Chapter 841: Come, Then Come Again

In just two exchanges, the obstructing cultivators lost two of their friends.

The other cultivators quickly gathered at once and carefully distanced themselves from Gu Qing Shan.

One of them called out: “His swordsmanship is too terrifying, we need Old Cheng to come personally to deal with him”

At this point, cheering noises could be heard from below.

The group looked down to see an old man arriving at the plaza.

“It’s Old Cheng”

“That’s great, Old Cheng has come!”

“It’ll be ok now”

The cultivators all appeared glad.

Gu Qing Shan followed their gaze downward to see an old man with silver-white hair holding a long smoker’s pipe in his hand.

This is the strongest one among them?

Gu Qing Shan stared at the old man.

The old man squinted his eyes and carefully glanced at Gu Qing Shan.

He started to speak: “Brat, you—–”

His expression suddenly warped as he rapidly formed a hand seal with both hands.

At the very next second, Sword Will surged forward inside Gu Qing Shan’s eyes.

[True Soul Cleaving Eyes]!

The old man suddenly vanished and was pulled by Gu Qing Shan’s Eye Technique into a temporary world and attacked once.

Everything happened in the blink of an eye.

“Ah? He’s not dead yet? That’s quite impressive” Gu Qing Shan muttered.

The old man reappeared where he stood before, still with a bewildered look on his face.

But he wasn’t wounded.

To be completely intact when ambushed by Gu Qing Shan, this old man should be quite considerably strong.

“An Iris Sword? What a rare technique to see, even though you clearly haven’t quite reached ‘that’ stage, you’re already thinking of how to converge the power of flying swords.

The old man took flight and hovered in front of Gu Qing Shan.

When he saw Gu Qing Shan held a sword in hand, the old man smiled.

His tone changed a bit: “How regretful, your Thaumaturgy couldn’t hurt me, and now I can siphon the power of these five Void Revolution realm cultivators to temporarily increase my strength to attain Three Thousand Words realm”

Gu Qing Shan asked: “If you really have the power of a Three Thousand Worlds realm cultivator, why not come and kill me?”

Three Thousand Worlds realm was the realm of people around Xie Gu Hong’s level, at the moment, Gu Qing Shan was still only at the Void Wanderer realm, which was two realms below Three Thousand Worlds realm, if they really fought, he would be no match.

The old man easily answered: “There’s no harm in telling you, this is my defensive Thaumaturgy. There’s a strict condition for borrowing the power of 5 people: I can only defend, never attack”

“In other words, I can’t do anything to you, but you won’t be able to do anything to me either” Gu Qing Shan commented.

“Indeed, this will be when you have to make a choice” the old man declared.

“What choice?”

“Miss Zhi Luo’s life or death”

Gu Qing Shan became solemnly silent with intense killing intent drifting from his body.

700 flying swords appeared at the same time behind him, vibrating harmoniously.

“Are you threatening me?” Gu Qing Shan asked in a low voice.

“Not at all, I’m simply stating the truth”

The old man paused briefly and continued: “Although the Mahesvara realm’s mountains are sturdy and Zhi Luo has numerous defensive means, there would still be one day when we destroy her mountain and kill her”

There would still be one day——

Which means Zhi Luo should be safe for now.

Gu Qing Shan calmed down slightly.

“And here I thought you won’t kill those who remain here” he commented.

The old man replied: “She herself isn’t strong, yet she obtained a peak for herself in this realm, arranged for countless defensive means within that mountain, then further prepared the means for you to successfully break through. With just a bit of calculation, I can tell that her Merits have already been used up quite thoroughly”

“And that’s why you can kill her without worry?” Gu Qing Shan asked.

“Indeed, that is one reason, but more importantly——– you are worried about her, if you won’t leave this place, then we can promise you not to kill her”

The old man squinted his eyes and smirked like a cruel and sly wild wolf.

“I want to kill you right now” Gu Qing Shan muttered.

The old man shook his head and purposefully sighed: “You can’t kill me——- my Thaumaturgy can last for half an hour, during this time, you will either fail your Tribulation or would have already left this place, you wouldn’t be able to wait until the moment my Thaumaturgy ends”

“Young man, it’s now time for you to make your decision”

“As long as you are willing to stay and save her, I guarantee that from now on, you and her shall live a most heavenly life”

“But if you face your Tribulation and leave, then you’ll be waiting until she dies by our hands”

Gu Qing Shan seriously listened to him and said nothing.

The old man declared triumphantly: “She already aided you in your Fire Tribulation once, so I presume that your relationships must be quite decent—– so choose, do you want her to die, or her to live with you blissfully?”

Gu Qing Shan abruptly spoke: “When she doesn’t have any Merit, you people immediately decided to kill her; but on the other hand, while she still has Merit, you don’t want to kill her at all—— which means her Merit must be quite useful for you——- what you’re after is actually to obtain Merit, isn’t it?”

The old man just stared straight at him.

Gu Qing Shan continued: “Since you want Merit so much, that can only mean that Merit is actually a precious thing in this world”

“Similarly, only if I stay here would you obtain more Merit”

“So the reason you’re using such a dirty method just to make me remain here is that you’re after the Merit I have”

The old man just stayed silent.

Standing not too far behind him, the other cultivators all appeared shocked.

“This brat—– this brat must be a devil” one cultivator muttered.

The old man regained his calm and stared straight into Gu Qing Shan’s eyes: “Regardless of what status you have outside, in this place, you can only make your choice——- stay here and save her, or live on by yourself”

Gu Qing Shan couldn’t help but sigh.

He already didn’t have the intention to look for Zhi Luo anymore.

There wasn’t much time, so not only did he have to deal with these cultivators, but he also needed time to face his Fire Tribulation.

“Sword Array!”

Gu Qing Shan uttered the words.

The 700 flying swords flew out from behind his back and formed a strict defensive Sword Array.

These flying swords were directly linked to his thought.

Gu Qing Shan held the Chao Yin sword in his hand and immersed himself into a blank state.

——he began to face his Tribulation right in front of everyone here!

The cultivators exchanged glances.

“So he was a heartless fellow, no wonder his advancement was so rapid” someone commented.

“Hmph, poor big sis Zhi Luo, doing so much for him, but he doesn’t even love her” a female cultivator scoffed.

She couldn’t endure her rage and sent a spell at Gu Qing Shan.

As soon as the spell entered the range of his Sword Array, a flying sword stopped it.

Clang!

A clear chime.

When the flying sword was hit, the spell was also neutralized.

Gu Qing Shan suddenly opened his eyes.

He felt a bit frightful and fortunate as he looked down at the female cultivator and said: “Thank you”

Saying so, he closed his eyes again and resumed his Tribulation.

The female cultivator was surprised.

He thanked me?

What for?

The old man then told everyone: “Everyone, don’t try and attack him now. Because his flying swords are linked to his thoughts, even touching them briefly would wake him up”

The cultivators all realized what was happening.

The essence of the Fire Tribulation was countless number of desperate delusions.

When a cultivator was deep inside the delusion and was woken up by the flying swords outside, they would realize that the delusion wasn’t real.

This was them essentially helping him escape the delusions!

“This brat, even in a moment like this, he’s still trying to use us to help dispel the Fire Tribulation!” someone called out in surprise.

“That’s why I told everyone not to attack him, we can only hope that he’ll die within his own delusions now!” the old man shouted again.

Everyone fell silent.

Even in a moment like this, he still thought of a way to use his enemies, a completely unimaginable action.

What a terrifying bastard.

Time slowly passed.

Gu Qing Shan’s figure gradually vanished from this world.

He passed the Fire Tribulation just like that.

The cultivators all exchanged glances to see the intense look of grudge in each other’s eyes.

“What a cold-blooded sword cultivator” someone sighed.

“Most likely, only such a heartless person would be able to break through the Fire Tribulation” someone angrily said.

The old man and the group of strongest cultivators all had grim looks on their faces, gathered and discussed what they should do next.

In the end, they made their decision.

The group all flew towards Zhi Luo’s Clear Bright Peak.

…

Time passed.

Explosions rang out all over Clear Bright Peak.

The cultivators were attacking this mountain without end.

It would take them about several dozen days to thoroughly destroy this mountain, but these cultivators had no intention of doing that.

They had decided to take over this mountain right after they killed Zhi Luo.

Over half an hour later.

A strange sensation could be felt across the world.

The cultivators all stopped their hands.

Everyone appeared glad as they looked at the old man.

“I can feel the fluctuations in the world, after a while, another cultivator will come here to face their Fire Tribulation—— today is a good day” the old man smiled.

“Indeed, looks like we’re going to earn a bit of Merit today”

“How great”

“That bastard just now was a devil in human clothing, no need to mind him. As long as the one who arrived this time is a bit normal, we’ll be able to keep them here”

“Indeed”

All the cultivators smiled in agreement.

“Let’s go, we will return to take this mountain tonight” Old Cheng swung his hand and declared.

Under his guidance, all the cultivators quickly returned on the same path.

They all gathered at the plaza again, silently waiting for the newcomer.

One breath,

Two breaths,

Three breaths.

A screen of flames appeared.

A figure could be seen wrapped inside the flames

The old man made a gesture.

All the cultivators began to enjoy the banquet.

One cultivator walked in front of the screen of fire, waited until the figure had appeared a bit more clearly and spoke: “Ahahaha, we have a new friend joining us today, everyone! Let’s———”

His voice was stuck in his throat.

The figure fully appeared.

Gu Qing Shan.

It was Gu Qing Shan again.

“Why is it you again!?” the cultivator couldn’t help himself screaming.

Gu Qing Shan replied: “That’s right, it’s me again”

He stood still without moving, but his flying swords had already spread all over and surrounded the plaza.

All the partying cultivators froze.

They all knew a certain fact:

During a cultivator’s life, they would have to face a total of three Fire Tribulations, at Void Beholder realm, Void Wanderer realm, and Void Revolution realm respectively.

After vanishing for half an hour, this guy was already giving off the aura of Void Revolution realm peak stage.

——in other words, he came here to advance to Three Thousand Words realm!

This was completely unbelievable.

“How?” the old man asked with a hoarse voice.

“Simply with medicine. I wonder if any of you have ever heard of a thing called Realm Breaker Pills?” Gu Qing Shan replied like they were just chatting.

Realm Breaker Pill!

A legendary treasure.

And he actually had such a thing.

The cultivators all turned completely speechless, unable to utter anything.

Gu Qing Shan glanced at the old man and casually sensed his spirit energy waves.

Hm.

The old man’s Thaumaturgy already ended.

So this isn’t going to be very difficult…

He wielded the Chao Yin sword in hand.

The old man was also staring at Gu Qing Shan, a bit stunned.

I only needed a bit more time to rest to activate my Thaumaturgy again.

But he’s already standing right here in front of me, and he’s no longer one realm lower than me like before.

With his swordsmanship and the immense spirit energy of Void Revolution realm, his strikes would be reinforced to a terrifying degree.

Even if I could use my Thaumaturgy right now to increase my strength to Three Thousand Worlds realm, he can most likely cut through my defenses and kill me!

Especially since my Thaumaturgy only allows me to defend and not attack.

The old man quickly understood all of that and pulled the bloodthirsty look on his face back.

He smiled amiably, arched his back and bowed: “My friend, the Mahesvara realm is like your second home away from home, we gladly welcome you here again”