Worlds’ Apocalypse Online

[The slumbering Chao Yin sword has awoken]

Scanning through these words, Gu Qing Shan felt an immense sense of delight.

He immediately halted his charge in the middle of the air and drew the Chao Yin sword, asking it with his inner sight:

"Are you awake?" 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝘯𝘰𝘷ℯ𝘭.𝑐𝘰𝑚

The Chao Yin sword replied with a clear ring.

As Gu Qing Shan smiled and was about to say something else, the sword fell silent again.

Another line of bloody red text appeared:

[Attention, the awoken Chao Yin sword had fallen back into slumber]

Gu Qing Shan was surprised.

----why did it fall back to sleep right after awakening?

Was there an issue during evolution?

A layer of dark light then manifested over the sword, fully enveloping it.

New notifications popped up again:

[A certain individual had applied a Causality technique on this sword]

[When it once again acknowledges its wielder, a vision of the past will be invoked]

[Only after you've finished watching this vision would the Chao Yin sword awaken once again]

Gu Qing Shan realized what had happened right away.

That's right, the giant corpse did mention that------

…

"… I hid certain secrets within your sword… retrieve the sword from the Forgetting River…"

…

I have to observe the secret that the giant corpse had left, for the Chao Yin sword to thoroughly awaken!

A thunderous roar suddenly echoed across the world from above.

Gu Qing Shan's expression changed before immediately vanishing from where he stood.

It felt like a long time, but he had only spaced out for a single breath's worth of time; during that period, the giant face-shaped nebula in the sky had already resolved his Secret Art and retaliated.

A blinding burst of starlight shot through where Gu Qing Shan originally stood and violently struck the ground.

Boom--------

The entire planet began to collapse and expunged its remaining power all at once, then slowly faded away within the cold expanse of space like embers in the wind.

Observing this from the distance, Gu Qing Shan decisively put the Chao Yin sword away.

-----this isn't the time to be looking into a secret, I need to finish this fight first.

He took out a suit of armor and lightly tapped it.

The armor instantly scattered into ten different components that rapidly reassembled on his body.

[Specialized Battlemage Anti-magic Armor]

[Properties: Intermediate Sturdiness, Basic Magic Resistance, Nimbleness]

After moving around a bit, Gu Qing Shan felt satisfied with the armor.

If this armor is sturdy enough, I wouldn't have needed to avoid that attack earlier in such a hurry, on the contrary, I might have been able to face the monster head-on and even find an opening.

"Alright------ time to fight"

He grasped the Delimitation Divine Sword tightly and called out towards the giant face-shaped nebula.

The giant face-shaped nebula slowly revealed a mocking expression and muttered: 「 A fight? 」

"What? Would you rather surrender instead?" Gu Qing Shan asked.

「 No… Foolish being, do you really think that you'd be able to endure my attacks with just that shell you put around yourself? 」

The giant face-shaped nebula began to mutter: 「 A spiritless armor cannot even dare to face me, as I fight in accordance with the will of the Lord of all Things」

Following its statement, the armor around Gu Qing Shan's body began to crack and crumble.

Tak tak tak tak tak---------

The entire armor crumbled into fine dust as it was peeled off Gu Qing Shan's body bit by bit, scattering into the nothingness of outer space.

Gu Qing Shan was angry.

It took so much effort for him to find suitable armor and it was gone just like that.

"You're courting Death!"

He grasped the Delimitation Divine Sword tightly, which once again separated into hundreds of thousands of flying swords clad in black flames.

-------[Parting Fire]!

With a single thought from Gu Qing Shan, all the flying swords vanished without a trace.

The giant nebula monster vocalized a horribly painful shriek.

Gu Qing Shan swung his sword again.

Another batch hundred thousand swords were manifested, clad in a faint chilling mist, then vanished into the darkness.

---------[Freezing Frost]!

The giant face-shaped nebula's voice immediately ceased.

It had been completely frozen.

Gu Qing Shan focused his thoughts------

An immense but invisible sword will manifested out of thin air, and flew through the darkness, before it exploded directly inside the giant face-shaped nebula.

Crack! Crack!

The entire giant face-shaped nebula was shattered.

The remaining minor monsters around the giant face-shaped nebula were shocked and frightened into fleeing.

Gu Qing Shan was also stunned and muttered with a surprised tone: "Why is it so weak?"

He had originally prepared follow-up attacks as well, but his opponent had already been eliminated.

The Delimitation Divine Sword suddenly spoke: 「 It wasn't a living being, but a 'thing', so it couldn't endure my strikes 」

Gu Qing Shan understood right away.

The Delimitation Divine Sword had an ability called [All Things Perish], the antithesis of any objects that exist, the unstoppable force against all things alike.

For that reason, after being struck by a myriad of flying swords imbued by [Parting Fire], and then [Freezing Frost], then finally the Mind Sword, its entire body and form was broken.

"A 'thing' huh… Just now it also said that it was a subordinate of the Lord of All Things… The monsters in this Boundless Void truly are strange"

While Gu Qing Shan was silently thinking to himself, he suddenly noticed an entity composed of nothing but nebula approaching from far away.

It's that guy!

That's right, when I participated in that kamikaze mission, I faced it once.

------I'm still completely no match for it at all, let's just go ahead and leave.

Layers of white mist began to manifest around his body as he vanished without a trace.

…

Within the Tower Pagoda.

The High Deity as well as the 5 Virtuous Deities were all present, with Demon Dragon standing in the center, explaining his discovery to them.

"Venerable ones, I was born with an innate Thaumaturgy called [Object Affinity]"

The Demon Dragon – Leng Qian Chen continued: "While I was fighting those monsters, I slowly realized that something was amiss"

"What was amiss?"

Gu Qing Shan descended from the sky, landed outside the Tower Pagoda, then swiftly made his way inside.

"Thank you, your grace for saving my life. I was just about to explain this matter to the High Deity and the Virtuous Deities, I discovered that those monsters were actually not living beings, but instead existed purely as objects" Leng Qian Chen explained.

Everyone fell silent for a brief moment.

Fei Yue muses: "Objects… then that means we've been fighting against objects under the control of artifact spirits?"

Leng Qian Chen replied: "That's not it, this is also the strange part. I discovered that none of those monsters had artifact spirits, in other words-----"

"They had no soul, merely machines of war"

Gu Qing Shan commented: "In that case, there must be somebody hiding in the shadows to control these monsters"

"Yes, that should be the case" Leng Qian Chen affirmed.

Everyone exchanged glances.

Exactly what kind of existence could control an innumerable number of monsters by itself and go to war against the entire Huang Quan realm?

The skull woman's eyes flickered briefly before she said: 『 Leng Qian Chen, your clear intel has contributed greatly to our cause, you may be dismissed for now 』

"Understood"

Leng Qian Chen bowed respectfully, then left the Tower Pagoda.

Only the High Deity and the Virtuous Deities remained here.

Finally, the skull woman began to speak: 『 Something isn't right, I've personally headed into the battlefield and fought against two nebula monsters, they weren't too much weaker compared to I am-------- so if they were controlled objects, how powerful would the puppeteer behind them be? 』

The Master of the Hall of Reincarnation added: 『 And if they truly are that powerful, why hadn't they swarmed and destroyed Huang Quan all at once? 』

This was also a considerable question.

Everyone pondered on it but couldn't come up with an answer, so they all remained silent.

Fei Yue turned to Gu Qing Shan and asked: "Did you manage to save all the dead people on the battlefield?"

"I had wanted to report it earlier-------- I ran into a nebula monster, since I was no match for it, I retreated" Gu Qing Shan replied.

『 Which warzone? 』the skull woman asked.

"Standard battlefield No.371" Gu Qing Shan replied.

The skull woman stood up and said with a serious tone: 『 Very well, now that I know those monsters are soulless objects, I'll go and take care of them 』

"Understood" the Virtuous Deities all complied.

The skull woman nodded and vanished from the high platform.

『 The war situation will be temporarily under the Reincarnation Hall Master's jurisdiction, the rest of you will be under her command 』

"Understood" the Virtuous Deities all complied.

The skull woman nodded and vanished from the high platform.

Seeing that the meeting was over, Gu Qing Shan also stood up and prepared to leave.

"Where are you going?" Fei Yue asked.

"I have some urgent business to take care of, after I'm done, I'll seek you out" Gu Qing Shan replied.

------regardless of the giant corpse's message, as well as what I need to do after this, I'll need help from Fei Yue's [Threads of Fate].

Her ability is capable of bypassing all obscurity and providing a direct link to the truth through Fate.

Seeing his heavy expression, Fei Yue paused briefly and said: "Alright, I'll wait"

Gu Qing Shan nodded and vanished from where he stood.

A few minutes later.

At the depths of Hell.

Gu Qing Shan invoked [All-Encompassing Sword Realm] and isolated himself from the world.

He took out the slumbering Chao Yin sword and grasped it tightly with both hands.

"Come… let me see what you wanted me to know…"

Gu Qing Shan muttered to himself.

The dark light imbued on the sword seemed to understand him and quickly expanded, transforming into a vision before gradually manifesting into an entire world.

-------the barren wasteland world.

The giant corpse was still pinned on top of the bronze pillar.

"Gu Qing Shan, after so long, you've finally attained the necessary conditions"

"Come, return before the myriad worlds are destroyed, return to the inside of the Reality Gate-----"

"You can now free me from this bronze pillar!"