Light Barrier

Night fell.

10 p.m. sharp.

A figure stopped at the entrance of Magnolia Alley in Old Town. Dressed in black and wearing a baseball cap, the man walked swiftly along the alley wall and disappeared into the night in less than ten seconds.

It was Shi Li.

After Shi Li vanished, a wisp of Blazing Fire slowly emerged in the nearby darkness.

Gu Shen’s expression was calm as he slowly approached Magnolia Alley.

After activating the ‘Blazing Fire Vision’, the trail Shi Li left behind was obvious. It was like fireworks in the night, and his path was visible at a glance.

Gu Shen frowned slightly.

This trail that represented Shi Li’s movements twisted and turned, sometimes moving quickly in the alley, sometimes stopping, wary of being followed. He was so cautious. He had to be carrying a sealed object that monitored transcendental auras.

Does Shi Li know someone is tracking him? Gu Shen narrowed his eyes.

Who would walk like this normally?

Could Hu Danian’s usual surveillance have aroused his suspicion? This assault-type transcendent shouldn’t be so perceptive, right?

In any case, it was the right choice for Hu Danian not to follow him too closely.

Shi Li was already suspicious.

Gu Shen pondered while slowly walking forward, maintaining a far distance while following the residual trail. His Blazing Fire ability was special, and his acuity in capturing details surpassed that of many high-level mental-type transcendents, making him quite adept at tracking.

He was confident that Shi Li wouldn’t discover him.

However, to be on the safe side, he decided to be cautious and not follow too closely.

…

“Achoo!”

The moment Shi Li walked into the alley, he sneezed again.

His expression was gloomy as he rubbed his nose. What’s going on?

The last time he sneezed, he hadn’t thought much of it… But soon after, he had a shotgun pointed at his head.

What was happening this time?

Could the Goddess of Fate be giving him another warning?

Is someone following me?

After standing still and pondering for a long time, Shi Li came up with this reasonable explanation. He continued walking forward, then suddenly stood against the wall, held his breath, and began to wait.

After waiting a long time without any response, he resumed walking without any change in expression. But not long after, he abruptly turned back and started sprinting back the way he came.

If anyone saw these actions, they might find them amusing. But in fact, this was a very effective method to test for a tail.

Unfortunately, Shi Li found nothing. He even ran hundreds of meters back in the direction he came from in one breath, but he didn’t even see a shadow. Old Town at night was desolate, and he had chosen the most secluded alley. There wasn’t the slightest sound to be heard. It was so silent that a pin drop was audible.

Standing at the spot where he had sneezed, Shi Li looked around suspiciously. The shadows of trees were moving, and the rustling of leaves filled the air.

The intuition of transcendents rarely erred.

After the last incident, he had become extremely cautious. I’ll take out the compass and see what it shows.

Shi Li took out a compass from his pocket. The compass was square-shaped and about the size of a palm, with gilded and silver-plated edges. It looked brand new rather than an old item.

Silver light swirled around his fingertips as he slowly infused it into the compass.

Swish! Swish! Swish!

The needle on the compass spun rapidly and finally returned to its original position.

Shi Li heaved a sigh of relief. Was it just my imagination?

He continued moving in Magnolia Alley.

In the bushes, Gu Shen watched this scene with cold sweat soaking his back.

He had been following steadily when, without any warning, Shi Li suddenly became tense. Then this man turned around and ran back the way he came like a lunatic. If Gu Shen hadn’t made the right decision to tail him from the farthest distance possible, he might have been discovered.

Finally, he held his breath and quickly retreated back to his hiding place.

What made Gu Shen’s heart leap to his throat was… the compass Shi Li took out. It was an ancient-looking sealed object that clearly came from the Eternal Foundation. Gu Shen guessed that the compass should have the ability to detect nearby transcendental mental power. He was already prepared to take out the Ruler of Truth and confront Shi Li head-on.

But… why didn’t the compass detect him?

Sure enough.

The Blazing Fire was an extremely special existence.

Ordinary detection methods couldn’t capture him through mental power.

This time, Gu Shen’s tracking progress went much smoother. Shi Li no longer meandered around, indicating he didn’t have time to waste on the road. He moved extremely fast, and Gu Shen boldly quickened his pace.

But as he continued, his expression grew solemn. Farther ahead… is Iris Pellet Street!

A sense of foreboding arose in his heart. Finally, Shi Li’s back disappeared into the darkness of Iris Pellet Street.

With the Blazing Fire surrounding him, Gu Shen looked at the dreadful old street. To ordinary eyes, it was just a thin layer of gray mist, but in his eyes, it was so thick that it refused to dissipate.

Wait. Gu Shen’s pupils constricted.

Not far from the entrance of Iris Pellet Street, he saw a toppled motorcycle. It was the vehicle Hu Danian had used to bring him here. It was lying askew in a pile of rubble and garbage at the entrance of the long street.

Approaching cautiously, Gu Shen inspected the scene, and his expression changed drastically.

The motorcycle was overturned.

There were splatters of blood on the roadside.

Not far from the bike lay a withered and emaciated skeleton. Its flesh and blood had been sucked clean, leaving only skin. Its face was destroyed beyond recognition, making identification impossible… It was certain that this skeleton was deader than dead.

“Damn it!” Gu Shen’s expression became very ugly. Didn’t Hu Danian say he was very cautious?

How long has it been? What the hell is on this street?

Without hesitation, he immediately began to retreat.

But something that made Gu Shen’s scalp tingle happened. He clearly remembered the route he took to get here, but after backtracking according to the original route, the surroundings became unfamiliar, and the fog became thicker.

The Blazing Fire Vision began to blur, and visibility suddenly plummeted.

He stopped in his tracks and held his breath silently, calming himself down to accept this grim reality. I’ve entered Iris Pellet Street.

Only by entering Iris Pellet Street could he feel it. The fog in the dreams of the residents of Old Town was so dense that he couldn’t even see his fingers in front of him, let alone identify directions in this thick fog.

Gu Shen’s first action was to stop and collect himself.

He had lost his sense of direction, and even the Blazing Fire, his most useful ability, couldn’t find the right direction in this fog. In that case, he had to minimize any misguided attempts.

Moreover, at this juncture, he didn’t dare to summon the Blazing Fire easily.

Because Shi Li was on Iris Pellet Street!

At this point, it was safe to assume that… the fog in Old Town was orchestrated by the Eternal Foundation, and the control of this sealed object was in the hands of those lunatics. Who knew how much they could see?

This isn’t a dream, but a real world.

A sense of familiarity rose in his heart.

Gu Shen had encountered this thick fog in other people’s dreams more than once. At the time, he couldn’t understand the despair of the hosts of the dream. Only when he was truly in the thick fog did he gradually feel something was wrong…

In the fog of Iris Pellet Street, his mental power was depleting every moment.

After undergoing the tempering of the Jingzhe Breathing Technique, his mental power was now quite solid. How long could he last in this thick fog? Once it was consumed, would he end up like those people from before?

Or… even worse.

Gu Shen recalled the corpse beside the motorcycle, and his expression became grave. Perhaps that would be his fate.

For some reason, the more he breathed in this fog that devoured his mental power, the calmer he became. He was so calm that he could hear every beat of his heart, every sound in the silent town.

He stood there quietly for five minutes.

Not a single sound came from the fog.

Shi Li disappeared after entering Iris Pellet Street.

The Blazing Fire could no longer track his movements.

If he can see in this fog, with his cautiousness so far, he must have discovered me already.

But he hasn’t taken any action… I can only guess he doesn’t know I’ve entered this street.

In that case, this fog likely obscures visibility, regardless of friend or foe.

Iris Pellet Street is full of dilapidated factories. He should have entered one of them, and that factory should be where the sealed object is.

In that case…

All he needed to do was find the place with the thickest ‘fog’ to pinpoint where Shi Li was!

Since I can’t make it out of Iris Pellet Street, then perhaps I can try to… destroy the sealed object.

This idea was insane.

Shi Li was at least an assault-type transcendent at the fourth level.

However, he didn’t know about Gu Shen’s existence in the fog and was likely to let his guard down on Iris Pellet Street.

According to his earlier calculations, there was a decent chance of success in ambushing with the Blazing Fire.

If the attack failed, he could still retreat into the fog and successfully escape.

Rather than wasting time and turning into a dried corpse… it was better to take a bold risk!

Gu Shen narrowed his eyes, carefully summoned a strand of Blazing Fire, and attached it to his glabella. The thick fog seemed to reach out a hand and cover the eye he had opened between his eyebrows.

But he could still sense the changes in the fog in different areas.

Slowly and cautiously exploring his way forward, Gu Shen advanced step by step, controlling his footsteps to avoid making any noise.

It should be around here. Gu Shen stopped in front of a thick roller shutter door.

This kind of door would tremble with every gust of wind, so he didn’t dare to touch it. Relying on the Blazing Fire’s intuition, he found this area, a cluster of four abandoned factories. This was already the smallest area he could confirm.

Shi Li is most likely in one of them. Gu Shen narrowed his eyes.

He took a deep breath and prepared to move forward again.

Smack!

A hand suddenly landed on his shoulder.