Chapter 1017: Personal Armor

The bronze gate closed behind them.

Darkness.

Nothing was visible around them.

The group simply followed the passage and flew forward.

“Do you not know anything regarding this ruin?” Gu Qing Shan asked.

「 Our clan has always passed on the secret of the ruin by sealing it within our heads. When we make it to the appropriate locations within the ruin, the seal would be undone and inform us of the related matters 」the king replied.

Gu Qing Shan praised: “What a wonderful solution, this would certainly prevent leaking the secret by accident”

He wasn’t at all worried about the king lying to him.

——-because he gave up all possible earnings from this trip, only demanding information.

According to their covenant, the king must inform him of everything he knows and will know.

The dark passage was extremely long.

After a long flight, they finally slowed down.

A tall cliff stood right in front of them.

Intense wind howled from below the cliff, bringing with it a frigid sensation from the very bottom as it flowed towards the unseen ceiling within the darkness.

Huge towering pillars stood tall in front of the cliff, displaying its horror to those witnessing it——

Countless bodies were pinned on this pillar.

Or rather, the pillar itself was created from those bodies.

Corpses of all shapes and sizes, mystical and unfathomable.

Multitudes of insect carcasses.

Multitudes of linked humanoid corpses.

Non-sentient, unmoving beasts.

Strange and unfathomable abyssal monsters.

Too many to count, too many to estimate.

Gu Qing Shan could even see a mythical creature that only existed within cultivating legends.

——a Heavenly Dragon.

The Heavenly Dragon was coiled around the pillar of corpses, its body completely greyed out, as if it was a lifeless specimen in a lab.

These pillars of corpses stood within the presumably bottomless darkness, rising all the way up to the endlessly far ceiling.

Above and below, both could not be seen.

This greatly shocked everyone here.

The king clutched his forehead, moaning in pain.

Enduring this, he muttered: 「 Argh… I can sense a secret being unlocked, its seal is being undone, wait a moment 」

Everyone stood and waited.

Gu Qing Shan said: “Laura, wear your armor”

Laura regained her senses.

She first donned the Bramble Bird Sovereign armor, then walked up to Gu Qing Shan and took out a smooth ice cube that was about the size of her hand.

“What is this?” Gu Qing Shan curiously asked.

Laura displayed a secretive expression on her face and didn’t answer right away, instead she used telepathy to talk to him: “Do you still remember? When we were at the border of the unending abyss of broken worlds, I said that I felt something even stronger than the Sovereign armor approaching us from the vortex, and I insisted that I had to grab it no matter what?”

“I remember. At the time, you couldn’t fight the temptation and took it in the end” Gu Qing Shan replied.

“It was this thing here. I’ve not been able to figure out how it works, but I can guarantee that it far surpasses any defensive item I own, how about you try it out?” Laura said.

She gave the ice cube to Gu Qing Shan.

It felt chilling to the touch.

As Gu Qing Shan took the ice cube in his hand, he found that it was a transparent and clear cube of ice with some flowing water inside—– it might be water or it might be something else, but it was indeed flowing.

Lines of glowing text appeared on the War God UI:

[Wielder of Elemental Water, Song of the Night, Elemental Spirit King Personal Armor: Embrace and Praise from the Frost of Evernight and Wind of Chaotic Tribulation]

[Note: This is an incomplete fragment of a Divine Garb, you are unable to utilize its complete characteristics]

[Note: As this is a Divine Armament, you must communicate with the Artifact Spirit before you can learn of its attributes]

[Special note: This armor’s Artifact Spirit had already been eliminated countless years ago, but as the War God UI has recorded its characteristics, you are notified of the following attributes:]

[Aria of Frost: Whenever an opponent’s attack comes into contact with this armor, their attack speed will be reduced by 3% until it is thoroughly frozen (unusable)]

[Praise of Evernight: As night falls, your defenses are increased 3-fold]

[Aria of Frigid Wind: Whenever you kill an opponent, all the power of their soul will remain upon your weapon, empowering your subsequent attack (unusable)]

[Praise of the Wind of Chaotic Tribulation: The Wind of Chaotic Tribulation that lingers around you will neutralize an enemy’s attack, once per day]

Feeling his eyes overwhelmed by the information, Gu Qing Shan asked: “War God UI, why are there two abilities that can’t be used?”

[Ting]!

After a clear chime, the War God UI replied: [Because this armor has been damaged very severely, half of its abilities have become unusable. However, you obtained its two Praises, which is more than enough]

As soon as it said so, the ice cube in Gu Qing Shan’s hand broke apart and turned invisible.

Lines of glowing text appeared on the War God UI:

[Time: The current situation is recognized as nighttime]

[Praise of Evernight as well as Praise of Wind of Chaotic Tribulation have both been activated]

[Any of the opponent’s attacks against you will be fully neutralized by the armor, usable three times]

Gu Qing Shan sensed a faintly drifting wind that lingered around his body.

This was an invisible armor.

Tch——-

That’s really strong

He couldn’t help but turn to Laura.

At this time, Laura had taken out three sets of armor, giving them to Zhang Ying Hao, Ye Fei Li, and Boss.

Defensive artifacts that she carried with her were without a doubt the most powerful within the 900 million World Layers.

They all hurriedly thanked her and donned the armors.

Ye Fei Li sighed emotionally: “Usually for a game, a reward is only given out after slaying all the monsters, but now we’ve been given such powerful armors even before any monster appeared”

He was wearing a set of bright red armor with a pair of illusory wings behind his back, making him appear incredibly eerie.

Laura giggled: “I don’t know how to fight, so I’ll need you to protect me from this point on”

“Naturally, your majesty” Ye Fei Li replied.

At this point, the king had opened his eyes and was silently glancing through the forest of corpse pillars, declaring:

「 I know how to get past this place 」

He walked up to the cliff and knelt down in front of a piece of a broken boulder, lightly muttering an excerpt from a prayer to the God of Life.

A short while later.

The broken boulder started trembling nonstop.

A hovering stone slab manifested right above the bottomless ravine.

The king stood up and told them all: 「 We must stand on the stone slab. It will bring us across this forest of corpse pillars 」

「 Keep in mind, do not release even a bit of power, otherwise, we might draw the attention of unknown monsters 」

Everyone nodded.

Laura curiously asked: “What will happen exactly if we released just a bit of power?”

The king took out a small, well-decorated box from his chest and threw it towards a faraway corpse pillar.

As the box hit a certain pillar, it shattered and opened to reveal a scroll that emanated magical powers.

『 Aeeeeeeee!!!!!!! 』

Billions of voices were wailing at once.

The wailing resounded from every corpse pillar in their vision.

Before anyone could clearly see what happened, the scroll had already been shredded to pieces and vanished from where it was before.

Every corpse on the corpse pillars seemed to have returned to life as they were madly searching for any new fluctuations around them.

A giant rotting arm even appeared from one of the corpse pillars.

The arm was madly swiping at the air.

The void of space was ripped apart.

Gu Qing Shan’s group remained silent as they watched this.

The king couldn’t help but wipe the cold sweat from his head.

He only wanted to show them an example, who knew the reaction would be even worse than he had imagined.

「 Did you see that? We cannot release even a single bit of power, or we will be ripped apart 」

“What about talking?”

「 Talking shouldn’t affect anything——- but I still suggest that we use telepathy 」

Everyone nodded in agreement without objection.

The power that the arm displayed just now was so overwhelming that they felt powerless to resist just watching it.

“Alright, let us be as careful as we can, let’s go” Gu Qing Shan declared.

He lightly stepped onto the stone slab.

Everyone else followed suit, standing firmly.

It was now that the king noticed something different.

These people who were going to explore the ruin with him had all donned their armor.

Indeed, it was natural to wear armor in preparation for exploring such a dangerous ruin.

But what’s going on with these armors!?

As the king’s gaze swept through these people, his eyes only opened wider and wider.

He could judge the quality of goods, and he understood how powerful these armors were a lot more compared to people like Zhang Ying Hao and Ye Fei Li.

These people aren’t very strong.

But their unique abilities are considerable.

Not to mention this level of gear.

——–that’s unbelievably good treatment.

Zhang Ying Hao noticed his gaze and asked in surprise: “What are you looking at? Is there a problem?”

He was wearing a full suit of black armor; his body occasionally melting into the void of space and gave off a mysterious aura.

After a long while of silence, the king hesitantly spoke:

「 Erm—— 」

「 About that—– 」

「 I just have a question I wanted to ask——- 」

「 Although I’m a king—— 」

「 I actually have my own ideals as well——-」

「 You should know, being a king is extremely tough, and I didn’t really sign up for the job 」

Feeling confused, Zhang Ying Hao asked straight: “What exactly do you want to say?”

「 Are you still accepting members? 」

The king asked.