“Are you really sure you want to remain here?” the Spirit Tortoise stared straight at Gu Qing Shan and asked again.
“Yes, I’m sure. This is the only chance, I have to find the Heaven sword” Gu Qing Shan replied.
“For the Earth sword?” the Spirit Tortoise asked.
“Yes” Gu Qing Shan replied.
The Spirit Tortoise shook his head.
“Then do as you like, but the chances for your survival are very slim”
He took one last glance at Gu Qing Shan before disappearing.
He had left.
He was the guardian of the Age of Old, but he can only inform Gu Qing Shan of the situation, not make the decision for him.
Gu Qing Shan said nothing.
Shannu consoled him: “Gongzi, it’ll be ok, you still have a lot more chances”
Gu Qing Shan shook his head: “You can’t think of it that way, Shannu. We can’t let our guards down for even a single second, we must act like we’re always treading on paper-thin ice. Before meeting the dark figure of light, I didn’t even know it was possible to have such an ability, so similarly, if the unknown existence could sneak back to the Age of Old by directly infiltrating this era’s phantom image, there’s no telling what other things it could be capable of”
After some brief thought, he muttered: “If, for example, it doesn’t kill me but rather restrain me and use some sort of unimaginable mean to deal with my soul, there wouldn’t be anything we can do”
Hearing that, Shannu trembled and refuted: “Gongzi, that can’t be”
“That’s the only thing I can think of for now. If it had infiltrated this era’s phantom image and was specifically coming for me, it must know about that the fact that I’m here”
Gu Qing Shan continued: “Spending so much effort to come here, it’s impossible that it hadn’t made ample preparations, the most basic of which is to find out everything it could about me. And so, it’s very likely that it knows about the fact that I can return to this point at least a few hundred more times”
“Despite knowing that, it still came here” Shannu muttered.
It was now that she truly realized how dangerous the situation had become.
“Indeed, no matter what it is, if it came from the future, then it definitely knows a lot of things that we do not. I’m sure it had also prepared a way to capture me” Gu Qing Shan continued.
Shannu asked worriedly: “Gongzi, then why didn’t we leave?”
Gu Qing Shan smiled: “Leave? We still haven’t found the Heaven sword, so we can’t leave just yet”
“Gongzi”
“Don’t worry, my current identity is the most well-hidden one that not even Divinities know about, so it wouldn’t find me so easily”
Gu Qing Shan thought for a bit and added: “In other words, if it was even more powerful than the Divinities, capable of traveling through countless time periods back to the Age of Old from the future, and capable of locating me immediately, then no matter how many times we return, we wouldn’t be able to defeat it”
“If such an existence really did exist, no one would be able to defeat it, gongzi”
“Ahaha, seems so”
The flow of time returned to normal.
Gu Qing Shan received the jade tag badge from the vice-general and smiled: “Thank you very much, sir”
“Hm, someone lead him to see his colleagues”
“Yes”
One cultivator stepped out and brought Gu Qing Shan outside.
Time passed.
Gu Qing Shan quickly got to know the other cooks of this camp and became closer to them.
When sunset came, he was naturally participating in the job of preparing tonight’s dinner.
Thanks to his excellent cooking skills, his fluid and decisive movement as well as familiarity with the kitchen as a whole, he truly became part of the kitchen staff in record time.
After all, regardless of the environment, only those who are truly excellent will receive sincere recognition from everyone else.
When they finished preparing dinner for the entire camp and the soldiers had finished their meals, the cooks were already exhausted.
Gu Qing Shan then volunteered to cook some food for the kitchen staff himself.
Not only did his food taste good, but they were also a lot more well-made compared to the food of the soldiers.
Everyone naturally held a better impression of him.
“Hm, Zhang Xiao Yun, you’re quite the decent youngster alright. Where did you learn spirit cooking?” the head chef, old man Zhang asked.
“It was handed down in my family” Gu Qing Shan smiled.
“Ah, so your father is also a cook? Which camp?” old man Zhang asked, a bit intrigued.
“He’s no longer of this world, due to the last Desolate world invasion”
“What about your other family members?”
“Everyone is no longer of this world”
“Ah, is that so… I’m sorry”
“It’s ok” Gu Qing Shan just smiled.
Old man Zhang thought for a bit before telling him: “We don’t really have any rules here, it’s fine as long as you’re present when it’s time to cook, other than that, you can rest whenever and however you like. There’s a marketplace to the camp’s Southeast, you can take a look there when you don’t have anything to do”
Sensing his goodwill, Gu Qing Shan clasped his fist: “Thank you so much for telling me, boss Zhang”
At this point, another cook silently tapped old man Zhang, gestured with his eyes, and said: “Boss, you can tell him about that other thing as well”
Old man Zhang glared at him and said: “He’s still too young to even hold the knife”
The other cooks seemed a bit unwilling to accept that, but since the head chef had expressed his attitude, he had no choice but to smile and gloss it over.
“Uncle Lu, what’s the matter? There’s no need to feel bad, just tell me” Gu Qing Shan sincerely asked.
The man called uncle Lu casually answered him: “Do you know where the meat that we use in spirit cooking comes from?”
“I don’t”
“They are meat from Desolate monsters”
“What? You mean we were eating those monsters?” Gu Qing Shan was surprised.
When uncle Lu saw that he was interested but not at all scared, he felt a bit disappointed.
But he continued: “Yep, this meat is very beneficial to cultivators, so whenever there’s a huge battle at the frontlines, there would always be a huge number of monsters transported to the backline here”
“Please go on” Gu Qing Shan urged him.
Uncle Lu continued: “After these monsters die for a long time, their meat will go bad and can’t be eaten anymore, so the monsters would only be crippled to the point of near-death before being sent back to our 23 reserve corps where we would take turns butchering them for meat”
“Then what’s the matter?” Gu Qing Shan asked.
“Well, it was our camp’s turn this month, and the bunch of us here have all taken one turn each when you arrived, so maybe you should try it out once as well” uncle Lu suggested.
“Ridiculous, he’s still so young. It would already be great if he doesn’t get scared to death by seeing those monsters, let alone butcher them for meat” old man Zhang scolded.
Another cook also chimed in: “He’s right, old Lu, Zhang Xiao Yun is still too young, even now we’re scared out of our minds whenever we meet those things, how could someone his age do it”
Seeing everyone dismissing his idea, uncle Lu complained in annoyance: “We’re all cooks here, so what if he’s a bit young”
“You’re right” Gu Qing Shan also clapped his hands.
Hmm?
What did he say?
The other cooks all looked back at Gu Qing Shan.
Everyone saw that he didn’t have a single bit of fear on his face and his eyes were completely lit up instead.
Gu Qing Shan clasped his fist towards old man Zhang and spoke seriously: “Boss Zhang, please let me do it”
Old man Zhang looked at him from head to toe: “The slaughterhouse is always full of blood and meat. Before they die the monsters always let out blood-curdling screams and howls, making their blood splatter all over you”
“The slaughtering shift is usually five days, during which you’ll have to constantly butcher monsters one after another. Even if you’re feeling scared to death, you wouldn’t be allowed to run away. Zhang Xiao Yun, think very carefully about this”
Gu Qing Shan grinned brightly and happily answered: “Don’t worry, my actual job back then was butcher, cooking is only something I took up to earn money”
“Butcher? You mean you’ve killed quite a few spirit beasts?” uncle Lu asked, intrigued.
Gu Qing Shan nodded: “I did, quite a lot actually, hm, I also killed a few other things as well. Let’s just say doing this is actually what I enjoy the most, I know about butchering even more so than cooking”
He grinned brightly at the other cooks: “Don’t worry everyone, let me take the shift this month, I guarantee I won’t let our camp be disgraced”
Seeing his pure grin, everyone unknowingly nodded.
For some reason, they all felt a chill run down their backs.
…
Still the Age of Old.
An area extremely far from where Gu Qing Shan was.
A barren land of gravel and rocks that very few went to.
Even the Desolate monsters don’t care to attack this place because of how vast this place was compared to how little value it offers.
Normally, after being barren for so long, this place should continue to remain silent.
But today, about a minute before Gu Qing Shan and the Spirit Tortoise met, something happened here.
A coin appeared in the sky.
This was a unique coin. It was blood-red and completely different from every other coin from the Strife Zones.
It spun around itself in the sky until it finally broke.
At the very moment that the coin broke, a sea of light manifested in the sky above.
The sea of light flowed downwards to form intense tidal waves on the desolate, barren land.
One breath.
Two breaths.
Three breaths.
A figure stood up from within the tidal waves of light.
The vast sea of light disappeared right away.
The only thing left within the barren land was the figure.
A gust of wind blew past.
And the figure began to mutter.
「 I am finally here 」
「 Now that I’ve come, there should be no more problems in the future 」
His voice suddenly became full of grudge and killing intent, but at the same time maintaining a mocking tone:
「 How pitiful, you must still be looking for that sword during this period 」
「 As long as I find you, catch you and imprison your soul inside this era, everything that happened in the future will no longer exist 」
「 I swear I will use everything I have to torture your soul 」
「 God Slayer, Gu Qing Shan! 」
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