The Apostle is indeed heavily injured.
And the strength of one called Gu Qing Shan is nothing to write home about.
The King understood very clearly that he was the strongest among everyone in the room, capable of crushing them all as long as he wanted to.
There was no question about that.
ââ-I had even held myself back to prevent my presence from crushing these people right away.
Because that would draw the attention of the monster.
But the battle started and ended very abruptly.
The king was now lying on the ground, still havenât regained his senses.
Originally, I wanted to use my overwhelming power to suppress these people and force them to kneel in front of me.
But then,
Why did,
Things turn out this way?
The king was unable to accept the current situation.
But with a scepter poking out from his chest, the constant searing pain was constantly reminding him that it was all true.
A sense of unprecedented fear was plaguing the kingâs mind.
This was the instinctive fear which every living being felt as they faced the judge of death.
âââthe sensation of his life and death being held in another personâs hand, the sensation that extended even to his soul.
Some people would cry, sob, and beg as they faced this situation, trying to do everything they could to live.
But some people chose differently.
The king glared at Gu Qing Shan and groaned in fury:
ă Do it, kill me if you really can! ă
ă I am the ruler of the God of Lifeâs holy country, the servant of God, the king of Calming Soul Country, I am not afraid of death! ă
As he looked down on him, Gu Qing Shan held a bit of praise in his eyes.
At least, this king still had a bit of merit to him.
Keeping his hand on the scepter, Gu Qing Shan put up an index finger and slowly moved it from side to side.
âYouâre misunderstanding somethingâ Gu Qing Shan replied: âI never said I wanted to kill youâ
The king froze.
âItâs trueâ Gu Qing Shan continued, âWe definitely wonât kill you; you need to keep that in mindâ
The king slowly breathed out in relief, feeling like this heroic act just now was just for the blind to see while he couldnât help but feel relieved from the bottom of his heart.
It was naturally a good thing being able to survive.
Gu Qing Shan simply watched as his emotions switched several times before going on: âAnd alsoââ truthfully speaking, we need to thank you as wellâ
Thank me?
The king froze again but hesitated to respond to that.
Gu Qing Shan sincerely explained: âJust think about it. You had your subordinate sneak us a piece of paper and made sure we were on our guard ahead of time, then sent her to the secret passage to wait for us and prepared a way for us to leave. Although we used a different way to escape in the end, that didnât change the fact that you were doing all of this for our sakeâ
âRegardless of what schemes you were hatching against your subordinates, this was the undeniable truthâ
âThe only reason why we fought with you just now was to show you that we donât want to become your subordinates, thatâs allâ
The king coldly replied: ă You really think Iâm going to believe these pathetic excuses? ă
Gu Qing Shan answered indifferently: âIt doesnât matter whether you believe them or not. Because I only have one question for you, after you answer, weâll act like this never happened at all. You can return to being the king, and after we take what we want, weâll leave Calming Soul Countryâ
ă What do you want? ă
âInformation. Everything you know about that monster and the four Deities. I want it allâ
The king found that unexpected.
ă You really donât want anything else? ăhe tried asking.
âNo, I only want information about the monster and the four Deitiesâ Gu Qing Shan answered right away.
ă What do you want that for? ă
âTo kill them. I want the Card they holdâ
The king displayed a pondering look.
Card...
So, the reason they came here was for the Card fragments that the four Deities are keeping.
The king had an unconvinced look on his face and asked: ă Are you really not after the authority and wealth of Calming Soul Country? ă
Gu Qing Shan cleared his throat and replied, a bit embarrassed: âIâll be frank. This place of yours is simply destitute, including that monster. All it took was a single Soul Artifact for it to become hysterical, so there really isnât anything here thatâs tempting to usâ
The king froze again.
This was the first day in his long life that he was shocked so many times.
At the same time, he felt a strange sense of relief.
If they arenât after Calming Soul Country, I still have a chance to survive.
ââand in hindsight, that monster has truly been madly collecting Soul Artifact.
But considering how precious Soul Artifacts are, there werenât many of them in Calming Soul Country in the first place, all of which had already been taken by the monster.
The king scoffed: ă Weâre destitute you say? What do you actually know? We were originally extremely wealthy; our kingdom had a total of 12 Soul Artifacts of great power, but all of them were taken by that monster ă
Gu Qing Shan continued looking at him, but started to show pity on his expression.
The kingâs cold smirk slowly went stiff.
Gu Qing Shanâs attitude made him a bit unsure.
âHahââ Laura, comeâ Gu Qing Shan called out.
âGot it, master!â
Laura ran over, turned her backpack upside down, and shook it.
ââ-clink, clang, cling, clank!
A huge amount of treasures started to pour out from the bag, slowly stacking into a small pile around the king.
They all gave off mystical power fluctuation, clear to anyone with a bit of knowledge that they were indeed the ultimate treasures of great value within the 900 million World Layers.
Soul Artifacts
They were all Soul Artifacts.
Even with rough estimation, anyone could tell that there were hundreds of them right here.
The king opened his eyes wide, unable to comprehend what was happening in front of his eyes.
If it werenât for the constant pain in his chest, heâd have actually believed that this was a dream.
The king opened his mouth, trying to say something, but found himself speechless.
And I tried using 12 Soul Artifacts to refute them just now.
How pitiful.
Gu Qing Shan took a glance at him, then casually said: âHereâs an adviceââ staying for too long in a small corner of the world will affect your sense of valueâ
The king felt like he just received a heavy punch to the gut.
He closed his eyes, then abruptly opened them again, feeling a burning sensation in his heart.
Who had ever dared to talk to me that way!?
And yet, with so many Soul Artifacts in their hands, they truly do have the qualifications to talk to me that way!
Damn it!
The king couldnât contain himself and shouted: ă Wealth is only a part of it. That matter I mentioned to you earlier, I refuse to believe that you donât want a part of it! ă
âWhich matter?â Gu Qing Shan asked.
ă Do you really not want to know the secret of the God of Life? ă
Gu Qing Shan waved his hand and scoffed: âIf the Deities themselves couldnât kill that monster, then their secret wonât do me any good eitherâ
âNot to mention, when it comes to secrets, the more you know the more troublesome it becomes, so Iâd like you to spare me with thatâ
The king froze, then spoke up again: ă Facing that monster, you wonât be able to escape, only the ruin of the God of Lifeâ ă
âFrog in a wellâ Gu Qing Shan sighed and muttered.
These words successfully roused the kingâs anger.
ă Do you really think you can go against that monster? ă he loudly mocked.
Gu Qing Shan shook his head with an annoyed look on his face as if he was talking to some newbie who didnât understand a single thing.
He clapped his hand.
Zhang Ying Hao walked forward, pulled out a long shining shoulder-mounted cannon, and lightly tapped it against the kingâs face.
âCan you sense its power?â Zhang Ying Hao whispered.
The frigid metallic sensation completely silenced the king.
The raging flames in his heart were instantly doused.
As a ruler of a powerful country, he naturally recognized a weapon of mass destruction when he saw one.
This Technological-type weapon can indeed destroy an entire world.
If Calming Soul Country gets destroyed, the monster would naturally be heavily injured.
This way, even if they couldnât kill it, they would be able to buy enough time to escape!
And they were carrying such a weapon around!!!
The king felt his heart greatly tightened, feeling nothing but frustration.
This was even more frustrating compared to when he was stabbed by the scepter and believed that he was about to die.
ââhe naturally didnât know that this was a treasure that Laura obtained from the border of the unending abyss of broken worlds.
To obtain this treasure, Laura even broke her vow of not grabbing any treasures.
Even the assault handgun respectfully referred to this weapon as Cannon Brother.
It was the only one of its kind!
Gu Qing Shan waved his hand.
Zhang Ying Hao put Cannon Brother away and stepped back.
Gu Qing Shan cleared his throat again and told the king: âAlright, give me all the information youâve collected about the four Deities to me, and our little grudge here can be considered over withâ
ă Truly? ăasking this, the king sneaked a glance towards the others.
None of the others seemed to have any objections.
The little girl only poured a bunch of Soul Artifacts out before ignoring everything again.
The man only came forward to show off a world-destroying weapon before going back and pulled out a cigarette, only to sigh and put it away again.
Quite obviously, he was a smoking addict.
Nobody cared about the Soul Artifacts that were all over the ground.
Damn it, these are Soul Artifacts! Soul Artifacts that even the monster would go crazy over!
The king slowly calmed down.
No wonder the one called Gu Qing Shan called Calming Soul Country a destitute place earlier.
Comparatively, Calming Soul Country was truly destitute.
Even that terrifying monster would be nothing but a poverty-stricken fellow.
ââ-seriously, whatâs wrong with these people?
Is there really no one but myself in this room that cares about the wealth of Calming Soul Country?
They donât even care a little bit about the ruin of the God of Life?
This is a ruin left behind by God!!!
The king felt himself a bit unable to keep up.
He felt similar to a bandit that went through an untold amount of effort in order to steal and secure a treasure trove, only to be discovered by an enemy at the last possible moment and couldnât help but enter desperate combat against them.
In the end, he was completely defeated, pinned to the ground unable to move at all.
It was now that the enemy told him that they didnât want his wealth or treasure, pointing out that it was all nothing but trash.
Utter trash that wasnât even worth their attention.
The enemy only had a single demand.
ââ-they were forcing him to talk with them about whether or not the weather today would be good or it would rain.
About whether or not the rain would be that heavy...
Yes, only something equivalent to small talk.
The king felt his eyes becoming a bit wet.
He stared straight at Gu Qing Shan and questioned in a low voice: ă I want to confirm something again. If I give you the information you wanted, you will let me go? ă
Gu Qing Shan replied: âOf course, weâll sign a covenant on itââ I also hope that you will tell me what I want and not any lies...â
The king said nothing.
He pulled a scroll out from the air with his hand.
Gu Qing Shan glanced at the scroll, randomly took it with his hand, and handed it to Laura.
After looking over it, Laura gave it to Boss. Boss also nodded and gave it back to Gu Qing Shan.
âNo problemsâ Laura said.
âA very strict scrollâ Boss added.
âââ-Greatâ
Gu Qing Shan unrolled the scroll and wrote the following clauses on the scroll:
[As long as the king provides the correct information, neither sides will do anything against one another]
He cut the tip of his finger and dripped some blood onto the covenant.
The scroll was then given to the king.
The king did the same.
A flash of light appeared on the scroll.
âThereâ Gu Qing Shan said.
The king felt relieved.
From this point on, as long as I give them actual information, they wouldnât be able to take my life any longer.
However, the king still couldnât accept how relaxed Gu Qing Shan was about all of this.
His mind was quickly moving.
Right now, I donât have anyone that I can mobilize.
As Calming Soul Country had always been closed off, other than the royal family, everyone had already fallen into the monsterâs tight grasp.
It was out of pure coincidence that these people appeared in this place.
They were the only entities within Calming Soul Country that would not be discovered by the monster.
Although they werenât particularly powerfulâââ
They have unique abilities.
Wealth.
Powerful equipment.
And an excellent leader with an actual head over his shoulders.
In other words, theyâre the only hope.
âââmy only hope of exploring the ruin!
The king took a deep breath and took out a piece of crystal.
ă The information regarding the four Deities are all in here ă
âVery wellâ
Gu Qing Shan received the piece of crystal.
The covenant scroll was instantly burnt to a crisp.
ââ-the covenant had been formed.
From this point on, neither side can harm the other.
Gu Qing Shan pulled the Devil King Warden Rod from the kingâs chest.
âSorry if I offended youâ he said apologetically.
The king covered the hole in his chest and slowly stood up.
If it werenât for the unique power of that scepter, this wound wasnât anything significant to him.
After a moment of hesitation, the king finally made up his mind: ă I have something else I would like to form a covenant with you ă
âAbout what?â
ă I need you to help me explore the ruin of the God of Life ă
âI refuse. This matter is completely unrelated to us, so we wonât waste our efforts on itâ Gu Qing Shan shook his head.
After a moment of silence, the king continued: ă...Didnât you say you wanted to get rid of the four Deities? ă
âIndeedâ
ă If you help me explore the ruin, in exchange, I will also help you get rid of the four Deitiesââ after all, they are also my enemies ă
âIf thatâs the case... itâs not completely out of the question. If you are willing to shoulder all the cost, weâll take some time and seriously consider itâ
ă The cost is no issue. I will be staying in the royal palace. If you are willing to cooperate with me to explore the ruin, please use this to find me ă
The king handed Gu Qing Shan a teleportation scroll to Gu Qing Shan, stared deeply at him for a long while, then disappeared.
The room returned to silence.
No one said anything.
After a while, Laura finally couldnât contain herself anymore: âCan someone tell me what just happened?â
âWhatâs the matter?â Zhang Ying Hao asked.
âThat king came to find us with killing intent, right?â
âHm, if we didnât surrender, he was ready to kill us, thereâs no question about thatâ
âBut that wasnât the case when he leftâ
âWhy do you think that?â
âHe gave us the information, then volunteered to shoulder all the costs just to invite us to explore the ruin of God, promising to form a covenant to help us get rid of the four Deitiesâââ did he suddenly go mad?â
âHe wasnât mad, he just ran into a true conmanâ
Saying so, Zhang Ying Hao went out of the room with a small pack of cigarettes.
It should be safe for now.
One of the two biggest forces in this world will no longer try anything against us, while the other biggest force is still struggling to conceal the truth of the monster.
I can finally have a smoke.