Chapter 1 The Seventhirtythird Day

This was the seventy-third day that Gu Shen was conscious.

In the depths of the icy sea, there was no sunrise or sunset, only the surge of tides. Endless darkness swallowed this small, narrow Wall of Longevity. Perhaps because countless beast spirits of the final Sangzhou Cave had thrown themselves into the volcano, this formation had absorbed a lot of life force and become exceptionally sturdy, not only withstanding the volcanic eruption but also resisting the corrosion of the deep-sea currents...

However, this did not change Gu Shen's predicament.

Time had lost its meaning here.

But Gu Shen did not give up. He started counting from the day he woke up.

He separated a wisp of Blazing Fire and placed it in the Pure Land world, calculating the flow of time every minute and every second.

If he really lost "time," then there would be no difference between "alive" and "dead."

"The price to pay for transcending the boundary three times is too great."

Gu Shen came to his Mind Lake through meditation. His soul condensed into a small figure, standing in front of the Mind Lake, looking into the distance, taking a deep breath.

The scale of this spiritual sea was truly enormous.

The spiritual sea of an ordinary ninth-level Deep Sea extraordinary was probably only one-twentieth of this!

Even among fourth-tier powerhouses, this spiritual sea was a top-tier existence!

Transcending the boundary three times had given Gu Shen the spiritual power of a top-tier fourth-tier powerhouse at the ninth level of the Deep Sea, but it had become extremely difficult for him to continue breaking through...

The more he transcended the boundary, the stronger the breakthrough, the more difficult it became!

"If I hadn't killed the Owl, I would need to increase the Blazing Fire first, and then transform the Blazing Fire into the 'Fire of Vitality'..."

Gu Shen stood above the Mind Lake, sighing softly, "Fortunately, I now have the Blood Fire, saving me the first step."

The Owl had hidden in the Sangzhou Cave for many years, and the vast amount of wealth he had accumulated was within this Wall of Longevity formation. He had become the final mantis, swallowing all of his Blood Fire!

The small soul figure sat cross-legged above the Mind Lake.

The Fire of Vitality spontaneously ignited between Gu Shen's eyebrows. This light, symbolizing "vitality," was constantly absorbing nourishment. A large amount of Blood Fire was summoned around the soul, flying out and transforming into specks of scarlet light,掠掠into Gu Shen's eyebrows... This was the necessary homework for advancing to the fourth tier, and there was no shortcut to take.

But in fact, devouring Blood Fire was already a shortcut.

Without this Blood Fire, Gu Shen really didn't know how long he would have to wait to advance to the fourth tier... because his Blazing Fire quantity was far from enough. This first step might have stalled for a long time.

Now, the small figure sitting cross-legged on the Mind Lake was constantly absorbing Blood Fire.

He could also multitask, simultaneously using Source Mass in the Pure Land to nourish the Blazing Fire.

The Spectator Mindset guaranteed absolute efficiency.

Time passed little by little...

On the two hundred and ninety-fourth day, the Blood Fire was completely drained and transformed into Gu Shen's "Fire of Vitality." The embryonic form of his domain could now cover a thin layer of Gu Shen's body surface, but it was still far from the fourth-tier "Domain" release, because the Mind Lake had expanded, so the Fire of Vitality's domain needed more raw materials.

Gu Shen was prepared for this. He began to transform his own portion of "Blazing Fire."

There were living beings in the Deep Sea.

During these two hundred and ninety-four days of focused cultivation, he often saw some huge deep-sea fish passing by around the Wall of Longevity... Perhaps because the "Ancient Text Formation" had a shielding effect, these deep-sea fish had not discovered Gu Shen's existence, so they had not launched an attack.

Their bodies were truly enormous.

Some fish, just their eyeballs, were bigger than the entire formation land!

As they swam past, the waves stirred by their tails constantly pushed Gu Shen, drifting him towards the unknown distance.

Gu Shen was powerless to resist, and too lazy to resist.

Anyway, he had already lost his way, and he did not rely on the Source Mass in the icy sea to survive.

So it didn't matter where he drifted in the depths of this icy sea...

During this time, he also discovered that there were remnants of Source Mass from ancient times in the icy sea. It was not as completely devoid of life as the Five Continents had imagined.

The reason these fish survived was because their group genes had changed... Although there was no direct contact, Gu Shen's intuition told him that those extremely large fish had all completed extraordinary awakenings, and several even brought a powerful sense of oppression to Gu Shen!

Their strength was likely no less than those powerhouses at the top of the pyramid in the human race!

"These deep-sea fish should need to rely on the unique Source Mass in the depths of the icy sea to maintain their lives... so they can never swim to the near-sea areas."

"But if there are extraordinary lives in this place, does it mean that there are other 'tribes' alive in the deepest part of the icy sea?"

For the past six hundred years, humans had been going north.

Because the north was their former homeland.

But the southern icy sea was rarely explored...

The living environment of the icy sea was worse than the [Old World], and it was too vast. Once, a powerful extraordinary team went south to sea, extremely deep, and eventually returned empty-handed. This made everyone give up the desire to explore the icy sea. After all, every time they went north to the [Old World], they could find something more or less.

Piecing together unknown maps, excavating ancient sealed objects, and searching for lost ancient texts.

These were all things that exploring the northern [Old World] could bring.

But the icy sea.

It was too big, too cold, and a trip to sea often brought nothing back.

A fruitless voyage was meaningless.

So fewer and fewer people entered the icy sea.

"Wait... If I keep drifting with the ocean current like this, won't I be sent to the legendary [Icy Sea Ruins]?"

Gu Shen's mind flashed with such a thought.

Immediately, he shook his head and laughed self-deprecatingly.

"What am I thinking? The probability is too small..."

If there was any gain from human exploration of the icy sea over the years... the only gain might be the so-called [Icy Sea Ruins].

This matter had been fermenting for a long time. At first, the Apostles went south together and found that they couldn't handle the ruins, and then the Storm Throne personally went to sea. However, perhaps because it was too far away, there was no news from the Storm Throne until now.

"The icy sea is so big, and the ruins are just a small dot..."

Gu Shen smiled lightly, looking at the stone wall drifting slowly in the ocean current, "And even if there is really 'precision guidance,' how long would it take to drift there, ten years? A hundred years?"

This stone wall drifted very slowly in the ocean current.

Stopping and starting.

If it encountered some obstacles, it would not move, and it could get stuck for several days.

"I shouldn't think too much, and seize the time to cultivate..."

Gu Shen looked up at the surface of the boundless deep sea. Every time his mental power made some breakthroughs, he would try to extend it to the outside world.

The most important thing was to first figure out where he was.

However...

His current mental strength was not enough, and he could not see the world above the sea level at all.

...

...

Time flies like an arrow.

The seven hundred and thirtieth day.

This was the entire second year that Gu Shen was conscious.

His Blazing Fire reserves were finally completely transformed, but there was still a gap to advancing to the fourth tier... Next was the final "assault battle." He needed to produce more Blazing Fire himself to transform into the Fire of Vitality. The progress bar for advancing to the fourth tier was about seventy percent complete.

The last thirty percent was the most time-consuming step.

During these days of closed-door cultivation, his concentration had once again made a breakthrough, and his use of mental power had also reached a new level.

Due to the extreme silence within the deep sea, he had upgraded from multitasking to "tritasking."

One mind split into three, one wisp of spirit cultivated Blazing Fire in the Pure Land, and one wisp of spirit transformed Fire of Vitality in the Mind Lake.

The last wisp rested under the Whispering Tree in the Pure Land, quietly comprehending the Longevity Formation.

No one could tolerate the extremely empty and extremely silent environment under the deep sea.

Even those extraordinary lives who had cultivated to a high level found it difficult to tolerate.

This was truly a cruel torment...

Every time the Beizhou Investigation Corps left the fortress, whether it was a long journey or not, they carried out missions in small teams. On the one hand, it was to take care of each other with more people, and on the other hand, it was to have more people to liven things up. In that kind of godforsaken environment, even a little sound was good to hear.

The "silent cultivation" state of a normal extraordinary person could be resolved at any time.

If something went wrong with the spirit in the closed-door quiet room, then one could leave the seclusion at any time.

But the deep sea was different—

Due to being in a state of "寂灭" (Jiemie, extinction) in the real world for a long time, Gu Shen's spirit had already shown some signs of disorder. If it were someone else, these two years of silent cultivation in the deep sea might have driven them crazy.

The reason Gu Shen hadn't gone crazy was because he had the "Pure Land."

In his own kingdom, he still had Li Qingci, Tie Wu...

Those low-level souls could not communicate, but they were still living beings with a certain degree of consciousness.

Whenever Gu Shen completed a certain stage of comprehension, he would go to Li Qingci and teach her the disassembled ancient texts of the Longevity Technique.

Gu Shen did not tell the people in the Pure Land what he had encountered in the real world.

However, Li Qingci still noticed something was wrong...

On this day, the mental transmission of some ancient texts of the Longevity Technique ended, and Li Qingci directly asked: "Gu Shen, did something happen in the real world?"

Gu Shen raised his eyebrows and asked, "Why do you ask that suddenly?"

"You have been cultivating in the Pure Land for a long time. You are not usually like this."

Li Qingci's answer was simple: "Don't tell me you can multitask... Only when you are in a state of closed-door cultivation in the real world do you dare to immerse yourself in the Pure Land world with peace of mind. If I'm not mistaken, the last time you mentioned things in the real world was in the Sangzhou Cave."

After speaking,

She pointed to Adam, who was directing the cultivation in the Pure Land flower garden in the distance.

Adam's soul was shattered on Mount Tianyao and was taken to the Pure Land by Gu Shen... In the past few years, the Pure Land world had expanded more than doubled. The eight flower gardens surrounding the Whispering Tree had all returned to their places. The amount of Source Mass produced had gradually begun to increase. Those seedling leaves that bravely emerged from the soil despite the frost and extreme cold could be called a miracle of the Pure Land.

All of this was thanks to Adam.

Adam was studying "Source Mass Originology."

After he discovered these green leafy plants that could emit extraordinary Source Mass, he pounced on them like a hungry wolf seeing food.

These plants directly touched the end of Source Mass Originology. In order to touch the truth of the Great Dao, Adam once forgot to sleep and eat... Although the souls in the Pure Land did not need to sleep and eat.

At first, Adam often came to Gu Shen, either to pray for rain or to fertilize.

Later, Gu Shen told Adam euphemistically that the operation of this world required Source Mass, and the Source Mass in the Pure Land could not support frequent rainfall.

From that day on, Adam began the long task of "saving the seedlings by indirect means." He decided to take those low-level souls and fill the flower gardens around the Whispering Tree first, and then collect the seeds under the frozen soil of the Pure Land world and cultivate them one by one.

After all, with sufficient Source Mass, the "world owner" could perform miracles such as rainfall and sunshine.

"Adam has been in the Pure Land world for more than two years. Even if there were no more storms after the completion of the Sangzhou Cave mission, you would not be in seclusion for so long." Li Qingci said calmly: "Most importantly... You have been sitting under the Whispering Tree for two years, cultivating, without telling me a single thing about Qing Sui."

"As expected, I still can't hide it from you."

After hearing this, Gu Shen lowered his eyes.

He did not choose to continue hiding, but confessed: "Something did happen in the real world. The specific situation is a long story. You only need to know... I am now buried in the depths of the icy sea, perhaps several thousand meters deep, perhaps ten thousand meters."

"The depths of the icy sea?"

Li Qingci was stunned.

Although she had already had a psychological expectation, this news was still a bit absurd.

"You don't have to worry. I am the only one buried in the icy sea."

Gu Shen said lightly: "The 【昙曜】(Tanyao) of Sangzhou Cave erupted. The Storm Church used its authority to push the isolated island into the icy sea. In the end, the island disintegrated... Well, that's about it."

"???"

Li Qingci's expression was very wonderful. She suddenly thought of something and asked in horror: "Wait, do you mean... you have been buried under the icy sea for two years?"

Gu Shen nodded silently.

"The Source Mass born from the Pure Land is enough for me to maintain basic life activities... As long as my spirit does not go wrong, this state can continue."

Li Qingci looked at Gu Shen incredulously and said: "Are you sure you are not dead, and now you are a spirit after death, staying with us 'dead'?"

"..."

Gu Shen was a little helpless.

He sighed and said: "To be honest, my spirit has gradually begun to have some problems recently. I myself had similar illusions to the idea you just mentioned. However, in the real world, my heart can still beat. Although my physical functions are beginning to weaken, I am probably still alive... right?"

Li Qingci heard it.

The last word meant that Gu Shen himself was not sure.

After saying this, the wisp of spirit that Gu Shen left under the Whispering Tree had a bit of trance, not fatigue, but "numbness."

"Not good..."

Li Qingci sensed something bad.

She took a deep breath and quickly squatted down, shaking Gu Shen's shoulders hard.

Everything is silent, everything is lonely.

This state... is no different from death.

"Gu Shen, can you hear me?"

Looking at the trance Gu Shen, Li Qingci tried to continue the conversation, but the other party had no reaction.

"The Pure Land is still in 'severe winter.' It is in the state closest to death, just like you right now."

She quickly opened her mouth, shouting in a low voice, while raising her arm. She pointed to the frost-covered branches of the Whispering Tree and reminded loudly: "Didn't Mr. Gu Changzhi leave you the Four Seasons Breathing Technique? You have successfully taken that step of reverse cultivation... Gu Shen, you must believe in yourself, you can live from death!"

"Rumble..."

In the real world on the seven hundred and thirtieth day.

The deep ocean current rolled out a dull sound of water bubbles.

The eyelids of the withered figure sitting on the Wall of Longevity trembled slightly.

Gu Shen's spirit was disordered. He vaguely only remembered Li Qingci's shout and the last four words.

Live from death.