Chapter 1002: Rescue... Rescue... Me...

"A bit... powerful..." Gu Qingyi gazed at the names on the stone tablet, deep in thought, as his master's words echoed in his mind.

"Void Island has a Sky City that has drifted since ancient times; the passage of eras and ages has been unable to erase its existence.

"It's divided into an Inner Island and an Outer Island. The Outer Island takes the form of an ancient city, where both risks and opportunities await.

"As for the Inner Island... the Inner Island of Void Island has transformed completely, becoming a place akin to an exile's realm where even Half-Saints and Saint Emperors are held captive.

"Should one truly enter the Inner Island, escape would be nearly impossible for anyone, even over countless ages.

"Even if escape were possible, the cost would be immeasurable!"

Clutching the Evil Sword Yuelian, Gu Qingyi felt his heart sink deeper into alarm with every thought.

Having never entered this place before, and without any expectations, his master's words had always seemed like distant ancient legends.

However, upon entering this legendary world, a wave of dread and panic washed over him. With the path ahead completely unknown, Gu Qingyi felt utterly lost on how to proceed.

His gaze drifted further down.

The stone tablet bore names of ancient figures, and in between them, many unfamiliar names that likely belonged to powerful figures of more recent times.

At the very end were probably the prominent individuals who had ventured into Void Island in recent eras.

"Ba Zun'an, Dao Qiongcang, Bei Huai, Kong Yuhen, Sang Qiye, Yu Lingdi, Cao Yihan, You Tu..."

The names were scattered chaotically across the tablet, with no discernible order.

Yet, each name represented a brilliant legend on the Saint God Continent.

Gu Qingyi inhaled sharply, almost unable to believe his eyes.

"Even Old Man You Tu has been here? Was this before or after he ascended Gui Zhe Holy Mountain? Is it connected to his disappearance?

"But that doesn't make sense. I heard that only Ba Zun'an, besides ghost beasts, has ever emerged from Void Island. Does this mean so many people have actually been here?

"Hmm... perhaps only Ba Zun'an was cast into the Inner Island of Void Island, while the others merely appeared on the Outer Island?"

Gu Qingyi stroked his chin, lost in thought.

Suddenly, the stone tablet shuddered, and a halting, intermittent mechanical voice emanated from it:

"Please... leave... your... name..."

Gu Qingyi jumped in surprise.

It can speak?

The tablet seemed as though it hadn't spoken in ages, its voice as difficult and rusty as an old, blunted sword.

Yet...

The fact that it *could* speak — did it imply that his current predicament was a destined path, just like for everyone else whose names graced the tablet?

Gu Qingyi felt a surge of excitement.

The idea of his name appearing on the same stone tablet as so many esteemed sword masters thrilled him, even though he wasn't the type to deface historical sites with "xxx was here" or condone such uncivilized acts...

Without hesitation, he extended his sword and, using its scabbard, inscribed his name onto the tablet with a flourish.

"Gu... Qing... Yi..."

"Finished!"

He tapped the tablet with his sword, expecting some sort of response.

Yet, a long silence followed; the tablet showed no reaction, nor did any special reward appear.

A hint of disappointment clouded Gu Qingyi's face. As he moved to step past the tablet and continue forward, it stirred once more.

The same halting, mechanical voice returned:

"Sinner... Gu Qingyi..."

"Sinner... number... 746392..."

"Welcome... to... Void Island. Please... strictly adhere... to Void Island's... order. Violators... will die!"

Gu Qingyi's expression froze instantly.

Sin... sinner?

The brief joy of inscribing his name had not yet dispelled the fear of the unknown gripping his heart.

The moment the word "sinner" was uttered, Gu Qingyi felt a heavy weight settle in his chest, growing even more oppressive.

"Is this truly a place of exile?

"Am I already a sinner?

"I was *pulled* in here. What crime have I committed...?"

Gu Qingyi wanted to explain, but arguing with a stone was pointless, so he stifled the impulse.

"What exactly are Void Island's rules?"

He tapped the stone tablet with the flat of his sword. This time, having learned his lesson, Gu Qingyi waited for a considerable time, hoping for an answer.

However, the tablet remained silent, as if its power source had been depleted.

"Damn it!"

Gu Qingyi usually had a good temperament, but this time he was truly exasperated.

It declared that violators of Void Island's order would die, yet it hadn't even clearly stated what those orders *were*. Wasn't this essentially roasting someone alive?

Anxiety, dread, unease, panic...

Gu Qingyi raised his gaze towards the distant streets of the ancient city, sensing that the pervasive desolation of Void Island had the power to intensely amplify every negative emotion within him.

"Boom!"

As he stood lost in thought, a bolt of lightning suddenly descended from the cloud-shrouded sky above, striking a distant part of the ancient city.

Gu Qingyi's heart jolted.

"Movement... does that mean someone's there?

"Did they violate Void Island's order and suffer a lightning punishment?"

After much hesitation, and adhering to the principle of "when in Rome, do as the Romans do," Gu Qingyi trudged laboriously in that direction.

"Waiting for death" is always more terrifying than "facing death."

The latter offers either "destruction" or "rebirth."

The former, however, offers only endless "dread" and "certain death"!

"Buzz—"

The Evil Sword nestled in his arms vibrated faintly. Despite being bound by a sealing ribbon, a subtle, grey aura of malevolence still seeped from its blade.

Gu Qingyi glanced down, and paradoxically, felt a wave of calm wash over him.

"Yuelian, are you frightened too?

"Don't worry, I won't die in this place.

"The Sword Tomb is still waiting for me to return and receive its legacy. If it were left to my second and third junior brothers, Master would surely die of anger."

What seems close can often be a long journey.

From the stone tablet, the ancient city had appeared merely as an ancient ruin, possessing no special power beyond its weathered and decaying facade.

Yet, with every step he took towards the city center, Gu Qingyi's internal unease steadily spread through his entire being.

The Sky City was enormous!

Once on the long street, the deeper he ventured, the taller the ancient structures grew.

In just a few li, the surrounding buildings had soared from ordinary heights to dozens, even hundreds of feet tall.

"This is practically a kingdom of giants..."

As Gu Qingyi walked through the ancient city's streets, he felt as insignificant as an ant. He even suppressed the volume of his own murmured thoughts to an absolute minimum.

"Tall buildings reach a hundred feet, one could pluck stars with a hand; dare not speak loudly, fearing to startle heavenly beings."

This was Gu Qingyi's true state at that moment.

Finally...

With his sense of time and space utterly blurred, Gu Qingyi reached the end of the first long street.

He had no idea how much time he had spent, nor how great a distance he had traversed.

Yet, the eternal solitude and loneliness did not dissipate with the street's end. Gu Qingyi halted at its terminus, staring blankly at the vast, boundless plaza ahead, his body beginning to tremble.

It was immense!

On the Saint God Continent, no plaza could ever be described as "vast and boundless."

Yet, the plaza stretching beyond the street's end measured dozens, perhaps even scores, of miles across; Gu Qingyi found it impossible to gauge its sheer width and breadth with his eyes.

How could such a vast and empty space be called a "plaza"?

Gu Qingyi himself couldn't believe it was merely a "plaza."

But given the surrounding giant structures, towering hundreds of feet high, this vast, circular empty space they enclosed might indeed be nothing more than an ordinary "small plaza" within the Sky City.

"Phew."

The boundless expanse only served to emphasize his own insignificance.

Gu Qingyi exhaled heavily, finally releasing some of the absurdity weighing on his mind, and tried to regain his composure.

It was just "a bit larger," what was there to be amazed at? This was Void Island, after all!

No matter how absurd, it couldn't compare to the sheer absurdity of him traveling from the deep sea to the Sky City!

"Pitter-patter..."

The gentle sound of rain.

The plaza's edges were dry, but centered around the colossal totem piercing the clouds, a steady, moderate rain fell.

"Does Sky City have weather phenomena?"

Gu Qingyi hesitated, then stepped into the plaza.

"Buzz—"

The moment he entered, the Evil Sword Yuelian in his arms trembled even more violently.

Gu Qingyi's senses sharpened, and he suddenly realized that the plaza contained something he had overlooked earlier on the ancient city streets—something that had been noticeably absent there.

Elements!

Specifically, spiritual energy!

"Water elements...

"Such dense power! And aside from water, there are almost no other elements present.

"No, that's not right. Based on where I've come from, Sky City might not have spiritual energy at all. The fact that this plaza does is what's truly strange..."

Gently soothing the Evil Sword Yuelian, Gu Qingyi suddenly bent down and felt the plaza's ground.

The plaza floor bore intricate carvings. Gu Qingyi initially assumed these were a standard feature of the Sky City's strange elements, but upon touching them, he realized his mistake.

"Elemental power!

"This is... the manifestation of an esoteric array! And it's water-based!"

His pupils constricted as a thought struck Gu Qingyi.

The lightning strike had just landed nearby. If his inference was correct, and someone was indeed present here...

"Is it someone who has survived from ancient times until now, or a fellow unfortunate soul like myself?"

Gu Qingyi's body began to tremble subtly once more.

He couldn't imagine what level of power an ancient monster, having survived since primordial times, would possess now.

While such a notion seemed absurd, it was entirely possible within Void Island!

Despite the terror, Gu Qingyi managed to retain a sliver of the composure expected of the Buried Sword Mound's next successor.

He considered that the probability of an ancient titan surviving until now, though perhaps not zero, was likely very small.

But if it were a "fellow unfortunate"...

When it came to water-based profound insights, only one specific outcome flashed through his mind at that moment.

"Help... help... me..."

As he pondered, a faint cry for help, no louder than a buzzing mosquito, whispered in his ear.

Gu Qingyi's body jolted violently, and he sprang upright as the renowned sword in his arms coiled out.

"Who's there!"

With a fierce roar, the Evil Sword Yuelian hummed with a metallic clang, its sealing ribbon instantly falling away.

As the blade slid from its sheath, a grey malevolent energy instantly stained half the sky above the vast plaza.

A chilling sword intent erupted from his form, solidifying as it slashed through the endless space around him—above, below, left, right, front, and back.

Having banished any potential threats, a massive ice lotus, dozens of feet wide, slowly unfurled its petals beneath his feet, then closed layer by layer, encasing Gu Qingyi within its protective core.

"Phantom Sword Art: Lotus Blessing!"

A long silence ensued.

Gu Qingyi, who approached all unknowns with solemnity, received no further sound from the cry for help.

Only an awkward silence lingered, echoing his sudden, exaggerated movements as if mocking his overreaction, like a startled bird.

"Damn it, are you trying to scare me to death...?"

With no junior disciples around, Gu Qingyi cursed freely, his face etched with fury, his exaggerated posture a better outlet for his inner dread and anxiety.

But just as he concluded it was a hallucination and retracted the ice lotus, the faint, ghostly wail returned to his ear.

"Help... help... me..."

"Damn you!"

Perhaps having suppressed himself as a teacher for too long, Gu Qingyi, now utterly alone, no longer cared about "face."

With a curse, and already prepared, he had pinpointed the source of the sound.

A backhanded strike with his sword.

The Evil Sword Yuelian, fully unsheathed, sliced through the air like a crescent arc.

The chilling grey malevolent energy transformed into sword light, expanding layer by layer into an unparalleled beam of light vast enough to match the giant city. It instantly soared over the towering totem pole at the plaza's center, reaching the far opposite end of this boundless space.

"Boom!"

A deafening blast erupted the instant the sword light vanished.

Starting from Gu Qingyi, extending past the totem pole in the middle, and reaching the extreme far end, the plaza was cleaved by a massive, bottomless black chasm, as if a natural abyss had opened.

Smoke dissipated, and dust settled.

"Click."

Gu Qingyi silently sheathed his sword, then unexpectedly noticed that even the ancient city structures and the plaza—hard enough to withstand attacks from a Grand Void realm expert—had been cleaved in two by his strike.

Yet, the massive totem at the plaza's center remained utterly unscathed, even after bearing the direct brunt of the Evil Sword's attack!

Not a single crack had appeared!

"It's that tough?"

Gu Qingyi's eyebrow twitched; he simply couldn't believe his eyes.

The Evil Sword's full-power, unsheathed strike possessed world-shattering force; even his master would have to temporarily avoid its edge.

What material was this totem made of, to withstand such a blow without any damage?

"Help... help... me..."

The eerie voice returned once more.

Gu Qingyi's face paled; he could barely withstand the rising dread.

Holding the Evil Sword, he unleashed the Wu You Sword Flow, shielding himself from Sky City's terrifying gravity, and flew directly into the rainy area, determined to see the totem's true form.

"Whoosh!"

The moment he entered the rain-covered area, the water element profound array beneath his feet flashed, and Gu Qingyi found himself instantly transported to the totem's immediate backside.

The overwhelming sensation was simply that of "vastness."

The totem resembled a sky-pillar, so massive that from the front, it appeared less like a cylinder and more like a rectangular block.

Along this immense "totem wall," bloodstains occasionally streamed down with the rainwater.

Gu Qingyi lifted his gaze.

High up on the totem, bound remotely by chains of the Heavenly Dao, was a miserable man, disheveled and completely drenched.

The man was clad in tattered, blood-stained white robes, his face obscured, his feet bare, and his skin lacerated.

If he was not mistaken, the cry for help had emanated from this very spot.

Gu Qingyi narrowed his eyes, already mentally preparing for a confrontation with "possession," and asked:

"Who are you?"