Chapter 54 A Dream

This time, cleaning the black flowers was easier than last time.

Just as Gu Shen had expected.

With the "growth" of Blazing Fire, he would have an increasingly larger "source material reserve" and a faster "eating speed."

Another black stone wall was swept clean.

Gu Shen checked the previous stone wall... A week ago, black flowers grew rampant, but after being swallowed by "Blazing Fire," these black flowers stopped growing and instead spread around the clean stone wall.

The places cleared by Blazing Fire would not sprout "black spots" again.

This was good news.

If he ate the black spots, and they quickly regrew... with the derivation speed of the entire Shenci Mountain, everything he was doing would probably be just a drop in the bucket.

Although the current cleaning speed was still extremely slow...

At least... there was a theoretical possibility of clearing them all.

These black flowers, so numerous... could there be a source?

If he could find the source and eliminate it... could he solve the crisis of Shenci Mountain?

Gu Shen suddenly thought of the story of Mr. Gu Changzhi plucking a black flower from the top of Shenci Mountain.

He pointed to the distant high mountain.

"Can I go up and take a look?"

Li Qingci understood what Gu Shen was thinking.

She said softly, "You can. But... the top of the mountain is very dangerous. It's covered with 'Flowers of Order's Ruin.' You need to be extremely careful if you want to reach the top, and there's nothing you're looking for up there."

"What I'm looking for?"

"You're looking for the source of Order's Ruin. You think there might be a 'Primeval Flower' in Shenci Mountain."

Li Qingci said, "People have done this before... Over the years, the black flowers have covered the mountain, not because the Dao protectors have given up resisting and are waiting for death, but because we can't eliminate the black spots, so we can only guide their growth. If there is a so-called 'Primeval Flower' that could be cut off to remove the black flowers from the mountain, it would have been found long ago."

Gu Shen nodded.

Indeed.

If there really was a so-called "Primeval Flower," Mr. Gu Changzhi would have uprooted it.

"In any case... I still want to go and take a look."

Gu Shen picked up the lantern again and said softly, "Please lead the way, Qingci."

So far, he and Li Qingci had only "met."

Across the distant mountain wall.

With flowing mist, dim shadows, and pale candlelight in between.

The distance between them was not yet close enough to see each other's faces clearly...

Li Qingci put down the wooden watering pot.

She slowly picked up a lantern and solemnly instructed.

"If Mr. Gu wants to climb the mountain, please follow behind Qingci, ten steps away, and don't get too close."

Gu Shen was stunned.

"The Li family's Dao protectors have used the Prayer Art for many years, exchanging luck for wishes... so they are entangled in some ominous curses." Li Qingci said in a low voice, "You can think of it as being 'ominous people.'"

To gain, one must give.

This was fair.

Without any effort, just by praying, one could make one's "wishes" come true, making certain impossible things actually happen and descend. Only the legendary chosen ones could bear this kind of "luck."

And those who forcibly used this power to add luck and incense to the family would inevitably suffer the backlash of fate.

But Li Qingci's words about "ominous people" suddenly reminded Gu Shen of another fellow.

Zhong Gui.

Xing Yun.

He followed behind Li Qingci, keeping a distance of ten steps, neither too far nor too close.

The two began to climb towards the top of Shenci Mountain.

"Qingci, do you have to go up and down the mountain every day?" Gu Shen casually asked, trying to get closer.

"It's the duty of a Dao protector."

Li Qingci's already slender figure seemed to sway and blur under the light of the lantern.

Like a wisp of shadow that could break apart at any time.

If he saw her in another place, he might mistake her for a "female ghost."

This figure was too ethereal.

"Li Qingsui gave me a talisman, saying it's essential for entering Shenci Mountain." Gu Shen added, "May I ask, in recent years... who else besides me, a person with a different surname, has entered this Blessed Land?"

This question was actually a bit presumptuous.

Gu Shen knew that.

Shenci Mountain was the Li family's biggest forbidden area, and its existence was a secret... Even if the five great families knew that there was a Blessed Land on the northern border of Changye, which was an important place for the Li family, very few people really knew what existed in this Blessed Land.

Only a handful.

"Not many." Li Qingci had a clear mind and smiled softly, "Mr. Gu can just ask what you want to ask... no need to beat around the bush."

"I know a... friend."

After a brief thought, Gu Shen hesitated for a second between the words "fellow" and "friend," and finally chose the latter, both to give Zhong Gui some face and to add a bit of mystery to the question.

"The 'ominous person' that Qingci just mentioned..."

Before Gu Shen could finish speaking,

Li Qingci replied, "You're talking about Zhong Gui, right?"

Gu Shen silently closed his mouth, thinking that the Prayer Art also had the ability to predict the future? He had not even spoken several times, but Li Qingci had read his mind.

Gu Shen nodded slowly and hummed.

"Indeed."

"Is he Mr. Gu's friend?" Li Qingci smiled, "Although I live deep in the mountains, wholeheartedly serving the 'Divine Embryo's' wish, I am not completely ignorant of outside affairs. Zhong Gui's reputation in Changye is very bad. Logically speaking, he shouldn't have any friends."

"You should also be aware of the events in Dadu District."

Since it had already been revealed, there was no need to hide anything.

Gu Shen said, "Zhong Gui was brought back to Changye by Gu Nanfeng. He is staying with us now."

"Many years ago, Zhong Gui came to Shenci Mountain."

Li Qingci paused slightly.

She looked back meaningfully, her half-face turned to Gu Shen, and said softly, "At that time, he had just taken over the task of designing Pure Burial, so the Li family invited him over, hoping he could offer some constructive suggestions for Shenci Mountain. However, he was asked to leave in less than a day."

"Asked to leave?"

"Because of his arrival... these 'Flowers of Ruin' in Shenci Mountain bloomed faster. I was young at the time, and the previous Dao protector sensed the anomaly and quickly asked Zhong Gui to leave. After the statistics, the day Zhong Gui came here shortened Shenci Mountain's 'lifespan' by half a year out of nowhere."

Gu Shen was very surprised.

"Unbelievable, isn't it?"

Li Qingci smiled bitterly and said, "We also felt unable to understand... And not long after that, the higher-ups in Changye learned that Zhong Gui carried the news of disaster. This guy was a born 'ominous person,' different from the disasters caused by the Li family's Dao protectors using the Prayer Art. The luck on his body was innate and could not be eliminated."

"..."

Gu Shen was silent.

"That day, my father used the Prayer Art to spy on Zhong Gui's fate and found that the luck reflected on his head... was completely black." Li Qingci explained seriously, "Ordinary people's luck will be mixed with some black if they are unlucky for a while, and this wisp of black will disappear when the bad luck dissipates. But Zhong Gui is different. No matter what, the luck on his head is always black."

"Does this mean... he will never be lucky?"

"Not only that."

Li Qingci shook her head and said, "These black lucks of his are a bit strange. My father said that Zhong Gui's luck brings great disasters when facing great calamities, and small disasters when facing small calamities."

"What... does that mean?" Gu Shen murmured, "The stronger the opponent, the stronger he becomes? The weaker the opponent, the weaker he becomes?"

"That's about what it means." Li Qingci smiled, "You can think of it as... he is a 'bearer of bad luck' in the true sense. Good things will never happen to him."

Gu Shen fell into thought.

He looked up in disbelief and asked in a low voice, "Does luck really exist?"

"Even the supernatural can exist... why can't luck exist?" Li Qingci smiled, "What's more... this existed before the supernatural. In fact, you should also be clear that the so-called 'luck' is just an adjective. Before this word was created, the thing it describes already existed."

"Because fate has never been fair."

Some people are destined to have good luck all their lives from birth!

Gu Shen thought for a while and said, "On the way here, I tried to reverse Zhong Gui's luck. I found that one method was effective..."

"Traveling with Zhong Gui, as long as you let Zhong Gui encounter disaster, you can protect yourself from harm." Li Qingci preemptively said, "That is indeed a good method, but what can be avoided are only ordinary small disasters. It is impossible to avoid real big disasters by using this method."

"I... can't understand."

Why does the world have a being like "Zhong Gui"?

It was too unreasonable.

Whether it was the supernatural or luck, they all followed a set of rules in the dark.

Li Qingci was entangled in doom and bore misfortune because she overused the Prayer Art, overdrawing her fate.

But what about Zhong Gui?

He was born like that!

Such an existence completely violated the rules that Gu Shen knew.

"There are always problems in this world that you can't understand, not because you are not smart enough, but because... the time has not come." Li Qingci continued to walk forward with the lantern, she slowly climbed the steps, her steps were light, like a wandering soul.

Another light word fell heavily into Gu Shen's heart.

"Just like the people outside can't understand Mr. Gu's power."

Gu Shen felt that this sentence had other meanings.

He said seriously, "Please explain."

"I heard Qingsui talk about Mr. Gu's story on the first day he arrived in Changye."

Li Qingci said with emotion, considering her words, "Please forgive me for using the word 'story'... because many years later, people will commemorate this day. I heard that when you were comprehending the Gu Yu Scroll, you triggered black spiritual radiance?"

Black spiritual radiance!

This was an "aberration" that no one understood!

Even Gu Shen did not understand... why the spiritual radiance triggered by Bai Xiu was white, while his was black? He could only attribute the reason for the birth of this aberration to the uniqueness of his spiritual wilderness cultivation method.

Gu Shen did not operate the Gu Yu Scroll according to the comprehension trajectory left by Mr. Gu Changzhi.

So... he created his own New World.

So... the color of the spiritual radiance also changed.

However, this explanation was obviously not satisfactory to Gu Shen.

He asked sincerely, "Qingci, did you use the Prayer Art... to see something?"

"Remember the last time we met, I said..."

"I used ten years to exchange for this meeting."

Li Qingci smiled, her voice like a dream.

"I made a wish to meet the person who has the ability to save Shenci Mountain."

"The Prayer Art took away ten years of life from the scales, and after that, I had a dream."

"I dreamed that I came to a huge, boundless wilderness, where golden panicles bloomed, and huge rivers flowed, and ships were docked..."

Li Qingci smiled and said, "That is a pure land."

Gu Shen was stunned.

"The golden panicles blooming in the pure land looked exactly the same as the 'Flowers of Order's Ruin' in Shenci Mountain, but the color was golden, cold and dazzling, and the whole world was in this strange feeling."

"There is no black or white here, but it is the intermediate state between black and white."

"Some people feel... that they are dead, and they also feel that they are actually alive."

Li Qingci said softly, "I kept walking in that pure land. I saw the figures of living people, but they were blurred, and they didn't see me... I walked all the way to the other side of the river. Someone invited me on the boat."

"That person said to me... that I was dead."

"Then he said to me... that death may also be a new life."

At this point, Li Qingci stopped.

There was no way to go ahead.

The two had reached the top of Shenci Mountain.

The black flowers all over the mountain swayed in the wind, exuding the aura of death.

But unexpectedly,

The top of Shenci Mountain was not as depressing as expected.

There were countless black flowers entangled here, and the density of black spots was hundreds of times that of the mountainside. It should have been shrouded in an atmosphere of destruction and silence.

But there was a simple wooden house built on the top of the mountain, with a half-person-high foundation that was quite solid... It was unknown what material it was made of, but it was still strong in such an environment and did not collapse. Upon closer inspection, it could be seen that these foundations were covered with talismans, on which strange and obscure ancient texts were written. Perhaps those ancient texts played a role. The black flowers around the ancient house only grew attached to the outer layer of the foundation and did not really entangle it.

A small house.

An ancient well.

A huge flower garden that was neatly arranged into a square, in which the most terrible flowers in the world were raised.

"This dream sounds interesting."

Gu Shen narrowed his eyes and said, "What happened in the end?"

"Mr. Gu... let me state in advance that this is just a dream I had and has no meaning."

Li Qingci comforted.

"In the end..."

She said slowly, "The person I saw... was you."

...

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