Chapter 1 The Snowy Beginning

Snowflakes swirled in the air.

A roaring snow tide surged past, and from the shattered gate of the Lunar Veil City disaster zone, a large amount of frost and snow poured out—

These snowflakes landed before Gu Shen.

They were ignited by blazing fire.

A wisp of blazing firelight advanced against the snow tide. Gu Shen nodded to the three people beside him, then took the lead.

After he entered, the Rustbone General, the Legion Commander, and A'Lier slowly moved forward.

……

……

The Lunar Veil City fortress was quieter than imagined.

Gu Shen stood in the boundless snow ridge. When this super-large disaster zone first appeared, hundreds of extraordinary individuals had stepped into this place, trying to find their own fortunes. These people ultimately paid the price for their "reckless behavior."

The wind and snow howled.

His blazing fire swept in all directions.

Mr. Tree's "vines" and Senior Sister Luo's "hair" still retained faint auras in this disaster zone world.

Finally.

Gu Shen stood on the summit of an empty snow mountain.

Here... was where his "blazing fire" sensed that his teacher and senior sister had departed.

That door had only appeared once.

No one knew when it would appear next.

In the distance.

Rustbone, Ziyu, and A'Lier watched silently.

None of them stepped forward to disturb Gu Shen.

"I thought Zhou Jiren would walk out of that door..."

Rustbone General stood in the snow, his hands resting on his sword. His figure was tall and burly, almost inhuman, looking like a small mountain from afar. The wind and snow howled in the Lunar Veil City disaster zone, but he stood still, and within a few seconds, a thick layer of frost and snow had piled up on his bronze armor.

Over the past year, the Fourth Legion had been stationed outside this disaster zone, waiting for the Queen's orders and the information sent back by Mr. Tree.

Unfortunately.

This year had been a year of peace and quiet.

Rustbone hoped that one day, the sun would rise, Zhou Jiren would lead his two disciples, tear apart the gates of the Lunar Veil City fortress, and return triumphantly with news of the oasis... and then throw the map in front of him with a flourish.

If it were that old fellow, then finding the oasis might not be impossible.

It was a pity.

Rustbone knew that he probably wouldn't be able to wait for this scene.

He had already received His Majesty's orders. Once Gu Shen left the disaster zone, the Fourth Legion would join forces with A'Lier to launch a campaign against the "Lunar Veil City Disaster Zone"!

The reason His Majesty had made such a decision was clearly because she had seen something.

"That young man, is he the disciple of the 'Sky-Reaching Tree'?"

Rustbone narrowed his eyes.

This was the first time he had seen Gu Shen.

As the leader of the Fourth Legion and as the guide of 021... he had always paid attention to news from the Eastern Continent, so he naturally knew that Gu Shen was the most prominent S-level genius in the Eastern Continent in the past two years.

Seeing him today.

He was quite different from the "S-level" in his impression.

This young man was neither high-profile nor overbearing.

Arriving at the Lunar Veil City disaster zone, standing in the heavy snow, he was as quiet as a flame.

Yes.

A silent, quietly burning flame.

"What do you think of him?"

The Legion Commander stood beside Rustbone and asked seriously. In the Northern Continent, there were very few people she would address with respectful terms, but Rustbone was one of them.

She wanted to know Rustbone General's evaluation of Gu Shen.

"This young man has a 'quiet' yet 'fiery' soul."

The towering man leaning on his sword calmly watched Gu Shen's back and said softly, "This is very similar to Nanfeng... It can be seen that they both have something they firmly believe in in their hearts."

021 was a legendary figure in the Northern Continent.

This time he disappeared in the Lunar Veil City, creating the youngest title record in the Deep Sea Database.

Gu Nanfeng's cultivation speed was no slower than Luo Er's.

After eight years of hard training in the Northern Continent, when he left, he also broke through the Deep Sea Twelfth Layer Trial and possessed the strength of a titled powerhouse!

The Northern Continent offered countless conditions to retain this promising young legend.

But Gu Nanfeng refused them all.

He came to the Northern Continent just for one thing—

That was... to return!

"I like this young man." Rustbone smiled, his eyes flowing with appreciative brilliance, but besides sighing, there was also some sadness: "It's a pity... fate is cruel, and sometimes we must accept reality. I hope he can get out of this blow as soon as possible."

The cultivation of extraordinary individuals requires a strong will.

Some things in the real world may cause irreversible blows to the spirit of extraordinary individuals...

Being defeated by a nemesis, encountering betrayal, or the death of an important person...

The more one values something, the easier it is to become obsessed.

Of course, there are lucky people who can always be smooth and free from disasters.

However, most extraordinary individuals are ordinary people and cannot avoid it.

……

……

Gu Shen sat on the cliff of the snow mountain.

He used his fingertips to outline a door, trying to recreate the scene when Mr. Tree left...

Blazing fire lingered.

He tried his best to deduce and constantly calculate in the "spiritual sea" in his mind the conditions under which that door in the Lunar Veil City disaster zone might appear, but these were all in vain.

This was an answer that even Her Majesty the Queen could not calculate.

Even with Chu Ling's help, it was useless.

He was not immersed in the "death" of his "teacher" and "senior sister," unable to let go... but when replaying the pictures seen by the Traveler, he captured some abnormalities worth pondering.

The Queen was certainly great.

But in this world... there were also things that Her Majesty the Queen did not know.

For example, Jin Suihua also saw traces of the teacher outside of the Door!

What kind of route did the three people take to go from the Lunar Veil City fortress to the north of Gu Fort... And how should the next direction of travel be chosen to arrive so coincidentally in the "Traveler's" line of sight.

Gu Shen wanted to find this door... Even if he couldn't, he wanted to find some kind of pattern.

In the long silence.

For some reason, the smile that the Traveler showed him suddenly appeared in his mind.

What if... the Traveler knew that these three people were related to him?

This conjecture was somewhat unreasonable.

The Traveler was a being from outside the Door. No matter how powerful they were, it was impossible for them to have any knowledge of himself within the Five Continents...

"Could it really be related to the black gem..."

Gu Shen frowned, and he silently took out the black gem and held it in his palm.

In fact, Gu Shen had already checked this black gem once before.

He didn't find anything special.

Inside this black gem... a large amount of "spiritual toxins" were gathered. Once these toxins spread, they would cause a devastating disaster to the human world.

And before Gu Shen merged with the "Nether King Fire Seed," he did not have the ability to completely dissolve and melt it.

So, he had been carrying it with him all along.

Now, he took it out again and plunged a wisp of his spirit into the black gem.

This was the extremely poisonous "source of the River of Poison"!

Ordinary people who dared to touch it with their spirits would wither and die within seconds... But in front of the future Nether King Gu Shen, these "River Poisons" had no effect at all, and when they sensed the arrival of the blazing fire, they all made way.

Gu Shen began the inspection again—

This time.

His inspection was more detailed.

When his spiritual power penetrated, he had a feeling that he had returned to the "Nether River" once again... Those "River Poisons" gave Gu Shen a warm feeling.

He concentrated and captured the remaining spirit in the black gem.

And the fragmented spiritual debris wandering in the River Poison... was now miraculously gathering.

Gu Shen held the black gem and closed his eyes tightly.

The frost and snow on the cliff of the snow mountain slowly covered him. To outsiders, he seemed to be immersed in some kind of "spiritual" silence. His body was submerged by the snow and became as silent as a stone statue.

Even Rustbone General didn't notice too many abnormalities.

All three of them, titled powerhouses, could see that Gu Shen was now sitting on the snow mountain, seemingly wanting to make a final attempt before this "Lunar Veil City disaster zone" was conquered...

They also knew that this was futile.

But they did not stop him, but waited quietly.

……

……

Endless river water rolled like a tide, engulfing Gu Shen.

Under the high concentration of spiritual power, Gu Shen managed to scavenge the remaining spiritual fragments in the "black gem."

And he did not expect that when these fragments were pieced together... his consciousness would be instantly washed and impacted.

It was as if the high-pitched chanting of ancient texts was echoing in his ears!

Gu Shen knew... this was the writing of the "Traveler Clan." The ancient texts lingering in his ears were exactly the same as the records on that stone slab!

And after the earth-shattering spiritual impact.

He subconsciously made the action of "opening" his eyes.

Strangely.

Although he was in the midst of a spiritual shock, the action of "opening his eyes" went exceptionally smoothly.

The wind and snow howling from all directions gave Gu Shen the illusion—

That he was currently on the summit of the snow mountain in the Lunar Veil City fortress, and the exploration of the black gem had been completed... But in the next moment, he realized that he was still in the sea of consciousness born from the spiritual debris.

The snow all around was black!

Black snow fell from the sky.

This was the "recorded picture" of the black gem's remaining spirit!

This was... the "Black Snow Mountain" in the Doru River disaster zone!

"Dong!"

"Dong!"

At this moment, the sound of a door shattering exploded above the sky...

At this moment, the black gem was staging the picture recorded in the Traveler's stone slab. This was a "major secret" that had never been known to anyone.

Gu Shen held his breath.

In front of him was an ominous figure wrapped in black mist.

The former Nether King, bathed in black snow, seemed to be waiting for something.

And on the other side, the sound of impact from the top of the sky grew louder and louder. Then, a dark, thin, metallic body, like a sharp arrow, shattered the sky, descended, and crashed heavily on the top of Black Snow Mountain.

That almost perfect "humanoid being" was wrapped in a pair of huge, black, plump wings.

For some reason, Gu Shen had a feeling.

That the black snow all over the sky seemed to originate from its wings.

"Rumble..."

It shook its wings, stood up, and looked at the Nether King wrapped in the ominous black mist.

At this moment, Gu Shen's spiritual sea shook violently!

The humanoid being slowly opened its mouth, and it actually spoke the language of the Five Continents.

"Where is what I want?"