Chapter 1 The Ebb and Flow

The tide receded, and the sunlight was like scales.

Chu Ling's body transformed into millions of fluorescent lights, drifting away with the tide. This time, her descent ended amidst the surging sound of the tide once more.

Except, she was no longer alone.

Gu Shen put away the set of red and white sacrificial robes, a faint smile in his eyes.

This time, he could finally be with her until the last second of her life.

"Gu Shen!"

"Gu Shen!"

Little Iron Man ran over from afar. Seeing the empty lounge chair, he was stunned for a moment, and subconsciously asked, "Where's Sister-in-law?"

"She went back."

Gu Shen chuckled and scolded, "Alright, let's talk business."

Chen Li didn't doubt it, and said seriously, "Bad news, all the accomplices that Hongxi Chen Lin exposed are dead."

"Dead?"

The smile on Gu Shen's face disappeared.

"That's right... I just sent people to stake them out, and these people committed suicide without any warning." Chen Li said helplessly, "I can guarantee that the people I sent out weren't discovered."

The list of hidden agents that Hongxi Chen Lin revealed didn't involve many people.

They were scattered.

Changye, Dadu, Yinghai, Hongshan, all districts had agents.

Even for the Gu family, it would take time to carry out this kind of distributed staking and deployment in different major districts.

"Died so quickly..."

Gu Shen realized something was wrong: "Does the Temple already know about Hongxi Chen Lin's matter?"

Like a gecko shedding its tail.

The Temple had obviously realized that the hidden agents were exposed. It had taken a long time and a lot of effort to send these people into East洲.

The reason for sacrificing them so decisively.

There was only one possibility.

The Temple was afraid that a larger "list" would be exposed.

"What about Uto?"

Gu Shen suddenly looked up, his eyes already filled with killing intent.

He could ignore these small fry, but the Third Arbiter Uto was no small character.

He didn't believe that the Temple could casually sacrifice this hidden agent who had infiltrated the upper echelons!

"Uto..."

Chen Li was silent for a moment, and said, "Before the Donglai family was investigated, Uto happened to be handling a case and went out to Changye. Now the Tribunal can't contact him anymore."

"Escaped?"

Gu Shen rubbed his brow and sighed.

"Yes... Feng Tong was transferred, and many other methods were used as well. Uto is not in East洲 now, as for where... it's not clear yet."

"Where else could he be?"

Gu Shen shook his head, then lay down again, and said with a self-deprecating laugh, "...It can only be Guang Ming Bi Lei. Tell Nan Feng, there's no need to look anymore, Uto has already escaped."

Chen Li felt that this matter was ridiculous.

Before they even started investigating the Donglai family, Uto went on a mission and then fled East洲 directly, without even looking back.

How could there be such a coincidence in this world?

"If that's the case, haven't we worked for nothing?"

Little Iron Man said angrily, "Even if Guang Ming Bi Lei had an expert behind the scenes, it shouldn't be such a coincidence that Uto could escape, right?"

"Worked for nothing... not necessarily."

Gu Shen gestured for Chen Li to sit down. He said calmly, "Weren't those dying people on Jiankou Islands saved? Donglai Zhengzang is dead, the Donglai family has been removed, and the tumor of Yinghai has been uprooted... Although all the people on Guang Ming Bi Lei's list of hidden agents are dead, at least their spy network has also been hit."

Little Iron Man was worried: "But what about the remaining hidden agents?"

"This kind of thing can't be eliminated." Gu Shen said indifferently, "Compared to these, I'm more curious about the mastermind behind this operation of Guang Ming Bi Lei. At first, I suspected it was some old guy from the Temple, but now it seems like it's not."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I killed the Seventh Elder of the Temple, Longqi, in the Ice Sea."

Gu Shen said leisurely, "People who have stayed in Guang Ming Bi Lei for a long time will have a rotten aura about them, probably because they are 'martyrs' themselves. They have dedicated everything to the Guang Ming Bi Lei Divine Throne, so they want to burn their lives at all times to prove their loyalty... Once this kind of person has determined the end point, they will move forward even at all costs."

Chen Li listened carefully.

"In other words, if the 'power of faith' that Donglai Zhengzang left here were to be sought by the older generation of the Temple, it would only be possible to be repelled, not to give up actively."

Gu Shen said, "In my expectation, the Temple would organize a large number of transcendents to launch a surprise attack along the East Sea area, and may even bring the Holy Book to try to drain the faith of the Snake God followers before they are executed in East洲."

This was also the scene that Gu Shen was looking forward to.

It was a pity.

This scene did not happen.

In the end, all that came was two small fish sent to their deaths.

"You mean... the mastermind behind this operation is not some Temple Elder we are familiar with?"

"That's right."

Gu Shen suddenly asked, "Do you remember 'Su Ye' from back then?"

Little Iron Man's expression was solemn: "Of course I remember!"

During the Sangzhou Cave incident, Guang Ming Bi Lei suddenly had an extra Saint.

Su Ye's appearance was without any warning!

Of course, this was because West洲 had very strict control over information... Guang Ming Bi Lei and Holy City, these places of faith, had very tight-lipped people up and down.

The will of the upper echelons would be absolutely respected, and leaks were basically impossible.

Thinking carefully, this matter was actually very terrifying.

As powerful as the Source Tower, when recruiting the Four Divine Envoys, it needed to be widely publicized to attract geniuses from within the Five Continents to conduct "trials". However, West洲 found a "genius" who was no less than Meng Xiao, or even more powerful, without making a sound, and replaced him as the Saint. Before that, no one knew who Su Ye was.

But this didn't mean Su Ye didn't exist.

"No matter how much Guang Ming Bi Lei maintains eternal day, there will always be shadows covering it."

"During the Sang Island mission, I killed a shadow... This means that there are countless shadows in Guang Ming Bi Lei. Su Ye's birth was no accident. He had already undergone countless trials in the depths of darkness, waiting for Meng Xiao's death, because West洲 had limited spots for them."

Gu Shen said calmly, "Only when the predecessors die in the sun can these shadows replace them and stand up."

"..."

Chen Li suddenly felt that being born in Changye was a lucky thing.

Just listening to Gu Shen's description of these people made him shudder.

"These are just my guesses."

Gu Shen said with a smile, "I guess this probing of Jiankou Islands was not the work of those old antiques in the Temple, but the masterpiece of a 'shadow' they had carefully cultivated. As for the reason... it's very simple, Longqi is dead, and there are vacant positions in the Temple again. This is probably an extremely cautious person who had long determined that there was a conspiracy in the Donglai family's case, so he prepared the most decisive follow-up move and jumped into it decisively."

"Wait, if he knew there was a conspiracy, why did he send people to probe?"

"Because he is in the Temple."

Gu Shen said softly, "The Temple wants 'power of faith', so he has to take it. Those old guys don't care how you take it, they only look at the results."

Chen Li understood.

If Gu Shen's guess was correct.

Then this "shadow" was probably also tragic. He had to obey the orders of the Temple, even if he knew there was a pit in Jiankou Islands, he had to jump into it.

"In this way, this planner is probably going to be unlucky."

Little Iron Man said in a low voice, "For us, we just set up a game and didn't harvest the big fish we expected... But for the Temple, they have suffered heavy losses this time, losing both the lady and the army."

"..."

Gu Shen looked at the tide, this time he was just silent and didn't reply.

……

……

"Lord Yuan Yang, the 'Donglai Case' has been settled, Jiankou Islands has been completely blocked, and the followers cultivated by Donglai Zhengzang have been killed... This information has been announced to the public."

"This time, we suffered heavy losses."

"The two hidden agents you personally appointed have been killed, the 'dreams' of Hongxi and Chenlin have lost contact with the Temple, and Red Lake has sent dream guidance that they betrayed Guang Ming Bi Lei. The list of First Shadow Line may have been exposed... This list involves a total of eleven members, scattered throughout East洲, and no one has been exposed before."

The Temple believer knelt in front of the pavilion.

The Second Elder Yuan Yang in the pavilion looked pale, his knuckles were white.

And Jia Wei, who was sitting beside him, looked calm.

"How could this be... how could this be..."

Yuan Yang's fingers trembled as he held the teacup, and he looked at Jia Wei: "Did Red Lake really give such guidance?"

"Dong."

Jia Wei never drank tea from beginning to end. He wore heavy armor, and the helmet of the Ming Dynasty armor hadn't been taken off for decades. Coming here... was just to see Yuan Yang's expression at this moment.

"You will know if you go to see Red Lake's guidance yourself."

Jia Wei said calmly, "I clearly rejected you that day, saying that you shouldn't take it by force. What was the result, you have also seen... You should be glad that only two hidden agents were sacrificed this time. If you followed your original idea and brought a group of people to the east to steal the power of faith in a big way, what would be the result?"

Yuan Yang murmured: "East洲 had an ambush early... How could Hongxi and Chenlin betray?"

"It doesn't matter, the result has already happened."

Jia Wei said: "In this time of many events, someone needs to be responsible for the Temple's losses this time..."

Yuan Yang recalled the Temple's disposal and said hoarsely: "Since I made a mistake, I am willing to be punished, so today, you are here with the execution result?"

The entire shadow line was exposed, and since East洲 had been prepared for a long time, it was likely to involve more layouts.

There was also a very important person in this shadow line.

The Third Arbiter, Uto.

"The loss is not as big as you think, the people on the shadow line have already self-destructed." Jia Wei said, "The East洲 clue is completely broken, and there will be no follow-up to this matter."

Yuan Yang was stunned for a moment.

"Shadow line members self-destruct... What about Uto?"

"Uto is still alive. Calculating the time, he should be returning to Guang Ming Bi Lei."

These successive messages caught Yuan Yang off guard.

"Although the behavior was rough, the original intention was good, so the Great Elder decided to let you enter the 'Secret Prison' to face the wall." Jia Wei smiled and said, "You should know what this means, right? In the Secret Prison, you may be able to redeem your sins."

Yuan Yang breathed a long sigh of relief.

He wiped the sweat from his forehead and asked seriously, "The people on the shadow line shouldn't have had time to receive the news, how did they self-destruct... Also Uto, how did Uto escape back to Guang Ming Bi Lei?"

"You need to thank him for these."

Jia Wei smiled softly.

Behind him, there was another figure, the room was dark, and the person was hidden in the shadows, seemingly sitting in a wheelchair.

In the Temple, there were many such people.

They were shadows, but if needed, they could become light at any time.

Yuan Yang looked over.

The young man in the darkness nodded slightly, giving a gentle smile.