Chapter 1 A Clash

This sword pierced through blood and fire, striking Gu Shen's forehead.

Yet, it produced an extremely hard, crisp sound.

"Clang!"

After that, there were no more sounds.

This fragile, thin sound echoed in the dust. Adam, who had immediately retreated after the failed attack, stood a hundred meters away, calmly looking down at the broken, scrap-metal short sword in his palm.

Layers of scarlet flames dispersed, and this sudden mental binding barrier was torn apart by the raging fire, layer by layer.

Gu Shen slowly stepped out from within.

His brow was wreathed in dense, black iron scales!

Yes, a sixth-order source armor could only protect his body, but he also had the Iron Throne... Weapons forged from ordinary materials like wing iron simply couldn't break through the defense after the iron scales were superimposed.

"Truly unexpected."

Gu Shen's tone was mocking. His face showed no surprise as he said expressionlessly, "I really didn't expect to see you in the Sang Zhou Grotto. What should I say now?"

"Since it's a reunion of acquaintances, you can say, 'Fate brings people together from a thousand miles away.'"

Adam dropped the scrap metal, a smile on his face, his pupils now completely blood-red.

"Who's an acquaintance with you?"

Gu Shen sneered, "I'd rather say… vermin should stay in the latrine instead of coming out to disgust people. The biggest failure of the Storm Church in recent years is not getting rid of you."

After the Silver City of Nan Zhou incident, Owl should have been hunted down by the Church like a mad dog.

Gu Shen had thought that even if this guy could escape the pursuit of the Saint, he wouldn't be having a good time. But unexpectedly, they met again in Rein City in Zhong Zhou not long after.

Bloodfire had countless hosts.

Because of its characteristic of being able to parasitize at will, as long as Owl's mental strength was strong enough, he could dispatch a large number of clones to carry out actions all over the world!

Just from this characteristic alone, Bloodfire could be considered an "S-level" ability!

With the blessing of this ability, as long as Owl had enough patience, he could become a dangerous figure that even a major continent would fear… Back in Dadu, he even seized the body of Commissioner Zhou Yu, who possessed the strength of a titled expert.

But precisely because he possessed this ability.

Owl wouldn't stop there.

His true ambition was certainly greater… Becoming a titled expert was the pinnacle for ordinary people, but it was nothing to him.

The characteristics of Bloodfire were too dangerous.

If it was seen by a God Seat, they would definitely take action to eliminate it.

No matter how much he jumped around, he had no chance of surviving in the palm of the Seven Gods.

"The Storm Church not getting rid of me is indeed something to feel regretful about." Adam's expression was indifferent, not at all annoyed. Instead, he smiled and joked, "Who told the Storm God Seat to be a conceited person who overlooked all living beings? If he had only looked at me once more, I should already be dead. But… there are no ifs in this world, so I'm still alive and well now."

Owl himself also knew that he wasn't qualified to clamor in front of a God Seat.

So he tucked his tail and eked out an existence.

And living until now… his scheme was for the Tanyao, or rather, the things in the core area of Tanyao.

"This should be where your main body is located, right?"

Silver light surged in Gu Shen's palm, and Truth converged into a sword.

His gaze passed over Adam, directly toward the end of the mountain ridge. If he had to find a place to stay within the Five Continents, then the Sang Zhou Grotto was the best place, without exception… The mountain ash here could conceal source substance, preventing it from being spied on by the Deep Sea, and it could also shield the authority!

As long as a God Seat didn't personally arrive.

Then he would be safe.

"..."

Adam smiled slightly, not answering the question.

But the answer was already very obvious.

A large amount of mountain ash flowed between the two, and at this moment, the mountain ridge welcomed its final silence.

"Just now, you reacted in advance to the attack, you guessed what I was going to do." Adam said with a sinister smile, "How did you guess?"

"Although I don't know how you managed to shield yourself from the perception of the raging fire..."

Gu Shen pointed his sword tip at the blond man, saying calmly, "But I do have to admit that my spirit didn't detect the aura of Bloodfire."

His flame had been lurking around, observing.

Adam's reaction, Adam's behavior.

None of these had any problems!

"But you made a very stupid mistake… I said Suzaku was dead, but I didn't say I killed Suzaku." Gu Shen said faintly, "It's very difficult to hunt down the Four Divine Messengers alone, my internal plan has always been to surround Suzaku if there's a chance."

Adam was stunned.

No one knew the content of Gu Shen and Red Dragon's conversation.

His act of hunting Suzaku alone wouldn't be known by anyone either.

"I find it hard to accept this reason."

Adam smiled helplessly and said, "You have to know, the original owner of this body isn't a smart person outside of the research field. This kind of small mistake in wording shouldn't count as evidence, right?"

"Sorry… I make judgments based solely on intuition."

"Ever since you were brought back by Jiang Du, I've felt that something was wrong."

"Adam cherishes his life like gold, so he hopes I can save him from the sea of suffering and avoid dying at Suzaku's hands… But now the Tanyao is about to erupt, and this guy is still covered in wounds, and was just attacked by beast spirits. Would a person like that, after waking up, immediately set off for the core area of Tanyao?"

Gu Shen paused and said, "From that moment on, I began to be wary of you. I guessed that you were the one causing trouble… but I didn't find a single bit of suspicious aura on Adam."

The blond man chuckled.

The blood-red flames in the sky flowed backward like rain, converging towards his body!

And he took off the mechanical prosthetic eye, the empty eye socket filled with scarlet blood streaks again.

"Because… there has never been any 'Eye of Fate.'"

Adam lowered his head, looking at his hands, and said with a mocking smile, "This idiot did pick up an eye in the core area of Tanyao, and he did see some illusions, but these were all the results of being influenced by Bloodfire Spirit. Everything he saw was what I let him see. Before my consciousness was released and invaded, he was always him, and everything he said was the truth."

So that was it.

Raging Fire was the most accurate lie detector, and the reason there was no abnormality before was because Owl had deceived Adam.

"No Eye of Fate, those divinations..."

Gu Shen narrowed his eyes.

After coming here, Adam had given more than one accurate prediction.

About Mr. Zhuang's notes, about the Child of the Divine Scroll, about the Neutralizer!

He suddenly realized something very important… Owl's characteristic was "Spiritual Seizure". He had used this characteristic to cultivate a huge cultist foundation in the Dadu District.

So what had Owl's spirit been doing in these three years of living in the Sang Zhou Grotto?

In order to avoid possible Church pursuit in the future.

Owl didn't dare to use his spirit to seize extremists in large numbers, because once it involved Storm Faith, it might attract the God Seat to take action.

But seizing the transcendent beings on this island wouldn't be any danger!

No one would care about the life or death of these transcendent beast spirits!

Even more, no one would have thought that every single thing these seemingly foolish beast spirits did was actually meaningful, that someone was manipulating and directing them!

So every beast tide erupted so coincidentally!

Qi Mo and Zhuang Su both thought that this was the Divine Infant influencing Tanyao, but in reality, it was Owl's will driving the beast tide… Over the long years of three years, his spirit had penetrated the volcanic crust, spreading towards the island, and many transcendent beings had been planted with the spiritual imprint of Bloodfire.

And after the awakening experiment began, a large number of beast spirits gained consciousness and were able to autonomously seek good fortune and avoid misfortune, and a very small number of them felt the danger of Bloodfire and attacked the periphery!

For them—

The most terrifying existence was actually Owl, who lived in the island without a trace!

Gu Shen was silent, the cause and effect connected at this moment, and those seemingly strange little mysteries were also explained.

Chen Li being deliberately attacked by the beast tide, Adam being carried away by the Great Winged Sparrow, were all situations under Owl's control.

"So the one who killed Suzaku… was actually you."

Gu Shen stared at the blond man in front of him.

No wonder he felt strange when he saw Suzaku!

Obviously.

When he fought him, Suzaku's spirit had already been eroded by Bloodfire!

"From a biological point of view, the person who stopped Suzaku's heart from beating was you." Adam smiled, "You were the one who crushed Suzaku to ashes, what I did wasn't that bad… He was about to suffocate in the depths of Tanyao, I gave him a breath of air. Theoretically, I'm the one who saved him."

"..."

Being able to say such a thing, Gu Shen felt that he had underestimated the shamelessness of the person in front of him.

"And now, I'm going to save you."

Hearing these words, Gu Shen couldn't help but sneer.

He raised his sword and slashed down!

The arc of Truth splashed and roared, turning into a long rainbow piercing the ground. However, the mountain ash swirled and revolved, and the source substance flowing in the sword light quickly decayed. This volcano was equivalent to a natural domain—

A natural domain that suppressed all transcendent beings!

Adam didn't even move.

He stood a hundred meters away, watching the silver-white sword energy tear through layers of dust.

In the end, only one-tenth remained when it reached him.

"Chih!"

Bloodfire swept out, transforming into a shield, and collided with the sword energy, directly annihilating this ranged sword energy.

Adam chuckled.

But in the next moment, his eyes blurred, and after the sword energy shattered, a figure rushed over at an extremely fast speed.

Gu Shen began running after releasing the sword, and began to accumulate power!

Truth disappeared from the sword form, turning into countless silver rays wrapping his fist.

A punch was thrown out!

Raging Fire and Bloodfire collided, and this fist forcibly tore apart the scarlet barrier, smashing towards the blond man's cheek!

The smile on Adam's face suddenly disappeared, and he raised his arms, crossed them, and assumed a defensive posture.

"Boom!"

In the muffled sound, Adam was sent flying. His feet plowed a long gully in the ground. After Gu Shen shattered the Bloodfire barrier, he didn't have the slightest intention of stopping. A knee strike heavily hammered into the blond man's abdomen, causing Adam to cough up a large mouthful of blood, followed by an elbow strike landing on his back, and then countless fists and feet, pouring out like a storm!

Raging Fire was a mental type, and so was Bloodfire!

If outsiders were to witness this battle, they would definitely find it absurd and ridiculous.

Two top-level mental-type transcendent beings were engaging in hand-to-hand combat…

To be precise, it was one side crushing and trampling the other!

In the beginning, Adam still had time to block a few moves, but as Gu Shen's fists and feet were fully unleashed, Adam was unable to defend. He could only hold his head and protect his face, which was the most important and fragile area, because Bloodfire resided in the head.

And Gu Shen was merciless…

He knew that the body at this moment belonged to Adam, but this level of battle couldn't tolerate the slightest bit of compassion. The person whose spirit was seized by Owl… would most likely only have death as an outcome.

Having fought Owl many times, he knew that the host's pain and senses would be transmitted.

Since Owl didn't care about Adam's body being trampled.

Then he didn't care about trampling Owl's spirit either.

This beating lasted for more than ten minutes. Gu Shen maintained an extremely high rate of attack speed, and he didn't have the slightest sign of energy depletion… If Owl could withstand it, then he could keep fighting! Until he beat the original owner of the body, Adam, to death!

"Boom!"

Above the sky, a muffled thunder sounded.

Gu Shen's act of venting his killing intent was finally interrupted by a Great Winged Sparrow King. In the distance, countless dark clouds were like ink, and a large number of black sparrows swooped down as if they were bewitched!

The Great Winged Sparrow clan on Sang Zhou Grotto Island generally possessed considerable strength.

And the Great Winged Sparrow King, who led the entire clan, could even reach the realm of a third-order transcendent being.

This Great Winged Sparrow King was more dangerous than the one that had almost killed Chen Li earlier, and was almost approaching the fourth order!

In the ten minutes of purely being beaten without any ability to fight back, Owl's spirit had indeed suffered greatly…

This was the solution he had thought of.

Use external objects to interfere with the battle!

Countless black sparrows came to die—

Gu Shen had no choice but to give up continuing to beat Adam.

He sneered, and with one last slap, he pressed down on Adam's face, smashing him heavily into the ground. This impact was extremely fierce, causing Adam's head to be embedded twenty centimeters into the ground, the whole person planted upside down into the ground.

Immediately afterward.

Gu Shen unfurled the Iron Throne, and one hundred and sixty-eight iron scale flying swords lined up in formation.

The black tide of Great Winged Sparrows drowned him.

And the sharp blade light cut out countless blood!

The sky and earth were dim, the mountain ash roared, and in the black tide, a giant Sparrow King with an especially large body let out a sharp cry, unfolding its wings that were twenty meters wide, cutting through the dust like blades.

Gu Shen didn't retreat, but instead started running.

At the moment the two collided, Gu Shen instantly unfurled the Pure Land Domain, and a large amount of frost surrounded the Great Winged Sparrow King, causing its speed to suddenly slow down. Immediately afterward, Gu Shen pulled out the two short daggers, Rend and Source Breaker, and inserted them into the Great Winged Sparrow King's frost-frozen forehead!

Boom!

The huge sound of falling shattered the black tide!

This Great Winged Sparrow King was killed in one encounter, its corpse nailed to the volcanic ground, and its two huge iron wings were frozen by the Pure Land, then shattered by the Raging Fire!

Gu Shen slowly stood up.

This Great Winged Sparrow group that had been temporarily conscripted was slaughtered clean within seconds…

Under the black tide and blood mist, Gu Shen's black Enforcer robe, which rustled in the wind, seemed very sinister.

He stared expressionlessly at Adam, who was sitting up in the distance, propped up on his elbows.

The Raging Fire drew on the blood mist, the source substance of living beings, and the scattered, fragmented Bloodfire in the air.

Adam looked at this scarlet scene and couldn't help but smile.

"Tsk, truly unbelievable, this should be the strongest third-order ever, right?"

"With your current spiritual strength, and level of combat power. You only need to break through once more, reach the fourth order, and you should be able to try to fuse with the 'Fire Seed', right?"

He stretched out a palm, slowly and deliberately wiping the wound on his cheek, and asked with a smile, "Gu Shen… I'm not joking with you, I really came to save you. Don't you feel that there's an attraction between Raging Fire and Bloodfire? Don't you want to know the relationship between the two?"