Chapter 1597: Have you seen it before?

The light of dawn slowly came up.

An orange cat was sitting in a valley.

The effects of [Ghostly Shadows of Night] had disappeared from his body, but he was not in a hurry to leave.

—–after all, within this endlessly vast Doomsday Necropolis, the glowing cloaked skeleton wouldn’t necessarily notice a small animal like him.

That unkillable Apocalyptic monster was currently focusing all of its attention on awakening the slumbering Apocalypses.

The orange cat silently listened to the sound of incantation in the wind while thinking of various tactics.

Suddenly, the doghead mask began to give off a tiny sound of resonance.

A wondrous fluctuation could then be felt from the orange cat’s mind.

—–following the doghead mask’s resonance, the stone casket was also making some noises.

The orange cat curiously observed these two items.

After all, this was something that Shroud had left behind while he was at his peak, it was impossible to tell what he had arranged inside them.

Rumble rumble!

The stone casket began to collapse and reveal the object hidden inside.

—–it was a faint figure of a girl—– no, in this state, it was more accurate to call it a soul!

This soul was in an unconscious state while carrying a white piece of thigh bone in her hand.

Boundless radiance drifted around the bone which also enveloped the soul.

The girl’s soul and the bone were both motionless.

It was as if both of them were currently in some sort of miraculously strange state.

Gu Qing Shan carefully examined the girl’s familiar face and felt a bit better.

This matter had always been at the back of his mind, but he had not returned to the River of Death after leaving the Age of Immemorial, so it had always been delayed.

I didn’t expect that Shroud had thought to take care of this already.

A second later, Shroud’s voice was heard from the white piece of bone:

“Epta and Atley were both our comrades, but they lost their lives during the [Siming] Apocalypse”

“Atley did not want to accept my power, as he had already formed his own forces within the River of Death”

“But Epta wasn’t the same”

“I managed to sense the omens regarding the River of Death, so I had used the grand power of Radiance to salvage Epta’s soul from the depths of the River of Death at the moment that the Twin Rivers intercepted one another”

“I then used the power of the frozen corpse to create a s.p.a.ce-Time seal that isolated and ensured that her soul would be able to receive salvation in the future”

“Rhode, I’m sure that you’d have a way to help her, right?”

At this point, Shroud’s voice faded.

Gu Qing Shan didn’t say anything and just silently pondered.

——I am the Death G.o.d, so if I wanted to save Epta’s soul, I would need to summon power from the River of Death’s water and intercept it with the River of Life.

But now that the River of Death had fallen under the glowing cloaked skeleton’s control, it would most likely be very difficult to take a soul from it without it noticing.

—–no.

I clearly have alternatives.

The orange cat slowly nodded.

He directly entered his own Thought Sea in the form of Gu Qing Shan.

Gu Qing Shan s.h.i.+fted his posture and performed a graceful dance around that soul.

Lines of glowing text swiftly followed:

[You’ve performed your personal dance steps to change that soul’s world jurisdiction]

[That soul now belongs to the Samsara]

——on his way back from the Age of Immemorial, in order to meet Scarlet, he had danced for over a year straight, so he had become a complete expert at performing this world jurisdiction Dance.

As soon as the world jurisdiction change was complete, Gu Qing Shan stopped dancing.

The long piece of bone seemed to have realized this and started trembling while giving off a burst of radiant light.

Epta abruptly woke up.

She looked at the radiant white bone behind her, then at Gu Qing Shan in front of her and slowly understood what was going on.

“Rhode, thank you for saving me” she said.

“No, it was Shroud who saved you from the River of Death” Gu Qing Shan quickly corrected her.

“…I was able to feel Shroud’s power. Without him specifically looking for me, I would have fallen into an eternally cold and lonely slumber”

Epta smiled and replied to him as her figure became increasingly transparent.

She lightly drifted upwards, slowly flying through the sky following the radiance, nearly exiting Gu Qing Shan’s Thought Sea completely.

“Where are you going?” Gu Qing Shan asked.

“I was too much of a coward in the past, but I was fortunate enough since both you and Shroud had never given up on me, even after I died” Epta muttered.

She lightly moved her hand around in the air.

The surrounding radiance slowly descended and enveloped her body again.

“Shroud had left me a bit of his power that would help me travel through a short period of time, allowing me to reincarnate in an era that I wished”

“And now—- I’ll be going first. Perhaps we will meet again someday at some point in time”

Epta lowered her head to Gu Qing Shan and prepared to leave.

Gu Qing Shan suddenly recalled something and shouted: “Wait a moment, Epta!”

Epta paused in mid-air and looked towards him in confusion.

Gu Qing Shan smiled and relaxed his posture: “In the future, do you still want to fight alongside us?”

Epta nodded: “I want to find an era to be born in and mature, then hopefully reunite with the two of you at an opportune moment within the River of Time”

She continued: “——With this opportunity, I would definitely not be a coward who stayed behind anymore… I will fight, become stronger, and hopefully see you both again——- I will repay Shroud’s protection of me!”

Her gaze was a bit awkward but ultimately became resolute.

Gu Qing Shan was surprised and slowly smiled.

——even he managed to discern the hidden meanings behind her words.

“Epta, I… have a little present for you” he said.

“What is it?” Epta asked.

Gu Qing Shan spoke to the void of s.p.a.ce: “Lady Darksea, does she qualify to become a carrier of [Order]?”

Lady Darksea’s voice resounded: [Founder of Order, your excellency Gu Qing Shan, I have loaded a unique seed of Order into her soul—– in reality, as soon as she was born, that seed of Order will create a corresponding Order template to fit her latent potential, as well as report it to you]

Gu Qing Shan lightly sighed and told Epta: “I’ve given something to you, but you’ll only know what it is later on”

Epta nodded, then smiled at Gu Qing Shan before vanis.h.i.+ng into the radiance.

While Gu Qing Shan silently waited for a few moments, Lady Darksea’s voice was heard:

[Founder of Order, Gu Qing Shan, I will now report this to you]

[Epta had reincarnated into the Human realm of the Samsara]

[By the great power of the Lord of Infinite Origins, she had travelled across s.p.a.ce-Time and was born into a certain low-level martial arts world 19 years ago]

[The Human Regiment template she most suitable for her was an extremely rare exclusive template of Order]

[Her basic information is as follow]

[Name: Xu Xing Wei]

[Race: Human]

[World jurisdiction: Samsara]

[Order template: The Predestined Princess (exclusive)]

Gu Qing Shan silently listened, then couldn’t help but feel a bit surprised.

Xu Xing Wei.

Isn’t that little Wei?

It was because he met her, that Shroud had completely snapped out of his stagnation and woke up again.

——when Shroud was at his peak, he had left a bit of his power in order to save Epta.

And now, Epta had entered the Samsara’s cycle of reincarnation.

In the future not too long from now, she would save Shroud and become his servant.

But at the very last moment of the Wraith realm’s destruction in the future, Reneedol had opened the Reality Gate and summoned a true Apocalypse.

At that point in time, Shroud and I were transported away by Su Xue Er, leaving little Wei there by herself.

Little Wei was about to be eradicated by the Apocalypse.

And so during this trip back in time, it was my and Shroud’s turn to save her.

…So the relations.h.i.+p between individuals can become this roundabout and complicated.

Is this the predestination of the Samsara?

Gu Qing Shan couldn’t help but sigh.

All the radiance had faded away, slowly scattering into sprites of light that entered the piece of bone.

Lines of glowing text appeared in front of Gu Qing Shan:

[The fluctuations caused by Shroud and yourself was relatively intense, causing a large commotion that had been noticed by your enemy]

[Please prepare for combat immediately]

Gu Qing Shan smiled and left his Thought Sea.

He knew that the fluctuations would be a bit too great, but since it was related to Epta, he had no intentions of obscuring it.

Gu Qing Shan’s real body turned back into his human form from the orange cat form, still standing in the middle of the rock valley.

A second later.

A pale burst of white flames descended from above.

The glowing cloaked skeleton.

[You again?] it gritted its teeth.

Gu Qing Shan sighed, then grabbed the Earth sword from the void of s.p.a.ce and replied: “Life is a series of meetings and reunions”

The glowing cloaked skeleton coldly sneered: [That Dance of yours requires an astronomical amount of Prayers, and since the Death Dragon isn’t here, I suspect you won’t have a way to trigger that Dance]

Gu Qing Shan replied: “Unless it’s a grand occasion, I wouldn’t perform that Dance”

He turned his other hand and grabbed the Heaven sword from the void of s.p.a.ce.

——-their battle could begin at any moment.

The glowing cloaked skeleton grinned, then raised its hand.

A burst of pale flames appeared from its hand, manifesting into a large axe.

[You’ve clearly left the Doomsday Necropolis already, so why did you return at this point in time?]

The glowing cloaked skeleton asked.

Its presence was gradually rising, its killing intent becoming almost solid as it clenched down on Gu Qing Shan.

Gu Qing Shan shrugged: “I came to surrender”

[Surrender?] the glowing cloaked skeleton was unconvinced.

“That’s right, but there’s a condition—— as long as you fulfil one of my wishes, I will surrender immediately” Gu Qing Shan replied.

The glowing cloaked skeleton stared closely at him, receding its own killing intent a bit.

[What kind of condition?] it asked.

Gu Qing Shan cleared his throat and replied: “As long as you leave the s.p.a.ce Vortex and return outside the Reality Gate, I will give up on fighting against you”

The glowing cloaked skeleton stayed silent for a bit.

That simple?

Would he really surrender with such a simple condition?

Wait a minute——

If I leave, he would naturally have no reason to fight in the first place.

That’s not surrendering at all!

The glowing cloaked skeleton was about to get angry, but suddenly thought of something and spoke to itself: [I can tell, Gu Qing Shan, you must have returned to the Doomsday Necropolis because of something crucial]

Gu Qing Shan silently sighed.

This guy is both smart and knowledgeable, it’ll probably be next to impossible to pull the wool over its eyes.

Then the only option——

Is to fight again!!!

Gu Qing Shan charged forward with his swords, but while he was flying, two gigantic sword phantoms had already slashed forward and crashed into the glowing cloaked skeleton.

[You still don’t get it? Your attacks mean nothing to me]

The glowing cloaked skeleton declared and let those two sword phantoms. .h.i.t its body.

It was completely unharmed as it stepped forward, leaving a shadow of light where it originally stood.

The shadow of light and the sword phantoms both vanished at once.

The axe in its hand manifested into a gigantic white flame as it was swung forward.

Instantly, heaven and earth became empty.

The entire Northwest region of the Doomsday Necropolis was enveloped in the pale white flames.

Bang bang bang——–

Within the resounding explosions, the earth was reduced to nothingness.

The glowing cloaked skeleton abruptly looked up.

Only to see that Gu Qing Shan was standing in mid-air as the set of black armor protecting his body slowly crumbled into dust and disappeared.

[Surrender and you can become an envoy of Apocalypse under me, otherwise, my next attack won’t be that simple]

The glowing cloaked skeleton grinned.

The axe in its hand began glowing even more intensely.

Gu Qing Shan indifferently looked down at it while rapidly coming up with a solution.

Suddenly, he noticed something changing in his Thought Sea.

——-after Epta left, the piece of bone remained.

This was one of the frozen corpse’s body parts!

Lines of glowing text appeared in the void of s.p.a.ce in front of Gu Qing Shan:

[You’ve obtained a body part of the frozen corpse]

[Because you’ve helped Epta complete her reincarnation and you carry the Bell Ringer Dog Battle-mask, the frozen corpse’s body part had recognized you]

[The piece of bone is currently pouring all of its power into the Bell Ring Dog Battle-mask]

[The Bell Ringer Dog Battle-mask’s power ‘Temporary Manifestation’ had activated]

[Attention:]

[You’ve gained 1/6th of the frozen corpse’s power]

Gu Qing Shan looked down.

He saw that the dog’s head hanging on his shoulder was slowly losing all of its hair and turning into the skull of a dog.

——it had turned into a white pair of gauntlets made out of a dog’s skull with razor-sharp teeth!

Numerous notifications were scrolling through Gu Qing Shan’s vision.

Below, the glowing cloaked skeleton’s furious shout arrived: [Now, tell me your answer—– are you going to surrender to me, or die?]

Gu Qing Shan silently put the gauntlets on and landed in front of the glowing cloaked skeleton.

“Actually——– I only have one question for you” he said.

[What?] the glowing cloaked skeleton asked.

Sensing the great power coming from the skull gauntlets, Gu Qing Shan asked:

“A punch that’s larger than an entire world, have you seen it before?”