Chapter 1 The Silver Door

The mithril double doors opened.

Gu Shen saw a "corpse" lying on the ground, a wisp of warm, blood-colored flame dancing above its brow.

"This is what you call 'handled'?"

His expression faltered, then turned somewhat grim.

"There was no way. These guys all have 'mental imprints' planted in their minds, so they can't be hypnotized." Xiao's expression was extraordinarily calm. "Disciples aren't wooden puppets. They won't obediently stay here and not say a word, watching our actions. Even if we tied them up, they would struggle desperately, betting on their loyalty to the Moon God, to prevent thugs from disturbing the peace of the underground. If we want to take things away unnoticed, the best way... is to kill the guards, right?"

"Don't worry, my 'blood fire' can maintain their life state. That's the reason for the 15-minute window..." Xiao glanced at his watch and chuckled softly, "After 15 minutes, Lanweier might notice something. But by then, everything here will have been looted."

As for this shell... of course, it would be discarded in the end.

Xiao never cared about these "useless" lives. To be able to pull off such a big score, the owner of this shell died a worthy death.

Gu Shen took a deep breath.

He didn't say anything more.

He had to take away the [Lamp], and Xiao wanted to take away all the sealed items here... The impact of this matter was already very bad, and with the death of the disciples, Lanweier would probably be furious and hunt them down after learning about it.

The top priority was to find the [Lamp of Wrath].

Gu Shen quickly walked towards Secret Chamber 13. He noticed that Xiao took out a tattered cloth bag from inside his robe and walked towards a secret chamber in another direction... The blood fire spiritual power of this shell wasn't very strong, and its strength was quite ordinary.

The strength of Xiao's power was clearly related to the "host."

When the host was strong, he could use destructive powers like [Annihilation Dream] to envelop the entire city.

But when the host was weak, he could only use that bundle of high-yield trinitrotoluene tied around his waist to threaten weak transcendents in the first stage.

Gu Shen's wisp of "blazing fire" maintained a distance, carefully "observing" Xiao's actions.

Xiao arrived at a secret chamber and began using the "cloth bag" to collect sealed items!

And a strange thing happened.

When the sealed items were put into the cloth bag, the bag remained shriveled... There was no sign of any bulging, as if it were a bottomless pit that could hold an endless number of objects!

Was this the method he was talking about?

"A special-type sealed item... The cloth bag is likely connected to another very distant space." Chu Ling said slowly, "Some special-type abilities can also achieve a similar 'transfer' effect, but there are distance limitations. These sealed items should have been sent to a hidden storage point, but I guess that storage point won't be too far away."

Gu Shen was thoughtful... He quietly touched a [metal object], hiding a faint wisp of blazing fire in the rust, attaching it to a sealed item of considerable quality.

Then he entered Secret Chamber 13.

This secret chamber contained a small number of sealed items and a large number of files... He glanced at the files and picked one up. The general content was the glorious deeds of church disciples sacrificing to the Moon God with [offerings] from the lower reaches of the Tin Silver River.

[Offerings] from the lower reaches of the Tin Silver River?

Gu Shen was stunned.

There were no offerings in the lower reaches of the Tin Silver River... It was crowded with people...

He understood why these files were placed here, and he also understood what Cui Zhongcheng said when he came, that [Deep Sea] needed to spend a huge amount of computing power to process South Continent for balancing.

Sadly, even if such a thing happened, it could be covered up.

These files filled a room.

But the tragic cases that actually played out here, how could they be contained in just one room?

Five minutes passed just like that. Gu Shen searched Secret Chamber 13 for a while... He hadn't found the so-called [lampstand] yet, and the next moment, the mithril double doors in the distance sounded an alarm.

All the doors to the secret chambers closed.

"Hey!"

A faint voice rang out outside the door.

"Are you... looking for something like this?"

Xiao stood outside Secret Chamber 13, looking at Gu Shen through the bars, showing the lampstand in his hand.

Of course, the copper figure lamp wasn't in Secret Chamber 13.

If a liar... is willing to tell the truth, then he has only one purpose, and that is to weave an even bigger lie.

There were dozens of secret chambers here, and it took him a long time to find out the placement of each object.

If what Gu Shen was looking for wasn't a sealed item without transcendent aura, Secret Chamber 13 couldn't deceive him at all... Spiritual power could generate a connection with sealed items. It would only take a few seconds to discover the anomaly!

But Gu Shen was looking for ordinary objects.

This search process... would be relatively long.

For Xiao, the real "action time" was the time Gu Shen spent "searching" for objects... Once Gu Shen was about to discover the truth that there were no sealed items in Secret Chamber 13, he had to take action.

Trigger the alarm.

Shut down the defense system.

Seal off the entire underground church... leaving only himself and Gu Shen!

Fortunately... this kid who entered Secret Chamber 13, didn't know what files he saw, but he was stunned for a minute.

Xiao seized the time to loot all the most valuable sealed items in the New Moon Church.

Transfer them all through the cloth bag.

And now... only the last lamp was in his hand.

Obviously.

He never intended to leave Gu Shen with anything useful.

…

…

"After this underground system is completely closed, you'll probably have a hard time leaving."

Xiao opened his mouth with a smile, "If you change your mind now and tell me the real function of the [Lamp], there might be a chance."

Everything was going too smoothly.

So smoothly that he felt... there was no challenge at all.

Breaking through the system according to plan, deceiving Gu Shen according to plan...

Everything was according to plan.

Gu Shen smiled.

"If I tell you, will you let me leave?"

Xiao also smiled.

"I thought... you were already foolish beyond redemption."

He was a little regretful, "But it seems you still have a little bit of sense. Okay, I admit, I don't care about the function of the [Lamp]. I'll figure it out myself... By the way, I'll tell you another good news. Lanweier is on his way... Good luck."

He let go of his hand.

The [Copper Figure Lamp] fell from the cloth bag.

Going to another space.

The [Lamp of Wrath] was transferred.

In front of Gu Shen, Xiao burned the cloth bag with blood fire... The entrance to "a certain space" was also destroyed.

He looked at the underground church, where the alarm was blaring, and said with a soft smile.

"I hope I can see you again..."

"Alive."

Then he smiled and made a gesture of running his hand across his neck.

Blood splattered.

The life of this body was ended directly at this moment. It lay in a pool of blood, and a wisp of blood-colored flame quickly dissipated. In the midst of the piercing alarm, it slowly faded away. The blood fire power of this shell was extremely weak... In fact, Xiao had long been prepared for his own "ending."

In the midst of the sharp alarm.

Gu Shen watched as "Xiao's" body slowly fell.

Blood spread.

He wasn't panicked at all.

He stretched out a hand, his palm burning with scorching blazing fire, and began to melt the mithril double doors in front of him... When the blazing fire came into contact with the strong logical material, there was a violent sound of corrosion.

It could erode, but the speed was very slow.

To leave here, he still needed to break through another heavy door.

To do everything completely.

Time... might be a little tight.

Gu Shen quietly thought for ten seconds.

Ten seconds later.

He said to Chu Ling, "Send him a message, just say... I need 20 minutes."

…

…

Outside Tin Silver City, a major conference was being held.

Several big figures from the inland states had come here to participate in this conference... The reason was none other than that today's conference involved the future "coexistence situation" of several cities in South Continent, because today, Cui Zhongcheng, the "Councilor Assistant" of Huazhi Group in Dadu District, had come here.

Huazhi decided to sell some treasured "secret research results" to South Continent.

This was a very high-level conference.

Every participant brought their "most capable" assistant with them.

And just as this conference was halfway through—

Next to one of the big figures, the middle-aged man in white robe who was serving him seemed to have received some message, and his expression turned gloomy.

"The security system in the underground of the Tin Silver City Church... has triggered an alarm..."

He quickly reported the situation of the church to the "adult" next to him.

The adult frowned, unimpressed.

As far as he knew, if the underground system of the New Moon Church in Tin Silver City encountered danger, it would automatically lock down!

"I'm afraid I have to leave to see the specific situation..." Lanweier said sincerely.

After saying that.

He was about to leave.

The man at the head of the long table, who glanced at his communicator, slowly raised his hand, and a guard immediately stood out to block the exit.

Lanweier's expression changed, and he was about to explode... He remembered the prior agreement for this meeting.

Once seated, one could not easily leave.

He gritted his teeth and suppressed his anger.

"Lanweier, wait a little longer." The big figure held him down with one hand and said calmly, "The meeting is almost over... After this agreement is signed, I will leave with you."

South Continent was very chaotic.

The chaos here was different from that of East Continent... The aristocratic families in Changye had their own struggles, but they had reached a consensus on the big issues.

In South Continent, the major inland states fought each other, the flames of church warfare spread, and everyone tried their best to annex the other, to the point of using any means necessary, without any restrictions.

This negotiation with Huazhi... had attracted the attention of several churches, and the way to get the most "funds" was not only to sign the agreement, but also to kill the opponent who was competing with oneself for the agreement.

For the sake of the agreement, and for the sake of safety, this big figure decided to keep Lanweier by his side for a while longer.

…

…

In the underground of the New Moon Church, the alarm was blaring.

But it was only blaring... After the underground system was sealed, no one could enter or leave. The church members outside should have begun to gather, but they didn't know what was happening inside.

Gu Shen stood in the midst of the blaring sound, calmly recalling everything.

He went through in his mind the things he was going to do next... After confirming that everything was correct, the action officially began.

He reached out and grabbed.

Under the effect of the [Iron Throne], the iron armor was disassembled again and reassembled!

"Kacha!"

A crisp crack echoed throughout the underground.

An iron axe split open the secret chamber door made of strong logical material!

Gu Shen walked out of the secret chamber with a calm expression. He looked at the two corpses lying in front of him, squatted down, and carefully examined the shell in which "Xiao" had committed suicide.

He was dead through and through.

Xiao had put in a lot of effort to cover up the abnormality of this body.

Both wisps of blood fire had been scattered by him at the end... There was no trace of them to be found.

No matter how one looked at it... both of these corpses looked like they had been killed.

Obviously, the murderer was "himself."

An "outsider" from another continent who broke into the underground of the church and stole a large number of sealed items.

Gu Shen smiled silently.

He stretched out two fingers and gently placed them on the center of "Xiao's" corpse's brow. At his fingertips, there appeared a wisp of extremely faint, extremely faint... "blood fire aura" that was almost impossible to sense if one didn't pay close attention.

Before meeting twenty-one hours ago.

He confiscated this wisp of "blood fire," and now, he was returning it.

This small wisp of blood fire hovered over the corpse, maintaining the most basic "existence" under the effect of Gu Shen's spiritual power... He believed that the furious Lanweier would definitely gain something after examining the corpse, thereby approaching the true "truth."

Gu Shen checked the entire scene again.

The piece of rust that he had casually wiped away was completely gone.

The wisp of blazing fire... transmitted a "vague" sense, about twenty kilometers away.

Well, Chu Ling really guessed it.

Twenty kilometers, that meant it was still in Tin Silver City!

Gu Shen carefully did the scene processing again to ensure that it would achieve a "satisfactory" effect.

Then he calmly answered a phone call.

The voice on the other end of the phone was Cui Zhongcheng's.

"The meeting is over. The identities have all been taken care of."

After two brief sentences.

"Very good..."

Gu Shen picked up the iron axe again.

He aimed at the farthest double doors and smashed them open heavily.

…

…

It was already thirty minutes later when Lanweier arrived at the church.

He looked angrily at the "secret chambers" that had been looted, and all the important sealed items in the New Moon Church had been taken away... This was probably the most significant case that had occurred in Tin Silver City in nearly ten years!

The two "transcendents" responsible for guarding were brutally murdered.

Without a doubt, this was a spiritual transcendent who could infiltrate here and take action during the important moment of his "meeting," and take away the objects. He must be familiar with the internal rules of the New Moon Church, and it was very likely that he was an internal member of the church…

Lanweier squatted down and carefully examined the two corpses.

On one of the corpses… he found a very weak "spiritual aura."

The Archbishop quickly took out a container and stored this wisp of "blood fire."

His expression was extremely gloomy.

This was a major case that was enough to be reported to the "person in charge of the church," and this wisp of blood fire was an extremely important clue… Another clue was also very obvious. To take away all the sealed items in a short period of time, one must use some special means.

"Special-type spatial object..."

The Archbishop narrowed his eyes.

He immediately reported the situation of the church to that adult.

After leaving the meeting, the adult, who had been in a good mood, became furious as he had expected.

In just a few minutes, the entire Tin Silver River was in a state of "alert," and countless [Eyes of Heaven] were aimed at the entire city… Even more terrifying than the [Eyes of Heaven] were the fanatical disciples of the New Moon Church. They had come to the outside of the city and guarded every main road. At the same time, the church began to clean up the Tin Silver River, sealing off the city and investigating the whereabouts of those "sealed items."

Every item lost from the underground of the church was listed on the list… The spiritual transcendents inside the church, with the list, began a long interrogation. There was a large flow of people in Tin Silver City. If anyone could provide clues, they would receive a generous reward from the church. If anyone deliberately concealed it and was discovered, they would bear the wrath that life could not withstand.

The strength of these spiritual transcendents was very average, but for ordinary people… it was enough!

They could easily detect who was lying!

Soon.

Someone inside Tin Silver River provided a clue.

The reason was that someone saw a "familiar object" on the list and immediately identified a suspicious person.

The clue pointed out that it was a disciple of the New Moon Church, wearing a priest's robe, but he seemed to have come from another state… He had been looking for the "lamp" on the list.

Quickly investigating.

The central district of Tin Silver City also gave new clues… This mysterious man had also been to the Holy Image Auction House.

That was the power of the church!

…

…

In the midst of the city-wide fanatical search and arrest.

No one noticed… a teenager living in the slums of the lower reaches of the Tin Silver River was driving an abandoned oxcart covered with weeds and left the old city. This was really too backward of a means of transportation, slow, dirty, and dilapidated.

On the road, this teenager still encountered severe interrogation and inspection.

But… he passed them all.

The oxcart was carrying the corpse of his father.

Leaving Tin Silver was to return his father to his hometown for burial.

This was a reasonable reason.

But what was unreasonable was… the route that this teenager chose after leaving Tin Silver.

He left from the south of Tin Silver City, successfully passed the checkpoint at the southern city gate, then stuck to the wall and headed west, choosing to make a large detour, passed the second inspection. From the map… this was a very strange route.

However, out of ten thousand people, not a single person would pay attention to what route a poor teenager would choose after leaving Tin Silver.

The poor teenager came to a desolate dense forest.

He looked back and saw the dilapidated and prosperous Tin Silver City, where countless disciples had been left behind by him.

He smiled.

This smile slowly solidified after he turned back again.

The poor teenager saw a familiar figure.

"As you wished, we meet again."

Gu Shen slowly walked out of the dense forest, "I am still alive."