In the darkness, a conversation proceeded.

"Do we have any advantage?" Gu Qing Shan asked.

The hoarse female voice replied: 「 Both of you are still within the Sacrificial Dance------ in reality, if it wasn't for a true Apocalypse, nothing could have interfered with the Sacrificial Dance 」

Gu Qing Shan pursued the question: "In other words, other than her Apocalypse powers, Reneedol's other abilities are still deprived?"

The hoarse female voice replied: 「 Indeed. Since she had summoned a true Apocalypse, for the sake of fairness, the Sacrificial Dance will no longer restrain you or your reinforcement's power 」

"I feel much better hearing that… but I have one last question" Gu Qing Shan said.

「 Go ahead 」the hoarse female voice told him.

"The Sacrificial Dance's illusory past is being converted into a parallel world, then do the people in the parallel world truly exist?"

「 They will become increasingly more real until they're not too different from you 」

"I understand…"

All the darkness faded away.

Gu Qing Shan noticed that he was standing on the bank of a vast river.

With a gust of wind, clouds filled the sky.

Several tall mountains sat atop the river.

This was the Barren Clouds Heavenly Palace.

-----the fishing rod was still in his hand.

The only difference was that a burst of black flames had suddenly appeared next to him.

The flame converged and transformed into a black dog.

"What's the current situation?" the black dog asked.

Gu Qing Shan didn't turn around and just cast his line into the water once again, explaining: "Reneedol summoned a true Apocalypse from outside the Reality Gate, the Sacrificial Dance couldn't stop her"

The black dog remained silent and pondered: "A true Apocalypse? I wonder which true Apocalypse it is. This place is too far away from the outside the Reality Gate and is currently being obscured by an unknown number of parallel worlds, so I suspect that what arrived was actually a seed of Apocalypse. It will need time to actually become impossibly strong"

Gu Qing Shan was glad: "I've thought over it many times, within the long flow of history, the only person who had witnessed the most Apocalypse was you, and you are the only one who had actually led the Deities in the fight against the Apocalypse outside the Reality Gate"

"And so, your choice of coming to me was correct"

The black dog said while transforming into human form.

Boss.

Boss released his telepathic senses and scanned across the entire world.

"I found her. She's currently massacring a city" Boss spoke with a heavy tone.

"Can you recognize what kind of Apocalypse it is?" Gu Qing Shan asked.

"A dark purple glow… capable of absorbing the unique qualities of all living beings to achieve destructive evolutions and reduce living beings to dust------ this is the power of the Spirit Snatcher Apocalypse"

Boss quickly reached a conclusion.

His expression was cold with a faint hint of killing intent drifting around himself.

-----and perhaps a bit of sorrow?

Gu Qing Shan didn't observe him carefully and simply asked: "Is there a way to fight it?"

"Yes, by burning them with the most intense radiance a total of 33 times, the entity who was infected by this Apocalypse will die, and the Apocalypse will disappear" Boss replied.

Gu Qing Shan felt assured and said: "This place is currently turning into a parallel world, so there's a lot that I'll have to deal with and many people I'll have to save------ do you want to accompany me in killing her?"

Boss stayed silent for a while before answering: "Go do what you have to do, I'll kill her"

"Really?" Gu Qing Shan asked.

"Yeah, I understand both her and that kind of Apocalypse very well------ coupled with the fact that the Apocalypse had only just appeared and she doesn't have other powers at her disposal------ let me take care of this loose end"

"Alright" Gu Qing Shan agreed.

Boss nodded and turned back into a burst of flames before taking flight.

He quickly went out of sight.

Only Gu Qing Shan remained next to the river.

The Earth sword suddenly said: 「 Gu Qing Shan---- 」

"It's fine" Gu Qing Shan replied.

After staying quiet for a bit, the Earth sword still insisted: 「 That guy is a softie, I think you should have gone to finish it yourself 」

"No, leave it to him, we have other things to attend to" Gu Qing Shan replied.

He slowly reached his hand forward while still keeping one hand on his fishing rod.

"When I was competing for the Heaven sword during the Age of Old, I remember that I was at Three Thousand Worlds realm, but now I've gone past Paragon, {Yama King}, {Mahesvara King}, and Sumeru Lord realm in order to become a Star River Saint realm cultivator. I'm now five cultivation realms above myself in the past"

He mumbled to himself: "There should probably be no more issues for current me to resolve the matters of this world"

"What does gongzi want to do?" Shannu asked.

"To deal with everything at once" Gu Qing Shan replied.

With a single thought, he triggered several sword seals at once.

Four images appeared behind him from within the void of space.

The twin swords Heaven and Earth, Chao Yin sword, and Six Paths Great Mountain sword.

The four swords scattered in different directions while erupting with sword phantoms.

Gu Qing Shan shook his fishing rod a bit and muttered: "Since this is a disaster I caused; I'll help you resolve all the other issues of this era…"

He suddenly went silent.

Above the river, a middle-aged male cultivator slowly approached him from afar on a small dinghy.

The cultivator lightly leapt onto a nearby rock.

"I've felt the overwhelming sword qi earlier, may I ask what business your excellency has for descending in such a grand manner?" the cultivator clasped his fist and asked.

Looking at his floatie bobbing up and down in the river, Gu Qing Shan didn't say anything.

The cultivator clasped his fist again and asked: "This humble one is Xie Gu Hong, the current master of the Barren Clouds Heavenly Palace, may I ask for your excellency's name?"

Gu Qing Shan sighed softly and said: "Being a sword cultivator is a difficult thing, isn't it? Others can stand afar to attack, but we all need to stay at the very front, having no time to even wipe away the blood that drips down our faces"

"------Master of Seven Swords, Xie Gu Hong, haven't you ever felt exhausted having to fight against those monsters and Deities by yourself?"

Xie Gu Hong was a bit surprised and answered: "Sword cultivators aren't the only ones who are exhausted. In reality, every cultivator aside from this humble one had always done everything in their capabilities to ensure the continuation of the human race"

"For example?" Gu Qing Shan asked.

"The current Immortal King" Xie Gu Hong replied.

Gu Qing Shan remained silent for a brief moment.

In the past, it was because of the Immortal King's final gamble that I obtained the Heaven sword.

"The Immortal King" he spoke with a heavy sigh, "Right, I have something I need to ask of you, master Xie"

"What is it?"

"Tell the Immortal King for me, there's no need to risk so much"

"Huh? Pardon me?"

Gu Qing Shan hung his head briefly before turning to him with a relaxed expression: "…The human race's suffering is about to be over, I guarantee it"

…

At another location.

Within the ruins of a sect.

Reneedol stood outside the empty sect and carefully examined the changes on her body.

"My power… is gradually rising, once I complete this Deathmatch Dance and kill Rhode, I'll head outside to search for that young girl's whereabouts"

She muttered to herself.

Boom-------

The sound of thunder.

A burst of flames flew down from the sky and turned into a man.

It was Boss.

He stood in the distance and looked at Reneedol with a complicated expression.

Reneedol was stunned briefly before chuckling.

"Ahaha, I've always thought that Fate was unfair, never did I think that I would be able to defeat both you and Fate together" she shook her head.

Layers of dark purple light manifested behind her back.

A gust of wind carrying destructive power blew everything around her away.

Boss didn't move at all and simply appeared nostalgic, informing her: "You probably don't remember, but we've already fought against this Apocalypse"

"I don't have even the slightest impression, die!" Reneedol shouted.

The layers of dark purple light surged forward to envelope Boss.

At the very next moment.

Something unknown happened deep within the purple light, causing all of it to disappear with a curt 'hoh'.

Reneedol staggered backwards and coughed up a lot of blood.

Boss continued to stand still, but the black flames no longer drifted around his body.

Boundless power had surrounded him to form a mass of intense radiance behind his back.

Reneedol stared blankly at him.

Boss smiled wryly and said: "That's true. At the time, you were busy collecting treasures, so you didn't know how many of our comrades died to fight against this Apocalypse, and of course, you couldn't remember anything about it"

"-----By the time I discovered this Apocalypse's weakness, over 2000 Deities had already laid their lives down on the battlefield"

Reneedol was a bit unsure as she listened to him.

He's talking like it was nothing but some family matters, while he was prepared, it didn't seem like he was here to fight at all.

------what exactly is Shroud thinking?

The mass of radiance behind Boss faded away.

A thick leather-back book appeared, which he flipped through until he found a certain page.

Boss showed that page to Reneedol.

Only to see that there was a dark purple humanoid puppet depicted on the page with the words 'Spirit Snatcher Apocalypse' written next to it.

"I don't remember this at all" Reneedol looked at the page and casually replied.

Boss continued: "------There was a young girl who served as your flower breeder who died during this Apocalypse, I wonder if you still remember her at all"

Reneedol thought briefly and exclaimed: "The flower girl! I remember her, she was the youngest female Deity at the time, when she died, I even suffered for a while"

"Suffered?" Boss parroted her words.

"Indeed, the flowers she managed were always the most beautiful, unfortunately after she died, I had no choice but to have other people take her place"

Reneedol appeared reminiscent and continued: "…I remember, the Apocalypse at the time seemed to have the ability to directly erode the soul"

As soon as she said that, she appeared frightful.

Boss calmly looked at her and said: "From your current state, your blood is most likely undergoing mutation. This is an irreversible process that will eventually turn you into a teleportation circle of flesh that can bypass Space-Time, allowing the Apocalyptic monsters outside the Reality Gate to use your body as a medium to descend upon this place, killing you in the process"

Reneedol looked down at herself.

Only to see the veins on her hands had already burst open to form an ash-colored curve.

The veins were systematically moving, gradually exposing themselves.

"Reneedol, I remember teaching you that before you're sure about what's contained within a certain kind of power, you shouldn't arbitrarily use it" Boss shook his head.

Reneedol was in panic.

She trembled and asked: "No, how could this be… Shroud, what should I do now?"

"The only solution is to infect others with it, only then would you be able to prolong your change" Boss replied.

"How should I infect them?"

"Physical touch"

Reneedol immediately rushed towards Boss.

"Shroud, quickly save me!" she called out.

Boss looked at her without moving.

Reneedol embraced him and hurriedly said: "Shroud, come with me to find others, we will spread this Apocalypse together. That way, we'd be able to------"

Boss hugged her in return, patting her shoulder and gently consoled her: "Don't be in too much hurry, Reneedol, there's actually no need to fear"

Reneedol was surprised and exclaimed in joy: "Shroud, do you have a better idea? That's true, we've only managed to survive through all the Apocalypses in the past because of your continuous battles"

"Indeed" Boss nodded.

"Then-----" Reneedol looked at him and waited for him to continue.

Boss didn't look at her at all, simply gazing up into the clouds above.

"I have something in my mind that I need to tell you" he said.

Reneedol was a bit surprised and seemed to understand.

She sighed and told him: "Shroud, I know that you love me---- now hurry and tell me how we can survive"

Boss closed his eyes, his voice so faint that he was inaudible:

"Reneedol…"

Reneedol suppressed the annoyance in her mind and cut him off: "I know, I understand your heart's feeling, but now we need to consider how to survive, Shroud!"

Boss stayed silent.

Suddenly-------

Boundless radiance erupted from his body to form a sea of light that enveloped the entire mountain, then rose through the sky and illuminated the void of space itself.

"AAAAEEE---------"

Reneedol continuously screamed.

In an extremely short amount of time, she was revived by the Apocalypse over 30 times, but it still couldn't stop the pure light radiating from Shroud's body.

Finally.

Once all the light had faded away, only Shroud remained.

He seemed to be thinking about something and was completely lost in his thoughts.

"Don't meet me again in your next life, Reneedol…"

Shroud muttered.