Worlds’ Apocalypse Online

While Gu Qing Shan was talking with the Giant of Beginning, his mind wandered somewhere else.

I did indeed meet that shadow in my homeworld.

What did the shadow say at the time?

…

[I came from the Age of Immemorial, once the shadow of a certain person…]

…

-----from the Age of Immemorial.

That was at least over a hundred million years ago, around the time of the Inner Plane's destruction.

In other words, the 'Gu Qing Shan' who advised that I shouldn't give up my status as the Huang Quan Devil King had already set everything up over a hundred million years ago.

At the time, he was already the Huang Quan Devil King, but for one reason or another, he gave up on the status of Devil King.

Which ended in his regret.

---------so he left a word of caution for me from the extremely distant Age of Immemorial.

Over a hundred million years, that is a very long time, would those monsters in the River of Time let him pass?

Those monsters do not do anything, their only meaning of existence is to observe the infinite worlds and see if there are any holes within the River of Time, coordinating an attack as soon as they discover one.

For them, this is their life and their enjoyment.

…so how did that 'Gu Qing Shan' manage to return so far? Still with the power of the coins?

Gu Qing Shan shook his head.

-------small matters like that are no longer important.

The important thing now is that I've gotten the message, I cannot give up on my status in the Samsara.

The Giant's booming voice declared: 「 Very well, today's business is done, you can return from the way you came, if you want me to teleport you back, that'll cost an extra fee 」

Gu Qing Shan looked at the Giant's expectant gaze and couldn't help but ask: "How much?"

「 Depends on what you have 」the Giant replied.

Gu Qing Shan glanced at him again.

The Giant was still clearly expectant.

------this Giant is very, very interested in doing business and transactions.

Gu Qing Shan closed his eyes briefly.

The 7-colored fragment was giving off very faint fluctuation, pointing at the Giant of Beginning.

Seems like when I tossed Abaddon away during the battle of Huang Quan, it was this Giant who caught it later on.

How should I take Abaddon back from him?

Gu Qing Shan cleared his throat and replied: "-----I'll be frank, other than being teleported back, I also want a useful weapon, do you have any weapons for sale here?"

The Giant's eyes glowed.

One teleportation and one weapon, my earnings should be quite decent.

What a true customer.

「 Weapons huh? What kind of weapon do you want? 」the Giant of Beginning tried asking.

Gu Qing Shan replied: "A cold weapon, preferably long-handled"

The Giant fell into thought briefly.

Numerous lances, pikes, halberds, spears, and javelins appeared between Gu Qing Shan and the Giant.

These weapons carried different types of power, some related to the element; some required willpower to use; some even had their own weapon spirit and sentience.

The weapons all gave off a powerful aura.

Gu Qing Shan glanced through them all and shook his head: "Not good enough"

The Giant replied: 「 All of these are very nice artifacts already, if you want even better weapons, I want to see what kind of thing you have 」

Gu Qing Shan asked: "What do you want?"

The Giant appeared a bit pressed and replied: 「 Things from the outside world, anything valuable will be fine, as long as it's unrelated to combat. My stock of combative items is already a bit too much to maintain 」

Unrelated to combat huh?

Gu Qing Shan randomly took out a Dragon's Tear Flower.

This was a flower from the cultivation world that was beneficial to the soul.

The Giant glanced at it and casually stated: 「 Flower-type items are certainly rare, but that isn't even enough to exchange for one of these weapons, let alone better things 」

Gu Qing Shan looked at the flower in his hand, then at the weapons.

------all of those weapons were certainly decent, even in the 900 million World Layers, they could be considered rare artifacts.

The Giant's expression was calm.

But Gu Qing Shan had different thoughts.

This guy's calm expression is very unnatural!

-------if there's nothing to care about, then why bother keeping up that terrible poker face?

Maybe…

This Giant can only remain here without leaving?

With that thought in mind, Gu Qing Shan took out the pot of the flower.

"This is dirt from a Cultivation-type world, capable of nurturing the majority of plants" he introduced it.

The Giant appeared a bit tempted.

He reached one finger down, lightly touched just a little bit of dirt, and carefully tasted it in his mouth.

「 Hmmm… indeed, this is high-quality dirt, but still far from enough to exchange for a weapon 」

"Alright, let me take a closer look"

Gu Qing Shan searched through his Inventory Bag once.

Qin Xiao Lou's spirit cooking.

Xiu Xiu's flower and plant seeds.

Cultivation books that Qing Rou and Wan Er gave him.

Several HDDs that belonged to Liao Xing----- although Gu Qing Shan hasn't looked through them, according to Ye Fei Li, they just contained teaching materials regarding romance. He looked through them, picked out some that were 'plain trashy and would need to be destroyed after one look', then left the rest for Gu Qing Shan.

A set of documents named [The matter of self-care for a performing actor], and a novel named [This hitman isn't as cold as I thought], both from Zhang Ying Hao.

The rest were daily items.

Ah, right, there were also the coins from the Strife Zones---------- Gu Qing Shan only kept the octopus coin that could summon a fridge that was currently packed full of drinks to himself.

In short, Gu Qing Shan took out everything that he could take out.

He decided not to try any tricks.

The other party was the very first Giant in the infinite parallel worlds, he had probably lived for hundreds of millions of years and witnessed countless things; he could easily summon anybody he wanted to meet through using Causality.

If one really tried to use petty tricks against such a mythical being, one would probably be dead before they even realized it.

The Giant saw how many items Gu Qing Shan took out and doubtfully asked: "How come you took out so many things?"

Gu Qing Shan carefully explained: "When doing business, trust must be respected above all else------ from the perspective of value, I think these things are still far from enough----- because these are very common items, but what I want is an actual good weapon"

After a short pause, the Giant chuckled: 「 And here I thought you'd be the kind to act sly…」

He glanced at the weapons.

All of them immediately turned into rusty, ruined trash.

「 Since you mentioned trust, my reputation had always been good, as long as others are truly willing to conduct a transaction with me 」

The Giant thought briefly, then continued: 「 These items that you presented, I want them all 」

Gu Qing Shan asked: "Then, about the weapon…"

The Giant retrieved all the tattered trashy weapons hovering in the air, and took out another group of long-handled weapons.

As soon as they appeared, they started giving off a faint aura of power, the breeze that drifted around them was more than enough to explain what they actually were.

Soul Artifacts.

They were all uniquely powerful Soul Artifacts, another of them would be enough to rouse the greed and envy of Combatants everywhere.

Gu Qing Shan quickly glanced through them all.

------Abaddon isn't among them.

Of course, these weapons were definitely powerful, but compared to a weapon of Abaddon's level, they were still one grade lower.

Gu Qing Shan sighed and shook his head: "These are not what I want"

The Giant wasn't angry and simply replied with his booming voice: 「 If you wish to exchange for even more powerful weapons, a bit of dirt and mundane outside world items aren't going to cut it------ even if you had offered more, I wouldn't exchange them 」

"Why not?" Gu Qing Shan asked.

The Giant appeared nostalgic and slowly replied: 「 You are a smart person, so you've probably realized, I'm unwilling to leave this place----- because in the outside world, no matter how powerful an entity is, there would come a day where they face their end 」

"Seems like you've lost quite a lot" Gu Qing Shan commented.

The Giant sighed and continued: 「 The past need not be mentioned again, let us return to our transaction----- if others find out that I traded legendary artifacts for what are essentially the most mundane items in the outside world, I would become the subject of ridicule for all, my reputation would also be ruined 」

Gu Qing Shan insisted: "But I truly do need better weapons"

The Giant opened its single eye widely to observe Gu Qing Shan, then slowly said: 「 That… is not impossible. Other than the things you have here, there are other more precious things to you that you may exchange 」

"More precious things to me? That is… do you want my soul?" Gu Qing Shan cautiously asked.

The Giant's face became grim: 「 I am NOT an evil creature 」

"My apologies, may I ask what it is that you want exactly?" Gu Qing Shan smiled.

The Giant pointed a finger at Gu Qing Shan and asked: 「 In the infinite worlds, what is most crucial? 」

"What is it?"

「 Talented individuals with unique abilities! 」

"…" Gu Qing Shan.

The Giant continued: 「 There used to be a huge scorpion who had the strongest poisonous stinger in existence, while also impervious to all magic. It was capable of destroying countless worlds, an unrivalled entity in every meaning of the word------- but it couldn't perform hygienic maintenance on its own poison stinger 」

「 The huge scorpion once tried to wash its own poison stinger, but ended almost poisoning itself to death 」

「 From that point on, it no longer tried to try washing itself 」

「 Those who were captured and forced to wash its poison sting were dead long before they could even touch its stinger 」

「 Every time that huge scorpion went out, the foul stench it gave off was enough to cause the people of an entire world to faint 」

「 It had no girlfriend 」

"And then?" Gu Qing Shan couldn't help but ask.

The Giant continued: 「 Many years later, it found a certain person. That person had basically no strength to speak of, but he had awakened a unique ability that allowed him to ignore the poison stinger to directly wash away all the grime and contamination on its body 」

"So potent? What kind of ability was it?" Gu Qing Shan found that a bit unimaginable.

The Giant sternly replied: 「 That is a secret, I am not clear about that either. According to legends, that ability was called [Washes, Cuts, and Blows] 」

Gu Qing Shan nodded: "What a vivid picture"

The Giant clenched his fist tightly and spoke very seriously: 「 Even great VIPs who have unrivalled power and strength cannot be omnipotent entities, they would surely have one or two issues of this type that they want resolved. And so, within the infinite worlds, the most precious resource are talented individuals with unique and rare abilities! 」

He clapped his hands.

A letter of entrustment appeared in the void of space.

Gu Qing Shan received it, took a look at it, then immediately shook his head: "This isn't my area of expertise, I'll be honest, I've only just barely begun my studies on this subject"

The Giant showed a doubtful expression and asked: 「 Didn't you say you wanted a peerless artifact? 」

He clapped his hands again.

Poof poof poof poof poof!

Clouds of smoke erupted one after another.

Weapons of extreme aura and pressure slowly appeared, hovering in the void of space.

Gu Qing Shan immediately saw the 7-colored spear.

The 7-colored spear gave off a clear ringing noise.

The Giant looked at the spear, then at Gu Qing Shan.

He thought briefly.

「 I understand, so you were actually after this Abyssal Saint Armament from the very start 」the Giant said.

"Yes, actually, from a while ago, with this weapon-------" Gu Qing Shan casually admitted.

But the Giant had already begun talking to itself: 「 In reality, this weapon didn't really cost me anything, since it was tossed away by some fellow who liked to litter. At the time, I was having an afternoon nap, but thankfully I reacted in time, otherwise, it would definitely have hit me on the head 」

「 What an uneducated fellow, littering into the Winds of Chaotic Tribulation in this day and age 」

「 If I knew who they were, I'd definitely devour them whole! 」

After saying so, the Giant turned to Gu Qing Shan and asked: 「 -----ah right, what did you say just now? 」

"I… feel like the weather is quite nice today…"

Gu Qing Shan barely managed to squeeze out the words.