Light Fortress

According to past rules, the Judgement Institute's review of newcomers primarily assessed four aspects—

strength, speed, spiritual power, and control.

This fifteen-day intense training program was thus centered around enhancing these four areas. Nan Jin was responsible for "strength," Zhong Wei for "speed," and Senior Sister Luo for "spiritual power" and "control," which precisely corresponded to their respective extraordinary traits.

…

…

"I'm back..."

Late night, half-past eleven.

Having finished a day's training, Gu Shen returned to his apartment, weakly pushed open the door, leaned against the wall, and barely steadied himself.

Today's training had been brutally intense.

Right after the Jingzhe Dream ended, Nan Jin dragged him to the boxing ring. Officially, it was strength training, but in reality, it was more like getting beaten up. Nan Jin was a top-notch close-combat expert, skilled in targeting vital points, tormenting in numerous ways—Gu Shen was battered around like a punching bag, yet he still managed to stand up each time.

Checking the time, that wicked woman had trained him for a whole six hours... and the intermittent breaks totaled less than twenty minutes.

Those six hours felt as long as a century.

So much so that on the way back, Gu Shen's legs kept trembling.

"Meow!"

At the sound of Gu Shen's voice, the orange cat merrily called out and scurried out of the room.

"Here... food."

Gu Shen had no energy to deal with the naive cat. He opened a big bag of cat food, tossed it into a corner, and hurried to wash himself.

Then he collapsed on the bed, utterly exhausted.

Every bone in his body felt like falling apart... Hard to imagine that in Nan Jin's words, this was just an "appetizer," a "warm-up exercise."

How terrifying would tomorrow's training be?

Actually, Gu Shen wasn't scared or timid; on the contrary... Today, on the boxing ring, each time he was knocked down, he immediately got up.

He stood up not to show off, but because he didn't want to just fall like that.

He let out a long breath.

Gu Shen stopped overthinking and stretched out his hands, looking satisfactorily at the calluses on his palms.

Today's training had indeed been fruitful.

He had started to replace normal breathing with "Jingzhe," and each breath took away a third of his mental fatigue.

Often, only in the utmost quiet and limited space could Gu Shen feel his real existence...

Like now.

In the sealed room, there wasn't the slightest sound.

Not even the wind.

Gu Shen slowly closed his eyes, slipping into a light doze, the experiences of the past few days fleeting through his mind.

Real yet dreamlike.

Sometime, he had pushed open the door to the extraordinary world.

Something seemed amiss in his heart, feeling somewhat unsettled; Gu Shen stretched a hand under the pillow, soothing himself much after touching the Truth Ruler.

Yes... It was reassuring.

From now on, it would be better to carry the Truth Ruler when going out, just in case something unexpected happened... After all, he was the lucky guy who could encounter A-009 even on a train ride; nothing could be too strange.

"How do you feel about mastering the Jingzhe Breathing Technique?"

Da Ju nudged open the bedroom door, tiptoed, and slowly jumped onto the bed, her eyes twinkling with light.

Chu Ling had come online.

Gu Shen stroked his chin, thought for a moment, and said, "This breathing technique is powerful, and I feel lighter than ever before. But occasionally, I wonder if choosing to wake up later was the right decision?"

"Hmm..."

"Actually, looking back now, your choice was indeed the right one."

Chu Ling slowly said, "Someone inside the Judgement Institute has already set their sights on you; standing out too much is not good."

Gu Shen immediately became cautious.

"Someone inside... has their sights set on me?"

"Yes. This person is called 'Han Dang.'

The orange cat licked her paw and came next to Gu Shen, lifting her paw, the bedroom's projector automatically turned on, displaying one page after another of documents in the blue light.

Far away, Chu Ling controlled the system here, projecting the data of Han Dang.

Gu Shen frowned as he looked.

He had already vaguely guessed that there were conflicts and dissent within the Judgement Institute.

The last time his trial concluded, Qinghe Judge Yan Shicheng had mentioned a name—

Zhu Wang!

At that time, he felt there would be some complications later on.

"Han Dang is Zhu Wang's prized disciple, and his status and power are comparable to Senior Sister Luo; he is also a Spiritual Transcendent."

In the Deep Sea archives, Han Dang's data was entirely retrieved by Chu Ling, detailed from birth to medals of honor... After a thorough review, Gu Shen shook his head in realization.

This man named Han Dang, with his extraordinary accomplishments, truly belonged to the bright new generation in the Judgement Institute.

He indeed was a worthy counterpart to Senior Sister Luo.

Upon seeing the latest action message from Han Dang, Gu Shen's mind suddenly became exceedingly clear.

Sleepiness was entirely gone.

"He has arrived in Da Teng City, and went straight to the old building of the fire case..."

Gu Shen sat up, fatigue swept away from his body, he quickly scrolled through the electronic file, a packaged video in the remote cloud still uploading.

He was well aware that Spiritual Transcendents often developed the ability of "profiling," and the top-tier ones, like Senior Sister Luo, could even sketch the environment of the fire case a day after the incident occurred.

Senior Sister Luo had restored her extraordinary methods and had nearly seen through the Truth Ruler.

This man named Han Dang, being the top disciple of Mr. Shu's archenemy, had come to Da Teng... his purpose was self-evident.

He was coming for him!

He was here to investigate the fire case, as well as his own extraordinary ability!

"This segment, is the action video I captured."

The cloud video finished downloading and popped up immediately.

In the video, dust was everywhere, visibility blurred, Gu Shen saw a helicopter arriving at the scene of the fire case... The next scene was truly shocking, after Han Dang fell from the sky, all the security personnel prepared to counterattack at once, but for some unknown reason, they all stood frozen in place, like puppets abandoning their weapons.

"Were these people 'hypnotized'?"

Gu Shen felt a lingering fear, recalling the afternoon's encounter.

Facing the infiltration of Senior Sister Luo's dream, he had no power to resist... The security personnel of the fire case were, without exception, suppressed by Han Dang's extraordinary power.

"He went to the old building to investigate... Due to the lack of surveillance, what happened inside the old building remains unknown." Chu Ling's tone remained calm and steady, "Fifteen minutes later, Han Dang erased these people's memories."

"This is a bit too terrifying..."

After watching the video, Gu Shen asked cautiously, "With Han Dang's extraordinary power being able to manipulate people's hearts so easily, who could possibly stand against him?"

"Han Dang is indeed very formidable."

Chu Ling paused a moment, "But perhaps... he isn't as strong as you imagine. Undoubtedly, only a Transcendent can defeat a Transcendent... but, no one is perfect. Everyone has weaknesses, and in a life-or-death fight, that weakness is a fatal flaw."

Gu Shen saw amongst the pulled files, a particularly eye-catching red document.

Was this a classified file about Han Dang?

Curious, Gu Shen maneuvered the cursor and hovered over it, clicking crisply—

The file did not open but instead triggered a strong alert tone.

Then a series of garbled codes followed.

The screen was ultimately filled with a large red cross, alongside four prominently bolded words.

"Access Denied."

Gu Shen was shocked.

All along, he had thought Chu Ling could do anything... linking to Deep Sea permissions, providing all-powerful surveillance, analyzing real-time data, planning strategic deployments... this was simply another Deep Sea with the highest authority.

But this time, he had hit a wall.

"You seem very surprised?"

The orange cat calmly licked its paw, "I should not have said that I can do everything."

"Yes..."

Gu Shen subconsciously said, "But... this is just Han Dang's file..."

"You are thinking, this is just Han Dang's file, above Han Dang there is Zhu Wang, and above him are the members of the East Continent Council, and even higher seats..." the orange cat turned its head, "I am not omnipotent, there are still many things I can't do now, maybe in the future."

She suddenly asked, "If you could open the file of the Five Continent Chair right now, would you want to take a look?"

"I'd like to see... but I dare not, how many heads wouldn't be enough to drop?" Gu Shen understood the irony, he immediately chickened out, muttering, "Have I already boarded the pirate ship?"

It was rather ironic.

Initially, it was he who had advised Chu Ling not to engage in these illegal activities.

Now, he was the one who nonchalantly admitted they were indeed wonderful.

"You've been on the pirate ship for a while, thinking of changing your mind?" the orange cat manipulated its paw, seriously suggesting, "If you change your mind now, a life sentence should be enough. If it's discovered later, it should be the death penalty."

"Ptui ptui ptui, what awful things are you saying?" Gu Shen earnestly lifted the orange cat, "We are perfectly honorable young people, we never engage in disorderly bad deeds… as long as it's not discovered, who knows?"

The orange cat was somewhat unused to being lifted.

It struggled and protested a bit.

To no avail.

Eventually, it gave up.

"In any case... you should know that someone is watching us, and we must remain vigilant at all times." Chu Ling sighed, "That guy named Han Dang is no easy opponent. He has come all this way to Da Teng, surely to mess up your review and then take advantage of the 'Special Amnesty' to strike, further aiming to overthrow Zhou Jiren."

Gu Shen fell into thought.

"The worst-case scenario is that he has profiled the existence of 'Ruler' and has begun to doubt your extraordinary ability. If there is contact in the future, he will definitely test you. You, need to think of a strategy."

The orange cat shook its tail, the glow in its eyes slowly fading.

"Alright, I am tired, no audience further."

A cat's yowl startled Gu Shen from his deep thought.

Da Ju, who realized halfway that he was held in midair, first was shocked and then very angry, growled lowly, and snuggly wrapped around Gu Shen's face, pff pff pff released a bunch of yellow smoke, then left in dissatisfaction.