Chapter 1 Someone Has Achieved Longevity

"You said someone has already obtained 'longevity'... who is it?"

"Specifically who... I don't know."

Xiao's voice was hoarse as he chuckled. "Remember the stone tablet that the Evening Bell Church excavated from beneath the Tundra? That's the stele that records the 'Longevity Technique'... Although it's only a fragmented piece, someone has already successfully deciphered it."

Gu Shen frowned. "That stone tablet has already been deciphered?"

"That's right..."

Xiao mocked, "Those Saints of the Storm Church are still racking their brains to crack the inscription, but these fools are progressing too slowly. At this rate, it will take at least ten years, maybe even longer, to touch the answer!"

"What does that have to do with the Longevity Technique being deciphered?"

"Of course, it does."

After a slight pause.

Xiao slowly said, "Because those inscriptions are not the original text of the 'Longevity Technique,' but a translated version! Many years ago, the Tundra Tomb Lord buried the translation with his coffin... preparing to die there."

"You and I have seen what happened next."

"Years later, the heavy snow buried everything. The tomb was empty, the Tomb Lord's coffin was still there, but the deceased had long disappeared."

"He didn't die."

"He really comprehended longevity!"

This was a very crazy guess, but sometimes, the truth is even crazier than imagination.

Gu Shen thought of the iron armor he had worn for so long.

Now, the iron armor had been completely melted by the Iron Throne and transformed into iron scales that could freely change shape.

But this was a mysterious ancient object whose origins even the Gu family couldn't figure out!

There was also that strange jade thumb ring that could autonomously devour "spirit"...

The current Gu Shen was no longer the young brat he once was. He had seen many high-level sealed items, even divine objects, but no item could swallow even the Divine Throne Spirit like the jade thumb ring!

He had unearthed these two items in the ancient tomb.

At first, for some unknown reason.

After opening the coffin, so many burial goods emerged from the tomb, but Gu Shen happened to fancy these two. He later handed over the other items to the Gu family for research, and in the end, they only came up with characteristic reports such as "the composition of the traits is abnormal"... In other words, the iron armor and the jade thumb ring were actually the most valuable burial goods in the tomb.

Was this an arrangement of fate?

Speaking of which, it was the profiling activated in the Tundra Tomb that allowed Gu Shen and the tomb's ghost to glance at each other in the chaotic spacetime.

From then on, he embarked on a transcendent path full of "inauspicious disasters"!

This really seemed like an arrangement of fate...

If someone had successfully comprehended longevity, how could such a person be unknown?

He must have left a strong mark on history.

"I presume you have some answers in your heart."

Xiao chuckled in a low voice. "Actually, I also have some candidates in my heart. Looking back, the only people who could have obtained the 'Longevity Technique' are just a few. But who knows what the real truth is? The only thing I can be sure of is that the Longevity Technique has most likely been lost. The person who obtained this forbidden technique back then is already dead, otherwise, how could this forbidden technique have really spread out."

Yes.

If the person who obtained the Longevity Technique was still alive...

The tomb should not exist.

This kind of technique, in theory, should not be obtained by a second person.

"Gu Shen, I am the only one who has comprehended the 'inscription.'"

The humanoid creature embedded in the stone wall raised his hands, his expression sincere and earnest. He said seriously, "I have done many experiments using the Tan Yao... those transcendent beings can become sacrifices for the Longevity Technique. Their lives will be transferred to me at a rate of one-twentieth. As long as there are enough of them, I can live long enough."

"One-twentieth?"

Gu Shen was a little surprised inside.

To know that the opening chapter of the Longevity Technique deciphered by Yin En had a conversion efficiency of one-tenth... which was already very low.

Xiao's efficiency was even lower!

However, the forbidden technique he had researched at this moment had different limitations than Yin En's.

The "Longevity Fragments" mastered by Xiao could allow life conversion between different species. This threshold was far lower than the Yin En version. After all, killing a human and killing a beast were incomparable.

In the face of the temptation of longevity, the biggest threshold was actually moral restraint.

And ironically.

Xiao, a guy with no bottom line, wasted a lot of efficiency with the Longevity Fragments he mastered, in order to avoid moral attrition.

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Blood and tears, terrifying and mournful.

After a few steps, this tattered torso, which should have long disappeared from the world, was completely annihilated.

A failed experiment that had been on the run for twenty years was shattered.

Until the end of the world, no one knew his name.

There was only one vague code name.

Xiao's life was a tragic failure. He escaped from the Gu Wen Hui, wanting to find his own life... Due to the power of Blood Fire, he experienced hundreds and thousands of lives, and wore hundreds and thousands of masks.

No life and no mask belonged to him.

Thousands of miles away, he even possessed the terrifying power of a quasi-S-class title.

But all of this was just a reflection in the water.

Just as he himself said.

Blood Fire... could arbitrarily control the flesh, but his own flesh was extremely weak, like a fragile piece of white paper that could be pierced with a single poke.

So when Gu Shen stood in front of him.

The battle was already over.

Using [Truth. Extinguishing Candle] to end his life was Gu Shen's greatest respect for Xiao. He didn't want to leave a single chance for this disgusting existence that could be revived with a spark of remaining embers.

"There is no such thing as longevity in this world..."

Gu Shen looked at the blood-colored flames scattered all over the sky. "Even if there is, I'm not interested in it."

There was only one throne.

Xiao's "twins" were ridiculous.

This Throne of Crimson Fire and Blood Fire could only have one master, and that was himself.

"Crimson Fire... go."

Gu Shen's brow had long been unable to restrain itself. At this moment, he no longer concealed the agitation in his mind and released all the Crimson Fire—

For a time, the fire sea at the bottom of Tan Yao was surging!

This was the best nourishment for Crimson Fire!

That heart had been shot by three arrows in a row and had completely exploded, blasting open countless blood fires. According to the iron law of source substance conservation, after Xiao's death, these blood fires would also return to the void... What Gu Shen had to do now was to absorb them as soon as possible, the more the better!

"Great danger is often accompanied by great fortune. If I leave now, the blood fire will disappear... I must eat all of these!"

Gu Shen sat down cross-legged, took a deep breath, and internally examined his current situation.

His mental sea was almost exhausted.

If the devil wanted to kill him, now might be the best opportunity...

Right now, he couldn't even activate a sliver of silver light from the Truth Ruler.

But fortunately, he still had source substance reserves and a Pure Land domain. He still had ways to leave the volcanic fissure next.

"...No reaction?"

After waiting for a few seconds, the stone that Gu Shen had raised in his heart was not completely put down.

He felt something was strange.

He had spent all his mental power to shoot and kill Xiao.

Right now was the most vulnerable moment for his mental sea, yet the devil in the ruler space didn't seem to want to take action. So many uses of Truth should have accumulated a lot of ominous energy.

"No matter what the devil's plan is, I'm going to seize the time to devour Blood Fire now. Opportunity knocks but once!"

Gu Shen took a deep breath.

He focused all his mental power.

This was a great opportunity for him, a great fortune!

If he wanted to break through to the fourth level, he needed a massive amount of "fire of life" to transform... This process was a tedious path with no shortcuts, but the Blood Fire in front of him could greatly increase the speed of this tedious path!

He suddenly had a large reserve of "special trait flames"!

The number of Crimson Fire suddenly increased sharply!

According to the scale of the mental sea of a third-level transcendent, if he could devour all of Xiao's Blood Fire, he could save at least three to five years of transformation time!

Some opportunities, once missed, will never come again!

Just as Gu Shen sat down, preparing to immerse himself in the Watcher state of mind, a sudden loud noise awakened him.

Boom!

This loud noise came from deeper beneath the Tan Yao!

For a time, the earth shook, and Gu Shen, who was at the bottom of the fissure, quickly summoned the Pure Land domain. But even with the wind and snow on his body, he was still shaken to the point where his mental sea trembled wildly.

"What happened?"

Gu Shen's expression was horrified.

The connection with Chu Ling was broken, meaning he could not obtain external contact.

The loud noise just now was not made by anyone or any living being.

The beast tide continued... the ground continued to tremble.

That loud noise seemed to come from the bottom of the island!

Gu Shen pressed his hands on the ground, and he began to consume a large amount of the source substance stored in the Pure Land, sending a wisp of Crimson Fire flame through the earth's crust, constantly downwards, and finally to the bottom of Sangzhou Cave Island.

He saw that boundless dark ice sea.

He also saw the source of the loud noise—

Countless waves stretched across the seabed, the tide rolled, surging in the deep sea. The loud noise just now was the sound of a huge wave hitting the bottom of the island. Giant rocks were shattered, and this already unstable island body directly began to shift horizontally.

"This is... the Storm Church's Tide?!"

Gu Shen understood in an instant.

Saint Gadie deployed Tide not only for listening!

The real Tide was gathering the sea around Sangzhou Cave to form this undertow.

Once Tan Yao erupted, the Holy City would completely push this isolated island into the ice sea.

"So the commotion just now... was Sangzhou Cave moving?"

Gu Shen felt his scalp tingle. He never expected that the Tide authority would actually shake this island. On the one hand, the power bestowed by the Storm God Throne was indeed strong. On the other hand, it might be due to the returning ocean current of the ice sea itself.

In addition, the volcano was reviving, and the internal environment of the island had been destroyed by the awakening experiment...

With many conditions combined.

The Storm Church's gentle push successfully changed the balance.

"Rumble..."

The undertow from the bottom of the earth sounded like thunder, continuously ringing. Embraced by the ice sea, once Sangzhou Cave's movement began, it would not stop.

Inside was the mountain fire.

Outside was the ice sea.

Gu Shen's spirit immersed into the earth's crust. He suddenly felt a subtle feeling. He saw the heavy seawater, heard the dull sound of the tide, and at this moment, he felt as if he had become Sangzhou Cave.

However, this feeling was not good.

After the Tide pushed it, everything here began to head towards the ice sea.

Countless waves gathered, turning into thousands of hands in the depths of the ocean current that no one could see, pushing it again and again. Sangzhou Cave would not return.

The Storm Church hoped that "it" would be torn apart and buried in the ice sea.

And all of this was moving towards what the Storm Church had planned—

Sangzhou Cave had already begun to gradually disintegrate from the bottom.

This seemed to be an irreversible and unstoppable process.

At this moment, no one cared about all of this anymore.

All living beings were busy escaping.

Those who could not escape were destined to be buried in the ice sea.

And those who escaped had a different mood.

Perhaps at that time, the survivors would look out from the distant shore and think that the mountain fire erupting from Tan Yao was just a beautiful fireworks display.