Light Fortress

"Boom!"

In the long night, the old rooftop was illuminated by dazzling knife light.

Explosive airflows surged from the narrow corridor.

Tonight’s "Lure the enemy into a trap" was coming to an end, with a mantis stalking a cicada, unaware of the oriole behind. The Transcendent from the Foundation who came to "investigate" was knocked hard to the ground.

Nan Jin draped in a trench coat pressed the long knife against the neck of the latter; she was the ultimate "oriole."

Gu Shen stood at the high point of the rooftop, silently watching the scene.

For the first time in his life, at this moment, he had already "stolen" the Truth Ruler, lurking sneakily behind the water tank, but he was still detected by Nan Jin.

But now it was different.

Luo Er used his hair to establish a domain, shielding the rooftop over there from sensing here.

After identifying himself, Sister Skyle unlocked her suppression of Gu Shen, and being able to say the "Moon City Disaster Realm" was enough to prove Gu Shen’s identity.

Luo Er knew.

The Gu Shen before him was the most real Gu Shen.

"So... before stepping through that door, had you really already fused the fire seed?"

Luo Er’s expression was complex, looking at this boy in front of him who hadn’t even awakened the Chi Huo ability, his gaze was somewhat skeptical.

"Sort of..."

Gu Shen spoke reluctantly, his voice wasn’t very confident at this moment.

In a sense, he could already be called God Gu, but due to his game with [Deep Sea], this Divine Throne was not yet fully affirmed.

He looked toward Sister.

Skyle let out a light laugh.

But within the laughter, there was no mockery or ridicule.

Luo Er’s eyes were full of relief: "Although I guessed you would become someone remarkable, I didn’t expect that just across a panel... you had already fused the fire seed and become a Divine Throne."

"Sort of... a Quasi-God."

Gu Shen lowered his eyes, and couldn’t help but smile.

In the Five Continents, countless Transcendents feared Gu Shen. Before Gu Shen exposed the Netherworld Fire, he was already in many people’s minds, a towering mountain undirected and insurmountable.

But now, here.

He was nothing; he was still that "little junior brother" just entering the sect.

"So what situation are we in now... Is this the real world or a Dream?"

Gu Shen recalled a very important question, asking seriously.

"Real world... or Dream..."

Skyle was silent for a moment, hoarsely said: "Perhaps both?"

"Due to the attack of the Super Giant Source Material Storm, the deepest part of the [Old World] has been devastated beyond recognition, utterly destroyed."

"A massive amount of chaotic source material rages at the end of the [Old World]."

"The natural laws have been completely broken."

"Here, a Super Giant Black Hole has emerged, and the core of the Black Hole is the collapsed ’reality’..."

Skyle slowly spoke; she extended her palm, countless strands of hair swept across the sky and returned to her palm.

"We three initially thought this was a Dream."

"But every flower and leaf, every blade and branch here is incredibly real, even more real than the real world."

She slightly moved her head, word by word saying: "But just when we thought... This was the real journey into ’time reversal,’ every once in a while, this world would restart again."

"So, does this count as a Dream or reality?"

Skyle’s tone also carried bewilderment.

Gu Shen vaguely felt a tinge of pain mixed in his sister’s tone.

"This world will restart?"

Gu Shen frowned and asked, "What is going on?"

Skyle extended a finger, pointing to the distant rooftop.

Nan Jin pierced the "prey’s" shoulder with a knife, suspending them at the edge of the rooftop, the cold wind was fierce at high altitude, knife light inundated the vision.

"Did you notice?"

Skyle gently said: "Some things are identical to what you experienced in your first life."

"...Yes."

Gu Shen’s expression was solemn.

Indeed, the scene before him was exactly what he saw in his first life, without any difference.

Tonight, Senior Sister Nan Jin will defeat the intruder, and tomorrow she will take the intruder back to the Judgement Institute building... However, these people are merely pawns hypnotized by the Changjiu Foundation, although this setup is successful, the Judgement Institute will not achieve any substantial gain.

He knew everything that would happen next.

"In this world, every person’s and every thing’s development patterns... are predetermined."

Skyle slowly moved her head and spoke: "As the ’outsider’ inserted into this world, if you act according to the predetermined world trajectory, then no one will change... This is the biggest rule we have discovered so far."

Gu Shen reacted quickly: "So... are you maintaining the original world trajectory?"

If the senior brother, senior sister, and teacher were outsiders.

So everything makes sense now.

When Zhou Jiren saw himself in the interrogation room... his eyes didn’t seem right.

If I had said those words to my teacher in my first life on the way, they would surely take me to a little dark room and have me explain everything from start to finish.

But this time...

Zhou Jiren didn’t ask anything.

Because he already had a rough guess in his heart.

"That’s right."

Luo Er’s gaze fell into the distance, and she spoke softly: "According to what you said."

"This is already my 138th life. This world has restarted 137 times. I’ve tried to break away from the line of destiny and even attempted to destroy the structure of this world, but it was all meaningless. After trying every idea once... my teacher and I decided to keep things unchanged, and in the following world restarts, stabilize the fate of each person as much as possible."

Gu Shen followed Luo Er’s gaze.

Senior Brother Zhong Wei was deliberately transferred from this old building, obviously in cooperation with the development of the ’world trajectory.’

"What would be the consequences of disrupting the world trajectory?"

Gu Shen’s gaze flickered.

"This world is both false and real... Behind every event, there is stable ’logic’ supporting it."

Luo Er extended her hand, countless strands of hair tangled in the void.

Her next words were somewhat obscure.

"It’s like... a computational system even more exquisite than the [Deep Sea], maintaining the world’s balance. So, no matter what move you make, this world will follow the current logic and keep extending... and once you touch ’key logic,’ this world will collapse and then restart."

"For example, if I now skip the arson case process and find the culprit of the Changjiu Foundation."

Tian Tong said softly: "If I remember correctly, that guy’s name should be Ye Ningqiu... if I kill her, then the ’troubles’ you encounter in Da Du will disappear, and the so-called Da Du Goodnight incident won’t exist."

"..."

Gu Shen was silent.

He didn’t tell his senior sister that after the Da Du incident ended, the real mastermind behind the Changjiu Foundation was still alive.

But he already understood what Tian Tong meant to convey.

"Then, what is ’key logic’?"

Gu Shen squinted his eyes, pointing directly to the core of the issue.

"Very simple..."

Tian Tong extended two fingers, and a strand of black hair appeared in front of Gu Shen. She said leisurely: "As ’outsiders,’ we are free, yet not free. This world spins for us, but if the ’protagonist’ dies, then everything will restart."

"For example, if I now act and kill Zhong Wei, or kill you..."

"Then this world will immediately collapse."

Tian Tong smiled and raised her hand.

The black strand of hair vanished with a swoosh, winding back around her fingertip.

Gu Shen fully understood his senior sister’s meaning.

Now, they are like in an infinitely restarting simulation game. On the surface, this game has no rules, but in reality, there’s only one rule.

"Stay alive."

Once the outsider dies.

This incredibly real virtual world will restart immediately.

Gu Shen rubbed his temples, still somewhat puzzled: "So the reason you maintain the original world trajectory is?"

"The Moon City Disaster Realm will descend in a year."

Luo Er spoke slowly, "We need to maintain the ’order’ of the Five Continents World as much as possible, thus ensuring the smooth initiation of the Moon City mission. In the past 137 restarts, there have been several times when the destruction of the world trajectory led to the world restarting prematurely, even before the Moon City Disaster Realm appeared."

"The world restarted prematurely?"

Gu Shen was startled for a second.

"Yes..."

Tian Tong took a deep breath, looked at Gu Shen with a complex expression, and said slowly: "Regarding your anomaly during the day, the teacher has already told me... After so many restarts, we have figured out most of the patterns, except for one thing we can’t understand."

"Why does your death cause the entire world to restart?"

Gu Shen was stunned on the spot.

"This year, if we don’t bring you under the wing of the Judgement Institute..."

"You will die to the assassination of an unknown Transcendent."

"You will die under Han Dang’s spiritual attack."

"In short, you will die in various ways."

"At first, we didn’t take this problem too seriously, but during attempts to ignore the world trajectory, we found that once the ’Gu Shen’ in this world dies, everything would restart."

Tian Tong sighed deeply and said: "The last ’world’ just collapsed. Today is the first day of the restart, the starting point of the time reset. Zhong Wei and I have already come to Qing River, preparing to train you... while the teacher needs to use the pardon order to protect you, his prized disciple, in the interrogation room."

Gu Shen’s expression was very complex.

"I will die in various ways?"

"Yes."

Tian Tong said regretfully: "Because the starting point of the world’s restart is the birth of the ’fire’ incident, and I couldn’t reach Qing River in time to prevent this Transcendent event. This means many people are already watching you, and even if we help you clear all troubles and secretly clean up the Changjiu Foundation, it’s useless. Only by following the original world trajectory can you live until we leave Moon City... By the way, if you’re killed while we’re searching for the oasis, this world will also restart."