Chapter 423 Don't Cry

“Xiao Man, I’ve finally found you.”

The snow fell silently, and the wind filled the mountain ridge.

Gu Shen reached out and gently embraced the trembling, thin figure of Xiao Man, patting her back softly.

“Xiao Man…”

He thought for a long time, a thousand words in his heart.

In the end, Gu Shen simply reached out, wiped away the little girl’s tears, and then smiled, uttering two words.

“Don’t cry.”

Xiao Man took a deep breath.

Gu Shen turned around, shielding the little one behind him.

He felt his torn sleeve being gently tugged, and a cautious voice sounded nervously, “Gu Shen… he’s very strong.”

The image of the red figure drawing his blade had greatly shaken Xiao Man.

She was very worried.

Gu Shen… was no match for this red figure.

The tug on his sleeve was her way of saying she wanted to leave.

Before, she had really wanted to see the end of the Ice Sea Ruins, because her intuition told her that there was something there worth risking her life to explore.

But after meeting Gu Shen, she no longer felt that way.

She now wanted to go back alive with Gu Shen.

If continuing forward would put Gu Shen at risk… then she would rather not go.

“Don’t worry.”

“…No matter how strong he is, I’ll kill him for you to see.”

At this moment, Gu Shen’s voice sounded as reliable as a mountain in Xiao Man’s ears. She had a vague feeling that even if the sky were to fall, Gu Shen could hold it up!

“Whoosh!”

The silence on the snowfield was broken.

The red figure drew his blade again, the hundreds of bamboo scales hanging on his body clanging. He stepped on the ground and attacked with astonishing speed.

It was such a “simple and unadorned” swordsmanship.

That had left the Five Continents forces of the Ice Sea Ruins with no fight left in them.

Gu Xiao Man’s pupils constricted. Her mental strength was already outstanding among her peers, but this level of combat was still too advanced for her. She didn’t even see the red figure’s movement clearly. In a flash, a figure wielding a blade high above his head appeared!

Throughout the entire process of the long blade striking down.

Gu Shen had not moved a single step.

But it wasn’t that he hadn’t reacted. From beginning to end, his Blazing Fire had been fixed on the red figure. The opponent’s explosive speed was fast, but his mental perception was even faster!

He had stubbornly endured a blow earlier… which was actually a kind of “test.”

Traveling south all the way, covered in dust.

His mental power caught Xiao Man just as the red figure was drawing his blade.

So Gu Shen saw the bizarre scene of Xiao Man dodging the red figure’s attack with a punch, and it was because of this that he had the idea of taking a blade with his physical body.

The bamboo armor man’s blade speed and posture were impeccable.

But his combat thinking was very strange, as if he had been “cautiously” programmed… even the attacks of a third-order transcendent, the bamboo armor man would actually avoid!

“He” did not formulate tactics based on the opponent's strength.

But instead, he was adapting to the situation!

So this time… Gu Shen deliberately waited until the bamboo figure’s long blade was about to touch his forehead before making a move!

The red figure’s blade fell!

Gu Shen moved instantly. The two great domains of the Blazing Fire Pure Land rose from the ground. The moment the domain spread, it triggered the “red figure’s” retreat mechanism, but the blade strike was already ninety percent complete. It was too late to retreat now. A cluster of azure frost enveloped the tip of the blade, and countless snowflakes climbed up the bamboo armor like small snakes!

“?!”

The bamboo armor red figure rapidly retreated. The bamboo armor on his body trembled densely, constantly stirring up shattered ice.

He tried to get rid of Gu Shen’s [Pure Land] suppression by moving at high speed, but the effect was very poor.

Gu Shen reached out his palm from a distance and clenched his five fingers suddenly.

A ball of Blazing Fire exploded from the wind and snow, transforming into Gu Shen’s palm. Five flaming fingers pressed onto the bamboo armor man’s face.

“Blazing Fire! Invade!”

Gu Shen did not hesitate to launch a mental attack.

The Blazing Fire five fingers pressed down fiercely—

“Boom!”

In the explosive roar, Gu Shen felt an empty feedback after the Blazing Fire invaded.

“No spiritual sea?”

Gu Shen narrowed his eyes, and sneered. Could it really be as he had guessed?

The transcendent lifeform nurtured by this [Ice Sea Ruins] was simply a mechanical creation!

At this moment, the bamboo armor man was forced into the same situation as when he was besieged by the source energy艇 earlier.

“Warning, eliminating offensive ineffective.”

“Some parts are frozen, it is recommended to launch a counterattack.”

The warning sound from the cranial sea made it give up retreating and dodging.

So in the burst of fire, a scarlet phantom emerged unscathed!

The bamboo armor man launched another attack, this time shaking his blade to shatter the wind and snow, and suddenly stepped forward.

Gu Shen did not retreat but advanced, throwing a punch!

Both figures were very fast. In Gu Xiao Man’s eyes, they were two dazzling, blazing lights colliding—

The blazing light burst, accompanied by an explosion that shook the snowfield.

The whole world fell silent!

……

……

“Sizz sizz sizz…”

A large amount of mist rose in the sky above the snowfield. It was vaguely possible to see two figures clinging to each other, almost merged into one.

Was the victory decided?

Gu Xiao Man gritted her teeth and stared intently into the depths of the mist.

Crackle!

Very faint arcs of electricity crackled in the mist. Gu Shen carried a tattered and thin body, slowly walking out of the mist. He had punched through the red figure’s chest, shattering the layers of bamboo armor protecting the heart.

“Huff…”

Seeing this, Gu Xiao Man breathed a long sigh of relief.

Her back was soaked with sweat.

“Is it over?” The little one asked, somewhat absentmindedly, in disbelief.

“True masters kill with one move.”

Gu Shen grinned.

He slammed the bamboo armor man on the ground. The latter’s chest had been pierced, leaving a large hole, and faint arcs of electricity could still be seen jumping around… there was no blood flowing out.

Although he had guessed as much, when Gu Xiao Man actually saw the internal structure of the bamboo armor man’s body, she couldn’t help but open her mouth in surprise, “I thought this guy was a transcendent lifeform nurtured by the Ice Sea…”

“A transcendent lifeform nurtured by the Ice Sea?”

Gu Shen smiled.

“I heard ‘them’ say it.” Gu Xiao Man smiled bitterly and briefly explained what she had encountered on the way.

Gu Shen listened quietly.

He didn’t expect the little one to encounter so many dangers on this trip…

“Flesh is weak, mechanical ascension. Although this guy is a ‘mechanical creation,’ the creator who created him must possess high-level intelligence.” Gu Shen himself was not sure what secrets this [Ice Sea Ruins] held. He squatted down calmly, examining the red figure’s body, and said with a soft smile, “Perhaps this place really does have transcendent life, and it’s behind the ‘wall.’”

“Behind the wall?” Gu Xiao Man was stunned.

“This snowfield is ‘false.’” Gu Shen said calmly, “Or rather, what you see is only a part of the real snowfield. In many vast areas, there are actually invisible walls of qi blades. If you touch them, you will be killed…”

Based on this bamboo armor man, it could be judged.

This snowfield was inhabited by an intelligent lifeform proficient in mechanical creations.

Then the “walls” erected in the void of the snowfield were most likely also the means of that intelligent lifeform.

“For example, here.”

Gu Shen’s mind swept out very far. He found a wall of air. This snowy mountain area seemed to be approaching the limit of the snowfield map. This kind of air wall was easy to find… He led Gu Xiao Man to travel hundreds of meters, and suddenly stopped.

Gu Shen casually kicked out a large rock.

“Buzz buzz buzz!”

The large rock was thrown out and cut into dozens or nearly a hundred pieces in the air, eventually falling in a flurry on the other side of the snow.

Gu Xiao Man was stunned.

She clenched her palm and felt a wave of fear… If it weren’t for the red figure, if she had gone forward a little further, she would have encountered this air wall.

At that time, would she also be directly crushed like this boulder?

Gu Shen looked at Xiao Man and couldn’t help but smile. He reached out and grabbed the little one’s shoulder.

“Whoosh!”

The two of them returned to their previous location.

“But you don’t have to worry, this air wall has limited bearing power.” Gu Shen said leisurely, “There is no wall in this world that doesn’t let wind through. If there is, smash it… The ‘strangling force’ of this wall is certainly terrible, but as long as the physical body is strong enough, or the domain power is strong enough, then you can force your way through.”

“Is that so?”

Gu Xiao Man murmured, “I always feel that at the end of this [Ice Sea Ruins], there is something very important, worth me taking a look…”

She pointed to the end of the snow mountain.

Gu Shen raised his eyebrows. That direction was where countless air walls stretched across.

“This bamboo armor man is enough to prove that there really is an ‘intelligent lifeform’ here…”

Gu Shen pondered for a moment, and slowly said, “The real [Ice Sea Ruins] is not this plain.”

Along the way, he saw many tempting things.

This snowfield was full of mithril ore, as well as a large amount of orderly transcendent source quality.

It's just that the real secret treasure is not here!

“The real [Ice Sea Ruins] is behind the ‘air wall’…”

Gu Shen said solemnly, “The existence of this red figure is more like a patrolman. The reason why he doesn’t appear in the northern part of this snowfield is because there is nothing important worth guarding in the northern part of the snowfield.”

“That’s right.” Gu Xiao Man’s eyes lit up, and she murmured, “This guy’s activity track is only in the snowy mountain area, because further ahead is the real [Ruins Entrance].”

“Yes.”

Gu Shen smiled with relief.

He squatted down and re-examined this bamboo armor man who had his chest pierced by him. This was a mechanical life. He had never “lived,” so naturally there was no death.

It was just that because his punch was too heavy, it was now in a scrapped state.

Disassemble the bamboo armor, and you will find.

This thin body is made of black silver.

No wonder the strength is so high and the speed is so fast.

“This guy doesn’t have a ‘spiritual sea,’ so he’s not afraid of the soul attacks of mental transcendent beings, but at the same time, he can’t cultivate a so-called ‘domain.’” Gu Shen narrowed his eyes. His gaze swept from top to bottom, and finally stopped on the bamboo armor man’s pale mask.

That mask concealed all of the bamboo armor man’s face.

Gu Shen stared at the ancient text for a long time.

He raised his eyebrows and asked softly with a profound meaning, “Xiao Man, would you like to see what this guy’s face looks like under the mask?”