Chapter 1632: Night
[You can now trigger the Sacrificial Dance!]
As soon as Gu Qing Shan read these words, he felt extreme pain in his chest.
Without being able to react——–
He was sent flying by a punch that shot him into the ground and through the other side of the world, flying into the darkness of the void.
Pfff!
Gu Qing Shan coughed up blood, then looked back towards the Wraith realm.
The entire Wraith realm was collapsing.
Countless colorful spiritual lights scattered and crumbled like illusory lights, or like broken gla.s.s as they flew all across the void.
——they were all fragments of the Wraith realm!
With a single strike by the Time Apocalypse, the Wraith realm was once again reduced to fragments that scattered into the Boundless Void.
Gu Qing Shan appeared regretful.
He could use his iris to absorb the Huang Quan realm fragments, but he had no idea how to deal with the Wraith realm fragments.
In the void.
The wraith cultivator and glowing cloaked skeleton both flew closer and lightly hovered in the void.
[How excellent, borrowing frozen time to retaliate against us——- but frozen time is nothing but a little trick, it’s still far from enough to do anything to us] the wraith cultivator declared.
The glowing cloaked skeleton appeared regretful: [Indeed, I had thought he would take that chance to attack, then I would be able to catch him on the spot. Who would’ve thought that he didn’t even attempt to approach us?]
Gu Qing Shan glanced at the two Apocalypses.
—–they only pretended to be affected by that to try and catch me.
It’s a good thing that I had a premonition and only called Dead Fatty here briefly instead of attacking.
Another screen appeared in front of the wraith cultivator.
[Let me see what I caught from you this time]
Within the time vision, Gu Qing Shan’s past experiences were shown.
They were the events of his process of searching for the twin swords Heaven and Earth.
[Some boring memories] the glowing cloaked skeleton commented.
[It seems we would have to dig even deeper before we can see his true secrets] the wraith cultivator commented.
The two Apocalypses turned their visions towards Gu Qing Shan again.
Rumble rumble rumble———-
The entire Wraith realm continued to collapse behind them.
Everyone in that world was already dead.
The wraith cultivator slowly approached Gu Qing Shan and casually said: [Give up on your struggles. Admitting defeat isn’t humiliating at all, especially against High Sequence Apocalypses like us]
Gu Qing Shan coldly looked at him and muttered:
“The more bloodshed, the better the Dance, a performance to sate the desire to slaughter, that is saintly”
The void became silent.
The number of Prayers displayed on the War G.o.d UI instantly became zero.
Doong doong doong doong doong doong doong!
The sound of sorrowful ancient battle drums could be heard.
The glowing cloaked skeleton suddenly said: [Be careful, that Dance of his is very strange]
The wraith cultivator disappeared.
A resounding sound of impact echoed.
Gu Qing Shan was once again sent flying like a cannonball.
His figure flew across the void and eventually crashed into the wall of the dark tunnel.
The entire wall collapsed behind him.
—–this place was still within the Pantheon ruins, the dark tunnel.
Gu Qing Shan was buried deep inside the collapsed wall.
All the drumming instantly stopped.
The wraith cultivator laughed and said: [Look, how easy it was to interrupt his Dance]
Rumble rumble——-
The ruins trembled a bit as Gu Qing Shan staggered to stand back up.
Blood was flowing from the top of his head, which dyed his hair and eyes red, but he simply swept it away.
Lines of glowing text remained in the void of s.p.a.ce in front of him:
[Due to ‘Tenacity’, your Sacrificial Dance was not interrupted, as long as you continue the Dance, the Sacrificial Dance would continue to manifest its power]
Gu Qing Shan spat out some blood, wiped the corner of his mouth, then followed his previous dance steps.
Doong doong doong doong!
Uooooo——
The heroic sound of war drums ready for death resumed, followed by a trumpet.
The Sacrificial Dance had resumed!
The wraith cultivator looked at Gu Qing Shan in the distance and smirked: [Still haven’t given up hope?]
He used frozen time once again.
Almost in that same breath, the wraith cultivator appeared behind Gu Qing Shan and uttered: [Deprivation!]
Instantly, all of Gu Qing Shan’s flesh and blood vanished without a trace, turning him into a withered skeleton.
The wraith cultivator was surprised.
[Strange, I only deprived 8000 years from him, how did he already die?] the wraith wondered.
Suddenly, the withered skeleton abruptly turned around and embraced the wraith cultivator.
「 Sacrifice! 」
A hoa.r.s.e female voice was heard from the skeleton’s mouth.
The wraith cultivator screamed in horror as all of his flesh also vanished, leaving only a dried set of skeletons behind.
Now, it was just two skeletons hugging one another.
「 Gu Qing Shan, now 」the hoa.r.s.e female voice said.
A figure suddenly appeared behind the skeleton and immediately thrust forward with his sword!
The wraith cultivator’s skeleton desperately struggled to escape the embrace.
But it was useless.
No matter what kind of temporal technique it used, it was unable to escape from the skeleton’s embrace.
“DIE!” Gu Qing Shan roared as he attacked with his sword.
At the very next moment—–
A shadow of light replaced the wraith cultivator to be embraced by the skeleton and pierced through by Gu Qing Shan’s sword.
Having been saved from death, the skeleton flew back to the glowing cloaked skeleton and muttered: [Thank you]
[You’re welcome. This Dance seems to have a lot of correlations, it might be related to an extremely valuable secret] the glowing cloaked skeleton replied with a serious tone.
The other skeleton muttered: [Time Provision—–]
Muscles, flesh, hair, and even a set of wraith cultivator’s clothing grew back on its body.
It had fully recovered in a single split second from being a skeleton.
This was the power of the End of Time Apocalypse, an Apocalypse that was almost impossible to destroy!
The wraith cultivator turned back towards Gu Qing Shan and the skeleton with more caution.
Gu Qing Shan and the skeleton also witnessed it happen.
「 How unfortunate… 」the hoa.r.s.e female voice was heard again, 「 You’re facing two greater Apocalypses, there is no way to kill both of them at once 」
Gu Qing Shan asked: “Is there still a way to fight them?”
「 You are too weak… there are a lot of methods that you can’t employ… which makes it impossible for you to win against them 」 the hoa.r.s.e female voice was clearly regretful.
Facing them, the wraith cultivator and glowing cloaked skeleton exchanged glances.
—-that skeleton dares say such a thing.
How very unexpected.
[What do you think?] the glowing cloaked skeleton asked.
The wraith cultivator shook his head: [The void of infinite, so the number of strange and unusual things is also infinite—— even a Sequence that had eliminated countless worlds like me hadn’t come into contact with a monster like that before]
[Could it be a more advanced secret?] the glowing cloaked skeleton asked.
[Highly possible] the wraith cultivator replied.
Both Apocalypses went silent.
The presence they gave off started to change.
While they had only been fighting earlier, they now exuded a clear level of intensity.
They were ready to pull out all of the stops!
[It’ll expend a lot of our power to fight at full strength, but I feel like if we can capture him, we’d be able to learn many valuable secrets] the glowing cloaked skeleton commented.
[Even though this is only a small incarnation of mine, I had truly felt my end earlier, it’s very impressive] the wraith cultivator commented.
[Then——]
[Yeah]
The glowing cloaked skeleton turned back into a ma.s.s of burning white flames that then began to envelop the wraith cultivator’s body.
The wraith cultivator’s body began to undergo some extreme changes——
…
On the other side.
The skeleton opened its mouth and spoke in a hoa.r.s.e female voice: 「 Be careful, they were the End of Time Apocalypse and the Silent Light Apocalypse, but now they’re fusing into the fully-armed End of Time Apocalypse. You might have the power of ‘Invincible’, but you would still be unable to endure a combined attack from both of them]
“Esteemed lady, I must stall them here, otherwise, once the Reality Gate opens, everything would be destroyed” Gu Qing Shan said.
The skeleton remained silent briefly before answering him: 「 It can’t be helped. To stall for time right now, you’ll have no choice but to use ‘that’; but even so, you won’t be able to stall for very long 」
It turned around and lightly tapped Gu Qing Shan’s left arm.
In an instant, a flash of blue light appeared.
Gu Qing Shan’s vision became blurry.
The scenery around him had changed.
There was a scorching sun s.h.i.+ning from above.
The earth was dried.
Within the desolate wasteland, an ancient altar stood tall.
Many people stood around the altar, continuously singing and dancing.
A lot of their skin was exposed with strange black and primitive-looking patterns, whenever they danced, these patterns would also change with them, which gave off an indescribable sense of eeriness.
An open flame was burning in the middle of the altar.
Gu Qing Shan was standing next to the fire, blankly staring at everything around him.
The hoa.r.s.e female voice suddenly sounded from next to him:
「 With my guidance, awaken the slumbering Desolate Sacrificial Dance’s spirit 」
The flame suddenly rose to the sky.
A figure could be seen standing within it.
「 Too early… it’s still too early to summon me… 」
The figure said.
The skeleton spoke in a hoa.r.s.e female voice: 「 Stop the nonsense. Give up on this sacrificial painting and lend your power to me, I want you to protect this person 」
「 Why? 」the figure asked.
「 The Apocalypse is about to enter the Reality Gate, and he’s the last remaining blockade 」the hoa.r.s.e female voice answered.
The figure stayed silent briefly and said: 「 Very well, I’ll sacrifice this painting. But this painting’s power is very limited, it could only allow a tiny bit of your spirit to descend, unable to win against the Apocalypse 」
「 I know, but this is the only option right now 」the hoa.r.s.e female voice replied.
The entire illusion faded away and vanished without a trace.
Gu Qing Shan suddenly found himself once again standing within the dark void.
At some unknown point, he had suddenly gained a sense of understanding.
From the void, clear chiming female voices continued to hum.
He took a few steps forward and raised his hand: “Emerge!”
The void shook.
A ma.s.s of gloomy fog abruptly manifested, then quickly scattered again.
Doong doong doong doong!
The sound of drumming was rapid.
Dozens of skeletons appeared around Gu Qing Shan to form a defensive formation.
A sense of sacrificial heroism filled their surroundings.
In front of Gu Qing Shan.
The two Apocalypses had just finished their fusion.
The wraith cultivator was now equipped with a pair of gauntlets that exuded a pale flame, as well as dozens of white rays of light that reached endlessly far into the void.
With every pa.s.sing moment, the light was intercepted and continuously circled around his body.
The wraith cultivator turned to Gu Qing Shan and declared in a low tone: [The higher the Sequence, the more destructive power we wield, it’s about time we bring an end to this]
He casually threw a single punch.
At the very next moment, the entire void of s.p.a.ce was dyed in pure white.
Around them, gusts of wind as powerful as towering tsunamis continuously howled and swirled.
The darkness from the void of s.p.a.ce slowly crept back in and swallowed the light back up.
The white light had faded.
And everything had been destroyed.
The Pantheon ruins that used to house countless worlds had been reduced to fine powder and disappeared into the s.p.a.ce Vortex, no longer to be seen.
Everything slowly returned to normal.
In front of Gu Qing Shan, all the skeletons had been thoroughly broken.
But Gu Qing Shan himself was only injured in a minor manner.
[Hm?]
The wraith cultivator was clearly surprised and glared with his eyes straight at Gu Qing Shan, muttering in disbelief: [That’s impossible, you couldn’t even stop one of my attacks earlier…]
Gu Qing Shan took a step back, raised both hands into the air, then swung them down.
“Emerge again!” he shouted.
Poof poof poof poof poof!
The fog that was surrounding him was continuously erupting before being scattered by the wind.
Intact skeletons once again manifested and formed a defensive stance in front of him.
“That’s not enough, far from enough!”
Gu Qing Shan shouted.
Hearing him, the skeletons stopped making a defensive stance and turned into white fog that continuously swirled around him.
「 Go forth 」the hoa.r.s.e female voice said.
Gu Qing Shan wielded a sword in each hand as his figure flashed and charged towards the wraith cultivator.
In the void, the music abruptly changed to become more rapid and was filled with more killing intent.
『 Kill—– kill——– 』the female voices from earlier was now also chanting in a high voice.
His two swords manifested thousands of swords that slashed everywhere before finally ending with a curt metallic noise.
Clink!
The wraith cultivator had to use his gauntlet in order to stop the swords.
[It’s useless. Time stands on my side] he declared.
Five ma.s.ses of fog suddenly appeared from Gu Qing Shan’s body.
This fog coiled around the wraith cultivator’s body and turned into skeletal hands and tightly grabbed it.
The wraith cultivator left a shadow of light where he originally stood while he escaped from the skeletal hands’ restraints and unleashed a strike towards Gu Qing Shan.
——he had gained the glowing cloaked skeleton’s ability!
In that instant, a ma.s.s of white fog turned into a skeleton that s.h.i.+elded Gu Qing Shan.
Bam!
The skeleton was crushed, and Gu Qing Shan was swiftly sent flying.
He spiraled a bit before stabilizing himself in mid-air.
In the wind, the sound of a flute resounded mournfully.
The Deathmatch Dance had fallen into the ebbing tides.
The hoa.r.s.e female voice sighed: 「 How regretful, Gu Qing Shan, your Dance is only the Deathmatch, it is unable to sustain me unleas.h.i.+ng even more powerful attacks 」
“Then we should defend ourselves first——”
Gu Qing Shan said.
He seemed to have noticed something and abruptly swung his swords, unleas.h.i.+ng countless sword phantoms in every direction.
At the very next moment, time was frozen.
The wraith cultivator approached him, then casually clapped his hands and uttered: [Time Reverse Flow!]
The sword phantoms around Gu Qing Shan’s body suddenly flew back towards him and vanished.
In the end, time stopped at the moment right before Gu Qing Shan was about to swing his swords.
The wraith cultivator raised his white flaming fist and was about to attack when he paused again.
While time had been frozen, eight skeletons still appeared from Gu Qing Shan’s body to s.h.i.+eld him.
The wraith cultivator stayed silent for a bit before saying: [To be able to use a Causality Law within frozen time, I’m even more curious about who you are now]
A skeleton looked up at him and spoke in a hoa.r.s.e female voice: 「 You’re only a tiny incarnation, you dare peek at a secret from me? 」
The wraith cultivator suddenly swung his fist.
The white flames emerged from his hands and flew towards Gu Qing Shan, then erupted into a huge burst of white flames.
Bang bang bang bang——-
The attacks of these two Apocalypses continuously exploded like thunder.
All the skeletons were broken into pieces that scattered everywhere in the sky.
Gu Qing Shan was sent flying again.
Time returned to normal.
This time, Gu Qing Shan was unable to stabilize himself again.
He continued to fly forward until he fell into a small planet and crashed, forming a huge crater on it.
“Hoh—— hoh——- hoh——-”
Gu Qing Shan laid at the bottom of the crater, breathing heavily in an exhausted manner.
He felt like he had already reached his limit.
All the power in his body had been completely drained, even his life was now like a candle in the wind.
From the void, the sound of the drums was becoming slower, the flute slowly becoming more and more sorrowful.
Countless female voices were crying and sobbing with desperation.
A skeleton appeared from the surrounding grey fog, helped him up, then climbed out of the crater.
The skeleton then spoke in a hoa.r.s.e female voice: 「 It’s no good, time can’t be captured, and you can’t discover its weakness—— it’s hopeless for you to defeat it right now 」
Gu Qing Shan had to cough up a lot of blood and even some sc.r.a.ps of flesh, finally feeling a bit better.
He didn’t say anything.
The two of them simply looked back up at the sky.
—–the wraith cultivator was descending.
The skeleton sighed and spoke in a hoa.r.s.e female voice: 「 It seems that it was impossible to defend this Reality Gate, everything will come to an end 」
The wraith cultivator stood firmly facing them and agreed: [You’ve finally said something correct. It is time for your everything to end]
Doong.
Doong.
Doong.
The sound of the drum became heavy.
An ominous feeling radiated, expressing how the Sacrificial Dance was coming to an end.
Gu Qing Shan sighed and said: “I agree, it seems I truly am no match for these two Apocalypses”
The wraith cultivator looked at him in surprise as it briefly stayed silent, then suddenly began to laugh:
[So you’ve decided to surrender? Although, when someone with your level of tenacity actually decides to give up, I would gladly enjoy this moment]
The skeleton also turned to him.
Gu Qing Shan staggered, trying his best to stand back up.
In his ear, another hurried and excited voice called out: [Your excellency Gu Qing Shan, the Order had grown to the minimum required power level]
[You don’t need to stall for time anymore!]
[—–The Order had bestowed you the exclusive t.i.tle: Slumbering Era’s Songster of Night]
This was lady Darksea’s voice.
Gu Qing Shan turned his gaze to the void of s.p.a.ce in front of him.
At the same time, lines of glowing text quickly appeared on the War G.o.d UI:
[At the moment of the Apocalypse’s rampage, a Songster of Night would summon the Awaitings and awaken them in the fight against the Apocalypse]
[You’ve obtained the unique t.i.tle: Slumbering Era’s Songster of Night]
[You will need to sing—– any song will suffice, no matter how many lines you sing, it will bring forth the awakening effect]
[Begin!]
The music of the Deathmatch Dance became even more solemn and sorrowful around him.
Gu Qing Shan focused his gaze again with a heavy expression, then coughed up some more blood.
—–sing?
That isn’t part of my skill set.
But if I can awaken the Awaitings just by singing anything, I’ll have to do it regardless.
Under the wraith cultivator’s watchful gaze, he told the skeleton: “Esteemed lady, thank you for coming to help me, but after this, you won’t need to work so hard anymore”
「 Gu Qing Shan… have you given up? 」the hoa.r.s.e female voice asked, her tone carrying a bit of disappointment.
Gu Qing Shan shook his head and raised his hand, then suddenly clenched his fist.
This seemed to be a sort of signal, as all the music of the Sacrificial Dance suddenly disappeared.
Everything had returned to silence.
Gu Qing Shan then began to sing:
“Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you~”
“Happy birthday my dear friend”
“Happy birthday to—–”
“YOU!!!”
A gust of cold wind blew past.
Everyone was stunned into silence.
The wraith cultivator and skeleton just looked at him without understanding what was going on.
[It seems he’s gone mad. This is normal, I’ve seen many people who couldn’t accept the truth and went mad in the worlds that I’ve destroyed]
The wraith cultivator s.h.i.+fted his body and prepared to rush towards Gu Qing Shan.
The skeleton also prepared to defend correspondingly.
At the very next moment.
They both stopped and looked up at the sky.
[What is that?] the wraith cultivator narrowed his eyes and muttered.
「 How fast, are they Gu Qing Shan’s comrades? 」the hoa.r.s.e female voice questioned.
In the sky, a gloomy shadow descended from above and slowly revealed itself to be a figure.
It was an ent.i.ty whose appearance was being hidden below a black robe.
He slowly approached Gu Qing Shan and stood firmly.
As the figure looked up, everyone saw their pair of golden vertical irises as well as their scaly face.
This ent.i.ty silently looked at Gu Qing Shan with a displeased expression.
「 Brat, your voice cracked during that second line 」he complained.
“I’m sorry, I don’t really know how to sing” Gu Qing Shan laughed.
He was laughing to the point that his entire body trembled, triggering another coughing fit that spilled more blood.
Suddenly, the void of s.p.a.ce parted ways to reveal boundless drifting sand.
Within the drifting sand, a woman wielding a scepter and wearing a crown on her head quickly emerged.
She said with a displeased tone:
“Thousand Dragon Ancestor, Gu Qing Shan managed to awaken you before complete destruction, and you still have the gall to complain?”
After that, she gently smiled towards Gu Qing Shan.
“We meet again, Gu Qing Shan, you’ve done very well”
“I almost died” Gu Qing Shan sighed.
“I guarantee that you won’t, at least, not right now” the woman happily told him.
The Thousand Dragon Ancestor turned his gaze towards the wraith cultivator and appeared full of scorn.
「 Tsk tsk, two Apocalypse incarnations trying to act tough in front of this great one? 」
The wraith cultivator’s killing intent surged forward and solemnly declared: [You have a death wis.h.!.+]
He raised his hand.
At the very next moment, his expression changed.
“You still want to control time? Maybe if your original was here” the scepter-wielding woman coldly chuckled.
The Thousand Dragon Ancestor crossed his arms and mused: 「 In the past, it was because we were surrounded by over a dozen Apocalypse Sequences that we had no choice but to run into the Reality Gate, never did I think that even some Apocalypse incarnations would dare show us up 」
From the sky, grey figures descended one after another, standing around Gu Qing Shan.
A rock-man with a mohawk.
An old man wielding two blades whose entire body was covered in black smoke.
A giant with eight arms.
A young girl who wielded a giant axe.
…
More and more people were showing up.
—–The Awaitings.
The Awaitings had all arrived!