Chapter 17 Two Madmen

　　Heavy snow fell in Nagano.

　　The ancient walls of the snow-forbidden city were covered in silvery white, which should have been a beautiful scene. However, the swirling snow turned into a dark, swirling blackness at this moment.

　　Countless giant flower buds, along with huge thorns that rolled like dragons.

　　The scene was somewhat oppressive.

　　As far as Gu Shen was concerned... he had seen too much black today. On the way to the Divine Shrine Mountain, closing his eyes was a stretch of black, and after arriving at the Divine Shrine Mountain, opening his eyes was still a stretch of black.

　　Black mountains, black water, black flowers.

　　He was a little tired.

　　"You were able to break through my dream... because of that girl, right?"

　　Bai Lu couldn't forget the scene she saw on the Ninghe Bridge.

　　Gu Shen used his body as fire, falling into the Ninghe River.

　　And after the flames bloomed, the Ninghe River shattered, and a girl stood in the center of the sea of fire.

　　Perhaps because the scene of the sea of fire blooming was too beautiful, or perhaps because the appearance of that girl was too stunning... this scene was deeply imprinted in her heart.

　　However, Gu Shen's response was only a faint sentence.

　　"Miss Bai, I don't know what you're talking about..."

　　The next moment.

　　Gu Shen raised his palm.

　　A wisp of fire leaped from between his eyebrows, and the blazing fire attached to Gu Shen's palm. He reached out and touched a giant flower bud.

　　With a "chi" sound.

　　The giant flower bud was instantly ignited.

　　This dark dream was also torn apart—

　　The surrounding thorns and flower buds all began to fade, and the ancient city returned to its silvery-white and clean appearance covered with heavy snow in the night.

　　"Breaking your dream isn't a difficult thing." Gu Shen shook his hand, extinguished the flames in his palm, and said softly, "Don't forget how I got the S-rank rating."

　　Bai Lu stood there in a daze.

　　"For others, dream interpretation may be difficult, but for me, it's the easiest thing in the world." Gu Shen put his hands in his pockets and said lightly, "As for the girl you saw... I think you've asked the wrong person. This is the dream you control, not mine. If you have time, I suggest you... go see a doctor tomorrow."

　　Bai Lu gritted her silver teeth, feeling a little angry.

　　This was the reason why she wanted to see Gu Shen... because the final scene of the Ninghe dream had exceeded her understanding.

　　It was clearly a dream she controlled, but a third person appeared?

　　However, when the dream ended, all memories of this "third person" disappeared.

　　It was as if... she had never appeared!

　　If she asked anyone about such a question, they would probably think she was crazy.

　　She also felt that she had been mistaken.

　　Bai Lu wanted to say something, but in the blink of an eye, Gu Shen disappeared into the night of the snow-forbidden city.

　　…

　　…

　　"Crazy..."

　　"Two madmen."

　　Gu Shen turned into a small alley and let out a sigh of relief.

　　His palms were slightly sweaty.

　　On closer thought, he had been a little careless... Nagano was an extremely belligerent place. He could avoid those extraordinary people who came to challenge him, but he couldn't avoid the unscrupulous sneak attacks like Han Dang's.

　　"If it weren't for Uncle Gao..."

　　Gu Shen now felt a vague sense of palpitations.

　　Zero-Zero-One was still quiet.

　　If Han Dang had abandoned his identity and attacked him during the time when Chu Ling disconnected the mental link with him... then, with the power of the blazing fire, how long could he last in [True Speech]?

　　One thing was certain... Gu Shen was much stronger than before.

　　This time entering [True Speech], Han Dang didn't waste any words and directly used his true power, but the final result was that Gu Shen was unharmed.

　　There was some mental pain.

　　But this pain was completely within the acceptable range... Due to the violent burning of the blazing fire, Gu Shen's endurance was greatly improved.

　　Recalling the scenes in [True Speech] and [Thorn Dream].

　　Gu Shen fell into a brief period of thought.

　　…

　　…

　　Everyone in this world must abide by the most basic supernatural laws.

　　All extraordinary abilities are based on "Source Quality" (yuan zhi) for growth.

　　The confrontation of extraordinary abilities is, in a sense... the confrontation of extraordinary Source Quality.

　　Every time an extraordinary person tempers their body, every time they perform breathing exercises, it is a small improvement. Every year that passes... their Source Quality will increase, and their abilities will also become stronger, until they reach a certain "age" threshold, and the energy of the brain, the vitality of the cells, and the regenerative ability of the blood all begin to decline.

　　This is what ordinary people refer to as the usual meaning of "aging."

　　Extraordinary people will age slower than ordinary people.

　　But they will eventually grow old.

　　However, "Extraordinary Source Quality" will not age. They will grow forever, just like the scene Gu Shen saw on Divine Shrine Mountain... If no measures are taken, these Source Quality will fill the entire mountain range in a distorted way, break through the void, and eventually overflow into the real world.

　　For extraordinary people... growing old does not mean becoming weaker.

　　It just means becoming stronger is not as fast.

　　As long as a person still possesses a large amount of "Source Quality," then no matter how old they are, they will always be strong.

　　In other words... the real "aging" in the eyes of extraordinary people begins from the moment the Source Quality dissipates.

　　They no longer possess such vast energy.

　　Gu Shen didn't know.

　　Tens of miles away, Gao Tian and Bai Chen had a fight.

　　The "young and vigorous" future Grand Arbiter of the Bai family was taught a lesson by Uncle Gao.

　　He didn't even know.

　　In the conversation between these two titled figures, they mentioned his "duel" with Han Dang... They both agreed on one point: it was impossible for anyone in the Deep Sea Fourth Layer to resist the Eleventh Layer's [True Speech].

　　Because at this stage, no matter how talented a Fourth Layer extraordinary person is, they cannot compare to the Eleventh Layer in terms of the quantity of Extraordinary Source Quality...

　　To go further, the inability to resist that these two titled figures believed in.

　　Was to be shattered at a touch.

　　Was suppression!

　　Li Qingsui wanted Gu Shen to suffer a bit in [True Speech], but she only dared to let Uncle Gao wait for ten seconds.

　　Ten seconds was a just right amount of time.

　　In their expectations, this was probably the time when a "bitter taste" would just be born.

　　But neither Li Qingsui nor Uncle Gao had expected that... Gu Shen would be able to form a resistance and sustain himself in [True Speech] with his own strength.

　　Ten seconds?

　　No... the time Gu Shen could sustain was much longer than they had imagined!

　　Because the price to pay for resisting [True Speech] was actually just burning Extraordinary Source Quality... If it were any other Fourth Layer extraordinary person, the moment the thought of resisting arose, the Source Quality would have been exhausted.

　　This is what caused the "suppression" to occur.

　　They hadn't seen the scene deep within Divine Shrine Mountain... The way Gu Shen handled those "Flowers of Collapsed Order" was completely different from the [Apostle]. His so-called elimination was to swallow these disordered black spots into his stomach.

　　And... digest them.

　　Gu Shen fought against two dreamscapes one after another, and after escaping from [True Speech] and [Thorn Dream]... he vaguely felt something in his heart.

　　Although the Source Quality swallowed by the blazing fire cannot be directly used by him.

　　But when he encountered a "spiritual crisis," it could be forced to be consumed.

　　He had a huge treasure in his brow.

　　But this treasure was not actively opened, it was more like an "emergency avoidance," only when Gu Shen encountered a major crisis would the treasure begin to be consumed.

　　Gu Shen murmured, "I seem to have found the true method of using the blazing fire..."