Gu Qing Shan raised his hand and gestured to her by pushing it down, saying: âLower your voiceâ
ââafter all, this was still the officerâs residential ward, which meant it was best not to cause issues.
Shan Hai Qi Xia understood and lowered her voice, quickly speaking:
âThatâs impossible. Who exactly are you? Regardless of who you are, you couldnât possibly have killed the War Shamanâ
She appeared completely at a loss, unable to even think of what she needed to do.
Iâve been seen through.
He knows what I did.
ââ-if the other party was the War Shaman, knowing that I killed his wife, he would definitely skin me alive and cut off my tendons, torturing me to his heartâs content before killing me.
With the War Shamanâs strength, I would be helpless to even resist.
But he claims not to be the War Shaman, but a mortal that killed the War Shamanââ-
Thatâs even more impossible!
Gu Qing Shan smiled, then asked her in return: âHavenât you also gotten rid of the monster that wanted to substitute you? Why could you do it, but I could not?â
Shan Hai Qi Xia stared straight at him, then decisively admitted: âBecause when I did it, it took the joint effort of all humans from the Tomb of Myriad Beasts, including my father paying the price of his life for a single chance to ambush the sneaky ambusherâ
Gu Qing Shan had seen the entire process from her memory, so he praised: âI knew that you had been able to notice it early on. Unfortunately, these monsters were too powerful, otherwise, you wouldnât have had to pay such a heavy priceâ
Thousands of years ago, some top human Combatants began to notice the substitution, but as they couldnât possibly win by force, they had no choice but to silently remain patient, looking for the method to deal with the monsters wherever they could.
They failed many times.
Only this time, using the Causality restraints between a father and his daughter, paying the great price of Shan Hai Qi Xia fatherâs life and soul, as well as other Tomb of Myriad Beasts Combatants from the previous generation, they managed to activate a series of Causality Skills to ultimately kill that monster.
Shan Hai Qi Xiaâs expression was very serious as she spoke in a solemn voice:
âI was the only person who successfully killed the substituted monster, in the Tomb of Myriad Beasts as a whole, the future of every human rests on my shoulderâ
She stared closely at Gu Qing Shan and continued: âPlease tell me, who exactly are you? And how did you kill that War Shaman?â
Gu Qing Shan sat still.
From the void of space behind him, two swords silently appeared, then disappeared again in an instant.
The twin swords Heaven and Earth.
Seeing these two swords, Shan Hai Qi Xia was stunned.
She appeared immersed in memory, muttering: âThese swords... look very familiar...â
After a few moments, she recalled how a certain person managed to infiltrate her sect, wielding these two swords in their hands.
Shan Hai Qi Xia calmed herself down, asking in a low voice:
âThe twin swords Heaven and Earth... are you Gu Qing Shan?â
âI amâ Gu Qing Shan replied.
Gu Qing Shan once travelled through time, returning to the Age of Old to fight against the three Deities, eventually obtaining the twin swords Heaven and Earth for himself.
If it is him, there certainly is a chance of getting rid of the War Shaman.
But thenââ
Shan Hai Qi Xia raised her voice again: âWhat did you do to Li Qiu Shan? Is he hurt?â
Gu Qing Shan silently nodded, then replied with a gentle expression: âFrom the beginning, Li Qiu Shan had been meâ
âYou turned into Li Qiu Shan and entered our School of Shan Hai?â
âThatâs rightâ
Gu Qing Shan thought a bit, then told her the entire story of how he saved the young master of the School of Fei Yu, then accidentally made his way to the Tomb of Myriad Beasts.
Shan Hai Qi Xia asked with a strange expression: âIn other words, you originally wanted to disguise as a Wraith realm person to infiltrate the Wraith realm?â
Gu Qing Shan sighed: âThatâs right, who knew something like this would happen instead, this is a headache for me tooâ
âWhat do you intend to do now?â Shan Hai Qi Xia asked.
Gu Qing Shan slowly replied: âThis great tomb is concerned with many things; its secrets run extremely deep. The people of the Wraith realm had also entered the tomb to try and obtain the Delimitation Artifact, so I naturally canât just sit still and watchââ- and also, like I just said, Iâm on your sideâ
Shan Hai Qi Xia observed his eyes, then said: âI heard that cultivators respect going against the heavens, taking the wonders of heaven and earth for themselves to use. So in your eyes, those monsters should only be seeking to survive, you would not specifically take our sideâ
Gu Qing Shan chuckled: âYou probably heard too much gossips about cultivators that you have the wrong impression of usâ
âIâm all earsâ Shan Hai Qi Xia replied.
Gu Qing Shan leaned on the back of his chair, telling her: âWe cultivators are merely normal people like you; however, during the process of our cultivation and breakthroughs, the old man in heaven is always sending down lightning to strike us down, if we arenât killed by lightning, other tribulations would follow to test us again and againââ- we canât just sit still and wait to be killed, so we retaliated. Thatâs what the so-called âgoing against the heavensâ actually isâ
âI think that anyone else would go against the heavens as well if they were put in our caseâ
Shan Hai Qi Xia replied: âYou mean, you arenât sympathetic to those monsters?â
Gu Qing Shan sighed and replied: âThis is the age of the Apocalypse, everyone has the right to try and survive, but they originally could have done much betterâ
Shan Hai Qi Xia was confused by his answer, muttering: âYouâre sayingâââ
Gu Qing Shan replied: âThey could have very easily told the truth, discussed it, then reach a consensus with your peopleâ
Shan Hai Qi Xia solemnly replied: âConsensus? We would never have given our bodies toâââ
Gu Qing Shan waved his hand to cut her off, then continued: âIâm not saying that you should have surrendered yourselves, but rather they could have used their power and inheritance as a bargaining chip, offering to help you become stronger, while you choose irredeemable criminals of your worlds for them to use as bodiesâ
âThis way, they would have escaped from the apocalyptic seal, you would have received great knowledge inheritance while also punishing those criminals. This way, peace and order would have grown better over time, everyone would be happy, society would thrive, humans and monsters would live in harmony, joining hands against the Apocalypseâââ but they didnât choose this option that would strike multiple birds with one arrow. Instead, they schemed and plotted, took advantage of your desires to grow stronger, used their inheritance as a tool to take over your bodies, that truly wasââ how should I say this?â
Pondering for a bit, Gu Qing Shan commented: âUnreasonable, and looking down on people too muchâ
Shan Hai Qi Xia froze when she heard that.
Since when has this world been reasonable?
In this age of ravaging Apocalypses, who would waste the time to be reasonable?
She considered herself to have gone through much hardship and seen the harshness of the world, yet never predicted that Gu Qing Shan would answer like this.
However, on further thoughts, could any normal person have achieved any of the feats that this sword cultivator had been able to?
Perhaps, those with strength always have a different way of thinking compared to others.
If he agrees to help...
Shan Hai Qi Xia thought about it, then suddenly asked: âSword Saint Gu, even after killing the War Shaman, you still hadnât left. Then, other than going against the Wraiths, what else do you intend to do?â
Gu Qing Shan replied: âIâll cross that bridge when I get there, just know that Iâm not going to be your enemyâ
Shan Hai Qi Xia immediately pursued that: âThen, are you truly on our side? If we fight against the monsters, if we are defeated by them, would you act for the sake of we humans from the Tomb of Myriad Beasts?â
Before even finishing her words, she had knelt down againââ this time on both knees in front of Gu Qing Shan, clutching his hand with both of her hands: âI am the only person to have ever won against a monster, but the only thing I can do right now is to protect myself, unable to shelter anyone from the Schoolâ
âI can only watch as Chun Dao, Wang Shun, the entire Western Sea Grotto, the entirety of the Tomb of Myriad Beastsâ humanity slowly descend into the abyss. The only future available to them is to be tossed into the Apocalypse by those monsters, then get their bodies taken overâ
Two streams of tears silently flowed down Shan Hai Qi Xiaâs eyes; sniffling, she continued: âI have already done everything in my power, but one hand cannot make a clap, and I truly am helplessâ
âGu Qing Shan, you were able to kill the War Shaman. Surely, you have other ways to fight against these monsters, I beg you, please help me!â
Her beautiful facial features displayed a sense of lonely despair filled with a single last ray of hope.
She clutched Gu Qing Shanâs hand tightly, waiting for an answer.
Gu Qing Shan watched her blankly, even forgetting what he was about to say.
That expression, how familiar it is, so familiar that it has been already carved into my heart.
In a blur, that hoarse voice seemed to resound by his ears from the depths of his memoriesâ-
...
âIs anyone there?â
âIs anyone there to take this sword?â
...
Before the Immortal Kingâs death, his expression was filled with despair, his eyes shedding tears of blood as he swung the sword all around.
It wasnât just the Immortal King.
Every cultivator who laid down their lives on the battlefield, those previous comrades of his past...
At the very last moments of their lives, their expressions were all the exact same.
For countless years, now and before, humanity had never only just fought against the encroaching Apocalypse, but also the various schemes and plotting of powerful monsters.
During the Age of Old, the Soul Shrieker once took control of both the Divine race and the Desolate monsters, forcing humanity to forge the twin swords Heaven and Earth for it.
And now, these tomb monsters were directly taking over the bodies of humans, using this to escape their own Apocalypses.
The survival of humanity was something they neednât worry about in the first place.
The history of humanityâs existence had always been an elegy filled with tears of blood.
ââ-when exactly can this situation be changed?
These people, how can they ultimately be saved?
For some reason, Gu Qing Shan recalled a moment from the Age of Old, within the Desolate Cloud Heavenly Palace, when Xie Gu Hong took him in as his disciple, the words he said at the time:
...
â...a child like you is indeed rare. Today I will take you as my disciple, in hope that one day you will reach your Dao, to put all injustice down for Humanityâ
...
Recalling that scene, from the void of space behind Gu Qing Shan, sword after sword silently appeared.
Chao Yin.
Six Paths Great Mountain.
Heaven.
Earth.
The four swords lightly hovered behind his back, all giving off a faint vibration.
Gu Qing Shan regained his senses, then turned to Shan Hai Qi Xia.
He looked straight into her eyes, lightly stating: âThere are many injustices in this world; as sword cultivators when we see injustice, we quell them with our swordsâ