Chapter 559: Sleep

TN: We have a new editor

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The black horse caught up with Gu Qing Shan and Laura.

Seeing that, Gu Qing Shan didn’t really have anything else to say.

Two people and a horse followed the road forward to investigate the current situation.

“So you are scared as well?” Laura asked.

“Scared?” the black horse lifted his head up and spoke sincerely: “You misunderstand, my professionalism compels me to be close to my summoners to ensure that I’m always ready to be called”

“Alright, say no more, I understand”

Laura held back her laughter as she patted the scared horse’s back.

“Are you afraid of ghosts?” Gu Qing Shan casually asked.

“Of course, I’m very afraid of them” Laura generously admitted.

She was currently sitting on the horse’s back while Gu Qing Shan held his reins, the three walking forward together.

“So there is a problem with the road” Gu Qing Shan stopped and said.

The entire road in front of them was cut off.

There was a large crater right in the middle of it.

Around the crater were jagged rock and rubble, together with a number of smaller holes of varying depths, as well as dark red patches of blood.

Gu Qing Shan went closer to the crater and took a look on the other side.

He didn’t know what created this crater, but the radius was easily over 100 meters, as for the depth——

Releasing his inner sight to check, Gu Qing Shan found that the crater was about 200 meters deep, with a lot of liquid blood at the bottom.

There wasn’t anything inside the thick red blood, but on the other side of the crater from where they stood were a row of large bloody footprints.

These creepy bloody footprints followed the wall of the crater all the way up and kept going further away along the road.

——-as if something had crawled out from the bottom of this crater, made its way up and headed for the city center.

“Can you jump across?” Gu Qing Shan asked.

“I can, with a running start, going to the other side won’t be a problem” the black horse answered.

Roar——-

A thunderous roar came from the city center.

This roar wasn’t at all like the roar of a beast, but rather the pained cries of countless people.

Laura took out her monocular, wanting to take a look.

Gu Qing Shan caught the monocular and said: “Don’t look, there’s a few ghosts and revenants that can detect your gaze”

Hearing him say that, Laura gave up.

She sneaked a glance at him to see Gu Qing Shan making a strange expression on his face.

“What is it? Did you notice something?” Laura couldn’t help but ask him.

“Ah, no, I was just thinking about something else”

Gu Qing Shan replied while he was still thinking.

Soon, he led the black horse back the way they came from to find a clean area in a secluded street.

Taking his formation plate out again, Gu Qing Shan quickly arranged formation after formation.

Without minding the spirit stone expenditure, Gu Qing Shan went ahead and set up every high-level defensive formation there was, and then a few more attack formations.

At this level of power and number, these formations were more than enough to deal with a large-scale war back in the cultivation world.

“What are you doing?” Laura asked in surprise.

“Arranging defensive formations” Gu Qing Shan thought briefly and then proceeded to set up a soundproof formation as well.

Laura spoke: “I know you’re setting up formations, but I’m asking why you’re setting them up”

“To rest”

Laura froze.

“We’ve done a lot of things and traveled far without any rest. There’s a lot more danger ahead, but we’re already too tired, this isn’t a good thing since it will affect our ability to think and react to any situation properly, possibly putting our lives in danger” Gu Qing Shan explained.

“If you hadn’t said it I wouldn’t have noticed at all. I’m actually very sleepy right now, only barely staying up due to the danger” Laura yawned.

Gu Qing Shan tapped his Inventory Bag and placed a large table down in the middle of the formation array.

Onion, garlic, shallots, soy sauce, vinegar, black pepper, chili… various spices were lined up neatly. Followed by fresh cooking ingredients as well as a pot and fire to cook them in.

“Have you ever tried human cooking?”

“I can eat them”

“Alright then”

Two chairs appeared out of nowhere.

“Sit down and wait a bit, I’ll make the food” Gu Qing Shan said without turning around.

He began to cook.

Laura sat down and silently watched him work.

“I didn’t think you knew how to cook”

“Eat a delicious hot meal and rest properly, tomorrow at dawn, we’ll be back to full spirits and continue to explore this city”

“Alright!” Laura raised both hands and cheered.

The meal was quite rich.

Seven main dishes, four stir-fry dishes and a bowl of soup.

Laura ate modestly and slowly, but Gu Qing Shan quickly devoured two whole bowls of food.

The black horse hesitated as he looked at the table full of food.

Gu Qing Shan then prepared a bit of spirit vegetables for it, the horse first tried a few pieces before digging in happily.

He politely expressed his thanks.

The two people and the horse all had their fill.

After dinner was over, Gu Qing Shan washed everything and put them away before pulling out a small mattress and blanket.

“Now rest”

He carefully tucked Laura to bed and sat by her side.

Within the array of almost a hundred formations, the temperature was just right, the air was filled with spirit energy, calm and silence.

As Laura laid down, she felt the exhaustion wash all over her body.

“Won’t you sleep?” she asked.

“A cultivator can rest by sitting, it’s actually better for us”

“Gu Qing Shan, I’m a bit scared to sleep”

“Why?”

“I have a feeling I might be spooked again”

“That’s just your mind playing tricks on you, I can’t sense anything at all”

“You can’t sense anything?”

“Of course, I’m a cultivator. I’ll have you know, the spirit sense of a cultivator can tell danger and peace ahead of time”

“But the Entropy Ghost before——”

“I sensed it first, don’t you remember? It was thanks to me putting up the formations beforehand that it was stopped”

“You mean you really can’t sense anything right now?”

“Yeah”

Hearing Gu Qing Shan replied, Laura lightly sighed in relief.

“Then it must be because I’ve been too tense for too long that my mind isn’t clear” she rubbed above the bridge of her nose and muttered.

“That’s right” Gu Qing Shan lightly patted her head, “sleep well, you need to rest”

“Hm”

Laura closed her eyes.

Gu Qing Shan took out a cushion and sat next to her.

A few moments later.

“Gu Qing Shan”

“Hm?”

“I can’t sleep, how about we play a little game before bed?”

“What kind of game?”

“You tell me a small secret of yours, then I’ll tell you a small secret of mine, we’ll exchange secrets”

“…”

“Before, mother would always play this game with me every night… but now…”

“Laura, listen to me, do you know why Barry and Kitty let me stay at the Club?”

Laura was intrigued by this, so she tried asking: “Because you’re a good person?”

“No, because they were conquered by my cooking skills”

“Ah, so that’s the reason. Hm, now that I remember it, your cooking really did taste quite good”

“Now it’s your turn”

“Gu Qing Shan, do you know why I’m afraid of heights?”

“Why?”

“We Bramble Birds have memories right from the moment when we are born, and so on the day of my birth, my father was so happy that he didn’t pay enough attention when holding me, so I was dropped from the top of the Saint Bramble Tree”

“The Saint Bramble Tree?”

“That’s right, the Saint Bramble Tree of our Bramble Bird race, it gives us the miraculous powers that we possess, and it’s about 10,000 meters tall”

“…As soon as you were born, you were dropped from such a high place? And you know it as well?”

“Yeah, the very first impression I have of this life was that ‘I am falling’, and I could feel myself fall”

“Your father must’ve been very hurried to save you”

“He thought that mother would save me, but mother thought that he would act first, the officials thought that the King and Queen would act, the guards thought that the officials would act, while the guests thought that the royal guards would act”

“So no one did anything at all?”

“Yeah, it wasn’t until I had fallen several thousand meters that everyone acted all at once to pick me back up”

“That is a sorrowful story”

“Your turn to tell me a secret”

“A secret… I once dreamt that I’ve fought during my entire life, but when I died, I woke up and found that I’ve returned to being 18 years old, doing everything again from scratch”

“What a wondrous dream, maybe Kitty would find that story exciting”

“That’s right, she’s an author after all”

“…”

Laura’s eyes closed, gradually falling into a deep sleep.

Gu Qing Shan silently waited.

Time passed.

All of a sudden, Laura began to sob and sleep talk.

“Mother… I miss you…”

She rolled and turned uncomfortably.

Gu Qing Shan thought briefly and took out a long stick of calming incense, lighting it.

This was a product by Qin Xiao Lou’s hands, not only does it have an effect to help someone quickly go to sleep, it also had an effect to calm their nerves and soul vessel.

The calming incense let off a faint green smoke, followed by a lingering fragrance.

Soon after, Laura’s breathing became stable and periodic, her expression also became calm.

Seeing her like that, Gu Qing Shan was slowly assured.

“Now” he muttered.

Right away, an autumn-like blue sword appeared from the void of space.

The sword silently turned and transformed into a beautiful blue-dress maid.

“Gongzi, leave it to me”

“Hm, then I’ll trouble you for now”

Gu Qing Shan stood up from his cushion, giving his place to Shannu.

“Gongzi, your battle…” Shannu was a bit concerned.

“I have Chao Yin and the Earth sword, it’ll be fine, I’ll call you if there’s an issue”

“But——”

“Don’t worry, if I can’t beat them I’ll just run, you know my escape techniques better than anyone”

“Alright”

Shannu was now a bit more assured.

She activated [Mystery of All Beings Equal] and turned into Gu Qing Shan.

Two Gu Qing Shan was inside the formation array at the same time.

Shannu who turned into Gu Qing Shan sat down on the cushion to look over Laura.

While the real Gu Qing Shan was about to leave.

The black horse stared eyes wide at this whole scene.

Gu Qing Shan stroked his head, saying: “The situation is a bit special, you guys rest here, I’ll return in a bit”

The black horse nodded and spoke: “So you’re going to fight? Make sure to be careful”

Gu Qing Shan chuckled and glided outside the formation array.

In the night breeze, passing through the crater of blood, quickly running along the abandoned road, ignoring the countless eerie corpses, Gu Qing Shan kept going forward.

Unlike when he was with Laura, Gu Qing Shan wasn’t concerned with various minor things when he went alone.

Like a flash of lightning, he quickly dashed through the dim, silent town at full speed.

The Earth sword and Chao Yin sword followed closely behind as they flew forward.

Roar!

Ooooo!

Ekikikiki!

Hooorr, horrr, hoooor!

In front of them, countless creepy noises came, either full of anger, laughter, fear or insanity.

Gu Qing Shan stopped and landed here.

This place was quite a bit away from the city center.

Moving forward anymore will put him squarely inside the battle zone.

In Gu Qing Shan’s inner sight, the area in front was Hell, a slaughterhouse, a place to fear and tremble.

Any normal person that comes in there would definitely be scared for life.

Gu Qing Shan sighed and muttered: “It’s good that she’s asleep, what’s about to happen next isn’t suitable for children to see”

He took the Earth sword in hand and quickly stepped forward.