Chapter 15 Leaving the Sacred Shrine Mountain

Driving out of the Sacred Shrine Mountain territory.

The mental link with "001" was re-established, and it felt as if a hoarse electrical current was flowing through his mind.

"Chu Ling, can you hear me?"

Gu Shen spoke again in his mind.

And Chu Ling immediately responded: "The connection was lost earlier... Now, I can hear you."

Hu.

The mental link was restored.

Gu Shen breathed a sigh of relief in his heart.

The view in front of him was covered with countless long lines interwoven with wind, snow, and black cracks. Uncle Gao's domain had spread out into a large circle, and together with the vehicle, it was like a meteorite streaking across the sky.

And as the wind and snow increased and the black cracks decreased, Gu Shen had a feeling of returning from illusion to reality.

"Where is this?" he asked softly.

A map that was constantly zooming in appeared before his eyes, with small dots gradually gathering into a vague route record.

"Northern border of Nagano, Highway 447."

The chaotic [Wind Eye] had been marking the route they came on until the path suddenly disappeared. This was the complete journey from Snow Forbidden City to Sacred Shrine Mountain.

He had seen this phenomenon once before. This was a transcendent gathering place similar to [Qingzhong].

"Where did the Li family take you?" Chu Ling checked Gu Shen's body as soon as possible. There were no abnormalities, no mental implants, or similar methods.

"Sacred Shrine Mountain." Gu Shen said seriously, "A... mountain full of flowers of collapsed order."

"No wonder... the connection was lost." Chu Ling suddenly understood.

In fact, her mental link with Gu Shen was already quite stable.

But in certain specific situations where the concentration of transcendent source matter was too high, the link would still be broken... The reason was simple: the inherent characteristic of these source matters was disorder and interference, and Gu Shen's spirit was not yet strong enough.

"During the time the connection was broken... I performed a database self-check." Chu Ling's voice was a little confused. She murmured, "I wanted to figure out when I met Li Qingsui, but the result of the database self-check was that I had never met her."

People may have false memories.

But Deep Sea does not.

If it exists, it exists. If it doesn't, it doesn't.

"This is very strange, I can't understand it." The girl sitting in the carriage sighed softly. She was now also experiencing emotions like烦恼 (fánnǎo - worry) and entanglement. She subconsciously made a human-like movement of pressing her brow to relieve the boredom, "Sacred Shrine Mountain... What kind of place is it? Is it like Qingzhong?"

"No." Gu Shen thought for a moment and said, "If [Qingzhong] means order, then [Sacred Shrine Mountain] means disorder. The guardians of the Li family have been guarding this place for generations. They use a technique called 'Prayer Art' to suppress and guide the growth of these flowers of collapsed order, trying to nurture a 'divine embryo' at the top of the mountain."

Chu Ling said, "Black spots cannot be guided."

"Theoretically, that's the case... but the Li family did succeed. I saw countless black flowers crawling all over the cliffs, winding around the giant walls, but too many flowers of collapsed order made Sacred Shrine Mountain overwhelmed. Now this mystic realm is on the verge of collapse. The divine embryo has not yet hatched, but the Li family is about to collapse."

This sentence sounded very ironic now.

It made one wonder if the Li family ancestor who used the Prayer Art and made a great wish was a saint with no desires or a madman who obsessively pursued miracles.

Too much time had passed, and the truth could no longer be traced.

It was just that the descendants of the Li family had paid too much, too much... for this grand wish.

Gu Shen recounted his meeting with Li Qingci.

"Prayer Art... ten years..."

After listening, Chu Ling was a little moved.

She began to wonder what kind of person that guardian girl was.

What she was even more curious about was the principle of this so-called Prayer Art, which could actually transcend cause and effect and directly bestow gifts?

The Prayer Art suddenly connected with the memory in her mind... Chu Ling had a very subtle feeling in her heart.

"Gu Shen... disconnect the mental link to the council first."

She said softly, "I want to be alone for a while."

……

……

"This is the Li family's 'Sacred Shrine' talisman."

They left Highway 447 and arrived at Snow Forbidden City. The entire journey was quiet.

Quiet in every sense of the word.

The outside world was filled with heavy snow, but Uncle Gao's domain was open, and one could hear a pin drop in the car.

Gu Shen's spiritual world was equally quiet.

Chu Ling had disconnected the link, seemingly to think about something.

Before arriving at the gate of Snow Forbidden City, Uncle Gao took out a small wooden talisman from the inner pocket of his suit. This wooden talisman looked inconspicuous, depicting a clean and independent high mountain.

Perhaps this was what Sacred Shrine Mountain originally looked like.

"Don't lose it... this talisman has a history of six hundred years, and the Li family only has a few of them." Li Qingsui said seriously, "You should have also seen the path to enter the Sacred Shrine Mountain mystic realm. This mystic realm has transcendent array patterns set up by the Li family's successive guardians, and only heirs with the blood of the clan can enter smoothly. Outsiders who want to step into the Sacred Shrine Mountain territory need a 'talisman'."

Gu Shen accepted the wooden talisman.

This rule was very similar to [Qingzhong].

To enter the inner mausoleum, one must have the permission of the tomb keeper. Otherwise, without guidance, even if one enters the great fog, it would be impossible to find the correct direction and would eventually be sent out.

The same was true for Highway 447.

No matter how hard one turned the steering wheel, it was useless. Without the talisman, it was impossible to enter "Sacred Shrine Mountain."

In front of the Snow Forbidden City gate.

Gu Shen and Li Qingsui got out of the car one after the other. Heavy snow was falling, and Uncle Gao was holding an umbrella to shield the young lady from the wind and snow.

Standing under the umbrella, Li Qingsui took two steps forward and came into the snow.

She tiptoed and patted Gu Shen's shoulder hard, smiling softly.

"This time, you helped the Li family... Next time, the Li family will also help you."

Gu Shen was stunned for a moment and subconsciously looked at the top of the sky.

"Don't worry, with Uncle Gao here, the [Wind Eye] in the sky won't see this."

"It's just that you got into the car with us, and this matter can't be hidden." Li Qingsui gathered the large suit draped over her shoulders and said seriously, "They will guess what we talked about and what the result was... I can promise you in the future as the head of the family that the Li family will not come forward to guide public opinion."

This was giving him a security guarantee.

The five great families restrained each other and balanced each other... Gu Shen had always been firm in his attitude on the matter of "being drawn in."

He rejected the Bai family, as well as the Gong family and the Mu family.

If he turned around and agreed to the Li family, then... what he had talked about with Gong Zi before would become a joke.

"In fact, the relationship between the five great families is not as intense as you think."

Li Qingsui smiled and said, "The struggles you see are just minor squabbles. Everyone knows in their hearts... Nagano cannot do without any of the five families."

Gu Shen looked at this little girl and thought that these few words finally sounded like the future head of the family.

"Lastly..."

Li Qingsui coughed softly with some guilty conscience. After getting closer, she lowered her voice and asked seriously, "Is that person really not Song Ci?"

……

……

(Tonight's update will be at 12 o'clock, there will be a big chapter.)