Chapter 1343: Death?

An arrow was flying above the clouds, crossing mountains and seas while quickly heading forward.

After an unknown amount of time, it had crossed a distance of almost 200,000 miles before thoroughly losing its strength and fell to the ground.

The wind continued to surround the arrow, forming an invisible path towards a certain direction.

——this was another continent.

There wasn’t a single cloud for over ten thousand miles, a breeze blew across the vast wheat field, gently swaying them.

The arrow speed was increasing, falling like a meteorite.

——after crossing the long distance, it finally shot towards an old farmer, but the farmer didn’t seem like he noticed the arrow or the disaster that was about to befall him.

Descending.

Descending.

Right as it was about to hit the old farmer, the arrow abruptly stopped.

“An a.s.sa.s.sin? No…”

The old farmer faintly smiled, then grabbed the arrow from above his head.

“Oh… this seems like an image recording technique, quite crude, but still interesting…”

“I wonder whose child’s work this is, it’s quite decent”

The farmer praised, then rubbed his blister-filled fingers on the jade tag for a bit before lightly pressing on it.

The jade tag was activated.

A recorded scene appeared in front of the farmer.

A narrow stone path that reached from the surface of the lake to the bottom.

There was a wraith right in the middle of the screen.

The screen seemed to follow the wraith’s footsteps until it reached the end of the path.

Two wraiths hovered in mid-air; their bodies stuck full of talismans.

Their conversation could be heard:

“Sir, how do you feel?”

“I have received the guiding fluctuations of the [Snowdrift] inheritance. Baron Rhode of Langlois Prefecture’s soul frequency and direction have been determined. Once the progress of his cultivation reaches 75%, I will activate the first soul exchange”

The old farmer’s smile instantly disappeared.

His yes was now completely frigid.

The conversation continued in the recording:

“…Viscount Fidez’s [Hundred Slashes] technique has been cultivated to completion, please get ready, I’m going to perform the complete soul exchange!”

“…from today onwards, I am Viscount Fidez. Make sure to clean everything up carefully. After taking over his body, I will look for Viscount Warren…”

The soul exchange was completed and Viscount Fidez was killed on the spot.

The scene quickly moved away, showing that the observer was leaving this frightening place.

Finally, the scene stopped at the top of the stone stairs.

Gu Qing Shan appeared in the image.

He spoke with a serious expression: “Everyone, I am Rhode of Ramon village in the Langlois Prefecture of the Fran Duchy, a Baron”

“Earlier, I have shown you the truth”

…

The scene changed.

“Rhode! Baron Rhode! You mercilessly slaughtered the people of our Wraith realm without any reasons, we will definitely report this to his grace the Duke, and have you pay the price for your crime! Mark my words!”

The battle began.

“You wanted to steal my body, so killing you is nothing but justice, no one will say anything” Gu Qing Shan replied.

“So you already know”

The young man called Rhode tried his best to dodge among the hail of pikes, but still got injured and bled.

The scene ended.

The old farmer put the jade tag into his mouth, chewed it up, then swallowed.

“There are no issues with the item…”

A few moments of silence.

Someone suddenly called out from a distance: “Grandpa, today’s work is done, let’s go back and eat!”

The old farmer turned around, smiling with his face full of wrinkles: “I have a meeting with some old friends today, we’re going out for a drink, so I won’t eat dinner tonight”

“Really? Then try not to drink too much ok, we’re heading back first”

“Alright”

The old farmer watched as they left.

Only when the entire field had returned to silence did he mutter: “…Deceiving us for so many years!”

Boom!

Boundless rage erupted from his body, blowing the nearby wheat straight to the ground.

Like a cannonball, the old man shot into the sky, flying towards the ocean.

…

At another location.

One of the jade tags fell in the middle of a forest, hanging on the branch of a great tree.

「 What… is… this… thing? 」

The great tree extended an emerald branch outwards to take the jade tag.

The recorded scene inside appeared.

…

At the host seat of a grand banquet, a man with a crown on his head was merrily laughing with his fellow men, a gla.s.s of wine in his hand.

He suddenly put his hand up towards the sky.

Instantly, an arrow appeared in front of him.

“An a.s.sailant! Guards!” someone immediately shouted.

“Guard his majesty!”

“Guard his majesty!”

The entire banquet instantly turned chaotic, fully-armored royal guards wielding weapons appeared one after another, several powerful Combatants who were hiding in the shadows also appeared, cautiously surrounding the man.

“All of you, if something truly did happen, would I really need you to guard?” the man wearing the crown chuckled.

“Sire, this arrow—–”

“Doesn’t contain any force. It probably flew in from an extremely far distance, then just happened to fall in front of me… a coincidence”

Saying that, the man suddenly recalled something.

If all things contain the will of G.o.d, then what would this be?

His expression turned solemn and swiftly took the jade tag that was tied to the arrow.

“This thing is quite interesting, let me see exactly what’s going on”

The recorded scene appeared for everyone to see.

…

A gloomy, dark fortress.

On the top floor, just as a blood-colored casket was about to open, an arrow descended from above and landed exactly on top of it with a ‘thud’.

The casket was a bit startled.

A hand reached out from within the casket and searched the top for a bit, finally taking both the arrow and jade tag inside.

Very quickly, voices could be heard from inside the casket:

“Sir, he’s only a Baron, why do we need to use not only the precious [Snowdrift] but also for you to personally take over his body?”

“…We still haven’t managed to obtain this Profession, so the superiors are highly interested in it”

…

Ramon village.

In the wilderness just outside the village.

Gu Qing Shan had taken out a chair and sat in the middle of the frigid wilderness, slowly enjoying a bottle of liquor.

Crow carried the duck plus.h.i.+e with her and sat across from him.

“I’m telling you, the bar has several cute ladies” Crow excitedly said.

The duck plus.h.i.+e replied: “Whether or not those ladies are cute doesn’t seem to have anything to do with you as you currently are, right?”

Crow tapped the duck plus.h.i.+e’s head: “You d.a.m.n l.u.s.tful duck, I don’t need you to tell me that”

Gu Qing Shan offered each of them a gla.s.s of liquor and asked: “Then what do you want me to tell you?”

“How about why we are sitting in the middle of nowhere?” Crow asked.

“That’s right, wouldn’t it be better to sit in the bat?” the duck plus.h.i.+e also said.

“We probably will have to move soon” Gu Qing Shan replied.

Both Crow and the duck plus.h.i.+e asked in unison: “”What?””

“That’s right, we’ll probably be heading to bigger cities, perhaps even the center of this world’s civilization——- I’m not really sure if you’ll enjoy that or not”

“”Of course I do!””

Crow and the duck plus.h.i.+e both nodded.

“Then let me tell you about something first”

Gu Qing Shan began to explain how the wraiths are swapping everyone’s souls.

Right at this moment, many figures began to show up one after another from the shadows.

Wraiths.

Numerous wraiths.

From the mountains to the forest, squadrons of wraiths orderly and silently rallied.

They were all heading towards Gu Qing Shan’s group.

“Baron Rhode, I really must say, you are an exceptional individual”

A voice resounded.

The wraiths quickly parted ways to make a path for one person to come forward.

The man had greyish white hair, wore a red yaksha mask over his face, and had an aura of a superior.

He stood in front of Gu Qing Shan, solemnly observing him.

“For millennia, no one of the Saint Spirit world had tried to investigate our matters, no one had ever suspected anything. You were the only person to have done so, furthermore, the only one who successfully avoided all of our defensive measures, so you are relatively valuable”

“And so?” Gu Qing Shan asked.

“I shall give you a chance. Convert to become a person of our Wraith realm and vanish from this world, pledge your allegiance to me from now on” the man declared.

“Pledge my allegiance to you… but I don’t even know who you are” Gu Qing Shan replied.

The man paused a bit, then chuckled: “Very well, you wouldn’t be able to escape either way, I shall give you an answer. I am Red Wraith”

“Red Wraith?”

“Indeed, there are two rulers in our Wraith realm, a Heavenly King and a Wraith. I am that Wraith”

“Where is the Heavenly King?”

“We still haven’t found him——- but this isn’t the time to talk about that. You must make a choice right now; are you going to die or pledge your allegiance to me?”

Gu Qing Shan looked straight at the other party and asked: “My choice isn’t that hard to make, but if you’re willing to let me live, you’d be giving up on taking over my body, is that really true?”

“That is indeed true” Red Wraith nodded.

Gu Qing Shan questioned further: “Wouldn’t my disappearance be too sudden? Don’t you have any techniques other than [Life Seize Body Swap] to make someone else take my place?”

Red Wraith replied: “That isn’t something you need to worry about. The scene of a minor Baron’s death can easily be faked, we can guarantee that no one will suspect a thing”

Gu Qing Shan replied: “Very well, then I don’t have any other questions”

Red Wraith’s killing intent subsided, asking: “Then you’re accepting my offer?”

“I refuse” Gu Qing Shan replied.

Red Wraith was silent for a moment, thinking that he heard wrongly.

“…You chose to die?” he asked

“No” Gu Qing Shan replied.

“Then——”

“I said, I refuse”

Red Wraith said confusedly: “Refusal means death. After speaking so much, you still ended up choosing to die?”

Gu Qing Shan grinned and nodded, telling him: “Right, come”

Red Wraith stared straight at him and slowly raised his hand

“Baron Rhode, your death—–”

Despite saying that, Red Wraith didn’t act.

He abruptly looked up towards the sky: “Someone’s coming, very rapidly!”

“Defend!” Red Wraith abruptly shouted.

At the very next instant.

A holy ma.s.s of light descended from above, striking Red Wraith’s body and sending him flying.

“Who!?”

The wraiths readied their formations and sternly shouted.

A man wearing a crown slowly descended from above.

“I am the emperor of Roland; you bunch don’t deserve to hear my name” the man casually replied.

Suddenly, a shrill noise resounded in the air.

Boom!

Another figure descended from above, landing on the ground.

An una.s.suming old farmer.

His body was still glowing in a green aura as he looked around, smirking: “So many people, very well, your corpses will serve to nourish my wheat fields”

The clouds in the sky gradually began to part.

Numerous figures were descending one after another.

Hundreds of them had arrived almost at the same time!

All of them exuded intense pressure, all landing around Gu Qing Shan.

They were the true top-rate Combatants of this world.

During the previous timeline, they all fought to the very last moment, heroes recorded by the world spirit.

So with this second chance, the world spirit chose to send Gu Qing Shan’s jade tags to them.

Red Wraith staggered a bit to stand back up, looking up at the sky.

So many… powerful Combatants who hadn’t been taken over…

This force is more than enough to sweep through the entire world…

Red Wraith took a deep breath, barely retaining his calm: “Esteemed ones, please listen to me”

A blinding explosion!

The group of wraiths was sent flying, raining down as either corpses or pools of blood.

A red-haired woman hovering in the sky pulled back her hand, lightly declaring:

“There is nothing to be said, all wraiths must die!”