Anna wiped her tears away.

We've finally reunited after such a long time, but he has to leave again right away.

"Can't you stay for a while? Even a single day is enough" she asked him in an extremely rare begging tone.

Gu Qing Shan consoled her: "It'll be ok, what I'm going to do isn't travelling through time, but to use [Distortion]"

"Is there a difference?" Anna asked.

"That time when I left from the Temporal Oasis was an outlier. In reality, after activating [Distortion], I would begin to exist at a certain moment in the past and continue existing until the very moment I leave---- which was this exact moment"

"Then… the next time you show up would be at this exact time?" Anna asked.

"That's right. You will see me leave, then reappear in front of you right away" Gu Qing Shan explained.

Anna was a bit surprised but understood what he meant.

Hoh-----

She softly sighed, then held back her tears and said: "Seriously, making me so sad for a brief moment like that---- then I'll wait right here for you"

Gu Qing Shan nodded.

Shroud spoke with a serious tone: "We can't delay anymore, the Apocalypse won't wait for anyone, we need to leave right away before the situation changes again!"

"Wait a minute" Anna said.

She took a ring off her finger and put it on a certain finger on Gu Qing Shan's left hand.

"That contains my entire collection of good liquor" Anna said.

Gu Qing Shan nodded and happily told her: "Then I'll graciously accept"

Kitty was standing on the side, slowly commenting: "Right, and she put it on his ring finger-----"

Laura replied: "It's for assurance"

Everyone nodded like it was obvious.

Everything was ready

Shroud turned back into black flames and entered Gu Qing Shan's Thought Sea.

The three coins were thrown into the air, where they motionlessly hovered while radiating a miraculous fluctuation.

-----Gu Qing Shan was the Angel of Condemnation as well as the Demon King of [Order], and with the branch of the Bramble Tree that Laura gave him, it was easy for him to activate the three coins.

Instantly, a glowing river appeared behind him, after which he retreated one step and vanished from everyone's sight.

The three coins danced in mid-air, moving against the surging flow of the River of Time, bringing Gu Qing Shan upstream in the river.

His Soul Points were rapidly being depleted.

--------just like the previous time, since [Distortion] was an ultimate Space-Time ability, he needed to expend the corresponding amount of Soul Points in order to activate it.

Gu Qing Shan turned to the War God UI.

"We won't be able to travel too far back" he told Shroud.

Shroud replied: "That's not important, we just need to pay attention to avoid both your and my past selves"

Gu Qing Shan nodded.

The three Great Laws of Reality doesn't allow someone to meet their past selves within the same timeline.

If that happened, the three Great Laws of Reality would erase one of the two in order to ensure that there weren't any historical paradoxes.

Only an entity at Lady Unextinguishing Sand's level, or Shroud at his peak, would possess enough power to resist the three Great Laws of Reality.

"This is a bit of a headache, I can't head back to the 900 million World Layers, since my past self was there; and I can't go back to the Tomb of Myriad Beasts or the Wraith realm, since the version of me who used [Distortion] the previous time was there"

Gu Qing Shan told him.

Shroud thought briefly and said: "Then let's choose a location that we haven't been to yet"

Gu Qing Shan suggested: "Let's go to the island that we arrived at earlier------- if Su Xue Er had brought me there, I assume there must be a special reason for it"

"Since we've chosen a location, what about the time? How far can you go back?" Shroud asked.

Gu Qing Shan turned to the War God UI and checked the rapidly decreasing Soul Points value.

He smiled wryly: "At most, I'd only be able to return to the period when I was about to leave the Tomb of Myriad Beasts"

"That's enough" Shroud nodded.

The two of them turned towards the River of Time.

"Get ready, I'm heading down"

Gu Qing Shan said.

"Let's go, we have a lot of things to do, so the faster, the better!" Shroud replied.

Gu Qing Shan shifted his body and dived down.

He crashed straight into a vision of the past.

Oong oong oong!

The three coins began vibrating while giving off a rapid loud noise.

From the darkness, space rapidly became distorted to form a huge gap.

Gu Qing Shan immediately rushed through!

Everything then returned to normal, as if nothing had happened at all.

…

Space was distorted for a brief moment.

Gu Qing Shan instantly reappeared.

Shroud also flew out and manifested into human form, cautiously observing their surroundings.

The same place.

--------the two of them were at the same place they had left earlier.

But the scenery was much different compared to before------

Numerous airships could be seen moving in and out of the island just a bit further away, clearly a prosperous location.

Even after they had returned to the past the island was still covered in a layer of light.

"The barrier…"

Gu Qing Shan muttered.

"That's right, this place seems to be quite crucial" Shroud replied.

Every time an airship wanted to enter, the faintly glowing barrier would open a gap.

Of course, there were also the sporadic Professionist moving in and out.

They had to show their certificates or hand over a certain amount of cargo money before the mercenaries guarding the barrier would let them through.

"Two youngsters, you seem to be strangers here"

A voice called out.

Gu Qing Shan regained his senses and saw that a mercenary was approaching him.

From the other side of the barrier, he tightly wielded his weapon and observed the two of them.

"What kind of currency do you accept?" Gu Qing Shan asked.

"Is this your first time here? I can't let first-timers in arbitrarily----- it isn't an issue of money, it's about whether or not you can be trusted" the mercenary cautiously explained.

He then signaled to someone behind him.

A few moments later.

A female mercenary arrived.

Gu Qing Shan opened his eyes wide at the female mercenary, his gaze turning a bit cold.

"Why her again?" Shroud sent his voice, seemingly irritated.

"I also feel like we're a bit unlucky this time" Gu Qing Shan replied.

In the future-------

It was this female mercenary who refused to let me through.

The reasoning she used was extremely prude.

The female mercenary flew towards the barrier and glanced at Gu Qing Shan, then at Shroud.

She displayed an amused expression without smiling and patted the other mercenary's shoulder, telling him: "Take their money and let them in"

The male mercenary was surprised: "But big sis, they're first-timers, why are you letting them in without thoroughly checking them?"

"What is there to be afraid of about a couple of young birdies? Have them pay the fee and let them in" the female mercenary said just that and immediately left.

The male mercenary was stunned.

Gu Qing Shan was also stunned.

They faced each other's direction.

The male mercenary explained: "Normal currency won't be accepted, you need to use hard currency----- like Origin Gems, Superior Metal alloys, magic items, perfect-grade spirit stones, ancient totems, doomsday beads, etc., things of the same nature"

"I have Origin Gems, how many?"

"One"

"…I just have the one here, it's a real shame to hand it over"

Gu Qing Shan took out an Origin Gem from his chest pocket with an extremely stingy expression.

The male mercenary shook his head: "I can tell that you aren't the wealthy kind, otherwise, you wouldn't be------- alright brother, since you've come here, you're trying to make a fortune for yourself. Just head to the mercenary guild and accept a mission, after a few adventures, as long as you don't die, you'd still have a chance to leave your------ behind. Got it?"

"Got it" Gu Qing Shan amicably replied.

The male mercenary took out a Card and opened a gap in the barrier.

"Come in"

"Alright"

Gu Qing Shan and Shroud both entered the barrier.

"There you go, there's a lot of opportunities on the island, so don't try to take on anything too dangerous right away------- you'll have to figure out the rest yourself" the male mercenary was very friendly and even advised him.

Gu Qing Shan clasped his fist and flew towards the island.

On the way, neither of them said anything.

------while they were let in without issues, they weren't pleased about it.

After a while.

The two of them found an inn, booked a room, then sealed it tightly.

They were both Combatants who had been through many worlds, but neither of them could tell what was so unique about this island.

"Now that there's some time, I need to begin communicating with the sword spirit"

Gu Qing Shan took out a long rectangular box and opened it in front of Shroud.

------the box contained the fragments of the Delimitation Divine Sword together with the artifact spirit.

Shroud glanced at it and judged: "I think you need to expend Soul Points in order to communicate with the sword spirit"

"You're right" Gu Qing Shan was impressed.

The War God UI also said the same thing.

But Shroud only needed to glance at it once to draw to that conclusion.

"You've used up your Soul Points to activate [Distortion], while I'm about to use my Soul Points for something else, so I think you should wait until you've recovered some Soul Points before you think about waking the sword spirit" Shroud suggested.

Gu Qing Shan was surprised and asked: "Was there something more important to deal with right now?"

"Of course, hand me the six Sealing Tokens" Shroud said.

Gu Qing Shan handed the Sealing Tokens to Shroud just as he asked.

Shroud's expression slowly became serious.

"Gu Qing Shan, I carry with me a certain secret related to the frozen corpse, and I'm going to hand it over to you"

"Why?" Gu Qing Shan asked.

"Because after this, I want to regain my power and would have to make a dangerous gamble, thus unable to protect this secret"

As they spoke, the six Sealing Tokens gave off a faint glow as they began to circle around Shroud.

Shroud began chanting something in a whisper.

A mass of translucent light emerged from his chest and hovered in front of Gu Qing Shan.

Gu Qing Shan looked at the mass of light and mused: "This is…"

"I'm not sure what it is either, apparently it was something that the frozen corpse found within the Reality Gate before it was sealed away----- I've tried everything I could but still couldn't open it, but I can sense crucial portions of the frozen corpse's memory------ this object is extremely important, even more so than any other treasures" Shroud replied.

Gu Qing Shan hesitated a bit before reaching his hand out to receive the mass of light.

Instantly, lines of glowing text appeared on the War God UI:

[You've received a secret]

[Because you carry with you a fragment of the Traveler's Proof (Key of the Past), you're qualified to come into contact with this secret]

[When you find the second fragment of the Traveler's Proof, you will be able to trigger this secret]

[Special note: The most precious secret within the Reality Gate]