Worlds’ Apocalypse Online

A sea of darkness.

Throughout the long years, nothing but silence has resided over this endless ocean.

Both the concept of time and space seemed to have disappeared.

In the darkness, everything was in chaos without any way to tell what was what.

All of a sudden, a total of 58,680 sprites of light lit up.

Each of these lights were a single cultivator.

The dim light came off from their body, illuminating the area around themselves.

Although the light was weak, it was enough in this sea of darkness to show their faces.

All of them had both their eyes closed as if they were in a trance that caused them to fall into a deep sleep.

Almost as soon as the 58,680 sprites of light appeared, the sea of darkness immediately reacted.

------as if someone blew their breath over the lights.

The shining lights were like candles in the wind, unable to handle the power and were quickly snuffed out in large numbers.

58,680 lights.

41,961 lights.

30,000 lights.

10,050 lights.

7,000 lights.

40 lights.

---- 3 lights.

Soon enough, within the stifled sea of darkness, only three lights remained.

A female voice sounded surprised as it resounded from under the ocean.

「 Ah? The cultivation world has been weakened for so long, but they actually have three newcomers who managed to pass? How excellent…」

「…let's check their identity, it had better not be those sneaky ones…」

Following the voice, the three sprites of light became brighter, fully illuminating the cultivators inside.

The first was a young man who wore a set of crimson armor.

「 Hmm, a decent Martial Arts practitioner, his background is also clean, it can be seen that he's a veteran in battle, enough to survive in the Strife Zones 」

The female lightly blew.

The young man disappeared from the sea of darkness.

Following that, the second sprite of light became bright as excess spirit energy drifted from this cultivator's body.

------this was a female cultivator who wore a snow-white armor with a similarly colored Blade in her hand.

「 A female cultivator who uses the Blade? Clean background, and quite a rare one 」

「 Being so strong at such a young age, how interesting, you may test yourself in the Strife Zones 」

The female voice sounded joyful as she commented.

Ning Yue Chan's figure also disappeared from the sea of darkness.

The final sprite of light became bright and showed the cultivator inside.

------he wore a jet black suit of armor, with a sword in each hand and a mask to shield his face.

This was a sword cultivator.

Because of the armor, his appearance looked similar to a devil as he stood silently without moving in the sea of darkness.

The light from his body somewhat alleviated the darkness around himself.

The female voice didn't say anything yet.

But the ocean below had already changed in an unprecedented way.

The underwater currents of the ocean erupted, shooting from below to encircle the sword cultivator and formed an ever-expanding maelstrom.

The darkness faded.

-------the darkness that had been presiding over this world for who knows how long had completely disappeared.

The ocean showed off its original lustrous beautiful indigo color.

Right in the middle of the indigo ocean, the sword cultivator was staying absolutely still in the middle of the maelstrom.

Silently floating there.

All of a sudden, a feminine blue hand reached out from the ocean water.

This hand lightly touched the sword cultivator's mask and gently removed it.

The reflection of the sword cultivator's face appeared in the water, every detail of it was clearly displayed under the shining blue light from above.

A moment of pause.

The hand let go of the mask, allowing it to float in the water.

The feminine hand once again reached out and stroked the sword cultivator's face.

The female voice finally spoke again.

「 To avoid being exposed, my true self couldn't do anything but wait here throughout the endlessly long years 」

「 I will provide you a disguise as a form of protection 」

「 You have to become stronger a lot faster…」

「 Gu Qing Shan! 」

The mask was put back.

Oom-----

The maelstrom became an intense tsunami.

It devoured Gu Qing Shan, swallowing him whole before he disappeared without a trace.

The indigo ocean quickly returned to the stifled sea of darkness from before.

The Dark Sea once again became calm.

Silence resided over this world.

As if nothing ever happened in the first place.

The 900 million World Layers alliance world.

The Profession Committee.

Chen Wang and the rest of them have been waiting there for a while.

"It seems a bit slower than normal, doesn't it?" Chen Wang commented.

The employee answered him: "This means that there might have been a cultivator who drew Lady Darksea's attention, sir"

"What kind of situation would draw Lady Darksea's attention?" Xie Dao Ling asked.

She couldn't not care, as the three people she specifically brought here this time were all selected by her.

Including Gu Qing Shan.

"Relax, that's a good thing" Yun Ji told her.

The employee also smiled: "Indeed, only the most excellent newcomers will draw Lady Darksea's attention as she will observe those newcomers for a bit longer than normal"

"Aside from that, Lady Darksea will also personally check the newcomer's background, if there were any problems, we will be notified immediately"

Three blue lights appeared.

Gu Qing Shan, Ning Yue Chan, and Leng Tian Xing had returned.

They each had a number card in their hands.

Leng Tian Xing's card was [5], Ning Yue Chan's was [2], while Gu Qing Shan was [1].

The difference was that Leng Tian Xing's number card was grey, while Gu Qing Shan's and Ning Yue Chan's cards were glowing in a faint light.

Seeing that, Chen Wang instantly grinned.

"Ahahaha, Qing Shan really did get first place, I knew it, someone Barry recognized couldn't possibly be an under-achiever" he loudly laughed.

Gu Qing Shan was a bit surprised as he looked at his number card.

------I haven't even done anything yet, why is the qualification process already over?

What happened just now?

Apparently, a lady said something to me just now?

But I can't remember anything about her, even the impression of meeting her was blurred.

What did she tell me exactly?

Gu Qing Shan tried to recall.

Bai Hua Fairy looked at Leng Tian Xing and told him: "Do not be dispirited, you ranked 5th among everyone, you only need to try a bit harder and you'll definitely succeed next time"

Leng Tian Xing smiled bitterly, feeling both frustration and joy.

Frustration because he didn't get selected.

Joy because he didn't think that he would be able to take 5th place among so many people of every cultivation world.

Ning Yue Chan glanced at her [2] card, then at Gu Qing Shan's [1] card and instinctively wanted to reach for her Blade, but quickly gave up on the idea as she recalled where she was.

Now that I think about it, I've never truly fought against him…

Ning Yue Chan silently thought.

A sheet of paper lightly appeared and landed on the Human Profession Encyclopedia.

The employee respectfully took the paper in hand and bowed: "Thank you, Lady Darksea"

Chen Wang crossed his arms: "You don't need to thank her, after finishing the qualification test, she didn't return here"

The employee smiled, a bit embarrassed as he held the paper up and read it aloud: "This year's annual newcomer qualification test for cultivators is finished"

"A total of three newcomers have reached the standard to enter the Strife Zones, in order, they are:"

"Gu Shang Yun, third place, Ninth Cryptic World, Martial cultivator, newcomer, clean background"

"Ning Yue Chan, second place, Shen Wu world, Bladesman, newcomer, clean background"

"Gu Qing Shan, first place, Shen Wu world, sword cultivator, Returnee"

As everyone heard that, their gazes all fell on Gu Qing Shan.

"So you're a Returnee, huh, Barry and Kitty's eyes truly are sharp to be able to choose such a person" the mechanical arm spoke in surprise.

Yun Ji also chuckled: "And here I was thinking of whether or not to tease this innocent youngster a bit, turns out he was a Returnee huh"

Gu Qing Shan also heard what was read.

He asked in confusion: "What's a Returnee?"