Chapter 470: All Beings vs All Things (1)
A magnificent mountain hovered in the sky.
Standing at its peak were 4 Cryptic realm cultivators.
A woman wearing a white fox mask was seated on the throne above them.
“So you’re saying that Qi Yan is dead?” Rakshasa’s Daughter asked.
“Yes, Qi Yan was killed by w.a.n.g Hong Dao’s scheme, w.a.n.g Hong Dao himself confirmed this”
Ye Ying Mei was kneeling with one knee to the ground, respectfully reporting.
“And you trusted w.a.n.g Hong Dao just like that? Don’t you know what kind of person he is?” Rakshasa’s Daughter’s tone became a bit harsh.
“Saintess, I do not dare to believe w.a.n.g Hong Dao fully” Ye Ying Mei answered anxiously.
“Then why are you sure that Qi Yan is dead?” Rakshasa’s Daughter pursued.
“Because I had secretly checked the large-scale alert formation of the island, confirming that there were only two people left on the island at the time, w.a.n.g Hong Dao and myself”
“After that, I went to meet w.a.n.g Hong Dao and reached the same conclusion from his words”
Hearing her say that, Rakshasa’s Daughter nodded satisfyingly.
I only needed to give an order for that trash to be killed.
My subordinate didn’t even have to do it herself.
w.a.n.g Hong Dao killed Qi Yan for me without being ordered to.
My loss is made up for.
Seeing her expression slowly calm down, Ye Ying Mei also felt relieved and continued to report: “Peak master, w.a.n.g Hong Dao wanted to join our sect so he ordered me to bring our peak master a gift”
“A gift?” Rakshasa’s Daughter asked.
“Yes, a gift”
Rakshasa’s Daughter’s lips curled up a bit to show a mocking smile.
Every cultivator here was smiling.
A Cryptic realm cultivator commented: “That old monster w.a.n.g Hong Dao, does he really think he can join us as equals? He’ll be turned into our wooden puppet soon enough, no gift is going to change that”
Another Cryptic realm cultivator agreed: “That’s right, everything he has is about to become the peak master’s. This gift is merely given to her ahead of time”
“It’s fine, bring it and let me see what it is” Rakshasa’s Daughter waved her hand dismissively and ordered.
“Yes”
Ye Ying Mei tapped her gem ornament and took out a large trunk, levitating it forward.
The trunk lightly landed in front of Rakshasa’s Daughter.
This was a common storage trunk, infused with a mechanism to prevent being checked by inner sight and ensure its content was kept a secret.
“Peak master, let this subordinate check it for you, in case there’s a trap” a Cryptic realm cultivator offered.
If a Cryptic realm cultivator himself checks it, even if w.a.n.g Hong Dao himself was hiding in there, it would be impossible for him to a.s.sa.s.sinate her or do anything of that nature.
Other kinds of traps were pretty much useless in the face of a Cryptic realm cultivator.
Rakshasa’s Daughter thought for a bit and nodded in agreement.
The Cryptic realm cultivator then lightly tapped the trunk with his hand.
The sealing runes on the trunk instantly went away.
The sealing runes were meant to indicate that the trunk had never been opened.
This rune was specifically made so that the receiver knows whether or not the trunk had been opened during delivery through corresponding runes.
The Cryptic realm cultivator formed a hand seal and tapped the trunk a bit harder.
His immense spirit energy flowed into the trunk.
If there was a living creature like a.s.sa.s.sins or anything else inside, the spirit energy feedback would alert and tell the Cryptic realm cultivator.
As for traps and other such offensive means, they would have also been triggered by the spirit energy.
But the trunk just laid there without any change.
Seems like there wasn’t any problem.
The group calmed down.
The Cryptic realm cultivator who checked the trunk smiled: “w.a.n.g Hong Dao must have truly intended on asking to be sheltered by our sect. Even if he ate a tiger’s heart and a panther’s brain he wouldn’t dare to lay any traps on the item, otherwise anyone of us could kill him”
“That limping cat w.a.n.g Hong Dao probably doesn’t have any actual traps to speak of, even if there was one, it couldn’t possibly affect Cryptic realm cultivators like us” another Cryptic realm cultivator shook their head.
Everyone also agreed.
“It’s better to be careful, let this subordinate open the trunk” the Cryptic realm cultivator who checked the trunk offered.
“Then open it” Rakshasa’s Daughter ordered, uninterested.
He had already gotten the best things this world has to offer.
He was not antic.i.p.ating much, no matter what w.a.n.g Hong Dao had given.
The Cryptic realm cultivator proceeded to open the trunk.
Inside, they saw a formation plate floating in midair while giving off a constant but slight trembling.
A few formations were stationed around the formation plate to keep it running.
“A formation plate?” everyone felt confused.
How strange.
If it was an offensive formation, it would’ve already gone off just now.
This formation had clearly been triggered, yet it wasn’t doing anything at all.
Then what kind of formation was it?
While thinking that, the cultivators lowered their guards.
Regardless of what it was, it can’t kill a Cryptic realm cultivator, it won’t even kill a Virtualized realm cultivator.
“What the hel—-” Rakshasa’s Daughter wanted to ask.
But a formation user has already exclaimed in horror.
“It’s a miniature escape formation!”
The escape formation was the one invented by that formation user years ago, the only method they found to ‘escape’ from this world.
But no cultivator who used this escape formation ever came back.
Before his words even registered in their minds, the formation had already activated.
In an instant, the 4 Cryptic realm cultivators standing around the trunk, as well as the confused Ye Ying Mei disappeared without a trace.
Rakshasa’s Daughter’s face sharply warped and only managed to take something out right before disappearing as well.
This was an automatic miniature escape formation, it brought the most powerful cultivators here with it to ‘escape’ from this world.
This had to be the most abrupt and rushed ‘escape’ warp ever since the formation user invented this ‘escape’ formation.
Within the intense s.p.a.ce vortex tunnel, Rakshasa’s Daughter quickly poured all his power to activate the item he just took out.
A blinding light erupted.
He got out of the range of the escape formation and began to warp towards another direction.
He actually managed to react at the very last moment!
But the direction he was warping to was an entirely different quadrant of the s.p.a.ce vortex, so it won’t be easy to return to this world.
On the other side.
Guang Yang sect’s floating island.
“Gongzi, just like that, the other Rakshasa candidate lost the right to even compete against you” Shannu smiled.
“That’s just going to give him a bit of trouble, who knows, he might be able to return” Gu Qing Shan replied.
“It’s not that easy to get away from the escape formation, is it?” Shannu wasn’t too sure.
Gu Qing Shan shook his head: “I already used formations to kill him once, if he gets tripped by the same trick twice, then he isn’t even fit to be my opponent”
“More importantly, disregarding the difference in power, he is an opponent that I have to face with utmost seriousness”
Shannu listened but still didn’t understand.
Gu Qing Shan explained again.
“I have the [Mystery of All Beings Equal], while the opponent has [Mystery of All Things Equal]”
“At the final moments of the world’s destruction, both of these Mystery will be extremely useful”
“If Rakshasa’s Daughter is able to return, he will definitely make use of [Mystery of All Things Equal] to compete to see who lives longer”
It was now that Shannu understood.
“Gongzi, then your opponent is a bit more advantageous compared to you” she was worried.
“Why do you think so?”
“Because he can just turn into an object and ignore however the world gets destroyed, but because gongzi can only turn into living beings, you’d always have to ensure your own survival first”
That’s right.
Rakshasa’s Daughter doesn’t need to do much, all he really needed to do was turn into a rock, find somewhere to sit and wait until the world gets destroyed.
While regardless of what Gu Qing Shan does, he still has to bear the full front of the world’s collapse.
“That’s not necessarily the case” Gu Qing Shan answered her.
He was thinking deeply.
“I’ve never seen the scene of a world’s destruction, and the realm demon is also a large variable so I’m guessing that he isn’t sure what will happen under such circ.u.mstances either”
Gu Qing Shan muttered while waving to Shannu.
“Let’s go, I need to collect a few things”
“Yes”
Gu Qing Shan quickly turned into a streak of light as he flew around the entire floating island.
Shannu followed suit.
As he pa.s.sed through a villa, Gu Qing Shan caught a b.u.t.terfly in his sleeves.
Pa.s.sing through a stream, Gu Qing Shan caught a swimming fish.
Jumping on top of a big tree, he caught a small caterpillar grazing on leaves.
On a steep cliff, he shaved a Flametail Ape clean and carefully collected every strand of hair.
While flying in the sky, Gu Qing Shan collected the feather of a flying bird.
Together with Shannu, Gu Qing Shan was flying all around the floating island.
In a world where resources aren’t renewable, the cultivators spend a lot of effort and attention to tending animals and cattle.
This was their source of food, the most basic need for self-preservation, so it can’t be half-baked.
Time quickly pa.s.sed.
Gu Qing Shan had collected over a hundred types of animal furs or and even living creatures themselves.
He even searched w.a.n.g Hong Dao’s gem ornament, which was the common storage item for this world, to pick out a hindleg of a deer.
This hindleg belonged to the Six-eared Flower Deer, as w.a.n.g Hong Dao kept it for himself, the leg had been through an arduous cooking process, reaching this world’s highest level of culinary masterpiece.
Finally, Gu Qing Shan went to the bottom of the floating island and replenished spirit stones for all the formations there.
Shannu silently followed him, all the way up to this point.
Seeing how Gu Qing Shan was done with carefully replenis.h.i.+ng spirit stones for the mult.i.tudes of formations here, Shannu finally couldn’t take it anymore.
“Gongzi, you’ve taken care of the hundreds of menial ch.o.r.es on the floating island, but you didn’t really have to do it so thoroughly, did you?” Shannu asked.
Gu Qing Shan didn’t answer her right away.
He took out some fur and studied it in his palm.
This was the fur of the Flametail Ape.
Following Gu Qing Shan’s thought, a few glowing lines of text appeared on the War G.o.d UI.
[Discovered Flametail Ape fur]
[Using this fur, you will a.n.a.lyze the mystery of the Flametail Ape’s body composition]
[Turning into the Flametail Ape will require you to pay 270 Soul Points, please use carefully]
Gu Qing Shan silently nodded as he read through this notification.
Just like I thought.
Back when he travelled through the dark tunnel of Huang Quan, he turned into a Sharp-boned Demon.
It was thanks to turning into a demon that he managed to pa.s.s the dark tunnel as quick as he did.
And the process of turning from a person into a demon was a very extraordinary process.
So at the time, it took him 1000 Soul Points.
But the Flametail Ape was only a common spirit beast, it won’t be as complicated or difficult.
Sure enough, the amount of Soul Points required for [Mystery of All Beings Equal] depends on how hard it is to transform.
If I want to turn into a Daemon or Demi, never mind how I’ll collect their body parts, just the Soul Points required alone will be an astronomical amount.
Gu Qing Shan’s mind quickly moved.
I wonder if Rakshasa’s Daughter has to spend Soul Points as well to turn into another substance as he uses [Mystery of All Things Equal].
The end of the world is coming.
Will my [All Beings Equal] or will Rakshasa’s Daughter’s [All Things Equal] be more suitable for longer survival?
Gu Qing Shan silently contemplated.
He was comparing the pro and con of the two Mysteries.
After all, he was about to go against the real thing very soon.
Gu Qing Shan put away the fur after a while and answered Shannu’s question.
“I’m collecting different species’ samples in order to ensure that I’ll be able to adapt to the rapid changes during the world’s collapse”
“Adapt to change?” Shannu was very confused.
“That’s right, Shannu” Gu Qing Shan smiled as he spoke, “under an unknown and rapidly changing environment, do you know what kind of species will survive to the very end?”
“The strongest species?” Shannu thought for a bit and answered.
“Wrong”
“Then… the smartest species?”
“That’s not it either”
“Gongzi, then what do you think it is?”
“The most adaptable species”