Chapter 108 Guiding Dream

Chu Ling spoke of her dream while waving her hand, summoning specific images.

Rather than calling it a dream, it was more like a photograph captured by the [Heavenly Eye].

The logic of the image was very strict, as if it were a scene photographed from a thousand meters in the air… The square city walls were mottled and faded, and inside were dilapidated and simple streets and alleys, and crowds of people huddled together.

These people were draped in white linen robes…

And most of them wore uniform badges on their shoulders, badges that Gu Shen was very familiar with.

The trident.

“This is Southern Continent?”

Gu Shen recognized the meaning of the badge at a glance… These people were all followers of the Storm Throne.

“Yes.”

Chu Ling nodded slowly.

The guiding image she had seen in her dream last time… was a pale snowfield, without any information, only a silvery white expanse, and the specific location could only be found by using a divination technique.

This time the image was completely different, and the badge alone provided a lot of information.

Southern Continent, followers of the Storm Throne, gathered in such a small city.

The database began to operate immediately… Chu Ling began to look for the location corresponding to this photo.

Gu Shen's expression was somewhat complicated.

He breathed a long sigh of relief.

Finding something after searching high and low; it comes easily without effort.

He was still worried about how to mobilize the Gu Wen Association, or how to meet the next “mixed battle situation”… Chu Ling's guiding dream arrived in time, greatly relieving his pressure.

The reason for launching the [Lantern Search] plan in the first place was because Chu Ling's dreams no longer appeared.

He had lost guidance.

The divination technique also had no way to help Gu Shen find the [Bronze Man Lantern].

He could only rely on the stupidest method… In Chu Ling's words, brute force.

But now it was different.

With a picture of the dream, even if the database could not find the answer, he could also pay the price with a divination technique and seek guidance!

Soon.

A temporarily generated case report was displayed in front of Gu Shen, as well as the corresponding image simulation results. An aerial photograph with a similarity of up to 98% was presented in front of him. This was the same ancient city as in Chu Ling's dream, as well as a large number of believers wearing trident badges.

“Southern Continent… Inland State, Xiyin City.”

…

…

Lu Nanzhi returned to the [Conference Room].

She took a deep breath, and before Gu Shen could speak, she preemptively stated the result of her contemplation.

“Looking at the current situation, mobilizing the members of the Gu Wen Association to search… is not the best choice. The time is not yet ripe. The identities of [Key] and [Source Code] alone are not enough to gain the trust of everyone. My suggestion is to let Hua Zhi join the [Lantern Search] plan, spread enough cash, and then wait for the competition to join in. The more people who join, the faster the lamp will be found… but the final result will become very troublesome. What we need to plan is how to bring back the real Bronze Man Lantern among many opponents.”

This was a very long sentence.

It could be seen that during the time she was away, the Madam had thought about it seriously for a long time.

After Gu Shen listened quietly, he pressed a materialized photo of spiritual power on the long table and slowly pushed it over.

Lu Nanzhi was stunned.

She looked at the photo that slid in front of her… Her expression was a little confused.

An unfamiliar city.

“The situation has changed.” Gu Shen smiled wryly. He rubbed his forehead and said softly, “I think… I should have found the location of this last lamp.”

Lu Nanzhi narrowed her eyes and carefully examined the photo.

“This is…”

“Southern Continent, Inland State, Xiyin City.” Gu Shen said, “The last lamp is here.”

Madam Lu glanced at Gu Shen with a strange expression.

This kid…

She should have only disconnected for half an hour.

She had worked so hard to come up with a simple plan outline, and when she came back, the things had already been found… Obviously these plans could be declared invalid.

But how exactly did he find it?

“Thanks to some unspeakable mysterious power.” Gu Shen said slowly, “I don't know exactly where the thing is, but I can be sure… the thing is in Xiyin City.”

Unspeakable mysterious power?

The Madam understood instantly, revealing a meaningful expression… Divination!

Although she was in the Great Capital, she was also paying attention to Gu Shen's deeds in Snow Forbidden City all the time… The news that Gu Shen was accepted as a disciple by Master Chino really shocked the Madam at Hua Zhi.

A Divination successor.

This was an extremely remarkable identity.

In the entire Five Continents, there were only two “Divination Masters”. This number was even rarer than the so-called “S-level”.

Gu Shen saw the reason for the Madam's strange expression at a glance, but he didn't explain anything.

Divination was fine.

The Madam could think whatever she wanted… This reason was more credible than Chu Ling's dream.

“Okay… the plan can be overturned.” Lu Nanzhi asked softly, “Are you ready to set off immediately?”

“Yes.”

Gu Shen thought for a while and said slowly, “However… I have never been to a place outside of Eastern Continent.”

Lu Nanzhi understood.

…

…

The blades whirred.

The dome of clouds flashed past.

Gu Shen sat on one side of the cabin, leaning against the window, looking at the clouds that came into view, and the gradually shrinking Snow Forbidden City.

At this time, he remembered what the Second Elder of the Li Family had said.

It’s nice to have a giant wall to lean on.

He had lived too quietly this year, and it was not until this moment that Gu Shen truly felt the beauty of “having a giant wall to lean on”.

If he wanted to go to Southern Continent, he only needed to wait for a moment, and Hua Zhi's private plane would come to pick him up.

Lu Nanzhi also thoughtfully sent him an assistant.

Cui Zhongcheng quietly turned the pages of the book and said softly, “The Madam told me about the lamp search… She thinks you might need a helper. If you don't think you need one, I will fly back by myself after you land in Southern Continent.”

“That's too embarrassing…”

“Now that I'm here,” Gu Shen smiled and did not refuse. “I'm afraid I'll need your help with the matter of Southern Continent.”

He didn't know Southern Continent.

But he knew Cui Zhongcheng. Aside from anything else, this second-in-command of Hua Zhi was quite reliable in terms of “handling affairs”.

Having one more helper in this matter would save a lot of effort.

The acquaintances met, but there was not much small talk.

The two sat quietly on the plane, waiting for takeoff and the final landing.

Gu Shen looked at the light of the sky falling on Cui Zhongcheng's face, and then he realized… that it had been a year since they had last met.

Last time was at National Highway 447, at the entrance of the Shen Ci mountain area, where the transaction was completed smoothly.

A year had passed, and time seemed to have stopped growing on this man's face. He had an indescribable elegant temperament, ancient but not decadent, swaying but not ostentatious.

Several hours passed.

Cui Zhongcheng finished reading the book, took out the notebook full of writing, and said softly, breaking the silence.

“Southern Continent is the most chaotic place among the Five Continents… [Deep Sea] spends a lot of computing power every year to perform ‘balanced’ information processing on Southern Continent.”

“Balanced?” Gu Shen, who had been closing his eyes to rest, slowly opened his eyes.

“People live in the connection of [Deep Sea], and what they see and hear… is processed information. If you want to let a person know how bad this world is, you only need to replace his query results, change his search page, and constantly send him negative news. If you want to let a person think that this world is extremely beautiful… the opposite is true.” Cui Zhongcheng said calmly, “This is ‘balancing’. [Deep Sea] has been doing this since its inception, changing the world's impression of the world on a macro level, and ultimately maintaining a balance.”

Gu Shen narrowed his eyes.

It sounds nice… macro-level changes?

In fact, this is playing with people's minds.

He suddenly realized… that with [Deep Sea], it was not really expanding cognition for ordinary people. On the contrary, they could no longer see the “real” world.

Everything they saw was covered with a veil of nothingness.

And it could never be torn apart.

Without sufficient authority, you can only live in “falsehood” forever. At most, you can only raise a weak voice of doubt that cannot change the world, and then begin to question yourself little by little in the voices of others.

“Because Southern Continent is… too bad. All kinds of terrible paranormal events are emerging one after another, and there is a lack of limited control.” Cui Zhongcheng said in a low voice, “So [Deep Sea] needs to spend more and more computing power to carry out balancing. The Central Federation has decided to take further measures.”

“For example?”

“For example… changing the pilot test site for the awakening plan to Southern Continent instead of Eastern Continent.” Cui Zhongcheng said calmly, “However, this may lead to uncontrollable situations… because there are many local believers in Southern Continent. They believe in the ‘god’ they believe in more than the Federal Government.”

Gu Shen frowned and said, “Storm Throne?”

Cui Zhongcheng shook his head.

“It's a vague ‘god’, not a real ‘god’.” He asked with a smile, “For ordinary people, if gods really appear in their world, will they still believe in and follow them?”

Gu Shen fell silent.

Cui Zhongcheng took out the photo and said slowly, “In fact… although Southern Continent is chaotic, it is not easy for outsiders to enter Xiyin City. This is a trading city purely open to believers. If you are not a believer and do not have a supportive identity, you will soon be discovered.”

That's right.

Thinking back to the scene of Xiyin City seen in the photo, the streets and alleys were full of priests wearing robes of various colors.

“However… don't worry about the identity issue. I have already taken care of it before coming.”

Cui Zhongcheng said calmly, “After landing in Southern Continent, your backup name is ‘Amir’. The passport and ID are behind the seat, as well as a set of ‘New Moon Church’ priest robes, and a book of doctrines. Remember to take a look at it in advance to avoid revealing your identity.”

“Wait a minute… are we going to enter Xiyin City in this way?”

Gu Shen was stunned.

“No… not us.”

Cui Zhongcheng frowned and corrected righteously, “Only you. You will enter Xiyin City alone.”

“What about you then?”

“Don't get me wrong, I'm just passing by… The reason for landing in Southern Continent this time is to have a business negotiation with a local general.” Cui Zhongcheng casually opened his notebook and said, “I will assist you throughout the entire process, but it will be outside of Xiyin City.”

“…”

Gu Shen pulled out the white robe and fell into a long silence.

The plane landed with a roar.

Cui Zhongcheng closed his notebook, stretched out a hand, looked directly into Gu Shen's eyes, and said seriously, “I wish you a fruitful harvest.”

…

…

The climate of Xiyin City was completely opposite to that of Nagano.

It was located in the tropics, extremely hot. The large white robe that passers-by wore was actually used to block the heat… However, the extreme climate could not affect transcendents. As long as they circulated the Breath of Spring, they would feel a burst of coolness all over their bodies.

Gu Shen successfully entered Xiyin City with the identity of “Amir”. Cui Zhongcheng had prepared a “luxury hotel” for him in advance. Judging from Chu Ling's aerial photograph, the environment in this old city of Southern Continent was very bad, and it should be a place like a slum.

Along the way, Gu Shen refused many requests from children who wanted to carry bags. He was alone and wandered around Xiyin City. He passed by streets and alleys and saw many beggars who were scantily clad. These people were squeezed under the bridge holes, covered with a mat.

Perhaps, this was their home.

Does such a place also have “hotels”?

But unexpectedly, just across a river, crossing over, the center of Xiyin City was very prosperous, with high-rise buildings rising from the ground, and passers-by wearing gold and silver jewelry.

There really were hotels here, and they were very luxurious.

After nightfall, Gu Shen stood on the top floor, overlooking the scene outside the window… This side of the Xiyin River was beautiful and prosperous, with bright lights, and the other side of the river was dim and muddy, struggling in poverty.

He thought of what Cui Zhongcheng said about “balancing”… Before today, he, who was in Eastern Continent, did not know that Southern Continent was like this. The real life in Xiyin City might have been uploaded to the [Deep Sea] network ten thousand times, but the ones that were really effectively transmitted were probably not even once.

And the most terrifying thing was—

At both ends of the information, one end thought it had really been transmitted, and the other end thought it had really been received.

Everyone was living in their own “ideal land”.

Mr. Alan Turing's original intention in creating [Deep Sea] was to create a perfect “Utopia”, and [Deep Sea] was using another way to reach the end…

If Utopia does not exist.

Nor can it be manufactured.

Then it is only necessary to change people's perception of it… to achieve the goal.

“I'm sorry… I actually only learned about this ‘balancing’ thing today.”

Chu Ling's voice came from his mind.

There was apology in her voice.

“Why are you apologizing to me?” Gu Shen smiled.

He stood in front of the huge floor-to-ceiling window, overlooking the unfamiliar Xiyin City, knowing that this scene was now also transmitted into Chu Ling's eyes.

The two of them shared “one pair of eyes”.

“[Deep Sea]'s operating logic is very complicated, and [Source Code] is only one part of it… That's why I can only use a part of the permissions.” Chu Ling said softly, “The processing, transmission, and presentation of information were not so complicated at the beginning… It may be that the so-called ‘balancing’ only appeared with upgrades and evolution.”

The meaning of balancing was to protect the information parity of the world.

And the means of protection was essentially deception.

Just like… no one would have thought that the real meaning of [Deep Sea]'s existence was to conduct spiritual links with transcendents to build a pure spiritual world [Deep Water Zone].

“This choice may have a very bad impact on the human world…” Chu Ling said slowly.

“It's all the same.” Gu Shen interrupted her.

He said calmly, “What transcendents do… is also deception. Perhaps there has never been ‘true’ or ‘false’. What we see, what we believe, and what is real… are three different things.”

Chu Ling was stunned.

“Believe it exists, existence is believing… or, it doesn't exist at all.”

Gu Shen closed the curtains again.

He stopped looking at the outside world and said softly, “At least… balancing provides a possibility for the world.”

…

…

Finding an ordinary antique without transcendent power in Xiyin City was not an easy task.

Southern Continent had a total of seven territories, twenty-two states, and one central district, and Xiyin was one of the top three “trading cities”, with hundreds of thousands of goods circulating here every day.

Antiques… there might not be so many, but there were countless.

Gu Shen knew that the object he was looking for might not necessarily appear in the prosperous central district, but was very likely to appear in the slums full of mud on the other side of the Xiyin River. Most importantly, according to the previous experience in the snowfield.

Arriving in Xiyin City as soon as possible according to the guidance, at this time it could basically be ensured that the [object] was still in the city.

But after a while… it was hard to say.

There was a possibility that the [Lamp of Wrath] would be taken away.

Gu Shen had to act quickly.

In this case, if he wanted to find an “antique”, he could not avoid using [Money Power]. This was the fastest and most useful method, without exception… Gu Shen paid a small amount of down payment and hired twenty children and young people from the slums to carefully search for information related to lampstands, and promised to pay the subsequent remuneration.

For these residents of the slums, Gu Shen's “down payment” was quite generous.

Obviously, this was a generous boss!

However, Gu Shen's conditions for paying the subsequent remuneration were very harsh. He required that the news not be spread, and that the search for antique lamps could only be completed by themselves, because he would only pay the remuneration to one person in the end… In this way, the possibility of large-scale transmission of the news was eliminated.

These twenty people all thought they were lucky. After receiving the down payment, they searched desperately for news about the lamps.

After doing all this, Gu Shen came to an auction house in the central district of Xiyin City… According to the information provided by Cui Zhongcheng, this Holy Elephant Auction House was the largest and most authoritative auction venue in Xiyin City, and it was also a favorite place for many wealthy people in Xiyin City to spend a lot of money.

The second clue to find the “lampstand” was related to this auction house.

…

…

(ps: 1 The content of this chapter has been replaced before 12 o'clock. Everyone who has subscribed does not have to worry about the money issue. There is no waste. 2, to explain again, the reason why the chapter names are repeated is not because I am doing anti-theft. But because of the starting point's review system, the chapter I sent at ten o'clock did not respond. I encountered this situation for the first time, so I hurriedly sent it again, but it still did not respond. I didn't expect it to be released together after an hour. Because of this incident, I was messed up. Speechless. I will revise these two chapters again tomorrow.)