A thin layer of "Miracle Silver" flowed within the black box.

The Ruler of Truth was immersed within, occasionally emitting "glug" bubbling sounds.

This time, Gu Shen was completely relieved.

"Finally, I don't have to worry about being 'spied on'."

That guy in the black mist was more troublesome, insidious, and cunning than he had imagined.

Being stared at by such an existence made Gu Shen feel uneasy.

"It's just... sealing the devil means I can't use the power of the 'Ruler'."

He was well aware.

Sealing the devil was equivalent to sealing the Ruler of Truth.

This was the price of "not being spied on."

The reason why devils could tempt people into trading again and again... was because they truly possessed unparalleled power. No matter the level of the extraordinary, the Ruler of Truth could unleash terrifying cross-border combat power.

This had always been Gu Shen's greatest trump card.

Sealing it was like sealing his own left and right hands.

Fortunately, Gu Shen had already completed his third breakthrough, and his combat power could rival a "Fourth-Order Extraordinary." Even without the Ruler of Truth, he was still invincible among his peers.

With just the Pure Land domain, Gu Shen could sweep through the Third-Order!

"This is a long war."

He closed the black box, his fingers slowly stroking over it.

Gu Shen's gaze became solemn.

He knew that the war with the devil was just the beginning. Next was a true test of endurance. Either he would outlast the devil, or the devil would devour him.

He immediately opened the Pure Land domain and tossed the black box into it... and decided that no matter what happened during this time, he would not take it out.

Besides killing the devil, he also needed to obtain the important information in the devil's mind.

Secrets about the King of the Underworld, the method of creating "Extinguish Torch," the correct way to open the Ruler of Truth...

These were all pieces of information that Gu Shen was determined to obtain!

Therefore, he needed to let the Ruler fall into a long period of silence first.

...

...

After doing all this.

Gu Shen rubbed his forehead.

His mental strength had been somewhat exhausted after the previous ordeal.

He restrained his mind and began to circulate the Breathing Technique.

With everything settled, he could rest for a while... In the days to come, Gu Shen decided to focus on diligent cultivation.

The Four Seasons Breathing, he had only comprehended the "Spring Breathing" step so far.

The second volume... felt somewhat bottlenecked.

Gu Shen began to cultivate.

He immersed himself in his mind and completely forgot about the passage of time in the outside world.

Under the "Spectator" mindset, the speed of mental cultivation became extremely fast, and the only drawback was that he was too focused, completely forgetting himself, and the external environment would be subconsciously ignored.

"Dong—dong—"

In Gu Shen's perception, it seemed like he had just cultivated for a short time when a muffled knocking sound came from outside the small courtyard.

After seeing the "Disaster Divination" scene in the bracelet, Gu Shen became very vigilant.

He subconsciously spoke, transmitting his voice: "Who is it?"

One had to know, upon opening the door...

Outside the door might be dozens of Saint Arbiters draped in sackcloth, calling themselves the light.

And the Grand Knights of Light City!

Gu Shen withdrew from his mental cultivation state.

Hmm... It seemed that his efficiency was quite high. The previous fatigue had been swept away.

However, the sky seemed to be very late?

"I am Fisher."

A hearty laugh sounded outside the door.

The next moment, the gate of the Hanging Mountain courtyard popped open.

Gu Shen quickly went out to greet him: "Fisher, this is a rare visit... How did you come here?"

He didn't expect his small courtyard to be quite lively. First, Lin Lin came, and then Fisher.

Gu Shen had a vivid memory of this Fourth-Order top powerhouse.

Fisher possessed the "Blood of the Undead," and his awakened extraordinary ability, unparalleled in water combat. Because of this, he made great contributions in the final tragic battle of the restart mission. Fisher single-handedly killed several powerful intelligent beings, and replaced the seriously injured Osmond, shouldering the heavy responsibility of finishing the team's work.

However... the current Fisher didn't look like someone with "powerful killing power."

He had a fish tank on his head, a smile on his face, and as he grinned, the gills on both sides of his cheeks slowly opened and closed, blowing bubbles in his source armor mask.

He looked honest, kind, and harmless.

[Live Fish] sighed: "Little Gu, I live not far from your Hanging Mountain. Actually, I wanted to chat with you before... But before the restart mission began, you were always in closed-door cultivation, and after the mission ended, you were as diligent as ever, directly finding a place to start meditating. A genius as diligent as you is rare even in the Northern Continent."

Gu Shen chuckled dumbly.

These words made him feel a little embarrassed.

"Please come in quickly." He quickly invited Fisher in.

Fisher shook his head, and instead, outside the small courtyard gate, made the same inviting gesture as Gu Shen.

Only then did Gu Shen discover that outside his Hanging Mountain, a miniature open-top airship was hovering, only capable of accommodating two people, still burning source matter and constantly spewing dark flames.

He was slightly stunned.

"Little Gu, don't you know? Tonight, there's a celebration banquet at the 'Underground Research Institute' in Central City." Fisher looked at Gu Shen curiously, jumped out of the [Deep Water Zone] mail system, and pulled up the invitation email.

Only then did Gu Shen realize that he had been completely "cut off from the world" after returning to the small courtyard.

He simply hadn't checked his email.

"Let me take a look."

Gu Shen vaguely had a bad premonition.

Gu Shen opened the [Deep Water Zone] interface in front of Live Fish. The next moment, a large number of emails popped up all at once... After the restart mission ended, the dukes and generals of the Northern Continent were very interested in him. Because Duke Casting Snow had arranged a very secretive residence for the "important person," no one had found Gu Shen living here yet, so they could only write to Gu Shen's email.

Gu Shen glanced at the date.

He understood where the terrible premonition in his heart came from... Perhaps because of the "Nether River trip," his spirit was too tense, and time flew by quickly in the "Spectator mindset."

He just closed his eyes.

In the real world, three days had passed!

No wonder his mailbox was filled with so many emails!

"Mr. Gu, I am Li Bing, the garrison of 'Dongning City.' My teacher is Duke Xiangchen of the Northern Continent. I sincerely invite you to a luncheon at Yuanxi Garden the day after tomorrow..."

He casually opened one.

Gu Shen hadn't heard of this Dongning City garrison, but the other party was obviously "very admiring" of him, writing nearly a thousand words in the letter, even mentioning the name of "Duke Xiangchen" in order to have lunch with him.

The only regret was that the letter was sent three days ago.

The date invited by the Dongning City garrison was yesterday...

However, even if Gu Shen saw it, he probably wouldn't go.

"You were cultivating at the time. I looked through these junk emails for you."

At this moment, Chu Ling's voice rang in Gu Shen's spiritual sea. She explained, "There are no meaningful invitations here. You can ignore them all."

Gu Shen transmitted his voice with a smile: "Indeed."

There were too many similar invitations in the mailbox. Gu Shen wouldn't even reply to them one by one. It was not difficult to see from the letters that these people were all "prominent" and could be called the young nobles of the Northern Continent, but unfortunately, if they wanted to invite Gu Shen to meet alone—

They were not qualified enough.

Those who were truly qualified, such as big figures like "Duke Xiangchen," naturally had channels to find out Gu Shen's current residence. If they sincerely wanted to meet... they would personally come to the door.

On closer thought, the only one who had come to his small courtyard in the past three days seemed to be Fisher?

Gu Shen, who had been startled by the exploding mailbox, breathed a sigh of relief in his heart at this moment.

It seemed that this small courtyard on Hanging Mountain wasn't as lively as he had imagined.

This was a good thing. It would be troublesome if the real big shots of the Northern Continent came to visit.

He hoped no one would come knocking on the door every day.

He would save his energy to deal with the Saint Arbiters.

"Found it."

Finally, Gu Shen found the email in his mailbox... In Chu Ling's view, this invitation was also a "junk email" because it only had the time, place, and people, without even a polite tone.

"This invitation was sent by the 'Central City Underground Research Institute'?" Gu Shen was a little puzzled: "Celebration banquet... at the Underground Research Institute?"

He knew.

The most important power system of the entire Central City was the "Furnace."

The Empress's divine domain supported this giant floating city.

The researchers at the Underground Research Institute were responsible for rationally transporting the majestic divine power to every corner of the giant city... Of course, the God Seat could use her will to accomplish these things, but if it was combined with a "scientifically efficient" planning framework, then Her Majesty the Empress on the second floor of the閣樓 would be much easier and would not have to work so hard.

Therefore, this so-called "Underground Research Institute" was a highly respected research unit in Central City, bringing together the top scientific research figures in the Northern Continent. The royal family had invested countless amounts of money and effort.

"That's right."

Fisher vigorously put his arm around Gu Shen's shoulder, brought him out of the small courtyard, patted the cockpit of the miniature airship, and asked with a smile, "Little Gu, those who can receive this invitation are all Extraordinary with significant status... Where do people like us still care about so-called 'celebration banquets'?"

Gu Shen's eyes narrowed.

Indeed, this restart mission was initiated and selected by the dukes. Those who could participate in the battle were all first-class powerhouses who worked hard in the various fortresses of the Northern Continent!

As for the captains, they shouldered even heavier responsibilities.

They stayed in Central City. Where was it for enjoyment?

"Don't you want to see... the style of the 'Traveler'?"

Fisher lowered his voice, his dead fish eyes glowing with an unusual excitement: "I heard that that guy has been embedded into the 'Furnace' by Her Majesty the Empress. In the future, Central City won't have to worry about 'energy problems'!"

Gu Shen suddenly understood.

The so-called "celebration banquet," the "invitation"...

It was actually a shocking demonstration of the results of smelting the God Seat!