Chapter 1 The Turmoil of the Beast Tide

The turmoil of the beast tide engulfed the entire Sangzhou Cave.

Just as Gu Shen had guessed, the volcanic ash spewed out by [Tanyao] not only disrupted the flow of source substance... but even the perception of the Throne's authority became ineffective in this realm.

Saintess Jiatie, listening to [Tide], could only hear countless roars of beasts at this moment.

Likewise.

The Envoy of the Source Tower, wielding [Cloud Mirror], could only see chaos.

No one knew that within the Southern Cave Forest, there was such a flawless barrier, maintaining a rare tranquility amidst the beast tide.

And no one knew of the conversation between the Red Dragon and Gu Shen at this moment.

"Some things, why delve into the reasons—"

The Red Dragon said calmly, "Now that you've broken through, this is a good thing, isn't it enough?"

"Not enough... of course, it's not enough."

The iron scale phantom surrounding Gu Shen did not dissipate.

Although he knew that even if he broke through, he was no match for the Red Dragon... he couldn't feel at ease if he didn't clarify this matter.

"The Wine God Throne died in Dongzhou."

"Those extraordinary beings in the Upper City should also detest and hate Dongzhou the most."

"As the head Envoy of the Source Tower, why would you help me break through? I don't want this kind of 'good thing'."

Gu Shen paused.

"You, revered as an Envoy of the Source Tower, should know the rules. Meeting me here is a grave crime that violates the Envoy's regulations. Once seen by [Cloud Mirror], even with a thousand lives, you wouldn't escape death."

"..."

The Red Dragon was silent for a second, then gripped the knife again, chuckling, "So you want me to continue? To kill you here?"

"I really do hope so."

Gu Shen said calmly, "I'd rather you draw your blade now, so there won't be so much trouble."

"Then you might be disappointed."

The Red Dragon's fingers only lightly touched the hilt of the knife.

He had just pretended to grip the knife, only putting on a show. Seeing Gu Shen's certainty that he wouldn't draw the blade, he didn't continue acting. Instead, he said frankly, "Don't worry, no one will know you and I met here, unless you say it."

"If you don't make it clear, I will—"

Gu Shen smiled, "I will let the Sky know what you've done... Zhuque should be pursued by Jia Wei, right? As the Source Tower's trump card, the 'Fourth-Order Transcendence,' you should be on the way to save him."

"Yes... I've seriously neglected my duty."

The Red Dragon lowered his eyes and smiled, slowly saying, "As the Chief Envoy of the Source Tower, I shouldn't be here. If the Sky God Throne has even the slightest suspicion, I will die..."

He paused for a second, with a tone of indifference towards death, "That's nothing."

"But..."

"I willingly take such a great risk, traveling thousands of miles to the Southern Cave region to help you break through. Will you turn around and stab me in the back?"

The Red Dragon stared intently into Gu Shen's eyes, asking word by word, "Mr. [Key]?"

Gu Shen was stunned.

He fell into complete silence.

The arcs of [Truth] slowly dissipated, and the iron scale phantoms floating around him also returned to the void. The iron scales in the sky returned to Gu Shen's sleeves, obediently re-arranging themselves in formation.

"What did you call me?"

"Do I need to repeat it again?"

The Red Dragon lowered his head, examining his attire. He wore the Source Tower's most magnificent ten-star patterned dragon official robes, spotless, and his sword was engraved with the exclusive ancient script of the Red Dragon official.

He reached out and dusted off the front of his robe. This was his first meeting with Gu Shen, and after the cessation of swords, they revealed their identities. The scene was much more peaceful, and also a bit more awkward, than he imagined.

From the moment the word "[Key]" landed, the interior of the barrier became extremely silent.

"I am a member of the 'Organization'."

The Red Dragon sighed softly and asked, "What? Doesn't seem like it?"

"..."

Gu Shen said frankly, "Doesn't quite seem like it."

"Only by not seeming like it can you survive."

"My teacher and Mr. Turing were old friends. The operation plan for Turing's escape from the Northern Cave Fortress was formulated by him." The Red Dragon's tone was calm, as if he was talking about something that had nothing to do with him. "The complete collapse of the Ancient Script Society came from the erroneous instructions of [Deep Sea] that year... The main system identified and locked onto the vast majority of the Ancient Script Society members, plotting a near-perfect absolute kill. But it wasn't strong enough at that time, so the list wasn't complete. It was because of the main system's 'negligence' that I was able to survive."

Gu Shen frowned and murmured, "Twenty years ago..."

"I was nine years old then, and my parents were both members of the Ancient Script Society."

The Red Dragon raised his eyebrows, "My father was from Northern Continent, and my mother was a mixed race from Central and Eastern Continent. So I have half Northern Continent blood, and a quarter Central and Eastern Continent blood. They used to work for 'Red Emperor,' responsible for the underground ancient script research in Central City, which was the predecessor of the 'Underground Research Institute'. Later, [Deep Sea] issued instructions, and Red Emperor sent people to kill all the ancient script members in the entire research institute. I escaped by chance, and the main system determined that I was already dead... Mr. Tianshui re-registered my files, and I changed my name and came to the Source Tower, becoming a 'Envoy' candidate, while inheriting my father's number, responsible for recording in the 'Conference Room'."

"Your number is..."

"064."

The Red Dragon said gently, "Before you appeared, I was the most loyal recorder in the Conference Room."

Chu Ling spoke up immediately, "064, there is indeed such a person."

Gu Shen's expression became solemn. Even without Chu Ling's reminder, he clearly remembered this number!

Lu Nanzhi had told him... during the most difficult period of searching for [Key], there were several special faces with numbers to remember in the Ancient Script Society's Conference Room—

031, which can now be basically confirmed as his teacher, Zhou Jiren.

073, the garrison of the Northern Continent Gu Fort Fortress, Lin Lin.

One of them was 064!

According to Lu Nanzhi's speculation, this was a Central Continent academy professor. Because the number was too old, the qualifications must be very deep. Gu Shen previously suspected that it was the hidden scholar Yin En in Linz Small Town, but later this conjecture was overturned by himself, because Yin En's qualifications were too deep. If he had a special number, it would probably be level 002, 003.

Now that the Red Dragon took the initiative to say the number, the truth behind the scenes came to light.

"What, still don't believe me?"

The Red Dragon saw that Gu Shen was still silent. He extended two fingers and pointed them at his forehead. "I have stored some image data of the 'Conference Content'. If necessary, I can provide further proof..."

"No need."

Gu Shen shook his head decisively. He looked at the ace official of the Source Tower in front of him with a complex expression.

"I just think... it's a bit absurd."

"Absurd?"

The Red Dragon paused, immediately understanding Gu Shen's meaning, "To become the 'First Envoy' of the Source Tower, Mr. Tianshui gave me a lot of help. Staying in the fourth order was also his idea."

Once he breaks through, becoming a Title... then the Red Dragon will not be as "free" as he is now.

Handling affairs across continents is basically impossible!

"Tianshui... Tianshui..."

Recently, Gu Shen had heard the name of this Upper City champion more than once.

Among the Seven Gods, the Sky God Throne of the Source Tower is the most mysterious!

Because he has held the Throne for nearly a hundred years.

Long-lived people in the mortal world are only eighty or ninety years old.

In the past hundred years, the five continents, the格局 (ge ju – overall situation) changed, the times vibrated... the rotation of the Seven Gods' seats has occurred more than once, but only "Sky" has steadily sat on the Throne, as if truly far away from the world's birth, old age, sickness, and death.

Sitting on the Throne is not divinity.

The Fire Seed burns forever, but life has an end.

High-level transcendents can live a few decades longer than ordinary people. If a Title powerhouse like Grandpa Gu does not participate in disputes or battles in his later years, and just lives peacefully, then living to one hundred and twenty or thirty years old is not a big problem.

But once you participate in the war, it's different.

Gu Qilin had to support the Gu family in his later years, so he was destined not to live that long.

Every time you use extraordinary source substance to break the laws of the material world, you need to pay a "price"...

The scales of fate are balanced!

The more powerful the transcendent, the more easily they are entangled by disaster!

The God Throne... not to mention.

But the Sky's fighting power, after a hundred years, is still unfathomable. None of the Seven Gods dare to fight him head-on.

He doesn't seem to worry about the erosion of all the rules in the world.

If the God Throne can do these things, it belongs to "miracle."

Then Mr. Tianshui, as the Sky's champion, is still alive... is an incomprehensible, irregular "exception."

He is older than the Sky God Throne.

He has lived at least one hundred and thirty years!

The specific number is unknown.

Compared with Tianshui's age, whether it is Gu Qilin or Zhou Jiren, they can only be regarded as "young people", still two or three age generations behind.

"Forgive my boldness."

Gu Shen rubbed his eyebrows, unable to understand.

"Mr. Tianshui is the Sky God Throne's champion. He has cultivated countless officials, personally brought Upper City to the top of the five continents, and helped the Source Tower become the top human force. Why would he do these things..."

The Red Dragon smiled indifferently.

He stared into Gu Shen's eyes, "You are the [Key]. Don't you know why Mr. Tianshui is doing all this?"

"..."

Gu Shen could only be speechless.

"Key..."

For him, [Key] is just an identity. At the beginning, he thought that he was going to open the [Red Door] and connect to the Conference Room, so he was given this title.

Later, every member of the Ancient Script Society he met called him that.

Because they don't know what [Key] is...

When Turing left, he only told the remnants of the Ancient Script Society that finding [Key] is like finding hope.

Everyone is looking for [Key].

Everyone thinks [Key] is hope—

But no one can tell Gu Shen what [Key] is.

"..."

The Red Dragon raised his head. The Sangzhou Cave, which had finally cleared up, was now gloomy again. The sky clouds dispersed quickly and condensed even faster. Thick volcanic ash accumulated in chunks under the false sky, and the cold wind blowing at this moment carried a depressing chill.

The source substance aura at the southern end of the Ice Sea was surging towards the Sangzhou Cave in large quantities.

Located at the southernmost end, the Southern Cave would naturally bear the brunt.

"Mr. Tianshui is doing all this for one thing."

The Red Dragon exhaled a turbid breath. He kept his tone calm and spat out two words from his lips.

"Godslaying."

A scarlet lightning flashed across the cloudy sky.

Gu Shen had a moment of absentmindedness.

The heavy rain arrived in an instant. The mud from the beast tide trampling the land became turbid in the rain. Neither of them used the domain to avoid the rain. The source substance emitted by the domain evaporated the rainwater. It was unclear whether it was mist or rain, filling the field of vision between the two.

"No matter what the process in the middle is..."

The Red Dragon spoke again.

As the top Envoy of the Source Tower, he was now saying rebellious, insane remarks that deserved to be executed for nine generations!

The voice was word by word, more decisive and firm than the thunder in the dome.

"The ultimate goal of the先生 (xiansheng – Mr./Sir) is to kill the 'Sky God Throne'!"

...

...

Boom!

A muffled thunder sounded over the heads of everyone in Upper City.

The Ice Sea monsoon finally blew into the Central Continent inland.

The sentry towers on the Rhine Coast had already lit the source substance lamps early in the morning, preparing to open the extraordinary barrier to block the sea breeze, but the order from Upper City was to let it pass, because the Central Continent inland had been sunny for too long and needed a heavy rain to cleanse it.

Indeed, the Central Continent has a mild climate and very few extreme weather conditions all year round.

One reason is the superior geographical location.

Another reason...

Is that the God Throne sitting at the highest point of the Central Continent can easily control the "weather."

The highest level of the Source Tower, the nihilistic dream woven by the Fire Seed spirit, is filled with flowing clouds. This is located at the highest peak of the world, and all who come here are amazed by its beauty.

Every cloud here is real.

Dreams don't have to weave existing things.

The Sky God Throne, Qinglong, wore loose silk robes, lazily sitting on the God Throne. In front of and behind him, countless chessboards were placed. According to the current people of Upper City, those were all games from the [Old Era]. In the fourth year after the advent of [Deep Sea], there were no peer chess players in the human world who could compete with it.

At that time, the Deep Sea main system had just undergone two large iterations.

Each iteration is a leap and qualitative change in countless aspects.

In fact, [Deep Sea] truly defeated the top human chess players in the fourth iteration... because powerful transcendents whose mental power broke through the deep-sea restrictions are not in the "chess player" ranks defined by the social rules of the five continents.

But if the definition is broadened again—

Then [Deep Sea], which has been iterated nine times, has still not defeated all opponents.

The enemy it faces at this moment is a great existence that has completely digested the Sky Fire Seed and surpassed the definition of "mortal."

Hundreds of chessboards are playing simultaneously.

One after another [Cloud Mirror] floats around Qinglong's throne. He closes his eyes, supporting his chin with one hand, drowsy, but the other hand gently twirls the chess pieces, knocking them in a slow rhythm.

With each knock, the [Cloud Mirror] chessboard changes once. This is not a step move, but countless steps.

The God Throne's computing power and the main system are playing an old era game.

This is not a game to determine the winner.

But countless games.

The number of games is up to Qinglong. There have been tens of millions, or more, duels. The real "win or loss" is only a fuzzy probability. In tens of millions of duels, the wins and losses of both sides of the game are recorded in the database—

This seems meaningless.

This is just a game to pass the time. In fact, it is true. People who have lived for a long time always need to do something to feel the joy of the world.

For Qinglong, who has lived for more than a hundred years, this... is his only pleasure in his leisurely days.

Just between the moves, he cast a casual glance at the empty corners of the divine realm, and at the same time uttered a meaningful sigh.

"Why is it suddenly raining?"

At the top of the Source Tower, there is a pure white shadow, almost integrated with the sky clouds.

The white shadow knew that there was no one else here except himself.

He replied, "This is Mr. Tianshui's intention... it hasn't rained in the Central Continent for a long time."

"..."

Qinglong's mind was still on the chess game. After a long time, he smiled softly, "Thinking about it carefully, that's really the case."

"If you don't like it, I'll change the 'rainy day'."

The white shadow said respectfully.

"No, no need..."

Qinglong twirled the piece, and said indifferently, "Since the 先生 (xiansheng – Mr./Sir) thinks it's time to rain, then let it rain."