Chapter 16 Desperate Gambit

With a soft "tss," the dynamite fuse was lit without hesitation by the man.

Blinding light erupted within the dim room.

Like a moth drawn to a flame, he launched himself from the chair, leaping over the long table towards Gu Shen. At that very moment, the stern-faced stone carving of an evil spirit emanated a hypnotic mental ripple—

This was a crude assassination attempt.

But effective.

A mental-type transcendent could resist the stern gaze of the stone carving, but couldn't prevent the explosion of dynamite.

If it were a strength or nature-type, they might have been able to prevent the detonation.

However... the stone carving would greatly reduce their efficiency.

Gu Shen watched the man pouncing toward him, filling his entire field of vision—

Darkness pressed down.

Yet his mind remained incredibly calm.

At that moment, the world seemed to freeze, everything around him moving in slow motion. Every object… the papers swirling in the wind, the tilting cabinet, the rolling pen—all were suspended, becoming a still life, a painting splashed across reality.

In Gu Shen's vision.

The protagonist of this frozen tableau was the fanatical believer who had lit the dynamite and was now hurtling towards him.

And in the broader perspective encompassing the entire room.

The protagonist was the young man who had gripped the ruler, a blazing flame emerging between his brows.

"1.5 seconds..."

Gu Shen's focus was sharper than ever, his gaze fixed on the fuse at the man's waist. At this moment, his mind felt like a single, concentrated point.

He recognized the explosive.

It was a high explosive made primarily of trinitrotoluene, easily portable and relatively stable. Detonated with a blasting cap, its force could level an entire building. This crude and archaic explosive was outdated, powerful but flawed: its detonation had a slight delay.

From ignition to explosion, it took approximately 1.5 seconds.

That... was the delay.

And that was all the time Gu Shen had left in the real world.

The instant the 1.5-second countdown began, the evil-spirit carving on the desk bared its fangs.

A mental wave, even faster than the burning fuse, instantly spread, enveloping Gu Shen. The papers, cabinet, pen, and even the curtains in the periphery of his vision, were all replaced by black static—

He was dragged into the dream of the stern-faced stone carving.

For Gu Shen, this wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

Time flowed differently in the dream of a sealed item… perhaps only extending it by a few seconds, but those seconds could be life-saving.

Gu Shen stood in the familiar dark dreamscape.

His thoughts raced.

This assassination attempt by the Eternal Foundation, though crude, was actually quite effective. The combination of the stone carving and high explosives was a simple and brutal method that could eliminate almost any unprepared new transcendent.

The only loophole was their misjudgment of his dream-breaking ability...

The Ghost Cage, once an S-class sealed item, possessed an internal dreamscape several levels stronger than this stone carving.

He had broken free in just one minute.

The emergence of this dream… actually gave Gu Shen more time to think calmly. What he found truly troublesome was the high explosive with its lit blasting cap.

If a mental-type transcendent of Sister Luo's caliber faced this situation, she would directly and unreasonably "reverse the rules."

Ignition would become extinguishing, and the explosive wouldn't detonate at all.

Or even… if the explosive truly detonated, Sister Luo would have the ability to "take it back" with her own hands.

But Gu Shen couldn't use the Ruler of Truth to imitate similar scenes… because he couldn't yet understand the principles behind those methods. The Ruler of Truth could condense mental power, but it couldn't directly affect causality.

If he wanted to use the Ruler of Truth to accomplish a similar miracle of restoring a shattered mirror, he would need to condense mental power and painstakingly glue each shard back into the frame, each act of pasting a separate, intricate process.

Similarly.

Using the Ruler of Truth to directly change the established fact that the explosive had already been ignited was impossible.

"If it's allowed to detonate, the entire building will be blown apart."

Gu Shen took a deep breath.

"Calm... calm... there must be a solution..."

Was there any way his transcendent abilities could save the day… Blazing Fire… Creation… Barrier…

"I've got it!"

At the critical moment, a flash of inspiration appeared in his mind, and Gu Shen's eyes suddenly lit up.

He raised his arm and tore it down violently.

The black nightmare was instantly ripped apart, and the hideous evil spirit in the dream screamed.

Bright Blazing Fire, like a spear, accompanied Gu Shen's raised hand and instantly pierced the evil spirit.

In a single instant, the dream of the stern-faced stone carving shattered!

Gu Shen opened his eyes. In reality, less than a second had passed from the moment he entered the nightmare to when he broke free.

The black shadow leaping from the table was about to slam into him. They were less than a meter apart, and he saw the erupting light and the Foundation member's eyes, burning even brighter than the flames.

"Hah..."

In the silent 0.5 seconds, Gu Shen could hear himself exhale slowly.

On the surface of the silver ruler, the dim markings gradually lit up.

A burst of snow-white light enveloped him.

In the condensed tableau, the youth sitting on the chair resembled a king presiding over the rules of the world.

Gu Shen calmly gazed at the man hurtling toward him.

He heard his own voice in his mind.

["Ant..."]

The ruler was raised.

Where it pointed.

A surge of raging fire suddenly erupted. An explosion powerful enough to level the entire building halted half a meter in front of Gu Shen, the sparking light seeming to collide against an invisible wall.

Not just one wall.

Front, back, left, right, top, bottom.

The large amount of trinitrotoluene in the blasting cap detonated in a violent collision. However, these high explosives were like a tide trapped in a cage. The suppressed, immense fire struck the cage walls, like waves crashing against a towering cliff, only to recede. The six-sided barrier sparked with countless threads of pale light. The dim, narrow room felt like a supernova had occurred, a moment of brilliance like the height of day.

Gu Shen, holding the silver ruler, calmly watched the scene.

After using the Ruler of Truth, he seemed to have truly become a god, detached and coldly surveying all things.

His expression was calm, as if admiring a painting.

The papers that had been swirling in the wind gently returned to their place, the tilting cabinet no longer trembled, the pen rolled back onto the desk, and the curtains no longer fluttered. Everything in the room was still.

Except for that small cage of Blazing Fire.

The violent explosion wouldn't transmit even a trace of sound outside the barrier. There was no need to worry that anyone outside would hear.

Flesh and bone were obliterated the moment the explosion began. The crimson color appeared only for a fleeting instant, then was covered by white. Blood was incinerated by the scorching heat, and bones were burned to ash.

It was like a silent play.

A moth embracing Blazing Fire flew toward the sun.

And then, there was only… a brief moment of brilliance.

Light enveloped him.

Like a large cocoon.