Chapter 257: A living fish

Translated by: La0o9

Edited by: VindiFan#1

Proofreader: Arya

Inside this part of the magma tunnel, there was even more forked roads than before.

If it weren’t for the two swords leading him forward, Gu Qing Shan definitely couldn’t have made it this far.

They have been moving for a few hours already.

The air was dense with hot air, the temperature only rose more and more as they walked.

Gu Qing Shan had no choice but to let out spirit energy and completely cut himself off from the air outside.

Suddenly, a thin presence appeared, making Gu Qing Shan cautious.

“Spirit energy wave? … It’s so pure, and so ma.s.sive…”

He frowned unexpectedly.

He didn’t expect to feel spirit energy wave at such a place.

——–ever since they arrived at Shen Wu world, asides from the demons, the cultivators haven’t seen a single living being.

Last time, they at least discovered a few corpses of Sainted Realm Martial cultivators, but now they haven’t discovered anything at all.

The three Saints guessed that this world’s humanity must have been killed to extinction by the demons.

But now, Gu Qing Shan felt a spirit energy wave.

This is a bit unbelievable.

This place is extremely far from the surface, and with how much the magma cave is forked, wanting to return on the same road is practically impossible.

The Earth Sword fell into his hand as Gu Qing Shan carefully dashed forward.

At the other entrance of the tunnel, the swords finally stopped.

Gu Qing Shan stopped there, looked outside and suddenly exclaimed in shock: “How is this possible!?”

Outside the tunnel entrance was another chasm.

But below this chasm wasn’t flowing lava.

It was a dried lake.

In the middle of the lake there was a hole about the size of a bowl.

The excess spirit essence turned into white mist, rising up from the hole.

The two swords shook a bit in the air, then started to descend.

Gu Qing Shan followed behind them.

As soon as he landed, Gu Qing Shan quickly walked towards the hole in the ground.

Inside the hole, there was a minute amount of water left.

There was a small fish in the water, dejectedly floating in place.

Seeing this, Gu Qing Shan forgot about everything else.

In the desolate dead Shen Wu world, there’s still a small fish still living so deep underground.

With how thick the spirit essence here is, this obviously used to be a spirit vein, while this spring of water just happened to form above the spirit vein.

Although everything else has been evaporated by the high temperatures and there was only a small bowl’s worth of spring water left, this fish still managed to endure and lived on.

It’s a miracle of life.

It could possibly be the very last living being in this world.

Thinking so, Gu Qing Shan tapped his Inventory Bag and let out a 10 cubic meters’ cube of spirit spring water.

This is spring water collected from the most famous spirit spring in Bai Hua Immortal country. Gu Qing Shan has been using this water for personal hygiene and for making tea and other drinks.

The cool air from the water quickly filled the area.

The sad, dejected little fish felt the cool air, shook its body and jumped up, looking at the cube of spirit spring water.

There was a look of desire in its eyes.

The two swords shook their hilts, seemingly urging it to get in.

The fish looked at Gu Qing Shan.

Gu Qing Shan said: “Come”

The fish jumped straight into the spirit spring water.

It swam happily and excitedly around inside the water cube.

The two swords just floated silently watching this scene.

Suddenly, the small fish jumped out of the water, swam in front of Gu Qing Shan and touched his forehead three times.

With each touch, a small white light would sink into Gu Qing Shan’s forehead.

After three taps, three small lights appeared on Gu Qing Shan’s forehead.

The lights began to merge into one and disappeared into his body.

After this, the fish went back into the water and enjoyed the refres.h.i.+ng coolness.

As he felt an exhilarating coldness, Gu Qing Shan felt delight all over his body.

A notification appeared on the War G.o.d UI.

[The System did not guarantee any rewards, but you have received an unknown gift]

[You received the Dragon Fish Pearl]

[Dragon Fish Pearl: Mend all wounds on a soul vessel in a few seconds]

This is something extremely rare!

Feeling the coldness still emitting from his forehead, Gu Qing Shan looked at the fish in surprised.

“Thank you” he said.

The fish jumped out of the water, then jumped back in a few times over.

From the looks of it, it wanted to thank him for the water.

Gu Qing Shan nodded, then said to the fish and the two swords: “If there’s nothing else, let’s get out first”

Suddenly, the swords once again flew circles around him.

“…There’s more?”

“Alright, you lead the way” Gu Qing Shan couldn’t help but agree.

Just like that, the two swords lead the way, Gu Qing Shan was in the middle, while the fish took the cube of water floating in the air with it and moved forward with them.

In this underground magma tunnel, asides from that single lake from before, there was nothing but innumerable amounts of tunnels.

Not long after they left, lava began to pour in from the entrance that they came in from.

This underground lake was quickly being drowned under the lava.

The spring in the middle of the lake that was still letting out fumes of spirit essence before quickly depleted, no longer able to resist the heat, and no spirit essence remained.

After the fish left, the little puddle that it was swimming in before also quickly dried up and disappeared.

At this point, Gu Qing Shan, the two swords and the fish that can float were already very far away from the spring.

Once then entered the next tunnel entrance, they began to go on another long journey through the tunnels.

A few hours later, the heat began to slowly retreat.

Instead, a chilling air began to fill the area.

“Cold essence?” Gu Qing Shan frowned.

How could there be cold essence this deep underground?

While he was thinking, the two swords once again stopped at the next tunnel entrance.

Like before, Gu Qing Shan walked forward and looked out from the entrance.

Another chasm.

But unlike before, this is the true end of the journey.

Outside the tunnel entrance, there was nothing but the endless chill of darkness.

Whether he looked up, down or ahead, all he could see was darkness.

Gu Qing Shan couldn’t see anything, and he couldn’t sense anything with his inner sight either.

He tapped his Inventory Bag, took out a jade bottle and threw it into the stifled darkness.

In a matter of seconds, the jade bottle disintegrated into grains of sand, scattering below into the abyss.

Gu Qing Shan opened his eyes wide.

Such terrifying power, almost like sword phantoms being concentrated to its utmost limit.

Next to time, the two swords were dancing up and down, trying to gesture something.

“Get too close and I’ll die? Don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere near that” Gu Qing Shan said.

Then he couldn’t help but ask: “But then, what did we come here for?”

The two swords began to scratch the surface of the rock, slowly revealing the thing hidden inside.

It was a small formation plate, covered in dust and dirt, evidently very old.

This place was completely hidden from his inner sight, if it weren’t for the two swords, Gu Qing Shan wouldn’t have even noticed that there was a formation plate hidden there.

The two swords carefully carved away all the dirt and mud.

The small fish waved its fin, controlling some water to wash the formation plate clean.

Then the water turned into a hand, softly lifting the formation plate in front of Gu Qing Shan.

“A teleportation formation? I… need to get stronger before coming back?”

Gu Qing Shan asked.

The swords and the fish all nodded at the same time.

They stared at Gu Qing Shan for a while, then flew deep into the dark abyss.

They were gone.

Gu Qing Shan took the formation plate in hand, then read the notification on the War G.o.d UI.

[Golden Core Thaumaturgy randomizer Quest 2: It’s a joy to help others (completed)]

[If you can’t become stronger, you won’t be able to trigger the third Quest, thus getting the record of 2 completed mission as the final result for drawing your new Thaumaturgy]

After reading through this, Gu Qing Shan just stood there in silence for a while.

「 What’s the matter? 」the Earth Sword’s heavy voice rang out.

“I want to know, if I wanted to save s.h.i.+fu’s life, what should I do?” Gu Qing Shan asked.

「 To be able to save Ling er’s life, strength that trumps all adversary is needed, it’s not something you should be thinking about right now 」 the Earth Sword responded.