"Now, our only chance at survival is—"
Gongsun Zhi slapped his Storage Bag and took out a dull, lusterless Round Iron Ball.
"Before the Demon Lord discovers you, hurry to that world and find the large-scale Teleportation Array I set up. Place this token on it."
Gu Qinghan hesitated. "General Gongsun, you're so powerful. You could go yourself—"
His voice gradually trailed off.
Gongsun Zhi took off his shirt, revealing a terrifying wound to Gu Qinghan.
Emerald green flames stretched from his shoulder to his chest, then all the way down to his lower back.
The wound was so deep that even his heart had been split in two.
The flames burned silently. Intricate runes densely encircled them, preventing them from causing any further harm.
Netherworld Blazing Flame, one of the most powerful kinds of demonic fire.
Gu Qinghan glanced at it but did not speak out. He only thought silently to himself.
This is Ba's Fire. Even a tiny flicker can turn a thousand miles of rivers and land into a scorched wasteland.
For Gongsun Zhi to have survived being struck by it was practically a miracle.
Gongsun Zhi said, "I used the Ten Absolutes Imprisonment Array to lock down my life force, so I won't die for now. But the Demon Lord inflicted this wound himself. Wherever I am, he can sense me."
"How much longer can you hold on?" Gu Qinghan asked.
"Half a day. When the Ten Absolutes Imprisonment Array collapses, I'll fall with it."
Gu Qinghan looked him straight in the eye. "With a wound like that, who could save you?"
Gongsun Zhi laughed freely. "There's probably no saving me, unless I return to the Human Race Highlands and ask a medical expert at the Divine Transformation stage to treat me."
Gu Qinghan sighed, then glanced at Ning Yuechan in the sky. Gritting his teeth, he said, "Then I'll go."
Gongsun Zhi was overjoyed. He placed the iron ball in Gu Qinghan's hand and said, "We have people stationed in the Divine Martial World, but the Demon Lord discovered them long ago. By now, most of them are probably dead. You don't need to worry too much about them."
He took out an array disc and placed it solemnly in Gu Qinghan's hands.
Gu Qinghan looked it over. The disc was divided into several sections, each covered in incredibly intricate array runes.
Gongsun Zhi picked up the disc and explained the purpose of each section one by one. At the end, he said, "This is a universal array disc. It has many useful arrays, each with a limited number of activations. Make good use of it."
"And here's a map showing the directions."
After explaining everything, Gongsun Zhi took out a tortoiseshell and told Gu Qinghan to stand on it.
"In the Time-Space Turbulence, ignore everything and don't make a single move. If anything goes wrong, not even the Three Saints will be able to save you."
"I understand," Gu Qinghan said, nodding in agreement.
"Go!" Gongsun Zhi slapped Gu Qinghan.
In the next instant, Gu Qinghan vanished from the spot.
With a muffled bang, the Faceless Giant blasted Ning Yuechan out of the sky, sending her crashing into the ground and leaving a deep crater.
"Hmph."
Ning Yuechan gave a sharp cry and leaped out of the crater.
"You sent him to the Divine Martial World?" she asked.
"Exactly," Gongsun Zhi replied. "The Demon Lord's divine sense has us both locked down. We'll never get close to that Teleportation Array."
"You want him to escape?"
Gongsun Zhi sighed. "I've already told him the secret. If he can survive, he can pass the message on for us."
Ning Yuechan stood in the wind, her icy gaze gradually softening.
She wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth and said softly, "Then I have no regrets."
She beckoned with one hand, and her long saber appeared from the void once more.
"If I can kill this monster, then I'll die without regrets."
With that, Ning Yuechan gripped her saber and flew into the sky again.
Gu Qinghan felt like a cannonball, accelerating through the endless void.
Time flowed unpredictably. His senses stretched without end. Sometimes it felt as though days had passed, when in reality, not even the blink of an eye had gone by.
The boundless void around him gradually disappeared, replaced by a black abyss with no end in sight.
This was the outermost layer of space. Beyond it lay the Time-Space Turbulence.
Gu Qinghan's heart tightened.
He had experienced this when he was reborn, and knew how terrifying it was.
Even someone like him, battle-hardened and tested by countless dangers, found himself hoping for good luck.
I hope I don't run into anything.
Gu Qinghan prayed silently.
The next moment, the entire world suddenly vanished. Gu Qinghan broke through space and plunged headlong into the Time-Space Turbulence.
A sudden force surged around him like a raging torrent, wrapping him tightly as it carried him at an unimaginable speed across layers of past and future.
Gu Qinghan's vision blurred, and the force pushed him into a scene.
A colossal Bronze Pillar pierced the heavens and earth, towering over a vast, empty expanse.
At the very center of the Bronze Pillar, a corpse was firmly pinned in place by five nails.
Its head hung low. It was clad in black armor and stood about ten stories tall.
Even so, compared to the Bronze Pillar, the corpse still looked tiny.
Below the Bronze Pillar, countless Black Skeletons moved back and forth, trying to climb it.
They piled on top of one another, layer upon layer, rising higher and higher, nearly reaching the corpse's toes.
Gu Qinghan emerged from the void, flew across the eerie space, and continued onward.
"Help me."
Suddenly, a voice echoed in his mind.
Gu Qinghan gritted his teeth and kept flying without looking back.
He absolutely couldn't stop now. Even the slightest movement would affect the strange force wrapped around him.
This force was carrying him to the Divine Martial World. If it became unstable, the consequences would be unpredictable.
—He might be flung into an unknown world, or torn to pieces in an instant. But the likeliest outcome was that he'd be trapped in this world, never able to leave.
"Help me, and I'll grant you eternal life."
The voice rang out again, carrying the faintest hint of authority.
Gu Qinghan paid it no mind. At last, darkness filled his vision as he plunged into another layer of time and space, leaving the place behind.
A long while passed.
The corpse atop the Bronze Pillar moved, then opened its mouth and exhaled.
The breath carried fierce, unmatched Emerald Green Fire, instantly burning every Black Skeleton below to ash.
"Damn it. A living creature comes along only once every two hundred million years, and I let him get away."
The corpse struggled with all its might, but the nails pinning it in place didn't budge.
After a while, the corpse grew tired of struggling and became still again.
One by one, Black Skeletons poked their heads out of the soil beneath the Bronze Pillar.
Soon, hordes of skeletons once more filled the space. They raised their heads, gazed up at the corpse on the Bronze Pillar, and began to move slowly.
Gu Qinghan flew onward through the turbulent time and space. He had no idea how long it had been when an opening suddenly appeared ahead.
Gu Qinghan plunged into it and immediately felt cold wind blowing over him. The force wrapped around him gradually thinned, its shape slowly becoming visible in the air.
It was a milky-white sphere. Gu Qinghan was inside it, floating about as if wrapped in a giant soap bubble.
Outside the sphere, Gray Mist filled the air, shrouding the sky and land.
The Gray Mist was strange. It was so dense it was almost black, yet it was transparent. Through it, the distant scenery remained clearly visible.
Gu Qinghan lifted his head and looked out.
Demons filled his field of vision, stretching all the way to the end of the land.
Far in the distance, a Faceless Giant fought another demon, one wreathed in an icy aura, high in the sky above Cloud Top.
The entire world had already been destroyed. Demons, vast as mountains and seas, had taken it over.