fei Li was being put into a monster’s mouth…

Illusions appeared in front of Gu Qing Shan one after another.

But thanks to the reinforcement of the Ice Serenity Sentiment Extinguishing Divine Spring, he didn’t even need to face these illusions of despair.

Like water flowing down a cliff, he quickly went past countless illusory images.

At this point, heavy sounds of impact could be heard from outside the mountain.

Countless angry voices could be heard.

“Zhi Luo, you dared to help someone face their Tribulation!”

“No one is allowed to face their Tribulation here!”

“Stop right now!”

“Surrender that man!”

The sound of impact resounded across the entire mountain.

Obviously, the people outside have already noticed the fluctuations from the Fire Tribulation and began to attack.

The soul vessels of all cultivators who remained inside the Mahesvara realm would never allow any other cultivator to pass their Fire Tribulation!

Zhi Luo glanced at Gu Qing Shan one last time.

She turned around, shielded Gu Qing Shan, and formed a hand seal with both hands.

Rumble——

Every gate, every wall, every trap, and even the maze itself was all triggered at once.

This was the result of her hard work from several years of preparations.

A mountain of the Mahesvara realm would not be destroyed so easily.

And no one could go through all of these obstacles quickly!

Behind her, the fire on Gu Qing Shan’s body was slowly dwindling.

The stream of Ice Serenity Sentiment Extinguishing Divine Spring also evaporated into white mist and slowly faded with the wind.

His Fire Tribulation was over.

Gu Qing Shan disappeared from the Mahesvara realm among the mist.

[1] -In Chinese mythology, King of Yama is the king of hell who serves under the Jade Emperor, essentially Hades, his domain is known as the abode of King Yama, or the Yama Heavenly realm. -As explained a few chapters ago, Mahesvara is also known as Shiva, a Hindu God, as well as the name of the realm of freedom. -Sumeru is also known as Mount Meru, the sacred five-peaked mountain of both Hindu and Buddhist cosmology. All of these names are related in one way or another to real-life religion and are so complicated that I can’t explain in a few words. Please look them up on Wikipedia if you want to know more. To differentiate the cultivation realms from the locations they are associated with, the realms will be put inside {} brackets as you see above.

[2] in Chinese mythology, karmic fire is the kind of fire that burns in the hells of Huang Quan, what they burn isn’t the soul or body, but the sins and bad karma during one’s life. During this ordeal, the dead people would suffer the immense pain of being burnt, but would not actually die. After their karma has all been burnt away, a soul would then be free of their past life’s shackles and re-enter the cycle of reincarnation.