Chapter 101 The Sixth Fortune Hand Beads

The seventh basement floor of Huazhi Tower held hundreds of sealed items.

These sealed items ranged in strength from C-grade to E-grade… Gu Shen directly ignored the D and E grades.

He had no experience in choosing sealed items, but he figured that comparing horizontally and choosing the higher-rated ones was definitely not wrong.

First, choose the expensive ones, then the right ones.

"I already have the Ruler of Truth… With both spear and shield, what type of sealed item should I choose?" Gu Shen analyzed silently in his mind.

The Ruler of Truth could convert his mental power into material combat power!

Gu Shen didn't know the rating standards for sealed items… but he guessed it was at least an A-grade sealed item, and a rather perfect one at that. The only drawback was the heavy burden it placed; his current mental strength could only withstand one use of the ruler, leaving him paralyzed for half a day.

The flaw wasn't in the item, but in himself.

"The assassination attempt by the Evergreen Foundation hasn't been completely resolved… rather than an attack-type sealed item, I might need a defensive gear with strong life-saving abilities." After careful consideration, Gu Shen eliminated several unsuitable C-grade sealed items.

Finally, his gaze settled on the two bronze offering platforms at the very front.

On one platform lay an extremely thin silver silk vest, shimmering under the white light.

This C-grade sealed item was called the Wind-Snow Soft Cocoon, and it looked like an unadorned silver silk vest.

But in reality, this vest retained the extraordinary source quality of the "Frost Chill" natural element… If the host was a transcendent with similar attributes, it could enhance the frost range. If not, it didn't matter; the vest had excellent defensive properties. By using mental power, one could summon a very sturdy small wind and snow shield armor, and it was extremely difficult for non-extraordinary forces to leave marks on the shield armor.

According to the description on the file, Gu Shen vaguely simulated it in his mind. If he had encountered high explosives like the incident with the Dream Weaver, this sealed item should have been able to easily help him resist the frontal blast…

This was a very good self-protection tool.

On the other offering platform lay a small hand bead, a string of eleven, but nine of them were dull in color, with only two emitting a green, bright glow.

"Six Fortune Hand Beads… a damaged A-grade sealed item, a consumable item. Each hand bead contains incredible power of prayer, and each use of the power of prayer can offset any material or mental impact. Currently, there are 2 remaining uses."

Both the Wind-Snow Soft Cocoon and the Six Fortune Hand Beads were good choices…

But the grade of the Six Fortune Hand Beads was obviously better than that vest. Even if he encountered a mental impact, he could resist it. After all, it used to be an A-grade sealed item, but it had fallen in grade due to severe consumption.

"I choose… the Six Fortune Hand Beads."

After a little thought, Gu Shen made his choice.

Cui Zhongcheng, who was watching from the side, remained calm as Gu Shen picked and chose. When he refused Zhao Qi, he used an impeccable reason: the treasure trove was locked, and he was just the one holding the key. But in fact, this key-holder had terrifyingly great authority.

At least in this Huazhi Tower, he had absolute say.

Gifting a sealed item was just a small matter.

The underground seventh floor's museum had hundreds of sealed items, but no matter how Gu Shen chose, no matter how dazzled he became, the best he could pick was only a C-grade.

In fact, he also wanted to see Gu Shen's eye for choosing sealed items.

"Are you sure?" Cui Zhongcheng opened the red-silver protective罩, took out the hand beads, and praised in a tone without any fluctuations, "Good eye. Although it's a C-grade sealed item, it actually has the strength of an A-grade. However… this string of hand beads only has two remaining prayers."

"Two is enough."

Gu Shen directly put the hand beads on his wrist. If Shi Li's mission wasn't full of unknown dangers, he would have preferred to choose a sealed item containing vast extraordinary source quality, and then use the Blazing Fire to devour and digest it to enhance his strength.

He chose this string of hand beads for no other reason than safety.

It was enough if it could save his life at a critical moment.

"Thanks!"

After putting on the hand beads, Gu Shen thanked him perfunctorily, and then without stopping for even a second, he stretched out his palm like a debt collector and said seriously, "There's also a breathing technique."

"…"

Cui Zhongcheng looked at Gu Shen with a complicated expression.

Zhou Jiren taking Gu Shen as a student was definitely not a coincidence… this little guy had the potential to become an old rogue.

"What kind of breathing technique do you want?"

Cui Zhongcheng sighed softly. Seeing Gu Shen's somewhat bewildered expression, he patiently explained, "The better the breathing technique, the more impossible it is to replicate. Only by viewing the original and completing the lucid dream can you comprehend the artistic conception… Some breathing techniques are engraved on paper, and some are imprinted into sealed items. As far as I know, a mental-type transcendent in the Tribunal who has cultivated Jingzhe to perfection often chooses to view Gu Changzhi's Guyu scroll to continue cultivating the second volume of breathing techniques."

"Wait a minute… Guyu scroll?"

Gu Shen was stunned.

"Are you saying that the breathing techniques left by Gu Changzhi… are more than just one volume?"

"Jingzhe, Guyu, Mangzhong." Cui Zhongcheng said, "These three volumes are the guiding methods that Gu Changzhi publicly left to the young people of East Continent Council before he went into slumber. They are respectively left in the Tribunal, the Prison, and the Command. The artistic conceptions of the three volumes of breathing techniques are different, and the viewing order has no prior influence. These three volumes together… are the famous 'Spring Breathing'."

Gu Shen then realized… the scene he saw in the Jingzhe dream was just a remnant mental fragment.

Jingzhe was the beginning of the changing of the seasons, and also the beginning of the breathing technique.

"Guyu is in the Prison, Mangzhong is in the Command…" Gu Shen's eyes were burning, and he said, "Are there no rubbings of these two volumes to view?"

"Is Gu Changzhi's breathing technique so easy to rub? Over the years, only one 'Heavenly Eye' has appeared!" Cui Zhongcheng shook his head. "If you want other breathing techniques, I can think of a way, but these two volumes are not in the capital. If you want to see them, you need to submit an application yourself. The pre-condition that the Council defaults to agreeing to is that the applicant must have at least the strength of the sixth level of the Deep Sea."

"Sixth level of the Deep Sea?" Gu Shen gave a wry smile and said, "The requirements are so high?"

"It's still the same sentence, don't bite off more than you can chew. Before you cultivate the Jingzhe breathing technique to perfection, it may not be a good thing to come into contact with the other two volumes." Cui Zhongcheng said lightly, "Spring Breathing, it is already a great blessing for ordinary people to comprehend one volume. Therefore, the Council has set this rule that transcendents with strength below the sixth level of the Deep Sea shall not apply to come into contact with the second volume. This is both a restriction and a protection."

"That's true…" Gu Shen said helplessly.

Cui Zhongcheng suddenly said, "How long did it take you to comprehend Jingzhe?"

"Aha…"

Gu Shen quickly chuckled, "It's not worth mentioning, it's not worth mentioning."

This kid is still hiding it at this point?

Cui Zhongcheng didn't say anything. Since Gu Shen didn't say it, he was too lazy to ask more.

After a while, Gu Shen turned around the bronze offering platform again.

He slowly stopped at the most remote offering platform.

"Huh…"

Gu Shen lowered his body slightly so he could see more clearly. Inside the red-silver cover of this bronze offering platform lay a slender pointer.

"This is…?" He pointed to the red-silver cover.

"A clock hand of unknown origin." Cui Zhongcheng said, "As you can see, the seventh basement floor of Huazhi Tower is a museum specially used by the Zhao family to hold low-level sealed items. Many sealed items that cannot be traced or identified are uniformly collected and managed here… As far as I remember, this pointer has been sent here for many years. Because it has been so long, it no longer has active ability, but it condenses a very strong extraordinary source quality. Objects that touch this pointer, whether it is human skin or objects, will have their time solidified."

"Solidify time?"

Gu Shen immediately thought of Zhou Yexin's broken pocket watch.

"Well… only the part that is in contact with the pointer, a very small, very small part. The kind that can be completely ignored." Cui Zhongcheng stretched out two fingers and gently rubbed them together. "So its rating is only E, a sealed item that floats on the edge of the rating system, not a sealed item."

"Interesting…" Gu Shen smiled and said, "I don't want the breathing technique. Give me this pointer."

"You… are you sure?" Cui Zhongcheng frowned.

This kid, who sticks hair on and becomes a monkey, doesn't look like someone who would make a losing deal.

"I feel like I'm losing a bit… exchanging a breathing technique for a pointer of unknown origin, why don't you compensate me with another sealed item?" Gu Shen turned around, stroked his chin and said, "I want that silver vest."

Cui Zhongcheng: "???"

"Dream on. Take this pointer and get out of here." Cui Zhongcheng made a decisive decision and finalized it directly.

He used special tweezers to take out the pointer and put it in a thin bag with a red-silver plating.

"Okay… we'll write off what happened on the Jiangtan last night."

After completing the transaction, Cui Zhongcheng breathed a sigh of relief, but his expression was obviously a little tired. He really didn't want to see Gu Shen again. He personally sent him out of Huazhi Tower and repeatedly urged, "Don't let that old guy come to the building to cause trouble!"

Gu Shen nodded like a chicken pecking at rice to guarantee secrecy, and then trotted with the two sealed items to a secluded and deserted alley.

After confirming that there was no one around and no one was following… he breathed a long sigh of relief.

"Buzz!"

The Blazing Light uncontrollably swept out from the center of his eyebrows, instantly hitting the surface of the red-silver bag and splashing into liquid flames that flowed and burned, covering the bag in a 360-degree angle without dead ends.

If it weren't for the red-silver plating blocking it, it would probably have swallowed the "pointer" into its belly by now.

"It really is a glutton… eating what's in the bowl and thinking about what's in the pot, completely insatiable."

Gu Shen now gradually understood the meaning of the Deep Sea Trial.

The path of advancement for transcendents is the path of constantly developing and controlling one's own abilities… not every transcendent can perfectly control their abilities.

In the underground of Huazhi Tower, after feeling the extraordinary source quality contained in this pointer through the red-silver plating, the Blazing Fire in the center of his eyebrows immediately burst out with strong mental fluctuations, guiding him forward, even disregarding the source quality that was being digested, and conveying a firm will.

If the Blazing Fire could speak, what it would probably say at that time was…

"Wakakakaka, I want to eat it!"

Gu Shen had now discovered it.

This seemingly weak and harmless flame in the center of his eyebrows was actually an insatiable glutton.

In the pocket watch dream, seeing the blood-colored flame of unknown origin… the Blazing Fire also conveyed a strong will to devour it.

"You sure know how to eat…"

Gu Shen scrutinized the pointer through the red-silver bag. After the Blazing Fire awakened, the world in Gu Shen's eyes changed color. The blue sky was no longer clear blue, and the white clouds were no longer as white as snow. If he truly opened his "Mind's Eye", he would see that the flow of the entire world was disordered, and those extraordinary source qualities that redefined the order of the material world were like scattered and erratic winds.

This thin bag contained a fairly pure and large amount of extraordinary source quality.

No wonder the Blazing Fire had such a strong desire to devour it… From the point of view of devouring source quality alone, his exchange with Cui Zhongcheng was definitely not a loss.

But if you put aside these extraordinary source qualities, this pointer that had been abandoned by people was just an ordinary object. Solidifying time was indeed a heaven-defying ability, but it could only solidify a contact area of less than 1 square centimeter, which was really the most useless of the useless.

However… would it be a waste of natural resources if he just ate it like this?

After thinking about it, Gu Shen decided to keep this pointer safe.

"Can't eat it!"

He conveyed his will to the Blazing Fire with his mental power.

"Woo woo woo…"

The flame with its mouth open wide trembled desolately in the wind, sounding like a sob. It pitifully retracted, like a pool of mud, and little by little pulled away from the red-silver bag, eventually re-condensing into a flame, pitifully swept back to the center of Gu Shen's eyebrows.

This Blazing Fire was connected to his heart, and this feeling was very unique… It was as if he had a second soul.

Happiness, anger, sorrow, and joy were all doubled.

Feeling the grievance, Gu Shen was a little helpless.

"Good, listen to me… there will be more good things to eat in the future."

He felt like he was coaxing a child.

But this child was quite easy to coax. After Gu Shen comforted him, the little flame in the center of his eyebrows nodded like a chicken pecking at rice and settled down obediently.

"If the Blazing Fire is still just an infant… then its final appearance is closely related to my every choice." Gu Shen recalled the scene of the Ghost Cage, and his expression gradually became serious.

In the dream, his evil thoughts were almost monstrous!

After awakening his extraordinary power, he and the Blazing Fire had formed a symbiotic relationship.

The emotions it gave birth to would directly affect him… In fact, Gu Shen had already had several strong desires in his heart to open the red-silver bag and manipulate the Blazing Fire to directly swallow the pointer… but they were all suppressed by his strong willpower.

He must not allow the spontaneous emotions of extraordinary source quality to dominate his behavior.

"I am the master of this body… If I can't suppress my own extraordinary power, then it's not far from losing control."

After suppressing the restlessness, Gu Shen breathed a sigh of relief.

He gently stroked the center of his eyebrows and said in a low voice, "Little guy, you have to remember… the disciples of the glutton will not have a good end."