Gu Qing Shan only thought about it for a split second before he stopped.

I’m not good at naming things, and under the current emergency situation, it’s no time to be slowly thinking about it.

“Warship, were you constructed in complete accordance with my specifications?” he asked.

The indifferent electronic voice answered:

[I was. This mechanical city was constructed exactly as you have designed, would you like to name the Immortal City now?]

“Not yet”

Gu Qing Shan pondered briefly before speaking again: “Initiate the No.2 technical system and collect my gene, no need to create any clones, I just need a half-mechanical artificial intelligence substitute”

[Roger]

Several spinning rings appeared from his feet, and after circling around him a few times, they returned to the floor.

After that, an incubation chamber emerged from where the rings appeared.

[Currently incubation organism to adapt to mechanical apparatus]

[Prototype complete]

[Please examine]

The incubation chamber opened.

A semi-mechanical creature walked out.

Gu Qing Shan glanced at it and said: “Good enough”

The indifferent electronic voice continued: [Permission received, incubating final product]

Numerous tiny holes appeared all over the deck of the warship, from which tiny wires sprung out and began to weave themselves together into the skin of the prototype organism.

Very quickly, a second Gu Qing Shan appeared.

From the outside, it looked exactly like Gu Qing Shan, including its facial expressions.

“Say something” Gu Qing Shan said.

The other ‘Gu Qing Shan’ spoke up right away: “Say something”

Their tones were exactly the same.

[Please give an order] the system machine said.

Gu Qing Shan thought briefly before speaking: “If I leave this place, the Heavenly Emperor would surely head into the Human realm to try and capture me, then my substitute would only have a single responsibility—— be prepared to initiate warp at any moment”

He then started programming the system with a detailed set of orders.

[Orders received. The Immortal City will act with ‘avoid contact’ as its highest directive] the electronic voice replied.

Gu Qing Shan nodded in satisfaction.

A mechanical bracelet then floated to and started hovering in front of him.

[By activating this bracelet, you will immediately return to the warship]

Gu Qing Shan equipped the bracelet.

“Now send me to the Human realm, Huo Shui city” he ordered.

The electronic voice replied: [Coordinates confirmed, transporting]

Gu Qing Shan instantly vanished from the Immortal City.

The entire interstellar warship simply continued to float in the sky motionlessly.

A few moments later.

A flash of light could be seen at the edge of the horizon.

——–the Heavenly Emperor’s Immortal City.

As soon as the light appeared, Gu Qing Shan’s Immortal City reacted without delay.

The substitute that had been standing blankly on the deck of the ship suddenly spat at the horizon:

“Idiocy, you think I’m going to let you catch up?”

As soon as he said that, the interstellar warship triggered its warp drive.

The giant warship that eclipsed the sky vanished.

It had directly warped over a hundred thousand kilometers away.

Time slowly passed.

After an unknown amount of time, some tiny fluctuations could be felt in the airspace around the warship.

The ‘Gu Qing Shan’ who was standing on the deck of the ship moved right away.

He muttered: “Concealment? But there were some energy fluctuations, regardless of what you are——”

In an instant, the interstellar warship had warped away again.

It was gone.

——this time, it warped a total of two hundred thousand kilometers away.

…

On the other Immortal City.

The Heavenly Emperor was sitting on top of a throne shrouded in fog.

Below, heavenly beings stood waiting on him in two lines.

“Your Majesty, should we continue to pursue?” a heavenly official asked.

The Heavenly Emperor scowled but didn’t say anything.

Gu Qing Shan is clearly standing on top of that interstellar warship, but refuses to fight.

—–this fellow is as slippery as an eel, and without feeling sure of himself, he would definitely not clash against me directly again.

“A technological airship almost doesn’t have to worry about energy, since they have more than one advanced method of recharging themselves, it’ll be very difficult to pursue them if they insist on fleeing” another heavenly official added.

“This is troublesome… if we can’t go within a certain distance, it would be impossible to seal off space around them” the first heavenly official commented.

The Heavenly Emperor felt a bit troubled.

——should I invoke the power of Miracles now?

While he was thinking that, someone came to report: “Your Majesty, for unknown reasons, 7-8 of our men have gone missing”

A Heavenly General who accompanied them added: “That’s right sir, according to our casualty reports, they did not die during the previous battle, but they are still nowhere to be found”

“The situation is a bit eerie and everyone is feeling a bit uneasy, please give your judgment, Your Majesty”

The Heavenly Emperor paused, feeling a bit hesitant.

The past few times… I didn’t manage to find appropriate opportunities…

If too many people go missing too rapidly, it would harm the morale of the troops.

The Heavenly Emperor silently sighed, then asked in return: “What’s the state of repair for our Immortal City?”

“70%, Your Majesty”

“What about our Merit Stones?”

“There are more than enough to provide the Immortal City an upgrade and restructure”

“If that’s the case, then let’s have the Immortal City be upgraded and repaired first. Additionally, send out some people to investigate that Apocalypse and search for our missing men”

“Understood sir!”

The heavenly officials all responded in unison and quickly dismissed themselves.

The Heavenly Emperor continued to sit for a few moments before standing up from his throne and proceeding towards the opaque fog behind the Heavenly Palace.

He simply walked forward through the endless white fog.

Brilliant bursts of light gradually condensed into beautiful calligraphy behind his back——-

This was a large-scale isolation formation.

Several dozen isolation formations in a row had completely quarantined this area off, making it impossible for anyone to see the Heavenly Emperor’s whereabouts.

The Heavenly Emperor reached the deepest depths of the Immortal City.

There wasn’t a single thing here, only emptiness.

The Heavenly Emperor paced around a few times while muttering to himself:

“…I keep having this bad omen… it seems I need to quickly resolve this problem!”

He finally made up his mind and suddenly stood completely still.

Numerous black threads emerged from his back in a single burst, which twisted and slithered like a horde of snakes.

The thickest and longest of them looked almost like a tube, which reached out and entered the void of space.

Bzzt bzzt!

The tube clearly stopped moving in the void of space, followed by a tiny noise as if it had just connected to something.

“It’s me…”

“Yes, the Samsara Clash for Supremacy is proceeding as planned…”

“The other party is the Heavenly Emperor’s disciple… the inheritor of the Samsara Dharma…”

“That’s right, he definitely must not stay alive, otherwise, this weapon might trend towards him…”

“This lengthy plan has finally come to its final phase, help me kill him!”

“…”

“Then I can feel assured”

…

Gu Qing Shan had returned to the Green Building.

The main hall was still empty as the evil creatures were still excitedly digging for Merit Stones.

Li An noticed his return right away.

『 You came back at the right time, your Shifu is gone 』she hurriedly said.

“Didn’t she leave any sort of message?” Gu Qing Shan asked without feeling worried.

“There are some words written on the table, telling us not to worry” Qin Xiao Lou answered him.

“Let me take a look”

Gu Qing Shan followed Li An upstairs and entered Xie Dao Ling’s private room.

He saw her message.

“Book of the Sea, are there any issues with the Key of the Wind?” he asked.

[I can’t sense the Key of the Wind—– it must have entered a different point in the timeline, don’t worry, that’s what it’s always been capable of] the Book of the Sea answered.

Gu Qing Shan thought briefly and understood.

Shifu must have gone out to investigate something.

She’ll be fine.

“Shifu’s busy with her own business, there’s no need to worry about her” he told Li An and Qin Xiao Lou.

——with the Key of the Wind in hand, the Heavenly Emperor would definitely not be able to capture her, so she must have gone to do something by herself.

Hearing him say that, the two of them also sighed in relief.

“Junior brother, want to try my new dish?” Qin Xiao Lou asked.

“Of course!” Gu Qing Shan replied.

Up until this point, he had always been the one who cooked for other people, only when he’s with Qin Xiao Lou would Qin Xiao Lou that would be the one cooking for him.

Gu Qing Shan would naturally not let this chance go.

“That’s great to hear, I’ll make a few of my newest dishes for you to try” Qin Xiao Lou said.

“Yeah, I’ll be looking forward to them” Gu Qing Shan happily replied.

Qin Xiao Lou left right away.

Something immediately occurred——-

All of a sudden, the golden coin jumped out from Gu Qing Shan’s body.

It gave off a hurried metallic clanging noise.

“What’s the matter?” Gu Qing Shan was confused.

The Book of the Sea also flew out and sighed:

[Not good, I can feel it as well]

“What exactly happened?” Gu Qing Shan asked with a solemn tone.

The Book of the Sea answered: [Something has focused its attention on you—— something that came from the Boundless Void outside the Samsara]

Gu Qing Shan’s expression changed: “How could that be!?”

The Book of the Sea tiredly explained: [There had never been any sort of rules for anyone to abide in the Boundless Void, and I didn’t think that things would actually come to this—— to guarantee that the Four Saint Pillars don’t fall into unknown hands, I will now help the Coin of the Earth conceal its energy signature]

[—–It will now utilize its true powers!]

The Coin of the Earth then jumped by itself into the air and flipped a few times before landing in Gu Qing Shan’s hand again.

Lines of bloody red text quickly emerged:

[The Coin of the Earth has released its true power]

[You’ve obtained the Earth Saint Pillar’s true power: Virtue]

At the same time, Gu Qing Shan sensed something——–

He looked down at his bracelet and noticed a message: [Space has been sealed, warp ineffective]

I’ve been pinpointed.

Space has also been sealed off.

This is——-

Gu Qing Shan became very pale, sensing an unprecedented sense of suffocation gradually descending upon him.

It felt like someone had their hands around his neck, and the feeling of approaching death coming from his Spirit Sense made him realize what the current situation was.

Bang!

Gu Qing Shan immediately flew through the roof and transformed into a lightning giant in the middle of the air, then quickly proceeded to flee outside the city.

It felt like a very long time, but everything occurred in the mere blink of an eye.

『 Gu Qing Shan! 』Li An called out from behind him.

“Xiao Lou! Li An! Take everyone with you and run—— no, teleport away!” the lightning giant shouted without turning around.

His knees slightly bowed as he leapt forward and flew across an extremely large distance almost right away, nearly leaving the city right away.

[There’s no time, the enemy has already attacked!] the Book of the Sea hurriedly reported.

From deep above the sky, a blindingly brilliant ray of light descended upon the land.

All things and all beings turned to silence.

A wall of lightning above the lightning giant’s head was immediately crushed.

The blinding light enveloped the giant and began to spread in every direction.

Under this light, the entire Luo Shui city was erased.

The city no longer existed.

All living beings were dead.

There was now only a bottomless hole on the ground.

The lightning giant lay at the bottom of the hole, his entire body soaked in blood as he was on his deathbed.

He stared straight at the dark earth below him.

A few lines of bloody red text were continuously blinking there:

[You’ve suffered an unknown attack]

[That attack originated from a certain type of Sequence]

[Attention!]

[The other party is not an Apocalypse Sequence]

[…]