Ming River!

No one could have guessed that what Mu Wanqiu saw in her dream would be such a strange and eerie scene—

Raging waves rolled.

Yet, she had no intention of retreating.

What is poison to others is honey to me.

This eerie dream held a strange attraction for the [Judge]... A violent wind swept through, and the white-clad ghost figure spread its arms wide, wanting to cradle the withered wood and get closer to the end of the Ming River.

In this "nightmare," Mu Wanqiu's mental strength was being consumed at a terrifying rate. Her face gradually turned pale, but she was unwilling to give up...

She wanted to see what lay at the end of the Ming River.

She wanted to see the figure seated on the enormous throne.

But in the end, a rolling, giant wave crashed down heavily.

The great river shattered.

The rolling wood exploded.

Before falling into the icy river water, the white-clad Judge sighed faintly, plunging into the river alongside Mu Wanqiu, folding her arms around her to hold her in her embrace.

And so they fell into the depths, sinking into a long slumber.

...

...

She woke from the dream, startled and covered in a cold sweat.

Mu Wanqiu looked pale, supporting her forehead with her hand, feeling as if all the strength in her body had been drained.

After the Doro River Disaster Zone mission, she had refused the Investigation Corps' mental-type experts from entering her dreams more than once.

The reason was simple.

Zhong Yuan was entangled by the ominous in the "Mirror Dream," causing him to occasionally lose the distinction between reality and illusion... But she was different. The reason her mental state had been so poor lately was because every time she entered a dream, she would do her best to advance a little further in the Ming River.

If she let Lu Zhe enter her dream, he would definitely think of the Ming River dream as a "nightmare" that would trigger ominous events.

Only Mu Wanqiu herself knew that the "things" she saw in this dream seemed to be guiding her forward.

"Ding-dong."

The crisp sound of the doorbell rang.

Mu Wanqiu frowned, glancing at the time... Two o'clock in the morning; the captain would not be visiting her at this hour.

[Deep Sea] transmitted the scene outside the corridor.

"Gu Shen?"

Mu Wanqiu narrowed her phoenix eyes.

This fellow had only met her once; why would he come looking for her for no reason?

She had just spent too much mental energy in the Ming River dream. Her voice sounded a little tired and a little angry as she said, "Mr. Gu, it's two o'clock in the morning."

"Sorry..."

Gu Shen looked up and said seriously to the electronic eye, "But mental-type transcendents who have advanced to the third order should have already developed the habit of circulating breathing techniques and don't need to sleep."

Why was this fellow from Dongzhou so similar to those iron-blooded straight men in the Corps?

Recalling their unfinished duel, a trace of lingering anger lingered in Mu Wanqiu's heart, and she said coldly, "So, you're here in the middle of the night to pick a fight with me?"

"No, no, no..."

This girl was too belligerent... Gu Shen quickly explained, "I heard from Brother Zhong Yuan that you are haunted by nightmares in the 'Doro River' Disaster Zone. I came to visit, thinking that I might be able to help in some way."

That sounded nice... But Gu Shen's real idea was to collect as much useful information about the Doro River Disaster Zone from her dreams as possible.

After hearing this, Mu Wanqiu was silent for a short while.

A moment later, she gave her reply.

It was only one word, simple and to the point.

"Scram."

With a beep, the communication was cut off.

...

...

Gu Shen received a rebuff.

But this was also within expectations. Although they had only met once, even a blind person could see that Mu Wanqiu had a bad temper, so Gu Shen didn't expect that one visit would lead to a successful meeting.

This woman refused the Corps' experts from entering her dreams; as someone from Dongzhou, he was even less welcome.

Although the communication was cut off.

Gu Shen was not annoyed. He smiled at the electronic eye and said, "Miss Mu, I'm sorry for disturbing you tonight. There's still something I want to tell you. I removed the mental toxins from the Gubu Fortress, which were the same source of power as the Doro River toxins. What those mental-type experts in Beizhou couldn't do, I might be able to do... In the next few days, you might want to think about it and feel free to contact me at any time."

After saying that, he waited for another two minutes.

Mu Wanqiu did not respond.

Instead, a faint mental transmission floated into Gu Shen's ears.

"Don't bother."

Beside Gu Shen, at the end of the corridor, Team One Captain Lu Zhe was suspended in the air. This fellow was elusive, and at this moment, illuminated by the dim corridor lights, he was sitting cross-legged, one meter above the ground, looking rather strange at first glance...

"Captain Lu?"

Gu Shen smiled and said, "I just wanted to visit Miss Mu. I didn't expect to disturb you."

"You probably don't understand Xiao Qiu's personality..." Lu Zhe said with a smile, transmitting his voice mentally, "Once she's made up her mind, no one can interfere. She's determined to resolve the Doro River nightmare with her own strength. If you visit her again for this matter, you might get beaten out."

Gu Shen touched his nose. "I see..."

He and Lu Zhe took the elevator down together.

"I came here on the Corps Commander's orders to take better care of her."

Lu Zhe said with some concern, "She's fighting the 'Nightmare' alone, and I believe she'll definitely succeed... But her mental state is too poor, which is bound to cause some trouble."

"Trouble?"

"This isn't much of a secret." Lu Zhe said, "You're both teammates who are going to carry out the reboot mission together. Mu Wanqiu is an S-rank like you. Do you know what her ability is?"

Mu Wanqiu's file was a top secret of the Beizhou military.

Chu Ling could not collect a single bit of related information.

But unexpectedly, Team One Captain Lu Zhe just said it: "S-rank ability [Judge]. The Federation initially determined that this is a 'mental-type ability.' The [Judge]'s ability is very simple: within its area of effect, Xiao Qiu can judge the 'life' and 'death' of everything."

"......?"

Gu Shen looked up, staring at Lu Zhe in disbelief.

Seeing Gu Shen's shocked expression, Team One Captain smiled.

"Your 'Blazing Fire' is also an S-rank ability, but I suppose it's not as direct as [Judge]... No need to be so shocked. I personally think that the Council's classification of transcendent abilities is still a bit rough. There are still strengths and weaknesses among abilities above A-rank." Lu Zhe didn't mean to mock him, but said seriously, "The [Judge]'s power is too strong. I don't think it can be simply summarized by the two words 'S-rank.' It's very likely to lead to misunderstandings..."

Lu Zhe spoke slowly. He didn't know that Gu Shen's shock wasn't because of the power of Mu Wanqiu's S-rank ability.

But because...

The [Judge]'s ability sounded somewhat similar to his own "Nether King's Power"?

Judging life and death!

Gu Shen gradually calmed his mind, concealing the surprise in his heart, and continued to play along: "Captain Lu, sorry... I have a question. You just said that the [Judge]'s ability is to judge life and death within the area of effect?"

"...Yes."

Lu Zhe's expression was solemn as he slowly said, "Of course... This ability isn't as terrifying as the literal description. Xiao Qiu's power is absolute domination over the 'weak.' She can give some vitality to 'dead objects' within the area, allowing them to stand up, and she can also cause the absolutely weak within the area to die instantly."

When Gu Shen heard this, he understood.

[Judge] was definitely an S-rank ability...

Once the area was deployed, it would be a massacre for low-order transcendents!

It was just that against transcendents of the same order, or even higher orders, the [Judge]'s lethality was not so great...

"The [Judge] possesses such terrifying power. The conditions for activation must be very harsh, right?" Gu Shen asked with interest.

"Of course. Every judgment requires a huge amount of mental energy..." Lu Zhe said meaningfully, "Just like your Blazing Fire. If I'm not mistaken, you always present yourself with a wisp of the weakest 'flame' to reduce consumption. If you fought with all your strength, revealing all of the Blazing Fire, it would probably require a massive amount of mental energy, right?"

Gu Shen had no choice but to nod with a helpless smile.

In fact, he only presented himself with a tiny flame, not because he wanted to do so.

It was because he had no choice but to do so.

The Fighting Golden Band was on his head.

A large amount of his mental energy was bound in his mental sea, and there was no chance to "exert his full strength" at all.

However, "Blazing Fire" and "Judge" were actually two types of abilities. Gu Shen's "Blazing Fire" was more like the activation end. Everything in his battle needed to be ignited with Blazing Fire, as an energy source.

His consumption was not caused by Blazing Fire.

The Ruler of Truth, the Pure Land Domain, and the Nether King's miraculous methods all required a lot of mental energy and source matter!

"The more powerful a mental-type transcendent is, the more they need to break through the 'Super Realm.' Mu Wanqiu completed an unprecedented 'Two Super Realm Breakthroughs.' She herself is standing on the seventh layer, but possesses mental strength comparable to the ninth layer." Lu Zhe said in a deep voice, "This is also why the Corps Commander allowed her to represent Team One in the Doro River subjugation mission... Her strength alone surpasses a fully equipped third-order transcendent elite team!"

He paused.

Lu Zhe slowly said, "Little Gu, the reason I'm telling you this... is not to show off how powerful Mu Wanqiu's ability is. Have you noticed that the [Judge]'s ability sounds a bit familiar?"

Gu Shen couldn't help but smile inwardly.

Okay... He pretended not to hear it. There was only a tiny bit of showing off in Lu Zhe's words just now.

But this was reasonable. Beizhou had given birth to such a genius, who was also under Team One. If he were Lu Zhe, he couldn't help but say a few more words to the geniuses of other continents.

Thank you, Captain Lu, for providing so much information about the [Judge].

Gu Shen remained calm on the surface and asked seriously, "Oh... What do you mean?"

"The [Judge]'s ability, doesn't it sound like... a former Ancient God seat?"

The smile on Lu Zhe's face slowly disappeared. He stared at Gu Shen and said seriously, "The one who recently appeared in your Dongzhou, the 'Nether King' who has been missing for twenty years?"

He really asked the right person.

Gu Shen: "It does look very similar."

"If it weren't because the Nether King's true body has already appeared... I would even suspect that Xiao Qiu is actually the chosen one of the 'Nether King Seed.'" Lu Zhe said with emotion, "The power of the [Judge] is simply a replica of the Nether King Seed... What do you think of this, Brother Gu?"

"Captain Lu is right."

Gu Shen praised earnestly, clapping his hands symbolically, and said, "The [Judge]'s ability, even the Nether King would applaud."