Chapter 23 Ice Shards

The ice shards on the Ning River trembled.

It seemed something was gently vibrating.

Gu Shen looked calmly at the woman walking towards him. With each step the Bai family's witch took in those short dozens of steps, a word escaped her lips, and the surrounding trembling sensation intensified.

That was a "mental force" that ordinary people couldn't even sense.

And Gu Shen felt that extremely seductive power the moment the first word was spoken.

The Blazing Fire between his brows slowly swirled, transforming into a seamless circle.

The words fell into his ears without stirring any ripples. Gu Shen simply shook his head and said calmly, "Sorry… I don't care about any of that."

Bai Lu smiled slightly and stood before Gu Shen. This young lady, draped in a black feather cloak, stood in the twilight as the setting sun's afterglow faded, indeed resembling a rose entwined with thorns.

Beautiful, but with thorns.

In her words just now, she had used the power of a mental-type sealed item, attempting to instill the idea that "no one can defeat Bai Xiu" into Gu Shen's subconscious.

But alas.

This trick didn't work.

The young man before her seemed to possess very powerful mental defenses… Bai Lu clearly felt that her hypnotic voice was completely blocked outside his soul.

"Worthy of being an S-rank."

She smiled and extended a hand generously. "Bai family, Bai Lu."

Gu Shen didn't shake her hand.

He sneered with a forced smile, "Gu doesn't dare to hold the Bai family's young lady's hand, nor is he worthy to."

Bai Lu wasn't embarrassed. After retracting her hand, she leaned on the railing and looked down from the bridge arch. The ice surface of the Ning River reflected countless dim golden lights, not dazzling, but giving a dreamlike feeling.

She smiled faintly, "The scenery here is not bad… The entire Changye is looking for you, yet you ran all the way to Xuejin City to see the scenery?"

Alone?

Gu Shen frowned slightly.

He didn't say much, simply replying, "Whether I'm alone or not is not important."

Bai Lu raised an eyebrow, "Oh?"

"Miss Bai, I don't think there's any need for pleasantries between us."

Gu Shen said coldly, "I'm not interested in you, nor am I interested in Bai Xiu. If you have something to say, just say it directly here."

The Bai Witch looked at Gu Shen with ease, smiling.

"That's all I have to say… If you have nothing to say, then let's part ways here."

Gu Shen was too lazy to play games, and even more unwilling to waste time… After leaving Qingzhong, he didn't return to the Chunyu Temple in order to avoid trouble, and the woman before him was the biggest trouble.

After speaking, he turned to leave.

"Chu Jue, who came to challenge you this morning, the disciple of the Fourth Arbiter… was hired by Han Dang."

Looking at Gu Shen's back, the Bai Witch finally spoke.

However, the young man didn't show even the slightest intention of turning around.

Bai Lu frowned slightly.

Not many people knew about this news yet. Gu Shen was unmoved, so it seemed he already knew… Could it be that Chu Jue and the others took the initiative to confess?

She raised her voice and said, "Han Dang also came to me!"

The next moment, Gu Shen stopped.

He turned back to look at Bai Lu and said calmly, "So?"

Seeing Gu Shen stop and turn around, the Bai Witch smiled slightly, rubbed her slender fingers together, and said, "He spent some mundane items… hoping I could find someone to suppress your limelight."

Gu Shen smiled.

"Mundane items?" He shook his head, "Others would care about that kind of thing, but you are the Bai family's young lady, commanding wind and rain, having everything… how could you care about mundane items?"

"That's the principle, but it's not the whole principle."

Bai Lu smiled charmingly, "There's always a balance in everything in the world. As long as the two ends are equal, a transaction can be reached. Mundane items, although mundane… are useful. Who in this world would complain about having too little money?"

This sentence placed herself in the position of a worldly person.

"I agreed to that transaction because he told me that your S-rank status is undeserved. The Bai family only needs to find a Deep Sea Tier Five transcendent to defeat you." Bai Lu said with a light laugh, "Now it seems I've been fooled by Han Dang."

She had just agreed to the transaction.

Then… Gu Shen violently beat Shen Li, the Fourth Arbiter's closed-door disciple.

One before the other, only half a day apart.

Gu Shen narrowed his eyes, still with those two words, "So?"

"I… have always valued the spirit of contracts. I mean what I say." Bai Lu said softly, "What's said is said, and done is done. Since I took little Junior Brother Han's mundane items, I must fulfill my promise…"

Gu Shen narrowed his eyes slightly.

A gust of wind rose.

Blowing the Bai family's young lady's black feather cloak, she stood on the bridge, her eyes becoming sympathetic, looking down at Gu Shen, who was about to walk out of the small bridge area… Black feathers fell with the wind, like a rolling tide from within the open cloak.

Gu Shen's intuition was very sharp.

He didn't feel the slightest bit of killing intent, or danger… but the moment the wind rose, his vision was quickly covered by the flying black feathers.

"Chu Ling…"

He spoke subconsciously.

The mental link didn't receive an immediate response.

Was he enveloped by a special mental-type sealed item?

As this thought appeared, Gu Shen's pupils instantly turned golden.

Blazing Fire covered his entire field of vision in the first instant, the flying black feathers were dissected by the Blazing Fire, transforming into invisible transcendent source matter… Only the woman in the distance slowly raised her left hand, raising it above her head as if supporting the sky.

On the back of Bai Lu's palm was engraved a black rose entwined with thorns.

And where the black feathers passed.

Thorns bloomed—

"Enter the Dream!"

Accompanied by a clear, cold shout.

The solid ice surface of the Ning River shattered with a bang, and the land outside the small bridge collapsed, wherever the dream touched, black thorns rolled like earth dragons, and huge mountain-like roses perched on both banks of the Ning River, replacing the original ancient buildings and old streets.

This dream… was indescribably bizarre, enchanting, and dreamlike.

Gu Shen stood at the end of the small bridge.

Behind him, there was a faint pain of a sharp sword piercing his heart. Glancing back, there was no way to retreat… He was almost embedded in a giant wall of thorns.

The thorns that pierced into his soul-body brought him a faint pain, and also made Gu Shen more calm.

This was his first time experiencing this kind of battle… In previous battles, Gu Shen always found a way to drag the opponent into a dream.

But now.

It was the other way around.

The Bai family's witch seemed to have a rather powerful "dream sealed item," forcibly dragging his spirit into this dream… And the next second, a familiar voice that was late in arriving sounded in his mind.

"…I'm here."

Chu Ling, sitting in the Zero-Zero-One carriage, flipped through the pages of a book, the pages reflecting the scene of this beautiful dream. Her tone at the moment sounded calm, with a hint of sarcasm, "After all, I'm just a person who is not so 'important', it doesn't matter if I'm a little late, does it?"

Gu Shen was stunned, and then realized that he had said the wrong thing at the beginning when he met Bai Lu…

He smiled wryly, the Miss Chu Ling who followed the [Source Code] running logic actually had such a strange point of anger.

Before Gu Shen could continue to speak.

A sound of rushing air suddenly came from behind him—

"Buzz!"

The huge thorn wall behind him actually grew barbs like spider legs. A human-shaped skeleton emerged, opened its arms, and wanted to hug Gu Shen tightly in its arms!

Gu Shen instantly leaned forward, kicking the skeleton into pieces with a back kick!

He supported himself with his hands and leaped forward.

"Thwack!"

Two sharp barbs instantly pierced out of the bluestone ground of the ancient bridge, heading straight for Gu Shen's eyes.

His eyes gleamed, and an invisible mental sea current surged out.

With a "boom," the two barbs exploded just as they were about to pierce his eyes, turning into a small firework, while Gu Shen landed on the surface of the "Ning River." He stepped on a huge flower bud. This huge flower, as large as a boat, seemed to have life… Slowly wriggling its petals, opening and closing, breathing.

"So… you want to attack me."

He looked at Bai Lu, his tone turning cold, "Just because you accepted those mundane items from Han Dang?"

"Of course…"

The black-cloaked woman standing on the bridge chuckled.

"Not."

Bai Lu gently rotated her finger, and the huge roses on both banks also rotated their petals. The whole world seemed to be upside down, revolving.

But she didn't know.

In Gu Shen's eyes at this moment… the scene of this dream world was just a fabrication. After the Blazing Fire removed the falsehood, what he saw was only wandering spirits and source matter.

Gu Shen used a wisp of his own mental power to stabilize the black ship beneath his feet, resisting the inversion of the entire dream.

"I heard that you are a genius at dream interpretation, passed the S-rank test of the review team in Da Teng City, and set a record." The Bai family's young lady smiled, "I'm just curious… How much of a genius can a dream interpreter be?"

She showed the tattoo on the back of her palm.

A glamorous rose, entwined with thorns, was now emitting a faint black fluorescence.

The brightness and darkness of the entire world corresponded to the glow of the tattoo.

"This item is called 'Thorn Dream'. It was a gift my brother gave me not long ago. If it were to be rated, it should be considered an A-level dream sealed item."

Bai Lu smiled, "You can break through the review team's dream, of course you can also break through mine… right?"

Gu Shen didn't answer.

He asked, "What good will it do you to do this?"

The Bai family's witch leaned on the railing and looked down. She was still as lazy and nonchalant as ever. After hearing this, she seemed to think for a while.

Then, she shook her head and said, "None… I can't think of any benefits. In broad daylight, I beat an S-rank enchanting genius of the Tribunal. A large group of people will definitely come looking for trouble, the Tribunal, the Gu family, and my teachers…"

If this news spread, it would indeed cause a great sensation.

"But does doing something require benefits? I want to do it, so I'll do it."

Bai Lu rubbed her chin for a long time and smiled, "From the first time I saw you, I knew… you will be a very powerful person in the future, perhaps as powerful as Little Xiu."

"Don't put me with others." Gu Shen said coldly again.

"Is S-rank pride at work? It doesn't matter…" The Bai family's young lady opened her mouth with a smile, revealing a tiger tooth, and said, "If I can't beat you in the future, then I will take advantage of the fact that I can beat you now to ravage you."

Gu Shen's expression changed drastically.

The huge black ship under his feet instantly drilled towards the bottom of the "Ning River"!

He lightly tapped the river surface with his toes, leaping towards the next flower bud. As a result, the same scene was staged. The moment Gu Shen's toes touched the flower bud, it shattered like a bubble, and the huge flower instantly fell towards the bottom of the river!

Gu Shen lightly patted the river surface with both hands and leaped towards the ancient bridge again. He saw the woman leaning on the railing, giving him a friendly smile.

Without any movement, the entire ancient bridge actually moved backwards—

He could only desperately grasp the stone railing.

Thorn spikes protruded from the bottom of the "Ning River", swarming out overwhelmingly, the huge wind pressure stirred made one's scalp tingle, and in the end, these spikes filled the entire dream.

Gu Shen took a deep breath and looked down.

It was clearly just a small bridge.

But at this moment, it gave him a suffocating feeling that there was a cliff under him… He would rather have a cliff under him, than fall into the thorns and be pierced through his bones.

"Your mental strength is really just Deep Sea Fourth Tier…"

Bai Lu examined Gu Shen at close range. Looking at the young man's handsome face, she asked in confusion, somewhat amused, "With such a big gap, how did Shen Li lose? Is he an idiot?"

On this point, she really couldn't figure it out.

Gu Shen didn't answer, he felt that he could no longer grasp the railing with his palms. The stone railing began to seep out layers of water. Bai Lu, who had absolute control over this dream, was likely a third-stage transcendent.

"Let's get to know each other again…"

Bai Lu extended a hand and said softly, "Bai family, Bai Lu."

In the beginning.

Gu Shen didn't shake this hand… But now, in this "Thorn Dream," if he didn't shake hands, he would fall into the thorn jungle.

Bai Lu waited with ease.

But after waiting for a long time, she waited for a familiar reply.

"…Crazy woman."

This was what Gu Shen said when they met at the dojo.

He was now quietly looking at the woman on the bridge.

Watching the woman's expression change from a smile to anger, and finally to astonishment.

He let go of his hand.

Bai Lu wanted to dissolve the dream at this moment.

But Gu Shen's falling speed was too fast—

Even faster than the falling speed was the wisp of Blazing Fire that swept out from between his brows.

Rather than saying he fell into the endless thorns, it was better to say that he used his body as fire, detonating the entire dream!

"Boom—"

Bai Lu's pupils contracted, she watched countless water waves explode one after another. In a wisp of blazing flame, Gu Shen was like a flying bird, spreading his arms, and as he fell, splashed out a soaring pillar of fire.

And what made her unbelievable was.

In the final blooming flames, she seemed to see the third person in this dream.

It was a spiritual and holy girl like a god, standing at the bottom of the Ning River in the endless sea of fire and thorns, as if she had been waiting here, only waiting for the flames to bloom.

……

……

(There will be more tonight)