Gu Fort Battlefield, shrouded in snow and mist. Perhaps due to the release of mental energy from a titled transcendent life form, enveloping this place in a domain, the mental vision of the Eye of Origin was no longer clear.

But the blood of the Mist Eater, after being blasted apart, was still scalding.

The scene before him was shocking. Li Chen froze for a second before realizing just who the little girl standing beside him was.

The Battle of Gu Fort had lasted for four years.

For those four years, a "little fellow" had been participating in the war.

Gu Xiaoman.

If not for this war, she would now have become the youngest "Red Dragon Envoy" in the history of the Tower of Origin.

For these four years, Gu Xiaoman had been stationed at Gu Fort Fortress, never leaving her post. Only a very few high-ranking officials in Central City knew the "inside story" about this little girl's identity.

Gu Xiaoman was the chosen successor of the Fire of Wine in Central Continent, rescued from the Sang Continent Abyss by Gu Shen, whom he regarded as family, and also Bai Xiu's "disciple." Besides these, she had another extremely important identity.

That was the "sole confidante" of the Initial.

The reason the Northern Continent was able to so easily keep the Traveler race at bay was thanks to the Initial's help.

Alfred had publicly stated to the Central City superiors that the reason the Starship was stationed on the Northern Continent's border was simple: it trusted Gu Shen and Gu Xiaoman.

So Gu Xiaoman's identity in this war was extremely important.

She had become a unique bridge, linking the civilizations of the Five Continents and the Starship. It was because of her that Affer had agreed to disseminate the "blueprint" of the Creation Lord, which the Master of Melting Iron had left in the Initial.

After more than thirty years of沉沦 (Chen Lun - sinking, or wallowing in misery), the Ancient Text Society once again burned with brilliant light. The Neutrals of the Great Capital all came to the rear of the Gu Fort Battlefield and received technical support from the Starship civilization, causing human civilization's war technology to leap forward once more.

And if one were to calculate carefully, this entire situation...

Actually, it all came down to the little girl before him.

"Are you... sure you want to go into battle personally?"

Li Chen took a deep breath.

It was because he knew the special nature of Gu Xiaoman's identity that he was worried.

"Master Bai Xiu told me that to graduate, I have to hunt down a 'Gray Dragon' alone."

Gu Xiaoman said softly, her voice tinged with a smile, "According to the progress of the Gu Fort War, this level of transcendent life form might not appear even once every six months... If I miss this one, I don't know when the next one will be."

"Buzz!"

Li Chen suddenly felt the silver radiance between his eyebrows dissipate!

The Eye of Origin had been forcibly extinguished!

That was transcendent pressure from a higher level... But this pressure did not come from the Gray Dragon. When he had met the Gray Dragon's eyes earlier, he had only felt a strong sense of oppression.

But now...

The space within the snow mist burned with shimmering waves of light.

He had an absurd feeling that his mind and reality were confused. A wisp of silver-white fire actually ignited between Gu Xiaoman's eyebrows. This scene felt familiar to Li Chen. He subconsciously recalled the scene many years ago when he and Gu Shen had carried out a mission beyond the border. At that time, Gu Shen had also summoned flames between his eyebrows.

The only difference was that one was golden, and the other was silver-white.

"Boom!"

Just then, the towering mountain that stood in the snow mist suddenly moved!

The Gray Dragon's hunting speed was extremely fast. This top-tier transcendent life form had an extremely high "combat IQ," and every offensive action it made had strategic significance... Deep Sea had linked up with the Traveler race and distributed commands layer by layer through a hierarchical system. Today's "setup" was to lure out the elite force of the Northern Continent's Investigation Corps.

So the Gray Dragon had come to this battlefield with only one true target.

That was Li Chen, who possessed the Eye of Origin and could organize thousands of people to create a huge mental network.

In just an instant.

An overwhelming, towering shadow appeared before Li Chen.

His face turned pale.

The next moment, the Gray Dragon's sharp claws pierced through his chest, entering from his front, striking straight for his heart, and piercing out from his back. But Li Chen did not feel the pain he expected... This claw, which should have shattered his Origin Armor and torn his flesh, only caused circles of snowflakes to fly out, spreading in the air. These snowflakes were still burning with a dreamlike silver-white radiance!

The palm wearing a knuckle duster was, without him noticing, placed on his shoulder.

Li Chen turned his head and saw Gu Xiaoman, who had taken a step back and teleported to his side. His entire body was pressed to the ground by Xiaoman's strength. Under the swirling silver-white light, the Gray Dragon's penetrating damage was completely avoided!

"This is... Dream Nullification?"

In that moment, he realized what the silver light between Gu Xiaoman's eyebrows was!

Dream Nullification, the legendary S-class ability that could blur the boundaries between reality and illusion!

The moment they touched.

Gu Xiaoman transformed Li Chen's body into nothingness, and the Gray Dragon's fatal blow missed.

"I heard Sister Mu mention you."

Gu Xiaoman said expressionlessly, "You are a young pillar of the Investigation Corps, and also my brother's friend from back then, so... you can't die here."

Li Chen was stunned. The next moment, he felt a tremendous force coming from his shoulder.

Gu Xiaoman shouted, "Affer, catch him!"

Li Chen's face was blank: "???"

The seventh captain of the Investigation Corps felt his shoulder being firmly clasped by the fingertips of five fingers like gold and iron!

He saw Gu Xiaoman twist her waist and lift her hips, her dantian filled with qi, and like throwing a javelin or discus, she threw Li Chen towards the location of the Initial with all her strength!

Whoosh whoosh whoosh!

The wind roared!

With a bang, Li Chen passed through the origin energy shield and slammed heavily onto the snowfield inside the Initial's enclosure. The latest generation of Origin Armor had an automatic shock absorption function, but he was still thrown into a dizzying spin, rolling a dozen times on the ground. Finally, an automated snowplow scooped him up from the snowfield, man and snow together.

"Sorry, all the Red Shadows have been dispatched to carry out extermination missions in other areas. Right now, this place only has a snowplow."

The snowplow's headlights flickered.

Affer shook the snowplow's arm, shook off the accumulated snow, and told the seventh captain a not-so-funny joke: "Don't look at me with such resentful eyes. You're not the only one who's been thrown like a pancake these years."

……

……

The moment she threw Li Chen, the Gray Dragon also acted instantly!

The mission objective it had received from Deep Sea was very clear: to kill that mental-type transcendent being who possessed the Eye of Origin and a fully formed domain!

In this protracted Gu Fort War, the Traveler race had been trying to reduce the "elite forces" of the Northern Continent's transcendents. Because of the Initial's origin energy shield, the Northern Continent's "high-end combat power" would only appear at important moments... And the moment Gu Xiaoman made a throwing motion, the hunting target in the Gray Dragon's mental sea changed!

The hunting target... changed from Li Chen to Gu Xiaoman!

The huge gray shadow instantly burrowed into the snow, and the next moment, it burst out of the ground, its sharp claws instantly grasping Gu Xiaoman's slender ankle.

Gu Xiaoman narrowed her eyes.

Dream Nullification was activated again. The sharp claws closed, overlapping with her calf.

She raised her leg high and stomped down hard!

Boom!!!

The entire snowfield was shaken by an earthquake and avalanche. With Gu Xiaoman's landing point as the center, the snow within a hundred meters was stomped up and sent flying!

A muffled, angry groan rang out from the depths of the snowfield!

A wisp of sharp figure filled with killing intent crashed out from the ground. Gu Xiaoman faced it head-on, stretched out her hands in a hugging posture, and the next moment, the Gray Dragon's sharp claws pierced through her Dream Nullification body, missing again. As the two brushed past each other, Gu Xiaoman turned sideways and hugged the giant creature's tail. The Dream Nullification domain was revoked, she exerted force with both hands, the Gray Dragon's eyes widened, and it turned its head back in disbelief, but the tip of its tail had been tightly clamped.

Buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz!

The sound of high-speed rotation rang out on the Gu Fort Battlefield. Gu Xiaoman hugged the Gray Dragon and spun rapidly on the snowfield, finally swinging it high like a club and smashing it against a shattered mountain wall!

Falling snow flew everywhere!

The Gray Dragon heavily coughed up a large mouthful of blood. It roared and wailed, the skin on its tail instantly cracked, and hundreds of thorns bloomed suddenly at Gu Xiaoman's hugging position!

The Traveler race had drifted in the Old World for nearly a thousand years. To adapt to the harsh void environment, they had evolved extremely strong adaptive abilities. As the top transcendent life form in the race, the Gray Dragon could change its gene sequence according to its survival needs and undergo rapid mutations. If it needed to soak in water for a long time, it would grow gills for underwater breathing. If it needed to soar in the sky, it could spread its huge wings!

And now... to adapt to Gu Xiaoman's "close combat," it made its tail grow untouchable iron thorns!

Screech!

A piece of clothing fluttered in the air.

Gu Xiaoman drifted back, creating distance again.

She looked calmly at the bloody gash on her palm. The Gray Dragon, embedded in the stone wall a hundred meters away, slowly broke free and flapped its iron wings, hovering in the air. At this moment, the iron thorn mutation had spread throughout its body. This was a response to meteorite attacks in the Old World.

The Gray Dragon's skin would harden a hundred times, and these iron thorns could easily pierce stones, ensuring they would not be injured.

"Interesting."

Gu Xiaoman silently pulled out the mental pendant she wore on her chest, the item Shen Li had given her back then, which she still kept safe.

During these years on the Gu Fort Battlefield... she had not wasted her time. As Gu Shen had said, she divided her mind power to control the Red Shadows, thereby raising her mental state. In addition, she met with her three masters from the Sang Continent Abyss again.

The war on the Gu Fort Battlefield was not just a war for the Northern Continent. The Three Continents Alliance had each dispatched their elite forces.

Shen Li and Chen Mei had also come to the Northern Continent's border.

When Gu Xiaoman broke through to the fourth level, these two had contributed a lot.

Today's battle was not only Bai Xiu's "instruction," but also Shen Li and Chen Mei's... If she could hunt a Gray Dragon alone, it would prove that Gu Xiaoman now had titled-level combat power.

Regardless of the outcome of today's battle.

In fact, Shen Li and Chen Mei already knew that the little girl Gu Shen had rescued from the Sang Continent Abyss had now become an "absolute pillar" who could stand alone.

But if she wanted to participate in the next plan of the Three Continents Alliance, then what Gu Xiaoman had to do was not just become a "title."

She was the future "Master of Wine."

And today's battle, for Gu Xiaoman, for them... was just the beginning.

"Hoo..."

Gu Xiaoman silently released the pendant Shen Li had given her. She said softly, "Then, let's begin."

The silver-white light burning between her eyebrows, at this moment, received its master's order and instantly went berserk!

Li Chen was not mistaken.

This wisp of silver-white radiance was indeed very similar to Gu Shen's Blazing Fire.

Because this was the fourth-level domain, Dream of Reality, that Gu Xiaoman had comprehended by imitating Gu Shen's Blazing Fire. When the domain was released, Dream Nullification would mimic the same elemental form as Blazing Fire and then spread... Four years ago, she had used Dream of Reality to wrap herself in a coffin, avoiding the first wave of the Tower of Origin's purge.

Now.

The Dream of Reality domain began to spread.

A gleam of spiritual light appeared in the Gray Dragon's pupils. It did not dodge but accepted the Dream of Reality domain and adjusted its posture, preparing to fight!

Since the beginning of the Awakening Era, the number of S-class ability users in the entire Five Continents had not increased much and were still rare existences.

The reason why S-class abilities were so rare was that transcendents of this level had to bear not only the "halo" brought by their powerful abilities but also the burden required to use them.

Take the Judge as an example. Once the Judge domain was activated, as long as the domain master had a thought, the low-level transcendent beings enveloped in the domain would be instantly killed!

But no ability was perfect.

The Judge had its flaws. Killing transcendent beings required mental energy. If the domain master's mental power was insufficient to support it, then the domain would shrink.

The more powerful the ability, the more power it consumed.

This principle applied to Dream Nullification as well.

The height that determined the upper limit of a transcendent domain usually had two things: one was the transcendent's own mental strength, and the other was the amount of origin substance the transcendent could use.

Once Gu Xiaoman's Dream Nullification was used, she was almost invincible. She could use herself as the center to transform the objects she touched, pulling them into the Dream Nullification Zone, which was between reality and illusion!

But the larger the Dream Nullification domain, the longer it lasted, the more origin substance and mental energy it consumed!

The change in the Gray Dragon's eyes indicated the entry of a second spirit into its body... Today's battle in the Gu Fort War was a battle for Gu Xiaoman to verify her strength, and her opponent was not only the Gray Dragon, which had evolved to the title-level combat power, but also Deep Sea, which controlled the entire Traveler race and suppressed the rhythm of the war!

Gu Xiaoman pointed two fingers at the Gray Dragon hovering in the air before her and said softly, "Are you ready?"

The Gray Dragon, covered in iron thorns, had a cold glint in its icy pupils.

Under the command of the supreme will in its mental sea, it stared intently at the little human in front of it and began to flap its iron wings, trying to rise into the sky.

But the next moment...

Gu Xiaoman pressed down with two fingers.

A strong sense of stripping arose in the Gray Dragon's heart!

The Gray Dragon suddenly fell to the ground, slamming into the snowfield. A huge fear arose in its heart, and it suddenly turned its head. The "huge iron wings" that grew on its back had disappeared!?

The next moment, Gu Xiaoman gently flicked up with two fingers.

The iron thorns on its body, like flower thorns, were flicked away!

"???"

A strong sense of absurdity arose in the Gray Dragon's heart. Due to the intense environmental stimulation, it began to "evolve" rapidly, growing iron armor, growing gills, growing petrified skin, but Gu Xiaoman just walked slowly, leisurely approaching, and gently lifted her fingers like pressing piano strings, sometimes flicking up, sometimes sweeping horizontally, and the "armor" wrapped around its body was flicked off piece by piece!

Finally, only a bare "self" remained.

Gu Xiaoman finally stood in front of the Gray Dragon. She looked down at this transcendent life form, which had been arrogant and invincible, as if looking at lowly weeds.

She said softly, "This is the power of Dream Nullification... Do you see it clearly?"

These words were not for the Gray Dragon.

But for Deep Sea.