Gu Qing Shan's figure slightly crouched, shifted into a stance, then unleashed a barrage of strikes like a blurred image.

​​

Countless afterimages instantly appeared around Reneedol.

The insects were swiftly repelled, their bodies were still burning with black flames as they fell into the underground river.

Having been 'rescued', Reneedol appeared glad and killed the remaining insects with the Starlight Blade in her hand.

"Why are you here?" she asked from a distance.

"The entire Pantheon ruins are about to collapse, we've been looking for the two of you everywhere, only now did we find you" Gu Qing Shan loudly replied.

Boss then opened his eyes.

"Not good, more and more Samsara debris is piling on top of us. From what I can see, not even the Lord of Infinite Origins would be able to endure it for much longer" he said.

Everyone's expressions changed.

Gu Qing Shan silently sent his voice: "Never mind anything else, Boss, I need to ask you something. Do you have a way for us to immediately leave this era?"

Boss replied: "I don't. Unless you collect all six Sealing Tokens and completely set history in stone, we wouldn't be able to return to the future at all"

"The 5th Sealing Token's condition was to triumph against all enemies, I assume that you didn't establish Reneedol as an enemy at the time?" Gu Qing Shan asked.

Boss nodded.

"Then, what's the condition for the 6th Sealing Token?" Gu Qing Shan asked again.

"To ensure that history would not be affected and continue to follow its original course" Boss replied, then wryly smiled.

------with the status quo as it is, this is too difficult of a task to achieve.

Gu Qing Shan's heart turned heavy.

A moment of life and death is already here, there's no time to make careful considerations at all, so I need to ask as clearly as I can about everything.

He sent his voice again: "If we collected all six Sealing Tokens, you and I will return to the future, but what about the current Shroud?"

Boss replied: "Myself during this era would suddenly wake up, completely clueless about everything that had happened------- as if he had just woken up from a dream. That 'me' would once again obtain control over this body"

Boss continued: "As for you and I------ I can't return to the Temporal Oasis any longer, so I'll probably have to form some sort of covenant with you, attaching myself to one of the objects you carry and leave with you, similar to your swords"

"------But first, we need to resolve our current situation"

He flipped through the Book of Prophesized Destinies and quickly explained: "Rhode, I've investigated all forms of power and discovered that none of the powers I recognize would be able to resolve the current situation. Only the unique power contained within the attack you unleashed against the giant jade hand would be capable of sending all the Samsara fragments on the surface flying, thus scattering them into the Space Vortex"

Gu Qing Shan was startled.

Boss is talking about the power of [Null Tribulation].

Indeed, this power was able to break the Samsara apart, so it is naturally capable of doing such a thing.

But my grasp of this power is still too crude, and my personal strength isn't enough to mobilize this power.

Gu Qing Shan explained: "But then------ my power is limited; I probably wouldn't be able to deal with too many fragments"

Boss tapped the Book of Prophesized Destinies.

The Book of Prophesized Destinies quickly flipped through until it reached a certain page.

This page depicted a pale skeleton that caused one to feel frightened just by looking at it, almost to the point of falling to one's knee.

Boss looked at the skeleton with a hesitant expression.

Gu Qing Shan lightly patted his shoulder and sent his voice: "Not right now, we can't go all-out just yet"

"Why not?" Boss asked.

Gu Qing Shan told him everything that he had learnt.

Boss fell into thought.

--------there is an Apocalypse on Reneedol's body?

Not only that, even if we resolve the issue with the Samsara debris, we will need to be careful of the Lord of Infinite Origins' monitoring.

"We're going to divide up the tasks" Boss resolutely said.

"How so?" Gu Qing Shan asked.

"I need to make some preparations to obtain a certain kind of power that would allow me to get rid of the Samsara debris" Boss replied.

"Then what about me?" Gu Qing Shan asked.

"You'll be responsible for everything else" Boss said.

Gu Qing Shan stared straight at him: "Are you sure that's a fair delegation?"

'Everything else' includes the six Sealing Tokens, the Lord of Infinite Origins and the Myriad Deities he controlled, as well as the Apocalypse on Reneedol's body.

------even for the Samsara debris, Boss was only going to summon some sort of power for him, but in the end, it would still be Gu Qing Shan who would be using [Null Tribulation] to get rid of them.

Boss' expression was calm and replied: "Don't worry, this is 100% fair since I'll be acting in between as well"

"Got it" Gu Qing Shan replied.

As the two of them quickly discussed this, a Deity arrived in front of them.

A black tentacle was attached to the back of this Deity's neck, who stared blankly at them and spoke: 「 … Leave… the Lord of Radiance… 」

Reneedol scoffed, then manifested boundless starlight around her body.

She stood out: "Everyone retreat first, I'll be right behind you"

As soon as she said that, dozens of Deities appeared from the underground river below.

------it turns out the Lord of Infinite Origins had already prepared an ambush for them!

These Deities recited the same incantation and shouted: "Sealing World, teleport!"

Instantly, a flash of light enveloped everyone and took them away.

…

An unending snowstorm.

The teleportation runes spun around in mid-air before it finally landed on top of the snow-covered ground.

Everyone appeared.

This was an absolutely silent world of ice, other than the howling snowstorm, they couldn't see anything else at all.

"Where are we?" Scarlet questioned.

She released her flames to envelop and protect everyone around.

"Perhaps a place that would be beneficial for the other party to fight against us" Little Dusk commented.

Gu Qing Shan's expression froze, then crouched down and pushed the snow at his feet away with his hand.

Only to see an impossibly large ice crystal.

Something seemed to exist at the very depths of the ice crystal, but he couldn't see it clearly from where he was.

That's right.

This was the location that Lachesis once showed me, the place of the Lord of Infinite Origins' birth.

The Lord of Infinite Origins… probably is the only one that had the authority to enter and exit this place.

He has completely trapped us here.

"Over there!" Scarlet pointed out.

Gu Qing Shan looked up.

In the snowstorm, black figures could be seen raining down from the sky.

"Deities! Deities who have fallen and are under his complete control!" Reneedol grunted.

Everyone looked up, only to see numerous Deities standing all over the sky.

Each of them radiated the light of a Law, looking down at the group of five below with a blank expression.

「「「 … Hand over… the Lord of Radiance… 」」」

All of the Deities spoke up in unison.

"It seems we are left with no choice but to fight" Scarlet clenched her fist tightly.

Gu Qing Shan glanced at her: "Why do you appear so confident?"

"As a supportive Professionist, I'm actually more confident in you guys than in myself" Scarlet replied.

After saying that, she hid behind Gu Qing Shan without any hesitation.

Boss spoke up: "Rhode, deal with this situation, I need to summon that power now"

After saying that, he retreated behind Gu Qing Shan as well. Putting his hand on the Book of Prophesized Destinies, he slowly closed his eyes and silently recited an incantation.

Gu Qing Shan shook his head tiredly.

-----two unreliable allies.

He glanced at the others.

Reneedol…

Ok, this one is even more unreliable compared to the other two for a completely different reason.

Little Dusk's expression was firm, she quickly drew a Card from the void of space and threw it forward.

A spear clad in blinding crimson light appeared in her hand.

The [True Crimson Divine Spear]!

Gu Qing Shan's eyebrows twitched.

--------this is a spear that cannot be defended against, never did I think that Little Dusk would have created it already at this point in time.

...

At this point, Reneedol also glanced at Shroud.

Shroud has closed his eyes, seemingly attempting to awaken some sort of power.

Even if I want to do something, this isn't the right opportunity for it…

She then glanced at the Deities in the sky.

Each of those Deities have a thin tentacle attached to the backs of their necks.

There are almost 100 Deities here.

How should we fight this?

In the sky, one Deity had already raised their hand to unleash a curving green slash.

Reneedol's expression didn't change at all.

Boundless darkness appeared from her armor to form a gloomy dome that enveloped the other four.

The green slash descended from above, crashing into the gloomy dome before it disappeared without a trace.

Very quickly, even more Deities raised their hands and began to recite incantations as well.

"Leave the fighting to me, you guys focus on protecting Shroud" Reneedol casually said.

-------regardless of what's going to happen, handing Shroud over is definitely not an option.

She raised her hand to converge the starlight into a pair of long Blades before she leapt into the sky to face the other Deities.

…

Gu Qing Shan swiftly made an estimation.

Reneedol current has two Divine Artifacts of Fate, [Tear of Deities] and [Plate of Destiny's End]

Both of them were forged using the full strength of millions of Deities, so it wouldn't be difficult for her to deal with the current circumstances.

The real issue would be if the Lord of Infinite Origins decided to suddenly ambush her.

And also, this is going to be my last chance.

-------one last chance to become stronger without any consequences!

If I can't grasp this chance, I will probably not have the qualifications to discuss anything from this point on.

"Little Dusk" Gu Qing Shan called her.

"Yes?" Little Dusk turned to him.

Gu Qing Shan told her: "I'm going to leave Black Hound here to protect Shroud. If any Deity tried to attack, Black Hound will act; no need to hesitate, I want you to kill those Deities right away"

A mass of black flames manifested and turned into Black Hound, then silently sat down next to Boss.

"I'm going to watch over Shroud? Then what about you?" Little Dusk was a bit surprised.

Gu Qing Shan took a step forward as boundless black fog manifested around his body.

Scarlet also swiftly acted.

She was rapidly reciting something.

The light of Star Force appeared from the void of space and illuminated Gu Qing Shan's body.

Gu Qing Shan sensed it and smiled at Scarlet.

"These are the two protective techniques I have, they're very powerful! Do your best!" Scarlet raised her fists in front of herself to encourage him.

"Hm"

Fwoom--------

Gu Qing Shan as well as the black fog around his body abruptly leapt into the sky.

In an instant, his figure disappeared into the fog.

The fog then abruptly manifested into a black dragon several hundred meters in length!

Roar----------

The black dragon uttered a resounding roar before charging towards the Deities in the sky.

Little Dusk was shocked and couldn't help but exclaim: "Scarlet, your supportive capabilities were able to turn him into such a powerful creature?"

"N-no, no, that wasn't me" Scarlet stuttered while denying it.

At this point, a shadow abruptly became solid behind Shroud, turning into a fully-armored Deity wielding a hook in his hand.

He had directly bypassed the barrier that Reneedol had put up, so it was clear that he was a Deity well-versed in ambushes and infiltration!

But before he could act, Black Hound had already uttered:

"Sleep!"

With a loud thud, the Deity collapsed and fell into slumber.

Black Hound wiped the cold sweat from its forehead and quickly waved its paws towards Little Dusk, shouting: "Sheesh, that almost scared me to death. Hurry, hurry and use your spear to stab him to death!"