Light Fortress-Chapter 1549 - 241: Xiaoman

"This Ice Sea Ruins is quite different from what I imagined."

On the surface of the Ice Sea, a figure in a black robe walks slowly.

Gu Shen releases a part of the Pure Land domain, and wherever he passes, the seawater naturally freezes into ice, leaving the Ice Sea in dead silence.

"Earlier, I clearly heard the sound of the Source Energy Boat, but now it’s all gone."

Gu Shen stops before a giant fog barrier, not stepping directly into it, but reaching out a hand, touching the cold fog in the air.

Judging from the situation reported back from the Southern Continent,

this place is highly likely shrouded in a Disaster Realm.

If guessed correctly, taking a few more steps forward would sever the Spiritual Link painstakingly established with Chu Ling.

"Are you worried about me?"

Chu Ling senses Gu Shen’s hesitation.

She smiles and says, "The Ice Sea Ruins is right here, go ahead, don’t worry about the Spiritual Link breaking... I’ll be waiting for you back in Changye."

"...Alright."

Gu Shen’s heartstrings are touched once again.

Regardless of life or death, someone is always waiting in Changye; how fortunate is that?

He takes a deep breath and smiles, "Wait for my good news."

After saying this, he stops hesitating and steps into the fog of the Ice Sea.

The fog is extremely cold but has no effect on Gu Shen.

A wisp of fire ignites at Gu Shen’s brow.

"Hiss!"

In an instant, the fog around him burns and expands—

The invisible sight suddenly becomes clear.

"So this is the Ice Sea Ruins even the Storm God’s Throne didn’t dare to enter?"

Gu Shen squints his eyes, slowly stepping inside.

Before setting off, he had reviewed all the current info about the ruins. The footage released by the Storm God’s Throne showed the Ice Sea Ruins gradually protruding above sea level due to the receding tide.

However, he may have already been enveloped by the "Disaster Realm."

All around him, wind and snow howl.

Even though the "Fire of Life" shields an area of ten meters, Gu Shen still finds it hard to see the scene ahead.

Thus he proceeds forward slowly, with the seawater beneath his feet turning from soft to hard, eventually becoming a snowfield.

After several dozen seconds,

Gu Shen looks back again.

The fog has dissipated, behind him lies a vast and boundless snowfield, while before and behind him, everything is silver-white.

"Interesting..."

Gu Shen chuckles.

Even with his current spiritual power, he still hasn’t figured out how the Disaster Realm’s transformation process works.

How did he suddenly move from "sea surface" to "snowfield"?

But that doesn’t matter anymore.

Now, he needs to find the Law Enforcers from the East Continent as quickly as possible...

According to the information, the fastest movers are the Storm Church, followed by the Source Tower, then Light City, Central City, and Changye.

This mission is likely a joint effort between Central City and Changye.

Under the grand union,

the two continents are targeted everywhere; it’s feared that the Source Tower might join forces with the other two to strike at Changye!

"This snowfield is vast, it’s just unclear how far my spirit can spread, and whether I can find allies."

Gu Shen does not rush to move.

Entering the Ice Sea fog should mean triggering the Array Patterns that lead into the Ice Sea Ruins, then being randomly teleported to a certain area. Now he needs to confirm whether there are "living people" around.

Also...

how far his spirit can extend within this ruin.

The cold wind of the snowfield is torn apart by a bright blaze of light.

Gu Shen casually waves his hand, conjuring a blooming flame...

After this breakthrough, the quantity of his "Chi Huo" is nearly multiplied dozens of times compared to before! Gu Shen has never fought such a rich battle; although he has comprehended the Great Success Blazing Fire Domain, he remains "cautious and economical," as eight strands of Chi Huo split from the main flame, each as slender as a small snake, sweeping towards eight directions with a flick of the wrist!

"Go!"

Gu Shen calls lightly, stopping all actions, patiently waiting for the feedback from the Blazing Fire Vision.

His current spiritual strength has reached an incredible level... Ice Sea spans thousands of meters, theoretically, this [ruins] shouldn’t be able to stop the blaze’s search.

However, moments later, Gu Shen realizes something odd.

In the Ice Sea Ruins, a peculiar force seems to exist, allowing his blaze to extend smoothly nearly a thousand meters, then it comes under intense suppression.

Gu Shen wants to extend his "sight" further, but the blaze’s dissipating speed suddenly accelerates.

"One thousand two hundred meters..."

Gu Shen raises an eyebrow.

This is already the limit of his exploration.

"Whoosh whoosh whoosh!"

The eight strands of Chi Huo finally return to Gu Shen’s palm, this exploration found no living person, but discovered two interesting "things."

Gu Shen looks toward the direction of the fastest returning strand among the eight.

This strand of blaze has only moved two to three hundred meters, then halted.

Even when Gu Shen issued the "continue forward" command, this flame refused to comply and stubbornly turned back.

At this moment, Gu Shen arrives at the location where the blaze defied orders.

He squinted, carefully observing the snowy plain, which seemed ordinary and vast.

The next moment.

He extended his hand, slowly reaching out a finger.

"Ssss—"

The tip of the protruding finger was instantly sliced open, but what surged out wasn’t blood, but the golden Life Fire.

Gu Shen silently withdrew his hand. Within seconds, the broken finger was wrapped in Life Fire and healed, leaving no scar.

"Chi Huo doesn’t want to move forward because this appears to be a plain with no obstacles... yet there’s an invisible ’air wall’."

Gu Shen murmured, "Moreover, this wall is very sharp; without protection, direct contact would shatter flesh instantly."

He pondered for a moment and conducted another experiment.

Once again, he reached out a finger.

But this time, unlike before... Gu Shen used the [Iron Throne]!

The iron-scaled skin covering his body for five years began to tremble, with seven or eight iron scales flying out, tightly wrapping his fingertip, before he touched the invisible ’air wall’ again!

The slaughter was triggered!

Yet at this moment, an ear-piercing sound of metal clashing erupted—

"Ka ka ka!"

It felt like invisible threads were pulling. Gu Shen’s fingertip sensed an extremely sharp cutting force!

The sharpness of this air wall was beyond Gu Shen’s expectations—

Yet, those invisible blades didn’t manage to cut through "iron scales"!

"Interesting, so behind this wall, there’s another ’world’..."

"This snowfield seems vast, but it should actually be surrounded by such walls, encompassing a whole circle. To proceed, one must face the ’slaughter’..."

Gu Shen withdrew his finger and stepped back two paces, softly remarking, "So, what kind of ’world’ is behind this wall? Is that the true [Ice Sea Ruins]?"

At this moment, he didn’t intend to shatter the air wall and break through directly.

For in Gu Shen’s view, the wall has always been there.

The "iron-scaled skin" on his body could already contend against the slaughter, to say nothing of Sixth-Order Source Armor.

Should he wish to cross the wall and see the "world" beyond, he could do so at any time.

"I heard the East Continent sent a bunch of young people this time..."

Remembering the unfamiliar names on the list, Gu Shen felt some worry.

These air walls are not simple. If the East Continent Team is unlucky and directly crashes into one...

Who knows if the current technology, five years hence, can sustain the Source Energy Boat’s protection to withstand this level of fierce annihilation.

"I need to speed up."

Gu Shen darted towards the second "information point" captured by Chi Huo, soon arriving at the foot of a snow mountain.

He sent Chi Huo intending to find "living people."

Unfortunately, he didn’t find a single living person.

But found someone "just recently dead."

At the foot of the snow mountain, a corpse frozen by snow and wind was standing. Gu Shen’s fingertip entwined with Life Fire as he brushed away the snow on the body...

"Law Enforcer from the Source Tower."

Gu Shen recognized the priest robe on the deceased at a glance. Over the years, the Source Tower priests still wore such attire.

"It seems he died of ’snow and wind freezing’, but actually it was ’Mental Hypnosis’..."

Gu Shen scrutinized the body, couldn’t help but laugh, "That Spiritual Transcendent acted rather ruthlessly."

In addition.

He also discovered more than one Extraordinary Aura lingering over the snow.

"One, two, three, four, five..."

"There should be five dead people."

Gu Shen raised an eyebrow, full of interest, "And four henchmen, died terribly, bones crushed to dust... Whoever did this acted swiftly, with fierce methods and quite imagination."

Just the scene’s traces alone intrigued Gu Shen.

It’s rare.

He initially didn’t want to linger too long, but due to this, he made an exception and used [Sidewriting], to see what kind of "fight" took place here.

"Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh!"

As Gu Shen’s spiritual power covered the area.

A small barrier formed here, shadows rose from the snow, piecing together from fragmented to complete.

Walking through recent events, with Gu Shen’s current ability, seeing clearly was not difficult.

Besides these shadows of the deceased.

There was also a small, thin Black Shadow cloaked in a dark cloak, slowly coalescing and standing up in the [Sidewriting] vision.

With its appearance, Gu Shen was immediately stunned.

Snow roared.

The world seemed to calm down.

Five years, not just five—ten years, or twenty years...

Gu Shen could still recognize this Black Shadow at a glance.

Gu Shen’s voice trembled:

"Gu..."

"Xiaoman?"

...

...

(Since I spent a lot of time writing the outline today, the update is quite late. Apologies, everyone. But promised five Chapters are five Chapters, not one less!)