The secret room.

​​

Gu Qing Shan and Boss were talking.

"I remember you telling me that you haven't entered the underwater portion of the Pantheon during regular history, right?" Gu Qing Shan asked.

"That's right, I've only explored the portion of the ruins above water" Boss sat on a chair like he was exhausted and replied.

"Did you sense any sensation of being monitored at that time?"

"None"

"In other words, this sensation only existed in the underwater portion of the Pantheon…"

After saying that, Gu Qing Shan suddenly thought of something.

If that monitoring entity can't detect [Orange Sovereign], would I be able to try and see what it was?

Not tonight though.

------Since I've already used [Ghostly Shadow of Night] once tonight, I won't be able to borrow Adorable's [Spotless Jade] again.

If I want to try anything, I'll have to wait until tomorrow night.

Then, tomorrow night it is!

Gu Qing Shan silently decided this.

"That's right, how was my display earlier?" Boss excitedly asked.

Gu Qing Shan was a bit speechless, but still praised him: "It was great, thank to you drawing its attention, I was able to get what I wanted"

"That's great to hear" Boss chuckled.

"-----but why did you decide to tell that story?" Gu Qing Shan couldn't help but ask.

Boss shrugged: "That wasn't up to me to decide, the Book of Prophesized Destinies decided on an appropriate Destined Fable by itself"

"Destined Fable?" Gu Qing Shan asked in surprise.

-----now that I think about it, Boss was reading from the Book of Prophesized Destinies earlier.

Boss explained: "That's right, the Book of Prophesized Destinies had manifested a Fable that perfectly matched our circumstances, which took up all of my strength. That's why I can only sit here motionlessly right now"

One Destined Fable took all of his strength.

Gu Qing Shan instantly became serious.

The teenage Shroud might not have been as powerful as Boss during his peak, but he was still someone who could fight me evenly matched.

"A Fable you say? Can you tell me the complete story?" Gu Qing Shan asked.

Boss then told him the entire story.

Gu Qing Shan pondered after listening to it.

It's a very simple story.

There were three houses, the straw house was destroyed, the wooden house was destroyed, but the brick house remained.

This is too simple.

------but it was somehow related to Fate.

As long as it was related to Fate, no matter how ridiculous or laughable it was, I can't be complacent with it.

Gu Qing Shan opened his palm to release a cluster of black flames.

The black flames turned into Black Hound, but it had its eyes closed and was still sleeping.

-------It was currently in the middle of evolution, so it couldn't wake up just yet.

Alright, I wouldn't be able to rely on it right now anyway.

Gu Qing Shan paced around the secret room with various thoughts popping into mind.

Right at his moment, lines of glowing text quickly appeared in front of his eyes:

[Attention]

[The System has detected an emergency situation]

[After three minutes, a unique form of Apocalypse will descend]

[Please immediately prepare for combat!]

Gu Qing Shan immediately stood up, opened the door to the secret room, and was about to leave.

He abruptly stopped.

------Boss had completely exhausted all of his strength, so he is essentially helpless inside this secret room by himself.

This isn't the same 'him' in the future.

If there is any danger, he would die!

Gu Qing Shan immediately took out a formation plate and quickly operated it.

The faint power of Huang Quan Origin power appeared from the formation plate to produce numerous glows that manifested as several large-scale defense formations in the void of space.

"What happened?" Boss asked, a bit confused.

"You should rest as much as you can right now, I'm going to patrol the Isle for a bit" Gu Qing Shan curtly replied.

-------with so many formations protecting him, if anything happened in the secret room at all, I'd be able to use [Fog Realm Descent] to quickly return!

Gu Qing Shan closed the door to the secret room, flew up into the sky and observed his surroundings.

His inner sight covered the entire Isle.

It was currently the middle of the night, and after everyone gathered to Boss' little act earlier, they returned to rest.

It was completely peaceful.

There was no new apocalyptic junk that appeared in the river.

What could it be?

Gu Qing Shan's inner sight scanned around the place several times, before slowly detecting something.

He slowly looked up at the ceiling of this underground cavern. Just above the Isle, he noticed a tiny crack at the very top.

This crack was rapidly expanding.

Oh no!

Gu Qing Shan knew that this was bad.

------after the Samsara was destroyed, the debris broken off from it had scattered all over the ground.

That debris had already crushed the upper half of the Pantheon, so the remaining living beings had to take refuge underground in order to continue living.

------but now, even this underground cavern was unable to endure the weight and was coming down on top of them!

A burst of black flames manifested around Gu Qing Shan's body.

He had fully released his presence.

Fwoom--------

The power of Death spread all over the Isle of Protection, once again disturbing everyone.

All of the Isle's living beings hurriedly gathered and looked at him.

One of the pixies sleepily rubbed his eyes and asked Gu Qing Shan: "Are you going to continue telling the three little pigs story?"

Gu Qing Shan loudly declared:

"No, we're in danger. Everyone prepare for combat!"

He controlled his black flames, directing them towards the cracking ceiling.

Everyone immediately understood as they looked up.

-------this is a life-threatening situation!

Everyone hurriedly began to prepare.

The elves quickly distributed weapons and prepared their formations.

The giants informed Little Dusk and stood around in formation, protecting her.

An old pixie shouted: "I knew the Destined Fable from earlier would bring something to us!"

The pixies all nodded and took off their pajamas.

They were all already fully equipped and were ready for combat.

Scarlet flew up from the ground, standing next to Gu Qing Shan: "Rhode, where's Shroud?"

"He needs some rest, so we need to resolve this situation by ourselves!" Gu Qing Shan declared.

He tossed the long-handled scythe to her.

Scarlet carefully caught the scythe, then handed him a small bottle.

"What's this?" Gu Qing Shan asked in surprise.

"It's the alcohol that I mixed, it's very potent" Scarlet whispered to him.

Gu Qing Shan opened the bottle, smelled it, then drank it all at once.

The black flames around his body abruptly rose like boiling water and exerted almost twice as much pressure.

"You're right, the alcohol you mixed is very good" Gu Qing Shan praised.

Scarlet smiled brightly and said: "Really? I learnt mixing from you, so when will you teach me agai--------"

Boom!

A wave of intense rumbling abruptly resounded.

Everyone looked up, only to see that the stone ceiling had already been broken through.

A giant severed hand dropped down.

This hand was almost as big as the Isle of Protection itself. As it fell into the river near the Isle, a huge amount of water was splashed into the air.

Followed by another tremor!

Everyone on the Isle felt physically shaken.

The giant severed hand stood straight up in the water, which appeared completely smooth, almost like a solid piece of jade.

"What is that thing!?" Scarlet exclaimed.

Gu Qing Shan didn't answer.

Alarms were intensely ringing in his mind, telling him to flee as far away as he could.

The fingers of the hand slowly began to move, shifting into a strange shape that appeared somehow connected.

"It's wiggling, Rhode!" Scarlet hid behind Gu Qing Shan and fearfully called out.

Gu Qing Shan's heart also jumped.

The hand wasn't wiggling.

It was forming a hand seal!

-------it is trying to perform a Cultivation-type technique!

Immediately, the entire underground cavern disappeared.

The Isle of Protection disappeared as well.

Everything vanished without a trace.

The living beings of the Isle noticed that they had been transported to a strange place.

A grand array of palaces appeared in front of them.

The lonely moonlight illuminated their surroundings, putting the beautiful palaces with their intricate designs on display, but no signs of life could be seen.

Everyone was standing in the main square in front of the palace with an empty jade altar.

At the corners of the altar, four enormous statues that depicted the Azure Dragon, the White Tiger, the Vermillion Bird, and the Black Tortoise respectively stood motionlessly.

The land outside of the palace was vast but full of trees that formed a borderless forest.

This scene caused everyone to open their eyes wide in shock.

But Gu Qing Shan remembered all of this, so he kept his eyes on the giant jade hand.

The hand's fingers continued to change as if it was preparing to unleash another technique.

Following this shift, the four enormous statues slowly turned their heads towards the group.

Gu Qing Shan's expression immediately changed.

--------this is the [Moon Light] series of Immortal Craft of the Heaven realm!

In the future, Red Wraith had once used these techniques.

Damn it, damn it!

Not even an Awaiting like Ouroboros or the Apocalypse statue was able to take this Immortal Craft unscathed!

How could anyone here survive?

Gu Qing Shan's gaze became sharp.

A pair of crimson flame gloves appeared on his hands.

He threw a single punch towards the giant jade hand from afar, leaving an afterimage.

Silently, the giant jade hand froze and its gesturing was stopped.

But the technique had already been completed.

Among the four statues, the Black Tortoise opened its eyes and stared down at them.

------within this [Moon Light] Immortal Craft, the four Divine Beasts represent Life, Death, Turn, and Shift respectively; which one of them would the Black Tortoise be?

Gu Qing Shan didn't have time to think further as his figure vanished from where he was standing.

He appeared in front of the giant jade hand.

"Yah!"

Gu Qing Shan loudly roared and threw another punch towards the giant jade hand.

--------[Ethereal – No Pardon]!

Bam!

With a resounding noise, the giant jade hand shook a bit.

Gu Qing Shan didn't stop there, his fists turned into ten, a hundred, a thousand, and then ten thousand.

In an instant, hundreds of thousands of flaming fists struck the giant jade hand all at once.

[Ethereal – Myriad Shadows]!

The sound of his fist striking the giant jade hand felt like there was a rain shower pouring on the earth.

Suddenly, all the fists disappeared, the flames from earlier had also died down as an unusual fluctuation appeared on Gu Qing Shan's body.

The giant jade hand suddenly began to shake, almost as if it felt fear.

The hand shifted its fingers again in an attempt to form another hand seal.

Gu Qing Shan took a deep breath and sighed helplessly.

Earlier, he took advantage of the barrage of fists to use his swords and found that he wouldn't be able to destroy this hand within a short period of time.

The only solution left was this one strike.

After throwing so many punches earlier, Gu Qing Shan could sense it.

This final strike would definitely be able to destroy the giant jade hand.

But after performing this attack, all of my strength would be drained for a while!

------[Ethereal – Null Tribulation].

This was the most powerful strike of [Ethereal], the strike that contained the power that once broke the samsara apart!