Parting Ways

A night passed, and the eastern sky began to brighten.

But it did not rain that day.

The sun rose slowly, hanging high in the cloudless blue sky.

Gu Qingshan suddenly appeared in a dense forest.

The Python Demon's corpse still lay at his feet. Two hundred meters away, clusters of arrows were embedded deep in the branches.

A day spent in the Otherworld amounted to an hour in the real world, but when he returned from the real world, not even a second had passed in the Otherworld.

It was a truly strange flow of time.

Gu Qingshan checked his Storage Bag. It was packed full of spoils, including snake blood and Snake Fangs.

The two most precious Python Demon Galls were another matter. He had eaten one himself, while the other rested quietly in his Storage Bag, occasionally giving off a hazy glow.

Now that was a real treasure. Even now, Gu Qingshan could feel the qi and blood throughout his body growing stronger, nearly catching up to a Martial Dao cultivator's.

Should he take the path of the Martial Dao?

Gu Qingshan hesitated.

Forget it. He would put that aside for now. It was time to return to the Military Camp.

He had not had time to eat today. Zhao Liu might be useless at most things, but he really knew his way around a kitchen.

Gu Qingshan straightened his gear and quickly retraced his steps.

He did not stop along the way, and whenever he encountered a Demon Beast, he simply avoided it in advance.

He had spent all night killing Demon Beasts, returned to the real world to finish developing a Mobile Armor, met Anna, fought a Great Grandmaster, met the president and the Martial Saint, and appeared on television. Now he felt mentally and physically exhausted.

This time, he might as well take a full day to rest in the Otherworld.

When he returned to the Military Camp, Zhao Liu was standing at the entrance, waiting anxiously for him.

The moment he saw Gu Qingshan, he blurted out, "Brother Gu, this is bad."

"What happened?"

"Lots of demons appeared one after another last night."

"Hmm? What exactly happened?"

Gu Qingshan's expression tightened as he asked.

Zhao Liu knew nothing about military affairs. He stammered and stuttered for ages without managing to explain anything.

Gu Qingshan had no choice but to patiently question him. He had to ask three or four times before Zhao Liu could recall a single detail.

It took a full quarter of an hour for Gu Qingshan to piece together what had happened.

Last night, the Demon Army had not mobilized its main force. Instead, small groups of specialized units had appeared one after another.

These units were well-equipped and powerful. As Zhao Liu put it, "They looked terrifying—meaner than the monsters I saw last time."

The Demon Army's troops had all raced past the Military Camp at tremendous speed.

To stay hidden and mobile, the demons traveled in small numbers and moved without a sound.

If Zhao Liu had not gotten up to use the latrine during the night, he would not have noticed them at all.

After hearing Zhao Liu's account, Gu Qingshan recalled the Faceless Giant and the Blood-Drinking Demon that had appeared the day before, and his confusion deepened.

Why was the Demon Army repeatedly deploying elite troops like this?

This was only the very beginning of the first war. The demons and the Human Race were still testing each other's strength, and neither side had yet sent out powerful forces to fight to the death.

Yet these formidable demons, who should only have appeared in the later stages of the war, had suddenly all shown up.

Gu Qingshan pondered, beginning to think it through carefully.

He sensed an ominous sign.

In his previous life, he had been a commander in the National Guild of Huaxia and the chief strategist of the World Allied Forces Command. He was especially sensitive to troop movements.

He had carefully studied every battle in the game.

Before, he had just crossed over, his cultivation was too low, and he was injured, so Gu Qingshan had focused on improving himself.

Now the situation had changed, and he once again considered things from the perspective of a strategic commander.

Gu Qingshan cast aside his distractions and began to organize his thoughts.

Since the demons had not deployed their main force, whatever was about to happen was bound to take place somewhere other than the main battlefield.

That ruled out a direct frontal war.

Could they be launching a surprise attack?

Gu Qingshan closed his eyes and reviewed the map in his mind.

The Military Camp he was in lay on the front line, in an area that had already fallen.

What Human Race stronghold nearby would be worth sending an elite demon force to attack with all its might?

The nearest Human Race stronghold was outside Border City, nearly a thousand miles away.

There were no Human Race targets nearby worth launching a surprise attack against.

That seemed to rule out a surprise attack as well.

With both possibilities eliminated, Gu Qingshan grew even more tense.

Could it be an assassination, a decapitation strike?

Gu Qingshan silently considered the possibility.

That year in history, many of the Human Race's top cultivators had died in battle.

At the sudden outbreak of war, which important Human Race cultivators had been ambushed and killed by the demons?

One name after another passed through Gu Qingshan's mind.

As he recalled them, he quickly narrowed down the possibilities.

Suddenly, Gu Qingshan thought of two people.

Two extraordinary figures, two names that had left a deep mark on history.

Many historians had said outright that if even one of them had survived the early stages of the war, history would have taken a different course.

Gu Qingshan suddenly asked, "What's today's date?"

Zhao Liu scratched his head. "The seventh day of the sixth month."

Gu Qingshan's heart leaped. That was it!

Gongsun Zhi, Supreme Elder of the Saint Dao Sect and Grandmaster of formations, would fall on the eighth day of the sixth month.

Ning Yuechan, Heavenly Peak Holy Maiden of the Heavenly Peak Sect, would fall on the ninth day of the sixth month.

Gongsun Zhi would be surrounded by three million demons and die within his own formation.

Ning Yuechan would be besieged by the Five Great Demon Generals, fight bitterly for an entire day and night, and fall.

When many players read this part of history, they were left dumbfounded, unable to understand it.

Formations excelled at concealment and evasion. At the very least, they could trap enemies and let the caster escape.

Among the clans and sects, Gongsun Zhi was the foremost master of formations, a Great Grandmaster whose skill almost reached the Heavenly Dao.

With his ability to set formations, how could he have trapped himself among millions of demons? It made no sense.

The death of Ning Yuechan, the Heavenly Peak Holy Maiden, was especially tragic.

The Heavenly Peak Sect was one of the most powerful sects in the Cultivation World. Ning Yuechan had become its Holy Maiden at a young age, and both her talent and cultivation were among the very best in the entire Cultivation World.

Such a peerlessly gifted woman had been besieged by the Five Great Demon Generals. She had fought for a full day and night, then died of exhaustion.

If she had sent out even the slightest sign, Human Race experts would surely have come to rescue her during that day and night.

But until she fell, the Human Race leadership did not even know she had been fighting the Demon Army for a full day and night.

A great cultivator had once declared that if Gongsun Zhi did not die, the outcome of the first battle would still be uncertain; if Ning Yuechan did not die, then decades later she would surely be strong enough to face the Nine Nether Demon Lord and change the fate of the entire Human Race.

But those words were only an expression of regret. History had already happened, and there was no meaning in later generations saying such things.

Gu Qingshan paced back and forth, silently thinking.

Today was the seventh day of the sixth month. In the next two days, these two legendary figures would fall one after another.

The Demon Army's deployment of elite forces was probably for that very reason.

The places where these two legendary figures would fall were...

Gu Qingshan silently searched his memory, and soon recalled the locations marked in the historical records.

Sure enough, they were not far from here, just over a hundred miles away.

That was it. Gu Qingshan felt as if a cloud had lifted from his mind.

Once two Human Race cultivators this powerful appeared, they would surely draw the demons' frenzied pursuit.

With a battle of this intensity, Gu Qingshan, at the fifth layer of Qi Refining, would not even be able to get close.

The demon troops guarding the perimeter could take his life with ease.

The only thing he could do was take the opportunity to flee back into Human Race territory.

While the demons' attention was fixed on those two legendary figures, he could escape the Fallen Zone!

Gu Qingshan quickly made up his mind.

In this situation, he only needed to leave in the exact opposite direction to avoid as much danger as possible.

It would take about a day and a night to get from this Military Camp to the Human Race Highlands outside Border City.

That was no short journey, and there would be plenty of dangers along the way. But it was still better than waiting to die in a Military Camp that was about to fall.

So if he was going to leave, he had to do it while those two legendary figures were fighting the Demon Army!

Gu Qingshan gave up on resting and quickly checked the things he had with him.

He had the snake blood, Snake Fangs, and Snake Gall. His Military Bow was still in decent shape, but he was running low on arrows, so he would need to stock up before leaving.

The standard-issue curved saber was useless, but he might as well bring one. If he had to fight hand-to-hand, at least he would have a weapon.

"Pack your things. We're leaving right away."

As Gu Qingshan gathered his belongings, he told Zhao Liu.

"Leaving? Where to?" Zhao Liu asked, eyes wide.

He was holding the Demon Beast jerky he had just finished curing, about to hang it under the eaves.

"Of course we're leaving this Fallen Zone and heading for the Human Race Highlands," Gu Qingshan said.

Zhao Liu hesitated. "B-but we've already found a Spirit Stone. With the formation, we can hide here for a while longer."

"This Concealment Array only works on those below the Golden Core realm. Anyone at the Golden Core realm or above can see through it at a glance."

He continued, "That monster called the Faceless Giant from a few days ago had already discovered us. It was just on a mission, and it saw us as nothing more than ants, so it didn't bother with us."

Zhao Liu took one step back, then another, and shook his head. "Brother Gu, why are you trying to scare me? What's the point of lying to me?"

Gu Qingshan patiently explained, "If my judgment is right, this whole area will soon become a battlefield. If we want to live, we have to leave as soon as possible."

Zhao Liu said, "Didn't you go hunting? How would you know any of this?"

"Just look at the demons' troop movements. Don't worry, I can't be wrong about this."

Zhao Liu kept shaking his head. "No! You must have gotten it wrong. It's so dangerous out there—if we leave, we could die at any moment! If you want to go, go. I'm staying!"

Thinking of the Healing Pill Zhao Liu had given him, Gu Qingshan sighed and continued trying to persuade him. "Come with me. This place won't hold. You could lose your life in the blink of an eye."

Zhao Liu shook his head like a Pellet Drum and said repeatedly, "It's more dangerous outside. The camp has a formation, so it's safe here. Besides, the Human Race's main forces will take this place back sooner or later."

Gu Qingshan tried to persuade him a couple more times. But when he saw how resolute Zhao Liu was, and the resentment in his eyes, he finally gave up.

"I hope you understand," Gu Qingshan said seriously. "Once the demons come, it'll be too late to regret it."

Zhao Liu stuck out his neck and said nothing.

Seeing this, Gu Qingshan turned around helplessly and left the Military Camp without looking back.

Only after Gu Qingshan had walked so far that he was no longer in sight did Zhao Liu spit viciously on the ground.

"Pah! Leaving is the most dangerous. All those soldiers only died in the demons' jaws after they left the camp."

"Everyone else ended up in the Pit of the Dead. I'm the only one still alive."

"I thought he was a rescue force, but he was just a lone rookie. I spent days looking after him for nothing before I figured it out."

"Ridiculous. He can go get himself killed, but he's got the nerve to try and drag me along."

Zhao Liu cursed under his breath as he went back to the barracks.