Transparent gray-black mist blanketed the entire world.
Fire Rain fell from the sky in sheets.
A rift opened in the void. Wrapped in a membrane of light, Gu Qingshan flew out of it.
The clamor of battle below caught Gu Qingshan's attention.
Several hundred zhang away, a dark mass of Demons surged up a hillside, pressing toward its summit.
Several cultivators stood back-to-back, fighting the Demons with all their might.
Before long, another cultivator was dragged away by the Demons and devoured amid his screams.
"No! Little brother!"
One of the cultivators let out a heart-wrenching cry. He charged out of the formation and slaughtered the Demons in a frenzy.
But it had no effect. The stench of blood drove even more Demons mad, and they surged toward the hillside like an overwhelming tide.
In just a few moments, the reckless cultivator was killed and devoured as well.
Only six or seven Human Race Cultivators remained under siege, like guttering candles in the wind, ready to be snuffed out at any moment.
Gu Qingshan studied them carefully and murmured, "Looks like these are the troops General Gongsun left behind. They're not all dead yet. They've got some ability."
Gu Qingshan had no intention of watching any longer. Spiritual Power stirred within him, and he broke through the nearly transparent membrane of light, leaping down in one direction.
He had picked the spot himself. It was not far from the hillside, and most of the monsters had been drawn there by the cultivators, so it was relatively safe.
As soon as his feet touched solid ground, Gu Qingshan withdrew his Spiritual Power and held his breath.
—Demons could sense fluctuations in Spiritual Power and even breathing. He had to be careful.
A stench-ridden gust slammed toward him. Gu Qingshan abruptly twisted aside and shot several zhang backward.
Crash—
A thunderous sound came from behind him.
A huge mouth lined with sharp teeth snapped at the ground, then reluctantly withdrew.
Gu Qingshan looked back, his heart sinking slightly.
A Corpse Eating Demon crawled along the ground, like a mountain of rotting flesh moving at a crawl.
An overpowering stench washed over him.
This monster ate anything, but it especially loved rotting corpses. After years of feasting, it reeked of an unbearable stench.
Normally, even other Demons avoided this creature. It simply smelled too awful.
The Corpse Eating Demon had missed its prey. Irritated, it puffed out its cheeks and spat a stream of slime, trying to trap its quarry in place.
The slime was not only difficult to escape; it could also eat through flesh. A single unguarded spray could melt away a person's face and flesh.
This Corpse-Eating Demon radiated a powerful aura, far beyond that of an ordinary one. It had probably reached the Foundation Establishment Realm.
Its drool might even be able to eat through bone.
Gu Qingshan had been prepared for this move. He sprang backward, barely dodging the spray.
Among the cultivators on the hillside, one of them glanced over in surprise.
In fact, the moment Gu Qingshan appeared in this space, they had sensed him.
When they realized the newcomer was only a Qi Refining cultivator, the hope that had just flared in their hearts died again.
Gu Qingshan was only at the Qi Refining Realm, a whole major realm below the Corpse-Eating Demon. Yet he had anticipated its move and dodged its pounce. His performance was astonishing.
The Corpse-Eating Demon saw its prey dodge again and opened its mouth to shriek in anger.
If it made a sound, it would surely draw even more Demons.
With Gu Qingshan's cultivation, if the Demons surrounded him in layer upon layer, he would have no chance of survival.
At the critical moment, the Corpse-Eating Demon suddenly felt something stuffed into its mouth.
The Corpse-Eating Demon froze.
With its brains, it couldn't begin to understand what was happening.
Instinctively, it opened and closed its jaws, chewing on whatever was in its mouth.
—This feels strange. It isn't one of my usual favorites, but it seems edible.
Hmm, the more it chewed, the tastier it seemed. It even seemed to do it some good.
The food calmed the Corpse-Eating Demon.
But what exactly was it?
The Corpse-Eating Demon slowly reached out a claw and poked at the food in its mouth, wanting to see what it was eating.
It wanted to remember this thing and add it to its menu for later.
Seeing this, Gu Qingshan quietly dropped to the ground and slowly slipped out of the Corpse-Eating Demon's sight.
He had just taken out a stack of Python Demon hide and bones and tossed them through the air into the creature's gaping mouth.
The Corpse-Eating Demon was so ravenous it would swallow rocks. Python Demons were rare Demon Beasts, and their hide and bones brimmed with powerful energy. They were surely tastier than rocks and rotting corpses.
With the Corpse-Eating Demon distracted by its food, Gu Qingshan slipped away unnoticed.
He hid behind a pile of boulders and carefully surveyed his surroundings.
There weren't many Demons nearby. Most of them in the area had rushed toward the hillside.
The battle on the slope grew more and more brutal.
The six or seven cultivators were hemmed in by layers of Demons, unable to advance or retreat.
They fought desperately for their lives amidst the Demons, forced to unleash their Spiritual Power and fight with all their strength. Their Spiritual Power fluctuations could be sensed even from far away.
After watching for a while, Gu Qingshan's expression gradually turned grave.
"These people are at least at the Foundation Establishment Realm. Some are even at the Golden Core Realm."
Neither those cultivators nor the Demons covering the ground were opponents he could handle.
"My cultivation is too low. I can't use many of my methods. Then I can only..."
As he was thinking, three or five Demons nearby spotted him.
They roared and gathered around, shoving other Demons aside as they came, afraid someone else might compete with them for the bloody meat.
Gu Qingshan paid no mind to these Foundation Establishment Realm Demons. As he retreated, he took out an array disc, held it in one hand, and used the other to channel his Spiritual Power, rapidly striking the disc.
Without pausing his hands, he shouted, "Come this way!"
On the other side, another of the cultivators died in battle. The Demons devoured his body, leaving nothing behind, and the others were in even greater danger.
Hearing Gu Qingshan, they looked over. When they saw him holding an array disc, his body surrounded by a hazy glow, they were overjoyed.
"An array disc!"
"An array master! He's an array master!"
"Wonderful! We're saved!"
Array masters were exceedingly rare. Every sect treated them like treasures and kept them under careful protection. Why would one be alone here?
They had no time to think about it.
Seeing a chance to survive suddenly appear, their spirits soared, and they forced the Demons around them back several zhang.
Under one cultivator's direction, they slowly made their way toward Gu Qingshan.
The cultivator pointed out two of them and ordered, "He's only at the Qi Refining Realm. You two are quick on your feet. Go protect him!"
"Yes!"
This array master was their hope of staying alive.
The cultivator giving orders also waved the Jade Fan in his hand, doing everything he could to unleash his techniques.
Under his attacks, Demons froze into ice sculptures one after another. Even the more powerful Demons that avoided being frozen moved sluggishly.
The sword cultivators and Saberists rushed in, blades flashing as they swiftly reaped the Demons' lives.
With such large-scale Frost spells supporting them, the Saberists and sword cultivators moved like lightning. In a few moments, they had reached Gu Qingshan and slain every Demon that charged at them.
Gu Qingshan glanced at the two men, his gaze fastening on the sword cultivator's hand and refusing to move.
It was a sword!
As Gu Qingshan stared at the long sword in the cultivator's hand, all five fingers twitched involuntarily.
Since being reborn, Gu Qingshan couldn't remember a single sword technique. It seemed that the system had deliberately sealed away every sword technique he had ever practiced.
He could vaguely sense that the system had done this to minimize the risks of traveling through time and space and avoid certain terrifying troubles.
Gu Qingshan still remembered the words the system had spoken after his rebirth: "Smuggling successful."
But he had already been successfully reborn, and the mysterious seal on him still had not been lifted.
An instinct buried deep within him told him he needed a sword.
Just as he had through countless years in the past, he needed a sword that could kill!
The sword cultivator, at the peak of the Foundation Establishment Realm, noticed Gu Qingshan's gaze and gave him another strange look.
No, not yet!
Gu Qingshan suppressed the impulse in his heart, turned away, and fixed his eyes on the cultivator giving orders.
"So that's it. He's awakened Five Elements Water and advanced to the second stage, the Frost Realm. If not for him, these people would have been wiped out already."
Gu Qingshan took note of that, then turned to look at the two cultivators bringing up the rear.
The two cultivators guarded both sides of the one giving orders, attacking with nothing but their fists and feet. Every strike sent a large swath of Demons flying.
They were Martial Dao cultivators, their blood and Qi as tangible as matter, the power of Martial Arts Return coursing through their entire bodies.
There was no mistake: they were genuine Martial Arts Grandmasters at the peak of their realm, almost ready to advance to the initial stage of Martial Venerable.
Behind them, the Demons swarmed after them, a mountain of bodies and a sea of faces.
A few moments passed in the blink of an eye. The group rushed to Gu Qingshan's side and formed a protective ring around him.
The cultivator at the front folded away his Jade Fan and asked urgently, "What kind of array is it? Do you need us to protect you?"
Everyone looked over.
Setting up an array took time. If Gu Qingshan took too long and everyone ran out of strength before he finished, the whole thing would become a joke.
Hearing this, Gu Qingshan shook his head. "It'll be ready in a moment."
He tapped the array disc and formed a hand seal with both hands.
The array disc Gongsun Zhi had given him had several extremely advanced arrays attached to it.
Gongsun Zhi had taught Gu Qingshan the specific hand seals needed to activate the disc. Each time he activated one of its arrays, he had to channel Spiritual Power and form the corresponding hand seal.
Array masters had to form seals to set up arrays anyway. At a glance, Gu Qingshan's movements really did make him look like an array master.
Only an array master as deeply accomplished as Gongsun Zhi could tell what the hand seals did and recognize that Gu Qingshan was an impostor.
The only drawback was that the arrays on the disc had limited uses. Once they were used up, the disc would be ruined.
The situation was dire, and the cultivators were strangers. Gu Qingshan might as well play the array master for a while.
"Water, wind, mist, earth, Azure Nether Sky Piercing Escape Array!"
Gu Qingshan channeled his Spiritual Power, and starlight as deep as the Sea Abyss burst from the array disc. Four especially bright lights flickered within it.
The array was complete!
The strongest escape array on the disc activated, and seven-tenths of Gu Qingshan's Spiritual Power vanished in an instant.
The light enveloped him and the several cultivators beside him. In the space of a moment, they vanished from the Demons Sea.
The countless Demons couldn't find a target, and all of them shrieked and went berserk. Before long, they began tearing into one another.
After a while, the most terrifying giant Demons couldn't stand it any longer. They grabbed a few Demons and shoved them into their mouths. After chewing them up, they dragged their enormous bodies away.
Their actions doused the other Demons' fury.
Before long, roughly half of the Demons slowly dispersed.
Inside the escape array, the cultivators lay scattered across the ground, gasping for breath.
They had all reached their limits.
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