The barren wasteland.
The shadow in midair looked down at Gu Qingshan.
The twin swords in Gu Qingshan's hands rang out in warning, but he casually tossed them behind him into the void, hiding them.
"Hahahaha! After all that effort, I finally brought you out!" he laughed.
The shadow's hands paused, and the spell it had been preparing to unleash never took shape.
"Welcome to the real world." Gu Qingshan spread his hands.
The shadow fell silent for several breaths, then gently descended from midair and stood opposite Gu Qingshan.
Real...
It tried stamping the earth beneath its feet.
"What... time is it now?" the shadow asked.
"This is actually very unfair—you see, at first you told me nothing, but now you want to learn the time from me," Gu Qingshan said.
The shadow's voice suddenly turned cold. "Answer me properly, and you'll get to live a little longer."
Gu Qingshan said helplessly, "All right. It's the fifth day of the winter month, year 367 of the Fire Era. Exactly five in the afternoon."
The shadow fell silent. After several breaths, it asked, "And where is the real me now...?"
"The real you is dead," Gu Qingshan said.
"Oh?" said the shadow.
"I killed you," Gu Qingshan said.
"Could you really do that?" The shadow didn't believe him.
"Of course, I wasn't alone. There were five of us in all, representing the will of Chaos. When we descended together, it meant Chaos was going all out to deal with you—so you died."
He added, "By the way, I was the weakest among us."
—Since the two sides were naturally opposed, it was only normal for one of them to be defeated in battle.
The shadow said nothing.
Gu Qingshan watched it, speaking slowly. "If you were really as powerful as