Darkness.
Inside the silent darkness, Gu Qing Shan opened his eyes.
He saw someone crouching in front of him.
A greatly aged face.
The years left so many marks on his face that one couldn’t help but wonder how many struggles the owner of this face had gone through.
The old man raised a finger in front of his mouth, signaling Gu Qing Shan to be silent.
Gu Qing Shan obediently remained silent and stayed still, not even saying a single word.
The Spirit Tortoise’s jade disk and Xie Gu Hong’s jade disk combined with one another to bring him here, so he felt that he could at least trust the current situation.
He looked at the old man and sent his voice through his inner sight: “Who are you sir?”
“Let’s get out of here first before we talk” the old man sent his voice in reply.
Gu Qing Shan looked around and noticed that he was lying in the middle of a military camp.
The entire camp was asleep, only the old man in front of him was looking at him with bright, clear eyes.
Apparently this old man had been waiting for him to arrive for all this time.
Gu Qing Shan followed the old man out of the military camp.
Within the shroud of the night, the two of them quickly flew through thick forest.
“Where are we going?”
Gu Qing Shan asked through his inner sight.
“Away from this military camp, we need to speed up” the old man replied.
“Alright, you lead the way, I’ll follow” Gu Qing Shan replied.
As soon as he said that, the old man flew ahead of him and began to lead the way.
Gu Qing Shan’s eyebrows loosened a bit.
He could sense irresistible heavy spirit pressure coming from the old man.
About the same level as Xie Gu Hong.
Which meant he was also a great cultivator from the Age of Old.
The two of them continued to fly.
About half an incense’s worth of time later.
The two of them finally went through the thick forest and arrived at a beach.
The ocean was overwhelmingly vast with huge waves cras.h.i.+ng on top of one another.
The full moon was hanging above the ocean, its reflection glistening on the surface of the water, constantly being broken by the surging waves.
The old man tapped his Inventory Bag and took out an airs.h.i.+p.
“Take this”
He finally spoke with his mouth.
“What are you—-” Gu Qing Shan doubtfully asked.
“This airs.h.i.+p can fly in the sky, float on water, and even dive deep under the sea, equipped with 36 unique kinds of concealment formations. As long as the spirit stones powering it doesn’t run out, it will help you conceal yourself for the foreseeable future” the old man explained.
“There are countless cultivation scriptures and comprehension of various great cultivators on the s.h.i.+p for you to study and follow”
Gu Qing Shan asked: “But why do I have to hide myself in the ocean?”
The old man replied: “Because this was a phantom image that we meticulously devised. It records the darkest period of time during humanity’s war against the Desolate monsters”
“For the following few months, humanity will slowly fall to ruin and destruction”
“During this time, the Divinities are closely watching over humanity, so they will not go near the sea, because of that, you can face your Tribulation over the ocean. As long as you are careful, there should be no problems”
The old man took out another jade disk and gave it to Gu Qing Shan.
Gu Qing Shan received the jade disk and saw two characters engraved on it: [Kun Six] (Kun –”坤” is part of the 8-trigram)
Apparently sensing something, the jade disk quickly jumped into Gu Qing Shan’s chest.
Gu Qing Shan hurriedly took it back out.
The jade disk had fused together with the other two jade disks he had, giving off a faint glow.
At this point, he had three jade disks: disciple, [Qian Nine], [Kun Six].
To be able to obtain a jade disk so easily caused Gu Qing Shan to feel a bit puzzled.
Seeing his expression, the old man quickly understood what he was thinking.
The old man explained: “In the Age of Old, we used the art of Divination to find out a certain thing, that is if someone managed to pa.s.s both the Spirit Tortoise and Xie Gu Hong’s trials, they would surely be met with a deadly ambush”
“That is why we designed this Age of Old phantom image”
“During this period of time, humanity itself was falling to ruin, but since you are being hidden in the sea by us, no one would have any means to notice your existence”
“The only thing you can do is to focus completely on increasing your cultivation, only then will you be able to survive through the next phantom image”
“You must at least reach Radiant Soul realm for your jade disk to activate and lead you into the next phantom image”
“Cryptic, Chaotic Star, Origin Aspect, Radiant Soul…” Gu Qing Shan muttered and couldn’t help himself asking: “What if I can’t reach Radiant Soul realm?”
The old man shook his head: “If you can’t reach Radiant Soul realm, you wouldn’t be able to survive the next phantom image. At that point, you can only remain indefinitely in this phantom image. You will either breakthrough, or get found out by the Desolate monsters and Divinities, then get killed”
Gu Qing Shan sighed: “Then I will do my best to increase my cultivation”
The old man nodded and quickly formed a complicated set of hand seals.
“Fortunately, you haven’t spoken to anyone, this way I can perfectly conceal the traces of your existence in this world” he commented.
“Is that really possible? You can conceal me from both the Divinities and Desolate monsters?” Gu Qing Shan asked.
The old man continued to perform the technique while answering: “Indeed, this technique is called Soul Retreat. We have used various methods to test and confirm that it would perfectly conceal your tracks”
“Soul Retreat can only display its full power through a cultivator like myself who has the [Heaven-Earth Escape] Thaumaturgy burning my life and soul away to activate it”
Gu Qing Shan asked: “If you have such a Thaumaturgy, surely you can escape from the pursuit of all the Divinities and monsters, why do you have to do such a thing?”
The old man calmly answered: “My family members have all been devoured by the monsters, my sect, my close friends, everything I have were already destroyed, where else could I run to?”
The old man’s hand seals stopped.
He looked up at Gu Qing Shan and firmly told him: “The Heaven sword is the only hope”
“Youngster, you absolutely cannot fail, I leave the future to you”
All of his spirit energy was poured into his hand seal, completing it.
Oom——
The old man exploded into a mist of blood and was blown away by the howling wind.
After that, a cl.u.s.ter of light enveloped Gu Qing Shan, then turned around and left him behind, returning to the direction it came from.
Through his inner sight, Gu Qing Shan saw the cl.u.s.ter of light continuing backward from where they traveled, heading back to the military camp.
Legend has it that after a person dies, they would retrace all the steps they ever took, take their footprints away and leave nothing behind.
This was Soul Retreat.
The old man had waited inside this phantom image for several ten thousand years, just to help a person who made it there to conceal their steps.
He had literally been waiting for death.
Gu Qing Shan stayed silent for a long time before clasping his fist to the void of s.p.a.ce: “Don’t worry senior, I definitely won’t fail”
He boarded the s.h.i.+p and rode it out to the far ocean.
Time slowly pa.s.sed.
20 breaths later.
Inside the military camp.
A figure suddenly appeared.
The Divinity with a bright golden flame between his eyebrows.
He opened his palm to look at the Desolate coin in his hand.
The Desolate coin didn’t react at all.
The Divinity appeared surprised.
He thought briefly, flew into one of the barracks and lightly touched the forehead of a sleeping cultivator.
The cultivator died immediately.
Countless images flowed across the Divinity’s eyes.
In just a few moments, the Divinity had finished seeing through this cultivator’s memories.
「 Nothing? 」
He muttered.
He then flew into another barracks and touched the forehead of several other cultivators.
Memories flowed into his mind one after another.
「 Strange…」
The Divinity was a bit troubled.
He leapt into the sky and looked around.
Pitch black darkness surrounded him.
At the horizon extremely far away, several towering figures were slowly heading here.
The Divinity looked down.
The cultivators inside the camp remained asleep.
Why aren’t they reacting at all despite such a huge commotion?
The Divinity suddenly realized.
These people already have their souls taken away, turned into food on a platter.
He looked again in another direction.
In the darkness of the night, he couldn’t hear the voice of a single human.
This seems to be around the end of the Age of Old, when the Primordial Heaven Realm’s humanity had almost been wiped out.
——-why did I suddenly jump ahead so much and arrived at this point in time?
The Divinity looked at the coin in his hand again.
Still no reaction.
The Divinity suddenly recalled what the figure of light told him.
「 This Desolate coin is the real deal, it will help you sense where your target is. The only downside is that there is a certain deviation of position 」
Deviation…
Could there have been some deviation?
The Divinity silently waited for a while longer.
Glorious rays of light detached from his body and began to scatter around, searching for his target.
A few moments later.
The rays of light all returned to him.
There was no one left alive.
In order words, humanity really was almost wiped out at this point in time.
And Gu Qing Shan wasn’t here.
After confirming this, the Divinity muttered: 「 Seems like there really were some errors, not good, I have to catch up with him quickly, otherwise, with the help of those humans from the Age of Old, he would only become more and more powerful. That would complicate things 」
He struck the void of s.p.a.ce.
The void of s.p.a.ce broke open as a jet-black hole manifested in front of him.
Taking one final look at this silent world, the Divinity entered the black hole and disappeared from this world.