Light Barrier

“Very good.” The only one who remained relatively calm was the grand magistrate.

Everyone was stunned. They had been worried that Gu Shen might falter during the assessment.

No one expected this young man to be so intrepid and make such remarkable achievements, breaking records in two consecutive Dream Deciphers. It was beyond belief!

And no one expected Gu Shen to take the initiative to propose attempting the third Dream Decipher!

The way Wu Mengbai looked at Gu Shen completely changed.

This young man… was completely different from what he had seen in the file. He thought that he was an introverted, shy, and weak little guy, but in fact, it was the complete opposite. He had a meticulous mind and a calm style of action.

Beneath this frail body actually lay a heart as majestic as a lion’s.

“We will take proper precautions. If you wish to continue, then… continue.” Tang Qingquan extended out his palm, pushed the Cage of Ghosts toward Gu Shen, and made a gesture of invitation.

He respected Gu Shen’s decision.

For over a decade in the Ying Sea District, he had handled countless tricky cases alone and had seen countless out-of-control individuals in transcendental courts. Among them were extremely evil people who had claimed to be innocent, and some had seamlessly disguised themselves as victims… Over the years, sometimes, when he looked at himself in the mirror, he felt he was a stranger.

The many years of tempering had enabled him to maintain absolute calmness in his thoughts regardless of the situation or location.

But from the moment he obtained Gu Shen’s file…

He had vaguely sensed that something was off. This was a doubt that he couldn’t reason out no matter how he thought about it. It was feedback from his intuition and instincts, telling him that this young man was definitely not as simple as the file described.

This assessment wasn’t just to examine Gu Shen’s potential.

Therefore, from the beginning, he had been looking forward to Gu Shen entering the dream of his Cage of Ghosts.

He wanted to use his Cage of Ghosts to see what lay within the dark corners of this young man’s mind.

The characteristics of the Cage of Ghosts were very simple.

The dreamers would see the darkest emotions in their hearts in this lantern. The greater the evil thoughts they had, the more ghosts there would be inside the lantern, and the stronger they would be… The moment the dreamers awakened, they would be submerged by the ghosts inside the cage, and the only thing they could do was to use their willpower to resist their ‘evil thoughts’.

Namely… slaying ghosts!

Although this characteristic sounded simple, it was actually incomparably intense.

The ghosts formed from evil thoughts in this lantern were not something ordinary people could resist.

Those who could slay their own evil thoughts in the Cage of Ghosts were all truly extraordinary people with great perseverance.

…

Under the oil paper cover of the lantern, a faint flame burned, as though a living person were residing within and breathing slowly.

At first glance, the pressure this lantern gave Gu Shen was much stronger than the other two sealed objects!

He reached out and held the slender pole connected to the top of the lantern.

Swish.

The moment he touched the lantern, the flame inside seemed to burst out from the oil paper cover, almost filling his field of vision.

This dream was even more terrifying than the previous two.

And Gu Shen awakened faster than the previous two times.

The flame bursting out of the cage seemed to be an illusion or a magic show. After the flame dissipated, Gu Shen found himself standing in an endless darkness, with the sensation of a tide flowing back and forth under his feet.

He held the lantern, the only source of light in this world.

As the flame inside the lantern was extinguishing bit by bit, the tide under his feet was surging back and forth, showing signs of rising.

Although the guidance from his intuition made Gu Shen extremely excited at this moment, after deciphering the Blue Cube and the Sands of Time, he was already mentally exhausted.

Looking at the pitch-black world, he felt an extremely strong sense of crisis.

He instinctively shouted, “Chu Ling!”

This time, before Gu Shen could finish speaking, Chu Ling appeared one step ahead of him.

Countless dark code spread like wings. Because the world was so dark, the code seemed to have been born in this dream, without any traces of disorder or incongruity.

Chu Ling floated in the air and gently placed her hands on the young man’s shoulders as he shouted her name. “I’m here.”

The flame in the lantern flickered intensely.

“I have a premonition that I will awaken transcendence here.” Gu Shen’s expression was solemn. He lowered his head, looked at his chest, and muttered, “Now I feel like… there’s something being pulled out of my chest. Is it an illusion?”

“…” Chu Ling didn’t answer directly. She said softly, “How do you feel after deciphering two dreams?”

Gu Shen said honestly, “I feel both great and terrible. My soul is more excited than ever, but in reality, my mind is already somewhat overdrawn… You’re right. Deciphering three nightmares in a row will cause immense consumption.”

“The Cage of Ghosts, a former Class S sealed object, is now severely damaged.”  Chu Ling’s voice was unusually grave. “But even so, it is still more dangerous than the first two dreams, the Blue Cube and the Sands of Time, added together.”

Class S sealed object? Gu Shen’s expression tensed. According to the classification of danger levels, the tall lady he had encountered on the light rail was only Class A.

A sealed object can actually reach a Class S danger rating? What does this mean?

While the two of them were talking, the flame in the lantern had almost completely extinguished.

The tide under Gu Shen’s feet was getting higher and higher, and he felt like he was being swallowed by endless darkness. His calves were icy cold. The water had already reached this level and was still rising. At the same time, the feeling of something being pulled out of his chest grew stronger and stronger, as though a hand were gripping his heart. With each surge of the tide, it exerted force again and again, wanting to pull his soul out of his body!

“The lantern flame is extinguished, and evil ghosts pour forth.” The girl’s voice echoed in the darkness. “The greater a person’s evil thoughts, the stronger the ghosts in the cage.”

Gu Shen took a deep breath and adjusted his state while using this time to deal with the inexplicable force pulling his soul.

He looked within himself. He had never stolen or injured innocent people. At worst, he could be considered as having minor misdeeds and lying.

The evil ghosts in the cage shouldn’t be particularly powerful, right?

“Gu Shen, perhaps your premonition is right,” Chu Ling said. “You might really awaken transcendence in this place.”

Then the final sound in the silent world was:

Fizz!

The weak flame extinguished.

The entire world was plunged into darkness, but at the same time, the extremely dark world began to illuminate in another way.

In front of Gu Shen appeared a giant…

… vertical pupil.

This vertical pupil was like a scarlet sun, burning with an endless blood-red sea of flames. The moment it opened its eyes, a strong shockwave erupted and burned the lantern in Gu Shen’s hand into ashes.

A strong light shone.

Gu Shen saw the appearance of the evil ghost in front of him.

One vertical pupil after another lit up in the distance.

An endless tide flowed out of a huge mouth. Gu Shen stood in front of the huge mouth, feeling as though the entire world was about to be swallowed by evil ghosts. At this moment, soul bodies the size of infants streamed out of the mouth like locusts.

The dream trembled violently and was on the verge of collapse at any moment.

Gu Shen’s face turned pale. Are these my… evil thoughts?

This was simply… Hell on Earth.

…

The assessment team was absolutely silent.

… Including the grand magistrate.

Everyone stared at the dreaming young man holding the lantern in his hand with looks of utter disbelief.

In the real world, the flame in the center of the Cage of Ghosts burned vigorously, and it even let out a sorrowful cry like boiling water. The flame burst forth in waves and projected on the oil paper cover… vertical pupils one after another.

The vertical pupils were as red as blood.

Each one of them was a ghastly sight.

And they kept appearing and appearing and appearing and finally… piled up.

Countless evil ghosts smeared a thick layer on the surface of the lantern.

The Cage of Ghosts could reflect the truth of the evil ghosts in the dream on the surface.

And this kind of phenomenon… was the first time.

How great were the evil thoughts?

Boundless! They were almost swallowing up the entire dream world!