Worlds’ Apocalypse Online

The Soul-devouring Revenant died.

They didn't find anything besides it.

The entire valley was turned into a mountain, but there still wasn't any trace of the ghosts.

The only clue they had was the strange female voice.

But how could they find out who the voice belonged to?

"What that monster said just now, do you believe it?" Ilya asked.

"It wasn't trustworthy, but I could tell that the boastful tone of its voice was real" Gu Qing Shan replied.

"What about the ghost army? Just now we heard someone order them to retreat, could they have really given up on attacking?" Ilya asked.

"That shouldn't be the case, no loss is too great for [Origin], it will only come up with more and more desperate solutions to obtain what it wants" Gu Qing Shan answered without hesitation.

"But its army already disappeared"

"Perhaps it's not that they disappeared…"

Gu Qing Shan looked up at the sky and continued: "If they leave this lost world, they will definitely return to the world above the ice"

Triste's collection world was known to be split into three parts, the ice layer, the ocean layer and finally the lost world.

If the ghost army left the lost world, the only place they could've possibly gone was the ice layer.

Where all the demonized were currently gathered.

Ilya was troubled: "The treasure I used to get through the barrier was a single-use item, once I leave, I won't be able to return"

"It's fine, I can guarantee our return"

"Very well, then we'll go take a look"

The two of them leapt off the peak of the mountain, flying up towards the outside world.

Once they reached the protective barrier, Gu Qing Shan used the Chao Yin sword.

The barrier obediently opened a gap for them to pass through.

As he went out, the flowing water outside the barrier also parted by itself, forming a path upward.

"So this sword is a tool forged by the gods, capable of controlling water" Ilya sighed, "no wonder Laura likes it so much"

"Let's go, we need to take a look at the outside world's current situation" Gu Qing Shan said.

They flew straight upwards.

When they were about to reach the ice layer, Gu Qing Shan stopped.

"What is it?" Ilya asked.

"We're still under the ocean, observing them from here will be more discreet" Gu Qing Shan explained.

Ilya looked up.

A thin layer of white frost had formed above the clear blue ocean water.

With her strength, even while in the ocean she could sense what was happening above the ice, there really was no need for them to get all the way up.

"True, then we'll follow the current to investigate and see if we find anything"

Only after swimming for a few minutes, they stopped.

Right above them, where the ice was originally white from the snow, thick miasma had formed from countless ghosts gathering in once place.

The ghost army was stationed here!

They exchanged looks, sensing the surprise on each other's faces.

Did the [Demon King Order] really retreat?

Ilya was surprised, but at the same time, she couldn't help but feel a bit relieved.

Gu Qing Shan, on the other hand, squinted his eyes.

This can't be right.

Even if he saw the ghost army retreat, Gu Qing Shan would still not believe that [Origin] would simply give up.

He knew it well.

Cold, indifferent, greedy, cruel and not afraid to use any means at hand.

How would such a thing simply give up and have its army retreat?

Even the Chaotic Demon Lords, those Entropy Ghosts had already retreated from the underground lost world.

What key point did I miss?

Gu Qing Shan fell silent.

"Let's go, we're going to check those demonized to see what they are doing" Ilya suggested.

"Yes" Gu Qing Shan agreed.

They dived back into the ocean, swimming to where the demonized had made camp.

Ilya carefully observed them.

Gu Qing Shan carefully used the presence concealment seal as he checked what was happening above.

The demonized were all packing their belongings and preparing to leave.

Even their base camp had been dismantled.

They were all ready.

The demonized really were preparing to leave.

"If they really are going to retreat, then we'll be safe" Ilya commented.

Gu Qing Shan trembled a bit, still in disbelief.

"Under what condition would [Origin] pull away all its fangs?"

He couldn't help but mutter to himself.

"Perhaps the [Demon King Order] gave up on attacking us" Ilya replied.

"Other than that" Gu Qing Shan said.

Ilya thought for a bit, then asked him: "Then under what condition would you give up on fighting?"

"Me? I wouldn't give up, and I'm sure [Origin] is the same"

For some reason, he suddenly recalled the sighing female voice.

The voice sang faintly:

"A journey so far.

Far outside of my wildest dreams.

Sometimes I still dream.

Of how much I miss home…"

This song itself wasn't special, but the style of which it was sung caused him to recall something.

Gu Qing Shan let himself float inside the deep blue ocean, carefully thinking of every detail.

The current situation is completely out of expectations.

Something must've happened, I don't know about it, but it must've happened.

Gu Qing Shan closed his eyes and fell into thought.

He was recalling every detail of every event he went through ever since he entered the lost world.

At the time, because I didn't know anything, in order to remain hidden, I chose a secluded location on the outskirts of a city to land.

What did I see then?

A male and female, hugging each other.

They both had a look of despair and fear on their faces, already dead.

Then, the Entropy Ghost came.

While they went on their way, there was nothing but large coral buildings around them.

Those buildings were full of people.

Those people were either eating, walking, running or talking, they all maintained the same gestures while they were alive.

Their expressions were still very animated as if they didn't know that they were already dead.

At a certain point, the black horse mentioned that it felt as if it saw one of the corpses smiling.

After I carefully tucked Laura to bed, I even had the Six Paths Great Mountain sword remain to protect her while I went alone deeper into the city to scout.

What did I see at the time?

Tens of thousands of corpses were neatly lined up with a strange smile on their faces, silently walking towards the plaza.

On the plaza, a black monster as large as a mountain was eating those corpses.

Gu Qing Shan couldn't help but mutter.

"That's very strange…"

"What kind of thing can take away a living being's life before they know it?"

"What kind of thing can manipulate the bodies of the dead to continue being that animated?"

While Gu Qing Shan was thinking that, he remembered the Soul-devouring Revenant that died just now.

Something… is off

That Soul-devouring Revenant had its own will, its own fears, the way it spoke to me made it clear that it was conscious.

But the Soul-devouring Revenant I met at that time wasn't the same.

What did Shannu say about it?

"I can't, they've already lost their sentience, they only know how to kill now"

Those were Shannu's exact words.

That's very strange.

Why did the Soul-devouring Revenant I met back then lose it sentience, while the one I met just now was conscious even before death?

Could it be…

Someone purposefully placed the Soul-devouring Revenant there the first time?

Even if that was the case, the only thing it managed to accomplish was to let me discover and kill it.

-----could it be a coincidence?

No.

There's no such thing as such a convenient coincidence.

Especially when I haven't met a single other Soul-devouring Revenant since then until just now.

Thinking about it more and more, Gu Qing Shan's eyebrows became knitted even further.

He suddenly asked the Earth sword: "When we just arrived at the underground lost world, we met a Soul-devouring Revenant from Huang Quan, at the time it attached itself to a corpse, do you remember?"

「 I still remember 」the Earth sword replied.

"How does that monster kill living beings?" Gu Qing Shan asked.

「 Kill living beings? 」the Earth sword found that to be a bit unexpected, but still answered, 「 this type of revenant came from Huang Quan, it can only devour the dead souls of Huang Quan, making them experience the torture of their souls being eaten 」

"It can't devour a living being's soul?"

「 It can't, the way it kills living beings should be the same as any other monster 」

Gu Qing Shan began to laugh bitterly.

I missed such a simple detail.

He asked Ilya: "I have a very important question, please answer me truthfully"

Seeing how serious he was, Ilya also became stern: "Go ahead, I'm listening"

"The Chaotic Demon Lords, the Entropy Ghosts, how do they kill their enemies?" Gu Qing Shan asked.

"I've seen this happen many times, they will directly bypass all of their enemy's defensive measures and devour them whole"

"Devour them?"

"Yes, an Entropy Ghost is created from fusing countless hellspawns and ghosts of Huang Quan, they enjoy eating raw flesh" Ilya appeared disgusted as she told him.

"Are you sure that's the case?"

"I'm sure"

Gu Qing Shan deeply sighed.

Then that is extremely abnormal.

To assess the situation, at the time I personally checked those corpses.

Each and every corpse was completely unharmed inside or out, they had no wounds to speak of.

Some of the corpses still had a bit of warmth.

At the time, I had correctly guessed that they died from a soul vessel attack.

But I took a wrong turn, assuming that this was done by the Soul-devouring Revenant or the Entropy Ghost.

Ilya said Entropy Ghosts likes to eat raw flesh.

And the very first Entropy Ghost I met also attempted to go through the formations to eat me alive.

Which means Ilya isn't lying.

Which means------

The thing that killed the people of that city wasn't the Entropy Ghost! Nor was it the Soul-devouring Revenant!

As for the monster from Purgatory, its ability was to devour those corpses, it didn't have any way to kill people without them knowing about it.

Suddenly, the sighing female voice once again echoed in Gu Qing Shan's mind.

A sudden thought appeared, resurfacing from his memories.

Gu Qing Shan couldn't help but laugh bitterly again.

It seems… I've been careless.

I really didn't think that [Worlds Apocalypse Online: Origin] would be this deviously scheming.

Perhaps the times I had gone against it before made it wary of me.

While I became relaxed thanks to the Old God's barrier's protection after entering the lost world.

I had forgotten that [Origin] attempted to infiltrate this world a lot earlier than I did, so when I got in, it had already set up several layers of schemes.

The first was the Entropy Ghost's sudden ambush, then purposefully placed the Soul-devouring Revenant there for me to discover and kill.

It had even used a monster from Purgatory.

As soon as I finished off every threat, the mediator from Purgatory came.

Every step of the way, every meeting, every monster, were pre-arranged by [Origin].

Facing so many monsters and schemes, even though I had noticed something, I was still led to arrive at the wrong conclusion.

"[Origin]… is impressive"

Gu Qing Shan took a deep breath and silently thought so.

It seems that in the previous life, it wasn't simply because of humanity being too weak or not knowing enough that the world was led to collapse at the hands of the [Demon King Order].

The truth is that [Origin] was very impressive.

At this point, the faint female voice once again echoed in Gu Qing Shan's mind.

"A journey so far.

Far outside of my wildest dreams.

Sometimes I still dream.

Of how much I miss home…"

The voice had softly sung that.

Gu Qing Shan's heart jumped.

"Go, we need to hurry back!"

After thinking everything through, he ignored everything else, grabbed Ilya's hand and flew downwards as fast as possible.

"Did you notice something?" Ilya asked cautiously.

"I noticed that we shouldn't have left Tidal city, argh, we were too careless"

Gu Qing Shan couldn't help but shook his head.

"Did something happen?"

"I don't know yet, but according to my conjecture, there is only one circumstance where [Origin] would be retreating right now"

"What situation would that be?"

"It had already gotten what it wanted"

"That's impossible!" Ilya spoke in disbelief.

Gu Qing Shan showed a mixed expression and said: "It's not completely impossible, if it could summon even that unique creature, it very well might have already…"

"Unique creature? You mean the truth behind that female voice?" Ilya quickly understood and asked.

"That's right, this was the truth behind everything" Gu Qing Shan sighed.

The water parted, forming a path for them straight to the bottom of the ocean.

Thinking of the female voice again, Gu Qing Shan's unease only grew worse.

"Not enough, we need to go even faster!"

Gu Qing Shan's spirit energy flowed, as he formed a hand seal, his body flashed downwards like an arc of lightning towards the lost world of the Old Gods.

At a certain point, he suddenly tapped his Inventory Bag to take out a certain item.

It was a small bracelet with 5 bells attached.

The bells were unexpectedly heavy, bringing with them a chilling air that even spirit energy couldn't isolate.

Gu Qing Shan put the bracelet on his wrist, securing it.

While he flew towards the bottom of the ocean, the bracelet was shaken by the wind, letting out clear and gentle chimes.

The sound of the bell passed through the void of space, transmitting to some unknown world.