Chapter 1 The Beginning

"Swish—"

The fierce wind swept through, stinging the cheeks.

Luo Yu slowly opened his eyes. What he saw was a flurry of snow mist, surrounded by towering dense forests, the fallen needles already condensed into a thick layer of ice... He supported himself with his hands, trying to sit up, but a huge, weightless sense of dizziness came over him.

Memory images flashed like fragmented movies.

Scene after scene, frame by frame, appeared out of chronological order.

He remembered.

The Qingzhong explosion, the plane crash, himself and Grandpa... together they fell into that huge holy light barrier.

At the moment of the explosion, the Wuliang Cheng's (Immeasurable Balance) domain completely converged, tightly enveloping him.

The impact from the heavy aircraft's self-destruction was completely blocked by the Wuliang Cheng domain.

But when it came into contact with the holy light barrier, a powerful mental force penetrated the domain and crashed into his mind.

And now he woke up… here.

If he remembered correctly, he had arrived at the mausoleum?

But the mausoleum… didn't have such a scene.

Where was this?

Luo Yu struggled to sit up, leaning against a giant tree.

A slight tremor caused the accumulated snow to fall. White snowflakes rustled down, and he coughed in a low voice, gradually waking up from the dizziness.

"Grandpa..."

Before him was an old but stalwart figure, giving one a great sense of security with just a glance.

Gu Qilin had already taken off his commander's coat and draped it over Luo Yu.

He stood not far away in this snowy forest, and now turned his head and said,

"You're finally awake... How's your mental state?"

"A little dizzy."

Luo Yu rubbed his temples vigorously, shaking his head, feeling like his head was filled with three pounds of water, heavy and dull.

He gritted his teeth and asked hoarsely, "I was… unconscious just now?"

He lowered his head to check his body.

Falling from a thousand meters… he was not injured at all.

He didn't even have a single wound on his body?

"Not unconscious, but asleep."

Gu Qilin said calmly, "At the moment of the heavy aircraft's explosion, the Wuliang Cheng domain converged, and all physical damage was blocked... It's just that a very strong mental force enveloped the sky above the mausoleum, and my domain didn't block the impact of the mental force."

"Fortunately, the mental force enveloping the sky above the mausoleum didn't have a strong killing intent."

"Otherwise..."

Gu Qilin's voice stopped abruptly.

And Luo Yu's face paled slightly. He could probably guess the second half of that "otherwise" sentence.

Grandpa's "Wuliang Cheng" was an extremely powerful mental domain, so powerful that the mental power after a rapid convergence could even block the impact of the material world... However, the mental power above this mausoleum could not be blocked even by the Wuliang Cheng.

Obviously,

This was the power of a Divine Seat.

"Has the Divine Seat... awakened?"

Luo Yu supported himself against the ancient tree, stood up, looked at the desolate snow scene before him, and his eyes were somewhat puzzled.

Gu Changzhi's Eight Volumes of Breathing Technique was the best of all time, only the last volume, "Great Cold," had not been completely created.

This was a minor secret within the Gu family.

The reason they built Qingzhong Mausoleum in the first place was because they hoped that the sleeping Gu Changzhi could restore his spirit with the help of the great formation, so that he could complete the final volume, "Great Cold"... To this day, many old-school transcendents still believed that Gu Changzhi was asleep because the creation of "Great Cold" consumed too much mental power.

The Divine Seat was personally experiencing "Nirvana."

When he recovered, a perfect breathing technique would be born.

From life to death, and then to eternity.

"No."

Gu Qilin slowly shook his head, his voice very certain, "The mental power above the mausoleum is not just from one Divine Seat."

Luo Yu was stunned.

He thought of what Grandpa had said earlier, that the spirit above the mausoleum did not have a strong killing intent.

That also meant... there was still killing intent.

"The reason why there were so many explosions in the mausoleum... is because the mental power of the two Divine Seats were intertwined, and at that time they had not yet recovered to stability." Gu Qilin said quietly, "When we broke into the mausoleum, a wave of killing intent came, but it was blocked in an instant... If I didn't sense it wrong, that mental power came from the Wine Divine Seat of the Source Tower."

"Wine Divine Seat?"

Luo Yu suddenly thought of the things that had happened in Nagano recently.

A storm was brewing.

But he didn't know where the dark clouds were coming from.

"The fact that you and I are still alive... means that the Wine Divine Seat's mental power has been suppressed." Gu Qilin patted the snow dust on his body and said calmly, "The mental power that put you to sleep should have come from Changzhi's spark."

Luo Yu rubbed his face.

He said worriedly, "Then is this... a Disaster Zone?"

"Yes." Grandpa nodded, "If I'm not mistaken, the power of the spark has already spread, and before long, the entire mausoleum will be covered by this Great Cold Disaster Zone... And the bad thing is, Nagano will soon send transcendents into it."

The anomaly in the mausoleum did not come from the explosion of the array patterns.

But from... the mental game of the two Divine Seats!

This was definitely a reason that the Three Bureaus and Five Great Families of Nagano had not anticipated. After losing contact, a large number of transcendents entering the mausoleum would be trapped directly in the Disaster Zone!

"The good news is, we are the first to enter the mausoleum."

Gu Qilin said calmly, "When you fell asleep, I found an old road... This mausoleum is very interesting."

Using the term mausoleum to describe the scene before them was no longer appropriate.

Surrounded by towering trees.

Flying withered snow.

There was not a single tombstone to be seen here, nor could any noise be heard.

It didn't seem like a false dream at all.

Luo Yu had also had the good fortune to see Lord Gu Changzhi's "Four Seasons Wilderness." This place was full of snow and trees, and had nothing to do with the scene of that God's Wilderness... Instead, it was like a real ice and snow world.

"Is this... really a Disaster Zone?"

Luo Yu followed Grandpa forward. His mental power was suppressed by the powerful rules, and he couldn't release it from his body at all. The suppression of mental power here was ridiculously large.

Even Gu Qilin's "Wuliang Cheng" was firmly suppressed a few feet behind him, and only a swaying black balance shadow could be seen.

As powerful as a titled transcendent, he could barely use some mental power.

The Wuliang Cheng swayed left and right.

The snow-covered pine needles in front of them were peeled away layer by layer by an invisible hand.

"We fell from above the mausoleum... It should be close to the inner mausoleum." Gu Qilin said slowly, "At the beginning of the mausoleum's construction, I saw all the blueprints... Although I don't understand those array patterns, I remember that the place where Changzhi sleeps is not far from the mountain where we fell."

Luo Yu knew that the place where the Divine Seat slept was the giant statue ruins in Qingzhong Inner Mausoleum.

That was the location of the array eye of the mausoleum's great formation.

The towering giant statues were shrouded in mist, and could not be seen from outside the mausoleum. Since the construction of Qingzhong, no one had been able to see the original ruins again.

But everyone knew that these giant statues had close ties to the Five Great Families six hundred years ago.

The two men walked forward slowly.

Just as they were about to leave the dense forest, an invisible, tide-like mental force "slowly" rippled out.

Grandpa stopped and held out a hand to stop Luo Yu from moving forward.

Trees dozens of meters high bent over, and countless snowflakes rustled down, blown backwards by the wind.

Luo Yu's expression was pale.

Watching this extremely powerful wisp of mental power, shaking past, a strong wind blowing his cheeks, his will was subjected to a violent scouring at this moment... But it was only a scouring, this wisp of mental power did not contain hostility or killing intent.

It was like... encountering a huge wave crashing on the beach.

This wave didn't mean to roll people back into the sea to kill them, so as long as you withstand the impact once... then you would be safe.

Most of the Wuliang Cheng's shadow fell in front of Luo Yu.

Eighty percent of this wave was blocked.

But... it was still enough for him to have a hard time.

Fatty Luo's face was very unsightly. He supported himself against an ancient tree, panting heavily, and said with lingering fear, "This mental fluctuation... is too powerful, isn't it?"

If it weren't for the help of the Wuliang Cheng to block it,

Probably... he would have been hit again.

"Don't worry, you won't die directly. At most, you'll 'fall asleep' again." Gu Qilin said softly, "This wisp of mental fluctuation doesn't have any killing intent. It will only make people fall asleep... again and again."

Hearing this, Luo Yu not only didn't relax, but felt even more terrified.

Being hit by a wave on the beach, and then the next one, and the next one... If a person whose mental power was not strong enough came here, then the final result would be sleeping to death.

"That's... the power of the spark?" Fatty Luo muttered.

"Yes."

Gu Qilin looked calmly at the direction from which the mental ripple had just vibrated, paused slightly, and said.

"Perhaps you could say... this is the power of the third spark."

At first, Luo Yu just oh-ed softly.

Then, he suddenly raised his head, thinking he had heard wrong.

"The third spark?!"

Realizing the true meaning of these words, Luo Yu, who had always been calm, couldn't help raising his voice at this moment. He looked at the distant dense forest as if he had seen a ghost, and his voice began to tremble: "Are you saying... in this mausoleum, there is a third spark?!"

Gu Qilin smiled silently.

Although Grandpa looked calm at the moment, he had been equally shocked by his discovery at the beginning.

"Most likely."

Gu Qilin said slowly, "Earlier, when we were falling, the Wuliang Cheng sensed two intertwined divine powers, one from the Wine Divine Seat of the Source Tower, and the other from Gu Changzhi... And the mental power just now, in terms of fluctuation characteristics, is different from those two divine powers."

"You... didn't get it wrong, did you?"

Luo Yu's voice was difficult.

"I also hope I got it wrong..."

Gu Qilin said in a low voice, "But the Wuliang Cheng's perception of mental power is extremely clear. That power is very likely to be from a 'third spark' other than the Wine Divine Seat and Gu Changzhi."

"But... where did the third spark come from?" Luo Yu said halfway, his voice stopping abruptly.

He thought of the old news from twenty years ago.

Twenty years ago, the [Hades], one of the seven Divine Seats of mankind, disappeared into the old world mist outside the North Continent fortress. At first, the federal government believed that Hades had gone to the old world to find the ruins of the oasis. Later, there was no contact at all. Several Divine Seats of the federal government set off together to try to find him... but they found nothing.

In the end, Hades's whereabouts became a mystery.

His spark also disappeared into the mist sea of the old world... No one knew whether he was alive or dead, and no one knew where his spark had gone.

"Perhaps... that spark was never lost."

Gu Qilin said softly.

Luo Yu murmured, "This is... too..."

He wanted to say a word to describe his mood, but he found that... whether it was dreamlike or magical, these words were not appropriate.

"Gu Changzhi's sleep, perhaps not only because he was comprehending 'Great Cold'."

Gu Qilin lowered his eyes and fell into deep thought.

He murmured, "If there is a third spark, then his sleep is not so simple..."

All along, Qingzhong Mausoleum has been in absolute balance.

Gu Changzhi, with his own strength, suppressed the power of two sparks.

However, because of the Wine Divine Seat's entry into the mausoleum.

The balance... has been broken.

"The Great Cold Disaster Zone is not a disaster!"

Gu Qilin suddenly raised his head, his eyes shining brightly. His expression became extremely serious, and he said, "The real disaster is the power that is spontaneously overflowing from this third unowned spark... This Disaster Zone is protecting the mausoleum!"

As Gu Changzhi and the Wine Divine Seat fought,

The power of the third spark was gradually recovering!

The mental ripples that came again and again from the unknown depths in the distance were becoming more and more powerful... This was indeed a wave without killing intent, but as the power of the spark recovered, and the resistance to Gu Changzhi's suppression over the past twenty years, these waves would only become bigger and bigger, eventually forming a tsunami!

Even without killing intent,

It was enough to submerge everything in the mausoleum!

The Great Cold Disaster Zone... seemed dead and silent, but it was protecting and blocking the overflowing power of the third spark.

Luo Yu's face turned pale.

"The reason why I came here is because this thing... is guiding me."

Gu Qilin took out a token, which was the Gu family's head token. Although the current Gu family had been divided into two factions, the old and the new, the person who truly held the head token was not Gu Lushen.

This token contained the power of the Gu family's transcendent bloodline, which had been passed down for six hundred years.

At the time of the plane crash, this power had given guidance.

Until he arrived here, there was a guiding force in the dark.

"Perhaps... the heads of the Five Great Families will have a sense of it?" Luo Yu asked cautiously.

Gu Qilin's expression suddenly darkened.

He suddenly turned around, and at the same time pulled Luo Yu behind him.

In the depths of the distant snowy forest, there was a slight sound of wheels turning.

Snow mist scattered and flew.

A figure sitting in a wheelchair slowly appeared in front of the two.

Gu Lushen said with a smile, "Old Master... you're really fast."

Gu Qilin was silent.

He didn't answer Gu Lushen.

Silent contempt.

Was the greatest contempt.

Perhaps because the frost was too thick, Gu Lushen's hair was stained with a touch of silver, looking a little vicissitudes.

Of the same age as Gu Changzhi, he always gave people a feeling of being very "rotten and old". In fact, it had been like this for a long time. When both of them were young, Gu Changzhi was the sun that everyone in Snow Forbidden City was watching, while Gu Lushen was like a wisp of white frost attached to the bluestone ground, inconspicuous and no one cared.

Two young people.

One was like a scorching sun, emitting a myriad of rays of light.

The other was like frost, snow, and mist... No matter what effort he made, he could only be burned and melted under the scorching sun, and was destined not to be seen by the world.

Gu Lushen had long been accustomed to being ignored and despised.

So he still smiled: "You shouldn't have entered the mausoleum so early."

Luo Yu noticed... there were several wisps of frost attached to the surface of Gu Lushen's clothes, like blood vessels, winding and twisting like snakes, and finally converging to the position of his heart.

Gu Lushen was covered with a very thin layer of mental power.

But... that mental power was very powerful!

That was... the power of the Wine Divine Seat!

"When did you willingly abandon your bottom line?"

Gu Qilin stared at the clothes of the younger generation in the wheelchair, and said very softly, just such a sentence.

This sentence should have been angry, but all the anger had been worn away by the years of the eight-year civil war.

So... there was only sympathy, regret, pity, and sadness left.

There was no doubt,

No matter when... the sun, will always be the most dazzling.

A character like Gu Changzhi, placed in any era, would become the "protagonist" of that era.

Living with him was destined to be a sad thing.

But... the world also needed other lights.

Many years ago, Gu Qilin had taken out the file of this young man named "Gu Lushen" and proudly showed off to his old friend Zhou Weixuan, saying that the Gu family was full of outstanding people and geniuses, and this young man named Gu Lushen would do a great career sooner or later, becoming the second light of the Gu family and the pillar of the entire Nagano.

Many years passed, and the prophecy at the beginning was ironically fulfilled.

But it only fulfilled half of it.

The Gu family was divided, the old faction was weak, and this war without smoke of gunpowder lasted for eight years... Gu Lushen did do a great career, and no one else in Nagano could do what he did.

However, what really made Old Master Gu Qilin feel chilled was... that this rising star, who he had firmly believed would become the second light of the Gu family, was relying on the power of the Divine Seat of the Source Tower.

The Five Great Families of Nagano had countless precepts.

The biggest one was that they must not overstep East Continent and seek help from foreign countries.

During the most intense period of the civil war, Gu Qilin had thought... If the old faction fought with all their strength for their beliefs, but still ended in failure, and Gu Changzhi did not wake up in the end, then it was destined by God that Gu Lushen should have this victory.

At that time, if he was defeated and this young man took over the Gu family, it might not be a bad result.

The person who could defeat him would never be a weakling.

Perhaps... the Gu family would go far.

But all these thoughts were shattered at this moment.

A year ago, he was still unwilling to believe that someone had broken Nagano's biggest iron law.

Now, the naked reality was right in front of him.

He couldn't help but believe it.

"You watched me grow up, you should understand me... How could you say such ridiculous things?"

Gu Lushen shook his head while sitting in the wheelchair.

"Bottom line, what is that?"

He asked seriously, and then said regretfully, "I don't have such a thing that binds my hands and feet."

Gu Lushen said this sentence calmly, and did not feel ashamed at all.

Old Master Gu Qilin silently stretched out his hand, held the saber at his waist, but did not draw it directly.

In fact, when he saw Gu Lushen here,

He was already disheartened and had no hope.

But Gu Qilin still refused to believe it and opened his mouth and said: "It was you who colluded with the Source Tower and brought the Wine Divine Seat into the mausoleum."

"It's me."

Gu Lushen nodded.

He stretched out a finger and pointed to the distance, smiling.

"However, it's not just the Wine Divine Seat... the entire Nagano, the Three Bureaus, the Five Great Families, thousands of transcendents, have been brought into the mausoleum by me."

The old master's hand holding the knife was trembling.

Luo Yu was angry, and he shouted in a deep voice: "You bastard!! Do you know... how many people will die in vain because of this?!"

Gu Lushen turned his head to look at him blankly.

He didn't see him make any movements.

With a "boom" sound.

An invisible mental shock erupted, instantly hitting Luo Yu!

Too fast!

Wuliang Cheng only had time to block part of it!

The next moment, Luo Yu flew out horizontally and crashed heavily into a snow tree, falling unconscious.

This scene... made Gu Qilin's pupils shrink slightly.

Gu Lushen's attack just now, even he didn't react to it.

Was he old? The old master silently grasped the long knife, his expression became serious, took a deep breath, and prepared for battle.

"Okay... now it's clean."

Gu Lushen stroked his scattered frosty white hair and smiled softly: "Old Master, put down that knife, you are old, why bother with swords and swords? Maybe we can have a good chat... Maybe you will find that things are not as bad as you think."

"I have nothing to talk to you about..."

Gu Qilin drew his sword.

The Wuliang Cheng was suppressed and could only be opened at one corner, but at this moment, countless light and shadows scattered, and the towering picture of the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons faintly appeared on his back. This scene was extremely shocking. He swept toward the man in the wheelchair, even if the lion was old, he could still prey.

The battle knife cut through, and a huge snow tree was directly cut in half!

A long line fell like a rainbow!

Gu Lushen didn't dodge at all.

He just brought his two fingers together, brushed past like a long line... For him, this world of Disaster Zone that suppressed mental power had lost the shackles of rules, and a wisp of frosty white silver thread directly cut open the giant tree that fell in front of him.

Then the two slender fingers collided with the old master's battle knife!

"Crack!"

A very crisp sound of metal!

Gu Lushen's two fingers caught the falling knife!

His expression was calm, and he exerted a little force.

The surface of the battle knife vibrated violently, repeating hundreds of times in an instant, and was directly shattered. The silver blade was clamped between his two fingers.

Although the battle knife was broken, the majestic shock force of this blow still penetrated and passed out!

The wheelchair quickly retreated in the snow forest.

Gu Lushen's expression was calm, silently accepting the spread of this shock force. Finally, the wheelchair plowed out nearly a hundred meters, barely stopping, plowing out a snow ditch.

During this process, Gu Lushen made a very subtle flicking motion.

After the wheelchair stopped, the blade in his hand had disappeared.

On the other side, the old master with the saber was pale.

He lowered his head and looked at the blood-stained robe on his chest.

His blade was thrown out by Gu Lushen, piercing through the wind and snow, and also piercing through the mental domain of the Wuliang Cheng.

This knife directly tore apart Gu Qilin's breastplate, and the tip of the knife came out from his back... But fortunately, it didn't hit the heart directly, but deviated slightly.

"Old Master, all along... I have respected you very much."

Gu Lushen looked at the old man standing with his knife in the distance and said softly: "I don't want to kill you, hand over that thing... I guarantee, you can leave the mausoleum alive."

He stretched out two fingers and tapped the position of Gu Qilin's palm.

There was a token there.

It was the head order symbolizing the position of the head of the Gu family.