"Soaking in 'Black Silver,' it shouldn't be able to gaze into the real world anymore, right?"

Gu Shen examined the ruler, which had been dyed pitch-black from its original silver-white.

He didn't know the situation inside the ruler, but after Black Silver enveloped the Ruler of Truth, he felt a sense of ease from the bottom of his heart.

A deal with the devil was destined to be a long game.

Before he found the truth about Pluto's fall, he should minimize conversations with that devil as much as possible. That guy who dwelled in the darkness exuded a sinister aura.

At this moment, it seemed that he had the upper hand.

But from the moment he entered the ruler, the scales of victory had already begun to tilt to the other side.

The conversation just now was still quite rewarding.

At least Gu Shen had confirmed one thing.

That was, the Ruler of Truth could not reject his mental link...

As long as "Black Silver" could block the ruler's perception, then in the next game, he could steadily gain the upper hand!

He didn't plan to use the ruler during this period.

After doing all this, Gu Shen left the room.

He went to the cemetery alone.

...

...

After the Labyrinth Mission ended, Gu Shen had been harboring a doubt.

With the strength of Jin Sui Hua...

Those explorers who arrived at the labyrinth, without the strength of a top-tier fourth-order transcendent, almost couldn't leave alive... But Hong Zhong managed to escape back. The file recorded that this guy's transcendent realm was roughly at the eighth level of the Deep Sea.

How exactly did he do it?

Lin Lin, Zhong Yuan, and the members of the mission beyond the Great Wall this time... were not aware of the existence of "Jin Sui Hua," so they believed that Hong Zhong's survival was just a fluke!

But Gu Shen knew that it could never be a fluke!

This guy... either had a hidden secret, or a special sealed item!

The moon was bright in the sky.

Gu Bu, which had just ended a storm disaster, appeared particularly bright and clear under the silvery moonlight.

The patrolling sentries saw Gu Shen and did not stop him, but respectfully saluted.

Gu Shen entered the cemetery without hindrance.

He came to Hong Zhong's tombstone.

Perhaps because there had just been a heavy rain, some weeds had grown around this tombstone... Before the outbreak of the "mental toxin," this place was still regarded as a memorial site for "heroes." The Second Investigation Corps had sent people to talk to him more than once, trying to transport the remains of the homecoming Hong Zhong from the fortress back to the inland of North Continent.

Thinking about it now, it was frightening.

If this "mental toxin" broke out in the inland... and completely spread, then the situation would be serious.

At that time, it wouldn't be a trouble that Gu Shen could solve.

North Continent would probably have to spend a great deal of manpower and resources to solve this "disaster."

And Gu Shen would be forced to bear the fate and misfortune brought about by the Jin Sui Hua massacre. In other words... he might bear a lot of ominousness because of this artificially spread disaster.

Fortunately, Lin Lin stopped all of this!

Even Gu Shen secretly admired this point. You must know that this guy didn't have the Underworld Fire.

As a fortress garrison, making such a decision required withstanding the enormous pressure exerted by the outside world.

It had to be admitted that Lin Lin had an unusual keenness. He had the nose of a hunting dog, and he smelled the crisis on "Hong Zhong" clearly.

This was a natural general with a big heart.

"The aura in this tomb is a bit strange."

Gu Shen resisted the golden circlet and barely opened a wisp of Blazing Fire. His pupils burned into a faint golden color.

Under his gaze, the weeds on the tombstone and the engraved characters all blurred and disappeared.

His vision penetrated the ground, pointing directly at the coffin beneath the gray earth.

The mental power of Blazing Fire directly touched Hong Zhong's remains. In theory... this was the mother body that nurtured the Jin Sui Hua poison. After being touched by his Underworld power, it should immediately stir up the remaining soul.

However, this phenomenon did not occur.

The man in the coffin was dead and could not be deader... Even the last remaining soul had dissipated.

As for the transcendent source substance that should have remained in the coffin, there wasn't even any dregs left.

"What power decomposed his soul?"

Gu Shen squatted down.

He stretched out his palm and gently shook it.

The gray soil of the cemetery was continuously wiped away to both sides by mental power. After a few seconds, the surface of the brand-new coffin was exposed.

Gu Shen decided to open the coffin directly.

The coffin opened...

A decaying corpse came into view. Hong Zhong's body had been burned, and now only dry bones remained... But apart from the signs of burning, his body seemed to have been gnawed by some force. Gu Shen frowned. Among Hong Zhong's bones, there was an ancient, tattered pendant that had not decayed. It was tied in front of his neck and was now embedded in his sternum.

Sealed item!

Gu Shen did not directly reach out to touch it, nor did he use mental power to grab it.

He put on Black Silver-layered gloves and carefully took out the pendant... This didn't seem like a sealed item with any lethality. This pendant should be a very old object, with a delicate texture. The main body was a broken cross, which seemed to be broken diagonally. As for the hanging chain part of the pendant, it was likely that Hong Zhong had matched it himself, because under the Black Silver wrapping, Gu Shen only rubbed it gently a few times, and the slender hanging chain slowly weathered away, leaving only the main body of the cross pendant.

After repeatedly examining it and confirming that there was no danger, Gu Shen tentatively sent a small wisp of Blazing Fire into it.

Perhaps this was a mental sealed item.

Hong Zhong's soul was gnawed clean, and his bones were so thoroughly decayed...

The effect was probably of this sealed item.

When probing with mental power, Gu Shen had already prepared for the worst that sending out Blazing Fire would be a one-way trip.

However, the result was unexpected.

The process of Blazing Fire immersing into the cross pendant was unusually smooth.

And Gu Shen also felt a familiar soul aura... This cross pendant was indeed a mental sealed item, and a weak, curled-up soul was floating within it.

Hong Zhong's soul was not gnawed by the sealed item, but was protected and hid here!

Gu Shen's pupils shrank.

He never expected that this entry into the cemetery and opening of the coffin would reveal such a thing.

If the physical body was broken, the soul would also be destroyed... So far, the only exception was the Underworld King's Pure Land, which was said to be a god who could control the rules of life and death, and even the Underworld King needed to pay a huge price to preserve the souls of the dead.

There was no time to think about it.

A low voice sounded behind him.

"Hey..."

Gu Shen instantly ended his mental immersion. He put away the pendant with a backhand and turned his head to look back with a calm expression.

A young, not-tall blond man, with his hands in his pockets, walked over slowly.

Zhong Yuan came to Hong Zhong's grave.

The Second Team Captain looked a little tired. After experiencing the storm resistance battle, he hadn't had time to rest. Looking at the dusty grave and the coffin that had been opened outwards, he said in a hoarse voice, "The Eastern Continent should also have the saying 'respect for the dead'... It's not good for you to open his coffin like this, is it?"

"This is the initial source of the mental toxin outbreak. I'm checking for any residual mental toxin."

The answer given by Gu Shen was impeccable: "If the mental toxin is not cleaned up, then the harm of the secondary outbreak will be even greater than the first... In this case, there is no saying of 'respect for the dead.'"

Zhong Yuan was silent all of a sudden.

After a while, he nodded, expressing his agreement with Gu Shen's behavior.

However... after all, this was a comrade who had fought alongside him for many years, a fellow soldier who had entrusted his back to him several times.

Even at this moment, he couldn't believe the report given by Yuan Yuan and Su He... In his memory, Hong Zhong was not a selfish person who would kill his teammates.

But the reality was cruel—

The hero of the homecoming who discovered the oasis was the biggest fake news of North Continent this year.

Hong Zhong killed his teammates, carried a violent mental toxin back, concealed the truth of the Labyrinth Mission, and almost caused the entire Gu Bu fortress to be engulfed by the storm.

"Is there anything unusual?" Zhong Yuan smiled softly. "When I leave the fortress, I still want to take this guy away."

"No abnormalities have been found for the time being." Gu Shen said calmly: "This corpse was burned before, but it wasn't thorough enough. I suggest that it be completely cremated to avoid future troubles. If it's just for commemoration, you can take away the ashes..."

He had just taken Hong Zhong's pendant.

Judging from the power contained in that sealed item, Hong Zhong most likely kept it a secret from everyone. But if the remains were transported back to the inland and the North Continent military conducted another round of testing... perhaps there would be changes.

Cremating it directly on the grounds of solving the mental toxin would be a permanent solution for Gu Bu and Gu Shen.

Lin Lin couldn't refuse his proposal.

Zhong Yuan looked a little hesitant.

"I burned it once before and left a complete corpse," he sighed softly and murmured, "It's good to be able to take away the ashes... Before coming here, I promised Old Hong's family to take him back to his hometown."

Zhong Yuan squatted down and suddenly asked, "Brother Gu, don't you think this corpse is a little abnormal?"

"..."

Gu Shen responded to the question with a question and threw it back: "Where do you think it's abnormal?"

"It's normal that you can't tell that it was burned once, he withered too fast. His body and spirit are like being devoured by something." Zhong Yuan said slowly: "Before the burning, Lin Lin opened the coffin once. In just a few days, Hong Zhong had rotted into a dry skeleton."

This was indeed unreasonable.

However... Gu Shen found the cross pendant on Hong Zhong, and he knew that this guy's soul was not devoured by anything, but lived in the pendant.

He continued to remain silent, waiting for the follow-up.

Zhong Yuan said meaningfully: "In the Doru River Disaster Realm, the people infected by the River Poison are like this..."

The absolute main force of the Second Investigation Corps, following Zhong Yuan, had just participated in the Doru River Disaster Realm punitive mission!

The punitive mission of this super-large disaster realm was a major operation carefully planned by the North Continent military!

More than one general-level figure was dispatched!

And the information about Doru River is still being blocked by the North Continent military. The outer continents do not know the specific situation. They only know that this major operation has been won.

The blond man stood up and said softly: "The toxin on this guy is the same source as the toxin in the Doru River Disaster Realm."

...

...

(Adjusting my schedule, there will only be one chapter tonight, and the next chapter will be around 12 noon tomorrow.)