Gu Qing Shan stood atop a tree branch.
When the entire world manifested in front of his vision and became real, he suddenly found himself already standing on a branch of this ancient great tree.
——–the lowest branch.
Looking down, he could see the faint yellow water of the Forgetting River rushing through beneath him.
Even the slightest mistake could cause him to fall into the river, he would instantly become a dead person and forget everything about his past.
Standing firmly on the tree branch, Gu Qing Shan grabbed a nearby smaller branch to brace himself and looked up.
The branches above him were also bare, with barely any leaves, but had quite a few people hanging from them.
From out of nowhere, a sense of new understanding appeared in his mind:
[No tricks]
No tricks?
Gu Qing Shan silently thought to himself.
At this time, the Earth sword asked: 「 Are you going to just fly up there? 」
Gu Qing Shan regained his senses and replied: “I can’t fly. This tree is a manifestation of the Samsara’s Laws, using tricks would end up with me being disregarded by the Laws and pronounced as failed”
“Gongzi, then what should we do now?” Shannu asked.
“We climb” Gu Qing Shan curtly answered.
He held onto the branches and slowly climbed upwards bit by bit.
Very quickly, he went further and further away from the Forgetting River.
「 Who would’ve thought that the Saint Selection of Huang Quan for the Star River Tribulation would be like this 」the Earth sword sighed.
“Gongzi, please be careful” Shannu said.
Gu Qing Shan maintained his calm and quickly ascended the trunk of the tree.
After a bit, he abruptly stopped and looked up.
There was a tree branch immediately in front of him with a hanged corpse.
There were only thick interweaving branches around the corpse without any other paths.
Gu Qing Shan looked up further.
There were numerous corpses littered along the path necessary to ascend.
—-no tricks.
Gu Qing Shan silently muttered the reminder of the Laws, then slowly climbed until he reached the corpse.
The corpse twitched a bit and gradually came alive.
When alive, this corpse used to be a male cultivator, even now, he was wearing a Daoist robe.
“Ah… it has been a very long time since someone last went the Saint Selection path of Huang Quan, cultivator” the corpse said.
Gu Qing Shan slowly stood up straight on top of the branch and said: “I’m not very sure about that, can you stand aside? I’d like to go through”
The corpse displayed an indiscernible smile, then evaluated Gu Qing Shan.
“Young man… truly a young man. Very well, I’ll tell you, this is the Saint Selection path of Huang Quan, you will need to pay the appropriate price to convince me. After I’m satisfied, I’ll let you through”
“What if I don’t have anything to give you?” Gu Qing Shan asked.
The corpse appeared reminiscent, answering him: “I was already qualified to achieve the realm of Star River Saint in the past, it was only because of this Tribulation that I became trapped here”
He looked back at Gu Qing Shan and spoke with a sharper tone:
“I can stay here without dying, but if you won’t listen to me, then prepare to die, got it?”
“Got it”
Answering him, Gu Qing Shan casually threw a punch.
—–[Ethereal – Grand Mountain]!
The corpse had already held a jade ruler in his hand but stopped moving after being struck by this punch.
Gu Qing Shan wielded the Earth sword and chopped the vine that hung the corpse with all his strength.
The vine was cut.
The corpse easily rolled along the trunk of the tree and fell down.
Plop!
The corpse fell into the Forgetting River and sank after bobbing up and down a few times.
「 What just happened? 」the Earth sword asked.
“I’m not sure” Gu Qing Shan replied.
「 Not sure? 」the Earth sword felt a bit speechless.
“The Laws only mentioned a single rule to me, that is I can’t use tricks, I assume that if I had bought off this corpse, that would be considered using a trick” Gu Qing Shan replied.
The Earth sword then commented: 「 If that’s the case, wouldn’t that mean you would have immediately lost your qualifications if you agreed to pay the price earlier? 」
“That’s right” Gu Qing Shan replied.
「 Doesn’t cutting off the vine count as using tricks as well? 」the Earth sword asked.
Gu Qing Shan patiently explained: “When you face an obstacle on the road, going around that obstacle would be considered using a trick, but removing that obstacle so you can continue moving forward couldn’t be considered using a trick, because that is the dumbest possible solution”
As soon as he finished, an indiscernible sensation could be felt from the tree.
Gu Qing Shan closed his eyes to sense it, then exclaimed in surprise: “I passed the Tribulation”
「 What? So easily? 」the Earth sword asked in confusion.
“That’s right, to pass the first corpse means I’ve barely passed the Tribulation and am allowed to return” Gu Qing Shan replied.
「 Barely passed… what if you don’t return now? 」the Earth sword asked.
“The higher I climb, the stronger the Samsara power I’ll obtain after passing the tribulation” Gu Qing Shan answered.
The Earth sword didn’t say anything else.
——even without saying anything, Gu Qing Shan would definitely continue climbing upwards.
Sure enough, Gu Qing Shan declared: “I think I’m going to keep climbing. Even without anything else, I might be able to find out some matters of the past from these dead people”
He put his sword away and continued climbing.
The trunk of this tree was filled with interweaving dried-up branches, but their surface was moist and slippery, so Gu Qing Shan had to remain cautious as he climbed up.
——it was hard to say what would happen next in these strange and unusual circumstances.
Finally, he exited the area of the first corpse and arrived in front of the second corpse.
This was a female corpse.
“Please let me pass, I don’t want to do unnecessary things” Gu Qing Shan said.
The female corpse simply hung in place while staring straight at him, then asked doubtfully: “During Saint Selection, there are very few who will choose the Huang Quan realm, most would choose either the Beast King realm or Heaven realm, so why did you choose the Huang Quan realm?”
Gu Qing Shan answered straight: “I had confidence in myself, what about you?”
“I simply wanted to choose a path that very few have trekked, but that ended up with failure in the end” the female corpse replied.
“How did you fail?” Gu Qing Shan asked.
The female corpse sighed: “I chose Huang Quan as my world, but I got greedy during my Star River Tribulation and attempted to pass the third stage, only to end up being killed—– so I became trapped here for eternity”
Gu Qing Shan looked up and saw that there was indeed another corpse hanging from a branch just a bit above her.
Gu Qing Shan asked: “So you became stuck here and intend on stopping my advance?”
“No” the female corpse replied.
Gu Qing Shan was surprised.
The female corpse continued: “Everyone on this tree hopes to also force those who come after them remain here, as that would make them feel like their failure wasn’t an outlier”
“I understand” Gu Qing Shan nodded.
The female corpse went on: “Regardless of how they think, I can tell you that the range of attack for everyone on this tree is a mere few dozen meters in front of themselves, so as long as you’re cautious enough, defending yourself and returning won’t be an issue”
Gu Qing Shan replied: “Thank you for telling me all this, what is your—–”
“I’ve stayed here for long enough; I hope that I can enter reincarnation” the female corpse replied.
Gu Qing Shan happily replied: “That, I can help you with”
He drew his sword.
“Is there anything else you’d like to say?” he asked.
The female corpse appeared dejected: “Thousands of years of cultivation only to end up like this, I really don’t know what happened with the Samsara. I merely wish to become stronger, so why do I have to face matters like these?”
Gu Qing Shan remained silent, then answered her: “No one knows the reason, but this is the path that cultivators must take. To become stronger, we can only risk our lives, as for what happens after that and what secrets the Samsara is hiding, only those who had become even more powerful are qualified to know”
The female corpse nodded and spoke tiredly: “Send me off, I hope that I won’t continue to be a cultivator in the next life”
Gu Qing Shan sincerely told her: “I hope you a peaceful journey, may your next life be more fortunate”
——his sword swung.
The female corpse fell down into the Forgetting River and quickly went out of sight.
Gu Qing Shan sighed, walked past where the female corpse originally hung, then continued climbing up.
For some reason, he felt a bit down.
Cultivators were always completely different from other Professions.
No other Profession has to be struck by lightning every time they advance to their next level or face numerous trials and tribulations, forced to risk their lives every time they do so.
Why are the Laws of the Samsara so harsh?
Was this predestined by heaven? Or had everything been for the preparation of something else?
Gu Qing Shan continued to climb as he fell into thought.
By the time he reached the third corpse, a faint fluctuation of Law descended on his body.
「 What happened? 」the Earth sword asked.
“Ah… if I end my Tribulation now, I’ll be stronger compared to if I had done so previously” Gu Qing Shan lightly muttered.
「 But you won’t end the Tribulation 」
“Right”
Gu Qing Shan turned to the third corpse.
This was an old man who had already awoken and was looking straight at Gu Qing Shan with a distasteful expression.
“Tsk tsk, it’s so hard to finally meet a newcomer, only for you to be such a hotheaded fellow, everyone is very unhappy” the old man said.
Gu Qing Shan looked up.
Only to see that every corpse hanging on the tree had opened their eyes looking at him.
“Did you know? The two earlier were the weakest, if you can’t give up anything to convince me, then die right here” the old man declared.
Accepting the transaction means using tricks and being directly disqualified.
Not accepting meant a fight to the death.
Gu Qing Shan slightly shook his head, then extended his gaze towards all the corpses on the tree.
He waved his hand, loudly calling out: “Everyone, the friends over there, and the friends over here as well, hello”
The corpses all stared down at him.
Gu Qing Shan cleared his throat and continued: “Right now, I’m in a very bad mood, so I’m just going to skip all the pleasantries”
“Considering that you’re all dead, I brought a little present with me this time”
He took out the Devil King Warden Rod.
A bright red glow appeared around the jet-black scepter.
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