Chapter 827: Search

Translator: La0o9 Editor: La0o9

At the bottom of the ocean.

The Chao Yin sword silently hung behind Gu Qing Shan’s head and maintained the dry and waterless barrier around him.

Gu Qing Shan’s body was gradually burning brighter and brighter.

At one point, the fire was hot enough to bend and warp the air around him.

At the border between water and fire, some faint white mist could be seen emerging.

Gu Qing Shan’s hair was also turning a bit curly.

The Chao Yin sword worriedly vibrated.

It could infer that this terrifying fire was slowly but surely eating through Gu Qing Shan’s body.

Under its control, a few small streams of water entered into this dry area from the sea around them directly towards Gu Qing Shan.

But before the stream of water could even reach him, they were evaporated by the intense heat.

The Chao Yin sword let out a loud howl, so worried that it spun around itself.

At this time, Gu Qing Shan opened his eyes.

Hoh

Almost right away, the fire that engulfed him was completely doused.

“I’m sorry for worrying you”

Gu Qing Shan said apologetically.

When his soul vessel returned, he was able to hear the Chao Yin sword’s howl.

The Chao Yin sword was glad and circled around him.

“Don’t worry, I’ve successfully passed my Tribulation” Gu Qing Shan said.

He looked at the [Kindling] UI.

Several lines of blood-red text quickly appeared:

[The Wind and Fire Double Tribulation has ended]

[You have become a Void Wanderer realm cultivator]

[Level up Quest completed]

[Soul Points required for next level up: 700,000]

[Current Soul Points: 310,000]

[The Order will enter a short adjustment period, all functions will temporarily be unavailable while preparing for evolution]

The blood-red lines of text disappeared.

Gu Qing Shan suddenly called out: “Wait a minute!”

A large ‘?’ appeared on the [Kindling] UI.

Gu Qing Shan asked: “Why aren’t there any Thaumaturgy Quests after I broke through?”

Lines of blood-red text appeared on the [Kindling] UI:

[The Order does not have a function specifically made for human cultivators’ Thaumaturgies]

[Entering the adjustment period. If there are any problems, please wait until the Order completes its adjustments before resuming communication]

The entire [Kindling] UI vanished from in front of Gu Qing Shan’s vision.

It had already begun to prepare for its evolution.

Gu Qing Shan fell into thought as he compared the War God UI and the [Kindling Order].

From this lack of a Thaumaturgy function after breaking through, the War God UI’s functions were clearly a lot more powerful.

In addition, [War God Title], [War God Quest], and [War God Skills] were all excellent functions that could help a cultivator in battle a lot more.

Meanwhile, even if [Kindling] evolves into [Origin], the only use for Soul Points would be to exchange for powerful Demon Lords that helped in battle.

Frankly speaking, they’re nothing but tools.

But [Kindling]’s desires towards Soul Points are a lot more severe than the War God UI.

As long as there are Soul Points to be obtained, it would resort to everything it has to obtain it.

Gu Qing Shan shook his head and was about to take off when he saw a Card jump out in front of him.

The Lapis Card, [Sword cultivator Gu Qing Shan]

This was the Card that represented himself.

And then three more cards appeared in front of him.

[Bleed], [True Crimson Demon Spear] and [Black Smog Armor].

He had a sudden realization.

After I broke through, regardless of whether or not the [Order] exists, I can draw a new Card.

This draw would be completely random, no one could tell which Card I would obtain among the Lapis-grade Cards of the Condemnation deck.

Gu Qing Shan didn’t think too much about it and randomly tugged at the void of space.

A Card manifested in his hand.

The face of the card depicted a set of forging tools with a blank space below it that described the Card’s name and ability.

[Consumable: Armor smith’s set of tools]

[When using this card, you will be able to immediately reinforce any ability of a defensive item]

Gu Qing Shan didn’t hesitate and placed this card on top of the [Black Smog Armor] card as Little Dusk once explained to him.

“Consume!” Gu Qing Shan declared.

The card [Armor smith’s set of tools] instantly glowed brightly.

It was slowly absorbed into the [Black Smog Armor] card and vanished.

Very quickly, the description of an ability written below the [Black Smog Armor] card changed.

[Black Smog Boots: When you stand absolutely still, the black smog will conceal you, only enemies 3 realms higher will be able to perceive you]

Gu Qing Shan was glad.

Before, it could only conceal him from enemies 2 realms higher, but now it was 3 realms.

I’m currently a Void Wanderer realm cultivator, after Void Wanderer there were the three realms of Void Revolution, Three Thousand Worlds, and Paragon. In other words, when I want to conceal myself, only enemies who are at Paragon realm and above will be able to discover me.

That’s already quite impressive.

After I reach Void Revolution realm, I’ll use the Realm Breaker Pill to advance straight to Three Thousand Worlds realm. At the time, only a Combatant of at least {King of Mahesvara} realm or above will be able to perceive me.

As expected of the Demon King’s armor!

He pulled the [Black Smog Armor] card out and lightly waved it.

Almost immediately, he finished donning the jet-black armor covered in black mist.

Everything had been dealt with.

I need to quickly return to the ship now.

“Chao Yin, let’s go”

Oong

…

The place where he chose to face his Tribulation was incredibly far away from the ship, and it was several hundred thousand meters under the ocean.

Gu Qing Shan hurriedly flew at full speed.

On his way, he randomly slashed the void of space.

The void of space itself was easily cut apart, revealing the chaotic space vortex inside.

Gu Qing Shan silently nodded.

As I’ve reached Void Wanderer realm, without needing any outside assistance, I can cut open 90 World Layers and see through all of them.

Unfortunately, I’m still inside the Age of Old phantom images right now.

When the Divine race imitated the Bygone Era humans and created the worlds, to avoid being noticed by the Desolate race, they purposefully placed those worlds exceedingly far away from the Primordial Heaven Realm and Primordial Wraith Realm.

That was why even though Gu Qing Shan had cut open the void of space, all that he saw was a chaotic space vortex without anything inside.

Time quickly passed.

Gu Qing Shan finally returned to the nautical area around the giant ship.

He first caught a bit of seafood inside the ocean before he slowly moved back towards the ship and leapt back onto the deck.

The evil creatures standing guard already realized who he was so they didn’t stop him.

The guard who sent him away the first time even greeted him.

It hasn’t been even an hour since Gu Qing Shan left.

There are other evil creatures who had a much larger appetite that still haven’t returned even though they left before he did.

Gu Qing Shan also silently felt fortunate.

Fortunate that Zhi Luo had already prepared the necessary things to aid his Tribulation in the Mahesvara realm.

Zhi Luo…

Gu Qing Shan silently sighed.

All of a sudden, a voice resounded in his mind.

『 What happened? You seem to be quite down 』

Gu Qing Shan instantly recognized that this was the Silent Ruler’s telepathy.

Ever since the previous battle, their relationship turned from strangers to acquaintances, occasionally they would even say a few words to each other.

As he was about to look up to search for her, the Silent Ruler’s voice arrived again: 『 Don’t try and search for me, the others might noticed 』

“What’s the matter?” Gu Qing Shan noticed the urgency in her voice and couldn’t help asking.

『 The Lord of Total Distortion had let a small ship down and brought some of his close aides, preparing to leave 』

“What!? Where?”

『 The head of the ship 』

Gu Qing Shan released his inner sight forward.

Only to see that the head of the ship was currently being guarded, two evil creatures were keeping up various layers of spells that completely obscured this place.

The Lord of Total Distortion’s guard troops were also stationed around there so that no one could approach or peer into this area.

Obviously, something was happening.

However, for the last few days, the ship had been in a constant state of alarm where large operations were being conducted quite frequently. Since the Lord of Total Distortion took direct command of these operations, none of the evil creatures knew anything unless they participated in it.

Because of that, the evil creatures were already used to this kind of strict defensive measures, and there weren’t any evil creatures willing to offend the Lord of Total Distortion and try to find out the truth of what was happening at the head of the ship.

The Silent Ruler probably used her own special means to find this out.

“What did you see? And what do you have in mind?” Gu Qing Shan asked.

The Silent Ruler didn’t answer.

A while later, she sent her telepathic message again: 『 The Lord of Total Distortion had boarded the ship, it seems they’re really about to leave 』

“Can you pursue them to have a closer look?” Gu Qing Shan asked.

『 Impossible 』the Silent Ruler gave a bitter chuckle: 『 It’s taking all my strength to see this far if I try to pursue any further, the Lord of Total Distortion would surely notice 』

Gu Qing Shan fell silent.

Indeed, the Lord of Total Distortion was the strongest Evil King, so once he decided to act, he would definitely be nothing but cautious and wary.

If he’s leaving the entire city of evil creatures behind, what is he trying to do?

Would he return?

No one knows, and no one dares to try and find out.

The Lord of Total Distortion had definitely already made ample preparations so that if any evil creatures try to get close, they would be noticed.

Gu Qing Shan thought for a bit more.

With Lord of Total Distortion’s strength, if he needed to do something, he doesn’t need to take another ship.

Unless he’s going to be on the sea for a long time, or has already made the decision to leave this ship behind.

“Did you see his daughters?” Gu Qing Shan asked again.

『 I did, they were the first to board the ship, that’s why I noticed this wasn’t normal and wanted to discuss this with you a bit 』the Silent Ruler replied.

Gu Qing Shan felt heavy.

If both of his daughters also left with him, the Lord of Total Distortion would most likely not return to this giant ship.

Then, why?

Gu Qing Shan contemplated a bit and suddenly tapped his Inventory Bag.

The jade gourd pendant jumped out from the bag.

Xiu

It appeared sluggish, its voice was also considerably tired.

“Don’t sleep, I have some Soul Points for you” Gu Qing Shan told it.

The jade gourd pendant instantly became spirited again.

Wu wu?

“It’s true, but I need you to do something for me”

Xiu, xiu xiu xiu!

“Go to the head of the ship, follow the small ship for a bit to see what happens, then report back to me”

Xiu!

The jade gourd pendant replied.

A flash of white light came and the jade pendant disappeared from Gu Qing Shan’s sight.

It was flying towards the head of the ship, but none of the evil creatures on the way noticed it.

Only Gu Qing Shan was able to see it.

Since the Adorable jade pendant had the Thaumaturgy [Spotless Jade], he didn’t need to worry about the Lord of Total Distortion discovering it, and he could find out what happened.

“Silent Ruler, thank you for telling me”

Gu Qing Shan said.

He left the ship just now to face his Tribulation so he didn’t know what happened on the ship at all.

It’s lucky for me that the Silent Ruler informed me about this, otherwise, I would’ve coincidentally missed his crucial detail.

『 No need to thank me. I just felt a chilling ominous feeling from this 』the Silent Ruler replied.

“Then why haven’t you left and returned to your realm?” Gu Qing Shan asked.

『 I made a covenant with the Lord of Total Distortion, so I must complete this expedition before I can return 』the Silent Ruler answered.

Gu Qing Shan fell silent.

He had always been someone who abided by the rule of fair transaction.

The Lord of Total Distortion gave up a life on his side to save the Earth sword.

As payment for this, I would join him on this sea expedition.

This was fair, and I am more than happy to do this to the best of my abilities to repay him.

But it was only to that extent.

At this point, Gu Qing Shan was sensing an indescribable sense of ill-will.

Just like the omens of death, he felt before they began this voyage, this entire thing was incredibly eerie.

If the Lord of Total Distortion had other plans, then this was no longer part of what he promised at the beginning.

And Gu Qing Shan would no longer abide by the rules of their transaction.