Seeing the arcing lightning approaching him from the Earth sword, the king’s complexion changed.
This sword didn’t seem to be very powerful, but it gave him a shivering notion of danger.
The king abruptly opened his mouth and spat out a black mass of air at the sword.
Gu Qing Shan was the one who attacked first, but the king’s attack arrived several times quicker than his.
This was pure suppression of strength.
In that split second, Gu Qing Shan’s sword continued downwards without hesitation.
Boss had already gotten into an appropriate range to perform his technique and uttered the words: “Divine Spirit Barrier!”
The book in his hand gave off a series of trembling noises.
Right in front of Gu Qing Shan, a monster with many horns was summoned by Boss.
The monster opened its mouth wide and sucked the black air away.
With a sharp screech, the monster vanished without a trace.
Since he had the help of Boss’ summoned monster, Gu Qing Shan didn’t need to dodge.
He only needed to.
Keep moving forward.
And slash!
Lightning Thaumaturgy – [Dreamjolt]!
Struck by this attack, the king was immobilized.
Gu Qing Shan swung a second time, hacking off the king’s arms and legs.
Boss abruptly shouted: “Back!”
Gu Qing Shan tilted his body and vanished.
At the very next split second, another king appeared from the void of space and pressed his hand at Gu Qing Shan’s original location.
A black crack appeared in his hand, expanded to the void of space, and swallowed everything.
It could be easily seen that if this attack had struck Gu Qing Shan, his body would have been severely dismembered.
Fortunately, Gu Qing Shan avoided it.
The second king didn’t give chase and instead fused with the first king.
The king’s severed arms and legs returned to normal.
As Gu Qing Shan watched this, he was surprised but didn’t waste any time.
He appeared next to Zhang Ying Hao and destroyed the Dimensional Locks that restrained them.
Laura vanished right away.
Ye Fei Li and Zhang Ying Hao swiftly followed as they reached their hands into the void.
Standing across from them, the king appeared quite excited.
「 Although you aren’t strong, you have quite a few decent unique abilities 」
The king smirked and purposely sighed: 「 How unfortunate, that first attack would have been your only chance, why didn’t you kill me right away? 」
「 Most likely, you’ve already understood the rules of death in this world. Whenever someone dies, that monster would immediately notice. You’re afraid that it would destroy this place in its rage, aren’t you? 」
Boss replied: “It wasn’t only that. I already saw you perform the Divine Skill: [Soul Substitution]. [Soul Substitution] is an ability that allows another soul to temporarily reside within your body through certain severe conditions. This way, only that soul would die when you receive fatal damage, while you remained completely fine”
Gu Qing Shan was startled.
The king nodded without much thought: 「 Correct. I know that you’re only declaring that for your friends to hear, but that is also meaningless 」
“Why?” Boss questioned.
「 Because I have already gathered the souls of many and made them reside in my body. At this moment, I have a total of 999 lives 」
The king observed them, wanting to look at their expression of despair.
But he was disappointed.
Neither of them displayed anything with their expressions.
The king continued: 「 Just look, you’re too scared to even kill me, and you can’t even if you wanted to. However, I can kill you anytime I wish without any restraints 」
“Quite impressive indeed” Gu Qing Shan praised.
The king crossed his arms: 「 The only reason I haven’t utilized my full power is because I don’t want to cause too much commotion and lead those guys here 」
“Being so careful must mean that you also have ulterior motives” Gu Qing Shan commented.
「 Of course, I want you people to swear your allegiance to me 」
The king continued: 「 Remember, think carefully before you answer me, otherwise, the next time I act will be to kill you before throwing your souls to that monster 」
Gu Qing Shan and Boss exchanged glances.
Gu Qing Shan put his sword away and lightly cleared his throat: “You’re the king. There should be countless people willing to work for you. Why personally come to have us swear allegiance to you?”
The king replied: 「 It’s fine even if I tell you. Because the people born in this world all have the God of Life’s sigil within their souls, the only people who do not are those from the royal family due to their status 」
“Soul sigils from the God of Life?”
「 Indeed, while the God of Life was still alive, this was a method for them to protect their followers 」
「 However, our Deity had passed away, and since that monster had fought against the God of Life for so many years, it has gotten sensitive enough to the point that it could sense these sigils 」
“And what does that have to do with us?” Gu Qing Shan asked.
The king lowered his voice and spoke urgently: 「 You still don’t understand? Only you can escape its monitoring, you are the only people in this world capable of such a feat! And I need people like you to work for me 」
Gu Qing Shan nodded.
So that’s what this was all about.
He slowly muttered: “No wonder you sent Xuan Ya to receive us earlier”
This statement seemed a bit abrupt.
Xuan Ya understood what it meant and started to tremble.
The king’s amiable appearance no longer remained, he scowled and stared closely at Gu Qing Shan’s blank eyes.
「 What—- are you trying to say? 」the king questioned.
Gu Qing Shan continued without hesitation: “At the time, the monster and the four Gods were trying to come up with a way to declare Boss as a malicious traitor while also killing us, and also to cover everything up”
“That is the moment when they would be the most high-strung”
“Because of that, as soon as Xuan Ya appeared, regardless of what she was doing in the secret passage, the monster would immediately send people to get rid of her”
“While you would have sacrificed a subordinate in order to save us. This would both cause us to feel apologetic and that you were someone we’d be willing to associate ourselves with”
“You most likely believed that we would have gone past Xuan Ya’s corpse and quickly entered the door on the other side of the secret passage”
“I assume that there was some sort of one-time teleportation device behind that door, where we would have been transported directly to a place you prepared and meet you face-to-face”
“At that time, you would mourn Xuan Ya’s sacrifice while we feel apologetic, then we would volunteer to work under you and help you achieve a few things to make up for your loss”
Gu Qing Shan sighed, then said: “Pitiful Xuan Ya, she thought that her teleportation Divine Skill could have contributed greatly, but in fact, her only use was to be killed and express to us just how much you tried to help”
Silence filled the room.
Xuan Ya’s soul covered her mouth with her hands as her tears silently flowed.
The king stared at Gu Qing Shan in wonder, perhaps evaluating him once again.
In truth, everything went as the king had predicted up to the point where Gu Qing Shan’s group saw Xuan Ya’s body in the secret passage.
Gu Qing Shan’s choices and ability to read the situation went far beyond the king’s assumptions.
It was from that moment that everything changed.
After musing for a while, the king spoke:
「 Excuse me, you—– what was your name? 」
“Gu Qing Shan”
The kind displayed an interested expression and told him: 「 You’re a smart person, I like people like you 」
“My apologies, but I don’t like you” Gu Qing Shan replied.
The king waved his hand without care and said: 「 Your strength is severely lacking, but your unique abilities are all the best I’ve ever seen, and now that I’ve seen your wits, I can truly feel myself benefiting from this 」
“What exactly do you want us to do?” Gu Qing Shan curiously asked.
「 At that place that the God of Life left behind, one person cannot make it, but if I brought others, they would be sensed by the monster through their sigils——- 」
The king abruptly stopped.
He pulled out a scroll from his chest and spoke: 「 Sign this covenant and pledge your allegiance to me, then we’ll mention the specifics 」
“But we never said we wanted to swear allegiance to you” Boss replied.
The king chuckled.
「 Do not force my hands 」the king’s tone slowly turned grim: 「 I can guarantee this, after your deaths, I will beg that monster to allow me to torture you all before your souls are consumed 」
「 If you insist on being a bunch of fools who don’t fear death, then die 」
「 If you know fear, then accept this guardian covenant. I can guarantee that you will receive the best treatment, as I do with all my subordinates 」
Gu Qing Shan cleared his throat and questioned: “By ‘best treatment’, you mean like Xuan Ya did?”
The king’s expression thoroughly became grim.
「 State your choice 」he grumbled in a rage.
Gu Qing Shan turned to Boss.
“Are you afraid?” he asked.
“Quite afraid”
“Then we—–”
“Hm, let’s surrender”
Gu Qing Shan turned to the king again and sighed helplessly: “We’ve decided to surrender”
The king’s lips curved to reveal a half-mocking, half-triumphant smirk.
But the two people in front of him had already disappeared.
The king sensed his surroundings.
——-and discovered nothing.
「 With only that? 」
He raised his hand and grinned.
But before he could unleash any technique, a soul-stealing howl resounded:
“Aeaaaaaa—— hah—–”
Immediately, a bullet appeared in between the king’s eyebrows and went through without any issues.
The technique was halted.
Blood splattered
The king fell down.
But another king rose up and declared:
「 What a foolish act. Even if you had killed me, that monster would only rush here due to the Law of Death 」
「 Not even the Deities were its match 」
「 Furthermore, I have over 900 souls to substitute myself, regardless of what you do, you won’t be able to kill me 」
His aura greatly shot up and caused the room to creak almost to the point of collapse.
Regardless of where they were hiding, they would only be crushed by this overwhelming power.
The king declared in a grim voice:
「 It seems I have suppressed my powers too much and given you an unrealistic hope 」
「 Very well, I shall have you all take on my fu——– 」
Someone suddenly touched him.
The king felt his entire body tensing up, unable to move, unable to say what he intended to.
From the void of space, a hook-like weapon appeared, lightly touching his body before heavily pulling it backwards.
Hundreds of transparent figures were pulled away.
At the same time, the king abruptly felt pain in his chest.
He looked down.
A long scepter had pierced through his body.
For some reason, he could feel all of his souls trembling from fear.
This scepter—— what is this thing!!!?
Gu Qing Shan silently reappeared.
Putting his hand against the horned skull on top of the scepter, he casually said: “When it comes to death, I actually have quite the authority as well”
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