Chapter 160 Awakening

"Wake up!"

A low voice echoed within the pendant's mental space.

The curled-up soul was jolted awake. Gu Shen didn't give "Hong Zhong" even a moment to react. The instant he spoke, crimson flames surged forth, engulfing the wisp of soul, submerging it...

Hypnosis was completed in an instant.

In Gu Shen's mind, this crucifix pendant was a sealing item of extremely high rating.

The ability to preserve the "spirit of the deceased" transcended the scope of normal sealing items; it was no exaggeration to call it a "divine object."

Therefore, from the moment he immersed himself in the pendant's space, Gu Shen had been fully alert.

However...

The whole process went smoother than he could have imagined.

The curled-up soul unfurled. Hong Zhong's features were blank, a wisp of crimson flame slowly burning at the center of the soul-figure's brow... Gu Shen had completely grasped this guy's mind.

With just a thought, he could erase it.

"That's it? Hypnosis is complete?"

Gu Shen was also somewhat surprised.

He had thought that this pendant was a contingency Hong Zhong had left for himself, a way to preserve his soul in case of an accident, but now it seemed that wasn't the case...

"What's your name?"

"Hong Zhong, Hong of flood, Zhong of heartfelt."

"Your identity."

"Member of the Second Squad of the Investigation Corps, serving as... temporary captain of Labyrinth Thirty-Eight mission."

Gu Shen tried asking a few simple questions, and Hong Zhong's soul answered them all, indicating that he still retained his memories from when he was alive.

"What is this sealing item?"

The next question, Gu Shen went straight to the point.

"..."

Silence.

Prolonged silence.

The pale soul raised its head, looking at Gu Shen with a bewildered gaze, his eyes full of emptiness and confusion.

Clearly, this question stumped him.

Gu Shen frowned. "How did you get here?"

Another moment of deathly silence.

This also belonged to a question that was "beyond the syllabus."

Although this lone soul could answer questions under hypnosis, he didn't seem very intelligent.

"I..."

Hong Zhong's voice was hoarse as he said intermittently, "I don't know... I should have died, but thanks to 'it,' I seemed to grasp the last glimmer of hope for life."

The crimson flame burned at his brow.

Gu Shen sensed the soul-figure's mental state... Hong Zhong's memories had suffered some damage, and his cognition was impaired. He was in a state of half-life and half-death, unaware that he was only a soul, and also unaware of what Gu Shen meant by "here."

"Do you recognize this thing?"

Gu Shen raised his palm.

With his mental power, he conjured a virtual image of the crucifix pendant, projecting it above his palm.

"Of course I recognize it... 'It' saved me!" Hong Zhong, under hypnosis, sounded agitated for a moment, then his voice lowered again, murmuring, " 'It' saved me more than once..."

"What is it?"

The pale soul, feeling the flame burning at his brow, murmured, "If you're asking its name, then there should be no answer. I found this pendant in the Old World. I call it the 'Blessing of the Goddess of Fate'..."

The crimson flame completed its adhesion to Hong Zhong's soul.

A large amount of turbulent memories surged out from the flames.

Gu Shen stopped asking questions.

He silently watched these memories...

Many years ago, Hong Zhong had ventured beyond the fortress to carry out a mission. It was a long time ago, before Zhong Yuan had been transferred to the Second Squad as captain.

On that mission, the explorer team had been wiped out.

Except for him.

The reason was simple... he had found this crucifix pendant in the Old World.

On a whim, Hong Zhong had worn the pendant, and in his near-death state, he had luckily avoided several large black holes, and successfully touched the Gate that could cross the vast distance and return directly to the fortress, completing an incredible trek... Watching this memory, Gu Shen felt somewhat complicated, because what Hong Zhong had experienced that year was somewhat similar to what he had recently gone through.

That incident had, of course, attracted the attention of the Northern Continent military.

However, Hong Zhong's strength was low back then, and his records were completely normal... No one had focused on him. The Northern Continent's upper echelons believed that this guy was just lucky.

As it turned out, Hong Zhong's luck far exceeded everyone's imagination.

In every mission beyond the fortress thereafter, Hong Zhong would wear the pendant, and this crucifix pendant had taken him out of danger countless times... And in the years that followed, he slowly began to explore, trying to grasp the power within the pendant.

With this "adventure," he became an elite member of the Second Squad of the Investigation Corps, and was able to serve as the captain of high-difficulty missions such as the Labyrinth Mission.

However, Hong Zhong had always been careful.

He carefully guarded his "luck," and he had never told anyone about the existence of this pendant...

He wasn't an ambitious man.

He knew he had picked up something extraordinary, but he just wanted to live a little longer.

This guy's memories were easy to read.

And very ironic.

Perhaps at this moment, no one in the Northern Continent would believe that Hong Zhong, who had fallen from grace from hero to a figure cursed by countless people, actually had such a simple idea in his heart: Having obtained this divine sealing item, he had never even thought about using this power to become the captain of the Investigation Corps... Hong Zhong's plan for his life was incredibly simple. He would use the power in this sealing item to help his good brothers in the corps to safely survive until retirement, then enjoy his old age, and finally, before he died, hand this sealing item over to the corps' upper echelons.

This idea was really simple.

So it was destined to be shattered—

This time... the development of the Labyrinth Mission directly shattered Hong Zhong's dream.

In the past, this pendant would always give Hong Zhong the correct guidance... But this time, there was an "accident." After the dream of the Golden Spike Flower spread, the instrument that detected transcendent source matter would give false alarms.

At that time, the squad had fallen into a difficult decision.

And Hong Zhong's "pendant" wanted him to retreat... Hong Zhong hesitated for the first time. The experience of the Investigation Corps told him that retreating would encounter "black holes," and this was the first time he had not acted according to the pendant's guidance.

Then, his mind was dragged into the dream of the Golden Spike Flower!

There, he saw the oasis, and also saw the travelers in the distance.

He saw the greatest hope of human exploration in six hundred years...

And finally, he saw the huge shadow of a snake covering the sky and the earth.

When he woke up, he had already left the Labyrinth, his unsheathed battle blade clutched tightly in his hand, the blade stained with scalding fresh blood... He had no wounds on his body, so the blood on the blade could only be that of his teammates.

Because on his body, there was an extra, blood-soaked energy core, which was the backup energy that supported his return to the Kobo Giant Wall.

Hong Zhong took a second to realize what had happened in the Labyrinth.

The pendant wasn't what he had guessed, just providing slight "guidance."

This was a very strong sealing item.

Even when his mind was bewitched, this pendant still activated the effect of "immortality." It drove his body, completing the escape from the "certain death" situation in the Labyrinth... And killing his teammates and taking out the energy core was also a necessary part of the escape. Hong Zhong couldn't do what the pendant had helped him do.

To be immortal, it wasn't enough to escape the Labyrinth.

He also had to have enough energy...

So in the heavy snow, Hong Zhong, who had regained consciousness, looked at his blood-soaked hands and could only choose to "return home."

He had no choice.

However, on the road of life, if you take a wrong step, you will take a second wrong step, more and more wrong, deeper and deeper...

The more the "mental toxin" planted by the Golden Spike Flower was transmitted, the wider it spread, the less the impact on the host.

After returning to Kobo, Hong Zhong fell into a deep sleep.

Everyone thought that this was a "sign of impending death," that the return journey had consumed too much of his strength... But the actual truth was just the opposite. The "Blessing of the Goddess of Fate" had chosen the absolute path to life for him, which was to spread the "toxin" and also collect his own soul to avoid the invasion of the toxin.

Without the intervention of external forces.

When the mental toxin of the Golden Spike Flower had completely spread and left his body.

Then Hong Zhong's soul would return from the crucifix pendant, and he would usher in an unprecedented "resurrection."

……

……

Is there really a Goddess of Luck in this world?

Gu Shen didn't believe it before.

But after reading Hong Zhong's memories, he had to change his mind.

Perhaps... there really was.

This pendant provided the protection of "immortality." This was a power that Gu Shen couldn't understand at the moment, somewhat like the data enumeration displayed by the Deep Sea.

This pendant could point out the most correct one among countless paths of death.

It's just that Hong Zhong ultimately failed to escape the fate of "death."

He was meeting himself here.

And his flesh would be destined to be burned to ashes.

It could be seen... that this pendant wasn't necessarily able to keep the "host" alive.

Suddenly, something occurred to Gu Shen.

His expression became serious.

No...

Things weren't that simple.

Thinking carefully, wasn't his encounter with Hong Zhong here also a ghostly arrangement of fate?

If there really were thousands of causal threads in this world, after making the wrong choice in the Labyrinth... Hong Zhong's probability of "death" was already close to one hundred percent. He didn't have enough energy, he didn't have the ability to detoxify, and even if he escaped back to Kobo to disperse the toxins, his body would be burned by Zhong Yuan who would come later. Gu Shen couldn't think of any way to let this guy really live.

Except for meeting himself.

Among countless causal threads... only encountering "Hades" could he possibly survive.

At this moment.

Gu Shen felt the faint power of "fate," that power wasn't words, let alone spirit, it was a kind of ethereal and real "guidance."

That guidance told himself.

If he used "Pure Land" at this moment to accept Hong Zhong's soul...

Then this pendant would fulfill its oath.

The Blessing of Immortality from the Goddess of Fate... would be transferred to himself.

He raised his head, looking at the white, boundless "dome" of this mental space. There were no other colors here, nor was there a real sense of size. Endless white filled the entire world.

"Is this considered a transaction?"

Gu Shen smiled self-deprecatingly.

He vaguely felt... that the grade of this crucifix pendant was probably frighteningly high. This was at least an "S-grade" sealing item, and it was still a broken product. If pieced together, it was very likely to be the same level as the Ruler of Truth.

If a white "angel" appeared in the dome, then he could accept it with peace of mind... Unfortunately, after waiting for a moment, nothing happened. Unlike the Ruler of Truth, this crucifix pendant wasn't trading with himself.

Gu Shen could choose not to accept Hong Zhong.

But if he chose that, Gu Shen would get nothing, and the pendant would not recognize a new master.

And the soul of the deceased would gradually dissipate. This was an "iron rule," and even this heaven-defying crucifix pendant couldn't defy this iron rule.

But...

With the "characteristics" of this pendant, would it find someone who could accept Hong Zhong's soul, or "think" of other solutions?

"Okay..."

Gu Shen smiled self-deprecatingly and said, "A fool doesn't take advantage when it's offered."

He wiped two fingers across...

A crack opened in the mental space, instantly descending on top of Hong Zhong's soul, enveloping it completely, and then swallowing it into it.

Gu Shen stared at this confused, bewildered, and blank soul, and spoke in a low voice.

"Congratulations, Hades bestows upon you 'eternal life.'"

Crimson flames surged past.

Hong Zhong disappeared in the pendant's mental space.

From then on, there was an extra soul in the Pure Land.

After completing the immortal protection of Hong Zhong... the pendant's mental space slowly closed.

After a moment, Gu Shen opened his eyes.

He looked at the pendant lying in his palm, and felt the subtle changes in his soul.

This pendant was slowly merging with his mind.

His mental power hadn't increased, but his sensitivity to the surrounding area had increased, and... Gu Shen didn't know if it was his imagination, but after this pendant recognized him as its master, the Fighting Golden Band on his forehead seemed to have widened a bit.

Could it be said that this pendant can also enhance mental power?

Complete integration seemed to take some time.

Gu Shen put away the pendant and smiled softly.

"The Blessing of Immortality from the Goddess of Fate, if I collect the complete you... what will you be like?"

This was really a very interesting thing.

On his body, there was a ruler that wanted his life at all times.

And a pendant that provided the protection of immortality.

An indestructible spear.

An absolutely unbreakable shield.

Gu Shen was a little curious... Which was sharper, the spear, or thicker, the shield?