Chapter 1 The Dark Room

A dimly lit wooden house.

Four corners burned with curling flames.

Four bronze figure lamps, reverently holding fire. This was the Li family's most mysterious ancestral hall, also the most effective place to perform the "Prayer Art."

Generations of Guardians would offer their lives here to nourish the "Divine Embryo."

If fate truly had a scale.

Then this old house, plastered with ancient text talismans, was the forbidden place where one could directly touch the "scale."

Gu Shen sat in the firelight.

"Empty your mind, let your attention relax."

Li Qingci guided him into a dream.

The firelight reflected the four faces of the bronze figure lamps, joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness, the myriad aspects of life.

Gu Shen slowly closed his eyes.

His thoughts scattered like willow catkins, and he quickly immersed himself in a pure white space. Li Qingci's guiding voice allowed him to find direction in the dream.

"Imagine the 'event' you want to pray for. Whether it's a person or an object, it needs to be concretized, and then concretized further."

Gu Shen closed his eyes.

In this pure white spiritual world, the image of "Han Dang" gradually emerged.

At the same time.

He also felt the descent of a force in the dark.

The ethereal, yet real, "fate"—

The Prayer Art was being performed.

Fate lowered its gaze, observing the "wishes" of mortals. The mystery of this forbidden art lay in the fact that the caster didn't need to use language or other means to describe things in detail. Fate could naturally search along the lines of "cause and effect."

In this world, every blade of grass, every tree, every living thing, could not escape the two words: cause and effect.

Whether born or destroyed, as long as it existed, there would always be traces to follow.

"Next… transmit the information you possess… the more the better… that way the chips you need to pay will be reduced…"

Li Qingci's voice was intermittent.

And growing fainter.

Towards the end, Gu Shen could barely hear her.

But it didn't matter.

This dreamscape had no sound, but the power of fate would guide the dreamer to complete the "exchange."

"Tundra, Frozen Lake area."

Gu Shen used his mental power to transmit all the information he knew… This act was equivalent to placing a portion of chips "on the scale of fate."

"Not on the surface, probably located five hundred meters underground."

The information was limited.

That was all Gu Shen could put on the "scale."

Having done this, his ears were filled with utter silence. Li Qingci's voice completely dissipated, and the entire pure white spiritual world was left with only him. Due to the concretization of his mental power, he actually saw a huge scale.

All of this was an illusion.

The scale was swaying, tilting.

This was "fate" deliberating. Soon, Gu Shen received a message in his mind.

"Seven hundred and eighty-one days, one hour, zero minutes, five seconds."

This was a countdown.

And each countdown change was not one second, but several seconds.

The "activation" of the Prayer Art required bearing a price.

The caster paid with "life" even during the period of hesitation… Gu Shen briefly observed that after this string of numbers appeared, every second that passed in his spiritual perception caused the "number" on the chip to jump by one minute.

Ten seconds was ten minutes.

Seven hundred and eighty-one days!

Finding Han Dang's hiding place would consume two years of his life!

If he was unwilling to activate the Prayer Art, the numbers deducted on the scale would not be returned.

"Exchange."

Gu Shen raised his head, his gaze directed towards the sky of the pure white world.

He wanted to see the end of this empty spirit.

But.

The end of emptiness was still emptiness.

The snow-white "scale" instantly shattered, and countless torrents swept through the spiritual world. The moment Gu Shen spoke, the activation of the Prayer Art truly began. "Fate" accepted his will and completed an equal "transaction."

In that instant.

Gu Shen felt something being drawn out of his body.

He didn't age, and his spirit wasn't damaged.

What he lost was the future.

The price of the Prayer Art was life. Each successful performance required the caster to pay with their "lifespan," but this "payment" didn't mean direct aging.

Rather, it was to prematurely cut off a segment of lifespan before reaching the final station of life.

A person who could have lived to seventy.

If they frequently used the Prayer Art and consumed thirty years of their lifespan, then they would die in their fortieth year.

No one knew how long they could live.

But fate knew.

This was the terrifying thing about the "Prayer Art."

You overdraft your life in advance, yet you are completely unaware of the passing of your life.

This forbidden art never allowed "credit."

When the caster's remaining life was running out, the scale of fate would no longer grant some of their wishes… Without a time limit, a situation would arise where you watched the "countdown" given by the scale continue to flow, while you could only afford the price of "hesitation."

When you reached the end of your life, you would discover that without time, wanting to do anything was a luxury.

Gu Family temporary base.

"Mr. Xing Yun, wake up."

A night watchman friendly woke up the Tomb Ghost, who was dozing at the table, while glancing strangely at the thick stack of drawings in front of him.

Since losing his memory, the Tomb Ghost had stayed in this house and never left.

The things he did every day were monotonous and boring.

That was to constantly "translate" these drawings.

No one could understand these ancient text drawings.

In the situation where "everyone can't understand," whether the "ghost drawings" drawn by the Tomb Ghost were right or wrong, true or false, was impossible to discern.

Sometimes, the night watchmen would discuss in private whether the Tomb Ghost could really recognize these "ancient characters," or whether he was adding a bit of water… Not long ago, a night watchman brother sacrificed himself to protect him.

The Gu family held a funeral for this brother.

But the Tomb Ghost's "research" had not yet come in handy.

Many years ago.

The Tomb Ghost was a "liar" who deceived the entire Nagano City, causing chaos. Having a "previous lesson," everyone was inevitably cautious.

"Ah, uh."

The Tomb Ghost opened his eyes laboriously.

These past few days.

He had been plagued by nightmares. At this moment, being awakened by the outside world, his consciousness was in a daze, not yet fully recovered and adapted from the previous darkness.

"The Young Master hopes you can participate in the development of the 'Heavenly Sheath Weapon'."

The night watchman respectfully said, "We will keep these drawings for you. After things over there are finished, you can come back at any time."

"Heavenly Sheath Weapon?"

The previously somewhat muddled Tomb Ghost instantly woke up when he heard the words Heavenly Sheath.

He still remembered.

The scene of meeting "Gu Shen" in the Black Snow Mountain dreamscape.

He had heard the words Heavenly Sheath many times.

Moreover.

The "body" he inhabited in Black Snow Mountain seemed to possess the power to control the Heavenly Sheath… In the dream, "as long as 'he' raised a hand, the so-called Heavenly Sheath Curse would vanish."

It seemed to vanish.

But the Tomb Ghost always felt that these curses seemed to be absorbed by "himself?"

Next, he was taken into a car.

The temporary base of the Tundra Prison was not far from the Gu family's Heavenly Sheath Weapon development site. The tundra was vast, and the five great families had set up different "research institutes" in different locations.

Of course, the most important places had to be considered for "placement."

Since the Gu family had Snow Master, a titled powerhouse, stationed at the Tundra Prison, they naturally couldn't waste it.

Therefore, the Old Master arranged the important "research institutes" not far from the 【Snow Cage】. In the event of an emergency in the future, the Gu family could coordinate with the garrison force of the Tundra Prison and respond quickly.

In the central control laboratory of the research base, many researchers were busy.

Among these people, there were many of the Tomb Ghost's "old friends."

In the past, the Tomb Ghost was an important figure in various bills and various researches. He had a large amount of cutting-edge technology stored in his head. At most, he led a research team of nearly a hundred people.

This was also the reason why Zhao Xilai reused him later.

If the "Awakening Act" had been promulgated in Eastern Continent back then… then the contribution made by the team led by the Tomb Ghost would definitely have been the greatest.

The Tomb Ghost felt many strange gazes cast towards him.

"Do they recognize me?"

He whispered to the night watchman beside him.

"Mr. Xing Yun, do you really not remember anything at all?"

This night watchman was not young. He had participated in the Tomb Clearing Act back then, so he was silent for a second and honestly replied, "These people… they used to be your subordinates."

The Tomb Ghost walked around the base. It was originally quite noisy here.

After he walked around.

The entire base became very quiet, so quiet that a pin could be heard dropping.

The researchers in white coats stopped one by one.

Their gazes all fell on the Tomb Ghost.

"They are all my subordinates?"

The Tomb Ghost looked bewildered.

Did it really make sense to bring the Tomb Ghost, in his current state, to the Heavenly Sheath experimental base?

"Minister of Men."

The night watchman sighed softly in his heart.

He took out a communicator, and a real-time image popped up.

Gu Nanfeng's image appeared in front of the Tomb Ghost.

"Young… Young Master."

The Tomb Ghost hesitated and spoke, finally learning to call Gu Nanfeng respectfully in the same tone as the others.

"Just call me Nanfeng."

Gu Nanfeng said to the night watchman, "Have you taken him to visit the Heavenly Sheath experimental base?"

"Yes."

The night watchman said sincerely, "Young Master, he doesn't seem to remember anything."

Gu Nanfeng asked again, "What about the core laboratory? Has he seen it?"

"Core laboratory."

The Tomb Ghost looked up blankly. He subconsciously looked towards the most eye-catching giant glass screen of the base. It was a strong logic material laboratory made of large pieces of azure silver. The grade of azure silver was higher than that of purple silver, and it was also the highest specification of mithril that Nagano could plan in batches.

In the laboratory wrapped in azure silver.

One Heavenly Sheath after another flew in a weightless environment, simulating some scene.

The azure silver laboratory seemed to be experiencing a storm.

And the trajectories of those Heavenly Sheath fragments were being counted and recorded by 【Deep Sea】.

The Tomb Ghost's gaze seemed to be glued after touching those fragments.

He slowly moved his steps towards the "giant glass screen."

One step.

Two steps.

Finally, he stood in front of the azure silver.

This simulation experiment was to take out the Heavenly Sheath fragments in Gu Shen's black silver box for actual simulation, and it was expected that there would be some "loss."

This was also the biggest difficulty in making the Heavenly Sheath Weapon.

Each "simulation experiment" would consume the "activity" of the fragments.

Researchers needed to find a "critical point" so that the Heavenly Sheath fragments could retain the greatest activity when releasing the strike.

At this moment, countless flying Heavenly Sheath fragments seemed to be frozen in the eyes of the Tomb Ghost.

The storm was mighty, hitting the azure silver.

A fragment left a very deep gap on the giant glass screen.

It was a pity.

The thickness of the azure silver far exceeded the size of the fragments.

This kind of strike was nothing at all.

"Activity decreased by 75%, 60% material."

The expression of the researcher in charge of real-time monitoring was not good. The experiment being conducted at the moment was already a quite mature blueprint. The Gu family had been conceiving and building a perfect "storm release." This technology could compress the Heavenly Sheath fragments to the extreme, and then release them instantly. With the help of a huge burst of impact, sufficient fragments could directly fill an entire narrow and closed space.

【Deep Sea】 was optimizing the "storm equation."

Each time, the "equation" would be rewritten… Through the iterative calculation during this period, the effect of "storm release" had been improved a lot, but there was still a big gap from the performance in the blueprint plan.

The effect of this release was probably only 35%.

If the iterative calculation continued, it could certainly be continuously optimized, but the consumption of "raw materials" and the passage of time were huge costs.

Gu Old Master had just sent a message, hoping that the R&D base could complete a 【prototype】 as soon as possible!

The meaning of 【prototype】 was that the effect of "storm release" could at least reach 60% of the expectation and could be put into use.

The researchers guessed.

Old Master was in a hurry to see the Heavenly Sheath Weapon, and it was likely that it would be used in the tundra.

It was just.

Their optimization had reached the limit, and the speed of iterative evolution was still slow.

The storm release ended.

Heavenly Sheath fragments fell to the ground, like broken-winged butterflies.

The atmosphere in the base was slightly depressed and low.

The Tomb Ghost glanced at the control table.

He walked towards the control table, and the researchers made way for him… This man who had lost his memory silently sat in front of the empty console. He began to tap codes, manually modifying the "storm release equation" of 【Deep Sea】.

At the same time, above the azure silver laboratory, the roar of the storm gathering momentum resounded.

"47th simulation experiment, start."

The cold mechanical sound awakened those scattered Heavenly Sheaths. The fragments that were originally like broken-winged butterflies now flew up again, gathering towards the top, simulating the "collapse" state of extreme contraction.

"Buzzing."

Countless butterflies, under the reflection of the azure silver, were light and beautiful.

"Activity increased, 55%, activity increased, 71‰…"

A researcher, as if seeing a ghost, looked at the Tomb Ghost who was constantly tapping the main console.

The next moment.

Storm release, Heavenly Sheath dance.

The originally intact azure silver glass instantly appeared with countless dense white lines in the next second.

The originally "clear" vision instantly exploded into one spider web after another, as if someone had simultaneously chiseled tens of thousands of times on the curtain wall with a heavy hammer.

The violent instant release.

The entire base.

Was silent.