This is an unedited chapter. If you donât like slightly terrible grammar and occasional typo, please re-read in 7 days for the edited version. Thank you for understanding.
âââââââââ
A flash of starlight flew away from Reneedol and disappeared as well.
âThe [Tears of Deities]!â
Reneedol reached towards her neck, only to see that the necklace containing Fate powers had disappeared.
âDamn you! Shroud, Rhode, damn both of you!â
She roared, causing the power of Apocalypse from her body to grow increasingly stronger, howling like a rampaging storm towards every direction.
Suddenlyââ-
ă I can see it! ă
The giant eyeball suddenly shouted, its voice resounding across the entire world.
ă The Reality Gate is opening; the true Apocalypse is about to descendââ itâs all over! ă
The eyeballâs voice was filled with unsure dread.
...
âItâs still afraid of the Apocalypse despite being so powerful?â Gu Qing Shan whispered and asked.
âIt was originally a part of the frozen corpse, as well as a part of the Secret Apocalypse. If the Apocalypses outside the Reality Gate poured inside, it would be the very first thing they would look forâ Boss whispered to explain.
While the two of them were talking, only a bright red splash of blood remained in the sky.
Even the splash of blood was slowly fading away before it completely vanished.
ââthe giant eyeball had run away.
âAhahaha, look at that, even it had run away!â
âNo matter who it is, they must kneel before me!â
Reneedol laughed in a frenzied voice.
Her body began to exude an extremely dim light and an aura of terrible rot.
âShroud, Rhode, both of you have been unable to keep up with me, Iâm through wrestling with Fate, Iâve won!â
She gazed towards the end of the world upon the two of them, then abruptly raised her voice: âI am the Apocalypse!â
Gu Qing Shan focused his gaze and muttered: âBoss, I canât wait any longer, Iâm going to kill her nowââ-â
Boss said: âItâs a pity that my powers arenât enough, otherwise, it should be me who does thisâ
Gu Qing Shan turned to Boss: âYouââ wanted to take revenge on her?â
Boss whispered: âNo, she wants to destroy everything, while I want to protect what I think is worth protecting, thatâs allâ
Gu Qing Shan grinned and began to happily laugh.
He lightly placed his hand on the ground.
The ants at his fingertips followed his finger onto the earth, quickly found an ant burrowing hole, then crawled back inside.
Gu Qing Shan clapped his hands as he stood up.
âJust take a rest for now, Iâll go kill her. After everything is over, weâre finally going to enjoy a nice dinner with everyone, then take the time to deal with that eyeball. Ah right, there are also the Apocalypses outside the Reality Gate, tch, such a headacheâ
He rambled on before stepping forward into a mass of white fog.
Everything paused for a brief moment in the world.
And thenâââ
Doong! Doong! Doong!
A heroic and resounding sound of drumming echoed.
The night had gone by, a new sun was rising, which painted the sky in a bloody shade almost like that of the setting sun.
At that moment, everything seemed to have become incredibly slow.
Reneedol suddenly found everything around herself grinding to a halt.
The angels, the wraiths on the ground, even Shroud who stood at the end of the world, all living beings had completely stopped.
â[Time Stanch]?â she muttered.
Hohâââ
The Apocalyptic aura vanished from around her body.
Reneedolâs expression changed.
âNo, this isnât [Time Stanch], this is time itself stoppingâ she muttered.
A voice replied from the void of space:
âIndeed, Time had fallen into a stationary state, as you and I are both currently inside a Time Gapâ
White fog began to spread as Gu Qing Shan showed himself.
âRhode... you can wield the power of Timeâ Reneedol said while attempting to summon something from the void of space.
âItâs useless. Within this Time Gap, only you and I exist, the power of the Apocalypse cannot enterâ Gu Qing Shan told her.
Reneedol looked at him with a shocked expression.
âRhode, how could you wield such power! This is unbelievable!â
She tried putting up her hand to summon a starlight weapon, but nothing appeared at all.
Once again, she remembered that following the Deity of Fateâs death, [Tears of Deities] was no longer in her hands.
Doong! Doong! Doong! Doong!
The sound of battle drums were growing increasingly more intense.
âThis is the Occultism Deathmatch Dance. I only managed to initiate it to this degree because I went beyond the requirements during the trial, offering the heads of the three Wraith Lords to this Danceâ
Gu Qing Shan calmly explained: âThis is a completely fair fight to the death. Both you and I have lost all of our powers, so we must agree on a certain factor in order to complete this Deathmatch, otherwise, weâre both going to be trapped here foreverâ
Reneedol silently listened and coldly scoffed: âYou think Iâm going to believe you?â
She mobilized her power again, but couldnât summon even a single star behind her back.
This time, she was truly flustered.
The Apocalypse could not enter, Time had been completely stopped, all of her powers lost.
ââthe only fortunate thing was that Rhode was in the same situation during this Deathmatch, we are equals here.
Gu Qing Shan leisurely continued to explain: âNow, you and I will both have to select a factorââ- any factor will do, but Iâll tell you first, I donât know how the Deathmatch will actually play out eitherâ
âFactor?â Reneedol asked.
âI have the duty of explaining it to youâââ a âfactorâ is the main theme of this Deathmatch, something that youâre confident youâd be able to defeat your enemy inâ Gu Qing Shan explained.
âI choose Fate! Iâve always wrestled and won against Fate!â Reneedol immediately declared.
Gu Qing Shan stayed silent briefly before shaking his head: âThe world is a much crueler place than you can ever imagine, but you donât understand that fact even now. This is Shroudâs faultâ
âVery well, then Fate it isâ
âI will now show you just what kind of place the world truly isâ
He clapped his hands.
A hoarse female voice resounded from the void of space:
ă Very well, Fate is suitable as a factor, then it is decided ă
ă Your Fates shall be exchanged... to see who would be able to survive... ă
ă A total of three times ă
ă Those who die more... ă
ă Shall step foot into the true path of death ă
A flash of light.
Gu Qing Shan and Reneedol both vanished without a trace.
...
The rain had continued for an entire day and night.
Inside a mass grave outside of a military post, something moved.
Pushing a bunch of corpses aside, Reneedol suddenly climbed out from the mass grave.
âHah... hah...â
She breathed heavily and tried examining her body.
A suit of strange armor, a mixture of dirt, mud, blood, and rainwater soaked her body, even touching the armor lightly would cause a few of the pieces to fall off.
It was as if she had just gone through a desperate struggle for her life.
The downpour continued.
The cold rainwater buffeted the wounds all over her body, which heightened the pain.
âWhatâs going on!?â
She grunted to herself and looked around.
Her Starforce has been weakened, but it has at least recovered.
Reneedol raised her hand and lightly tried to use it.
ââ-I can still use the power of Law to attack!
She finally felt a bit relieved.
Then, Iâm currently in the middle of Rhodeâs previous Fate?
Reneedol examined her body more carefully.
Good, Iâm still myself, I havenât actually turned into a man.
Then.
Right now, should I wait right here, or search for reinforcements?
While she was hesitating, a bit of light hesitantly approached her from within the darkness.
It was a night patrolman.
Reneedol observed them carefully and shouted: âHey!â
The patrolman appeared shaken and immediately tumbled back as he dropped the lantern he was carrying.
Reneedol relaxed a bit.
ââ-that was a mortal, and a very cowardly one as well.
In that case, there must be some sort of shelter around here.
A few moments later.
The night patrolman from earlier brought with him a fully armored soldier.
âFinally, someone whoâs a bit braverâ Reneedol scoffed.
She used the rainwater to wash away the mud on her face to display her peerless beauty.
ââno one would be able to resist this face.
The soldier stopped where he was standing immediately after shining his lantern on her face.
The soldier clenched his blade tightly and asked: âWho are you?â
Reneedol glanced at the armor on her body, rolled her eyes, then said: âThis humble one is quite heavily wounded, Iâm currently unable to move, so please help meâ
Unable to move?
The soldierâs expression relaxed slightly and relaxed his blade-wielding hand, asking her: âMiss, which sect are you from? Youâre quite fortunate to be alive, let me help you upâ
âThank youâ Reneedol said.
Finally, a place where I can rest.
However, he asked about my sect earlierââ
Whatâs a âsectâ?
While she was thinking, the other party had helped pull her up and said:
âNo need to thank me, dieâ
The blade slashed through the rain as a cold gleam towards Reneedolâs neck.
The soldierâs attack was extremely resolute, and he made sure to strike at the best opportunity, so Reneedol was swiftly beheaded and fell back into the mass grave.
One strike, over!
The soldier scoffed as he pulled his blade back and turned to the night patrolman: âDamned demoness trying to infiltrate our outpost in the middle of the night, chop her up and throw her back into the pitâ
âYes sirâ the night patrolman replied with a look of admiration.
...
Gu Qing Shan opened his eyes.
He found that he was hanging on top of a tree as a fruit.
The light of dawn had just peeked through the darkness.
The light illuminated the top of the great tree to bring life to a new day.
Gu Qing Shan looked around.
He noticed that he was at the best possible spot on top of the three.
There was another fruit at the back of the three that couldnât even touch the light of the sun.
Gu Qing Shan instantly understood the situation.
Tchââ
So the Deathmatch had switched my Fate with Reneedolâs?
...A best of three, was it?
If Reneedol had gone into my Fate, she would most likely not survive too easily.
And Iâve received her Fateââ during her entire life, the most difficult time was actually during the very beginning.
Would I be a man or woman after Iâm born?
A fruit doesnât have a gender right?
Although, since the Deities of Fate have yet to arrive, there is something I can do that will immediately tell me everything I need to know.
With that in mind, he turned and rolled to the back of the tree.
Sure enough, there was a smaller, thinner fruit right here.
â-this is Dusk who hadnât actually been born!
Gu Qing Shan felt emotional, almost unable to stop himself from sighing.
âHeyâ
He called out while bumping against the other fruit.
The other fruit wasnât able to endure the bump at all and was pushed into a corner of the branch.
âHm? Big brother, why are you here?â the fruit asked.
Gu Qing Shan sternly said: âWhat time is it that youâre still sleeping? Get out there and start sunbathing alreadyâ
The fruit was stunned, then squeakily replied: âYou usually donât let me sunbaââ-â
Gu Qing Shan cut her off: âFrom today onwards, you have to sunbathe, otherwise you wonât get enough nutrients, hurry up!â
âAh, yes, come with me too, big brotherâ
âOf course big brother is going to go with youâ