Chapter 184 Memory and Coincidence

That was the entirety of the memory, mostly chaotic impressions.

The amount of useful information... was far too little.

Gu Shen glanced at the man who was unconscious.

"Trident silver foil..."

He searched the man and found the silver foil pinned inside his jacket. He didn't touch it directly... if it was truly a symbol of the Church, it was very likely that it contained something similar to spiritual power.

Otherwise, how could an ordinary believer be allowed to come out alone?

Gu Shen used the Ruler of Truth to pick up the silver foil from the air.

He examined it for a moment, but didn't see anything unusual. Then he turned his gaze to the scattered bag... The bag seemed to have been waterproofed, as the liquid inside hadn't leaked at all. It was still warm, and a faint heat mist emanated from the opening. From the bulging shape, it seemed to be filled with round objects.

A woman, an old man, and even more youthful ones...

Gu Shen was silent for a second after opening it.

He brought two fingers together and swiped.

A line of blood spurted out.

The priest's head flew off and landed on the snow, immediately ignited by blazing fire. His face was still confused even in death.

"I understand your anger," Chu Ling said softly. "But killing him... isn't the wisest choice."

Hypnotizing him, erasing his memory, and waiting might have been the safest option.

But Gu Shen didn't choose that.

"Actually, it's not just anger," Gu Shen said slowly. "There are some other emotions as well, but aside from those, there's a very important reason..."

"There's more than one solution to every problem in this world. Sometimes the most efficient solution isn't necessarily the best one."

Gu Shen replied calmly, while snapping his fingers again. The sack filled with "spheres" also burst into flames. The fire and smoke were obscured by the arc of light from the Ruler of Truth, refracted into a chilling wind and snow.

"This person was probably only sent out to deal with the 'filth'."

Gu Shen looked up, his face expressionless. "Does a Church organization that includes both 'Transcendent' and 'Ordinary' people really care about an ordinary life? I don't think so. If I want to get the 'Lamp of Sorrow,' I'll inevitably have to make direct contact. If I hadn't failed to obtain the item, I'd be thinking about how to detonate this entire snow mountain and send everyone inside to hell."

Or perhaps, they were all devils to begin with.

"I should be able to crack that passcode door... I just need to interact with their network. They're bound to use the [Deep Sea] as an information medium. If I'm not mistaken, a small silver foil should be enough to let me understand the entire 'base'."

Gu Shen nodded.

He used the Ruler of Truth to conjure a huge gust of wind and snow to obscure the "surveillance" in front of the door.

At the same time, he retrieved the silver foil and used his spiritual power to float it to the location of the passcode door. As expected, he found a card reader slot.

The silver foil was inserted.

Chu Ling's connection began to spread.

While waiting, Gu Shen leaned against the mountain rock and said softly, "Your method won't work. I have my own..."

Before he could finish speaking.

There was a "ding" sound.

The passcode door opened.

Gu Shen's expression was somewhat subtle.

"You sound very confident..." Chu Ling smiled and said, "Let me guess what your method is. Are you going to melt it with 'Blazing Fire' at high temperature, or launch a frontal assault with the 'Iron Throne'?"

"You're too fast," Gu Shen muttered. He put on the priest's Southern Continent robe and subconsciously lowered his head before entering, not daring to look directly at the camera above the door.

"Don't worry, everything that needs to be shielded has been shielded. These Southern Continent priests aren't very vigilant."

Chu Ling said softly, "The mountain base is very large. Here's a three-dimensional model."

A three-dimensional map appeared before his eyes.

Besides that... there were also familiar red dots.

"There are a total of 46 Transcendent individuals. All marked with red dots."

"279 ordinary people, marked with yellow dots."

"1 Tier 3 Transcendent, estimated to have reached the strength of the seventh level of the Deep Sea Zone, 11 Tier 2 Transcendent individuals, 34 Tier 1 Transcendent individuals... These are all members of the 'Evening Bell Church'."

"Evening Bell Church?"

"This information was obtained from the base's database. This database isn't synchronized with the central database... The personnel list and base blueprints were found in the independent database." Chu Ling said, "By the way, there are many churches in the Southern Continent. It's impossible to find useful information by searching for the name 'Evening Bell' alone."

Gu Shen was thoughtful. "Southern Continent... Evening Bell Church..."

He said in a low voice, "Help me investigate a case..."

...

...

"These ordinary people have a shared residence."

After taking a close look at the map, Gu Shen discovered that the densely packed yellow dots were all clustered in one place.

He pulled at his wide black robe, covering his face, and then silently walked towards the area with the dense concentration of yellow dots... Along the way, he saw several Transcendent individuals, but they didn't suspect his identity. It seemed his previous guess was correct.

Transcendent individuals simply didn't care about ordinary people.

"This snow-covered underground contains 'Mithril' material... This base was established six months ago, and the Evening Bell Church initially sent fewer than ten people."

As he moved forward.

Chu Ling, linked to the base's database, slowly said, "After the base was established, the Southern Continent began to gradually send Church members, which led to the Transcendent individuals you see now... as well as a small number of ordinary believers. Most of the ordinary people I sensed haven't been entered into the database, which means the Evening Bell Church doesn't have their information."

"Or rather... they don't care..."

Gu Shen roughly understood the whole picture.

He coldly looked into the distance. An Evening Bell Church priest was angrily scolding in the Southern Continent language, whipping a young man furiously. The latter knelt on the ground, his skin and flesh torn from the beating.

There were a total of 279 "ordinary people" here. A very small portion were "Evening Bell Priests" who had crossed over from the Southern Continent, like the one he had just killed... But most of them were manpower plundered directly from the tundra.

This place was remote, and although the Federal Government had established a safety line, it couldn't guarantee that everyone would stay within it.

Once someone entered the no-man's land.

If they were targeted by the "Evening Bell Church"... they would probably be sent here.

Mining materials with strong logic required a young and strong labor force, and those "plundered" individuals who didn't meet the requirements, after losing their value... their tragic ending was already sealed...

"The Southern Continent is a chaotic place, filled with churches, confused beliefs, and constant warfare."

Chu Ling said, "These people are desperate criminals. There won't be a trace of pity in their eyes... Especially after coming to East Continent. Should I notify the Gu family?"

The five great families all had secret bases in the tundra.

"No need to rush. Let's figure out the situation here first."

Gu Shen's expression under his black robe was already very gloomy.

If he hadn't witnessed it with his own eyes, he would never have imagined... that the Southern Continent Church would be so rampant, daring to extend its reach so far!

He was already prepared to notify Old Man Gu, mobilize the nearby forces, and carry out a suppression.

Once he obtained the "Lamp of Sorrow," none of the Church members here would be able to escape!

He silently followed the map's navigation and arrived at the "common area," seeing the scene of the so-called mining of strong logic materials. Large chunks of mountain rock were being hard-chiseled by manpower. Red, crystalline stones were being pried out, which was the initial form of red silver.

One "laborer" after another was working diligently, and Gu Shen noticed that these people, like himself, had silver foil attached to their chests.

"These people... seem very docile."

His expression was grave.

Had they been tortured into absolute obedience, losing their humanity?

Or... had they undergone powerful mental hypnosis?

"The deepest level of the database here has a layer of locks. I'll need some more time..." Chu Ling said, "There might be some incredible secrets. The entire terrain of this base only shows half of it. The other half is encrypted and obscured."

Gu Shen was just about to respond.

A large hand patted him on the shoulder.

His body stiffened.

The other person was a Tier 3 Transcendent from the Deep Sea Zone, who lightly patted Gu Shen's shoulder and then spoke a string of obscure words.

"...What is this guy saying?"

Gu Shen was greatly annoyed.

"He wants you to go with him..." Chu Ling said calmly. "Don't respond, just go with him."

Gu Shen took a deep breath.

He slowly turned around, all his spiritual power retracted. He didn't raise his head, nor did he say a word. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that the speaking Transcendent was patting each person on the shoulder. People reached out and grabbed the shoulder of the person in front of them, forming a long line and walking into the distance...

"This is... going to..."

Gu Shen's eyelids twitched slightly.

He saw that at the end of the line, at the very front, stood a lady wearing a green linen robe.

The lady was holding her collar with one hand, a watch chain dangling from her palm. The watch moved on its own, emitting a crisp "tick, tick" sound at an extremely slow pace.

Gu Shen was all too familiar with this setup...

This was about to begin the hypnosis!

No wonder... they could allow an ordinary Church member to leave the base to deal with the corpses.

In fact, everyone who was caught would become a "Church member" of the Evening Bell Church after undergoing hypnosis.

Even if they were asked to die, they wouldn't hesitate in the slightest, right?

Everyone was in position.

A low chanting sound began.

But this time it was different from before... Everyone was speaking together, jointly chanting an ancient song.

Gu Shen bit the bullet and joined in the chanting. In reality, he didn't understand a single word, let alone pronounce it. He could only muddle through. Fortunately, in this grand and solemn atmosphere, every member was immersed in their own chanting, and no one noticed this lone wolf who was faking it.

The solemn chanting sound obscured the sound of the watch's hands.

Accompanied by the "tick" sound.

A wisp of spiritual power spread like ripples of water, enveloping everyone!

Gu Shen was enveloped within, silently sensing it.

This green-robed lady's spiritual power was quite impressive... It was likely at the level of Tier 4 of the Deep Sea Zone.

In other words, she was one of the 11 Tier 2 Transcendent individuals.

However... her strength wasn't enough to hypnotize him!

After abandoning the "Deep Sea Zone Trial Method," Gu Shen wasn't sure what level he had reached... But by practicing the Spring Breath day and night, coupled with the protection of the Four Seasons Wilderness, his spiritual power had far surpassed the strength that Tier 4 of the Deep Sea Zone should have.

He retracted his spirit, preparing to feign compliance.

The next moment.

All the lights in the entire base went out.

Pitch black.

...

...

"The control room's power has been cut off."

Chu Ling's voice was unusually calm.

"But... it wasn't me."

When he heard the first half of the sentence, Gu Shen felt slightly relieved, but when he heard the second half, his expression became serious.

The control room's power was cut off... Who else would do this besides himself?

"The final password has been deciphered, and all maps have been unlocked."

Chu Ling said calmly, "The map of this snowfield base only showed half... The remaining half is sealed off by multiple Mithril doors, and that's where the real 'secret' lies."

The entire map was transmitted into Gu Shen's eyes.

After only one glance, Gu Shen's pupils involuntarily contracted.

He was somewhat shocked in his heart: "This is... a tomb?"

"Yes, this is a tomb." Chu Ling said, "But now its area has been expanded by double. These Southern Continent cultists are excavating the snow mountain, hollowing out the mountainside, and chiseling a huge opening from behind the tomb... It seems they want to mine 'strong logic materials,' but in reality..."

The map of the tomb was very simple and strange.

A vertical coffin, suspended on a huge wall.

The "strong logic materials" that these cultists were mining were growing on the back of the ancient coffin's huge wall. If they continued to dig continuously, they would break through the back of the coffin.

"They can't open the coffin from the front, so they're using this method to try to 'open the coffin'."

Seeing the entire map of the base, Gu Shen understood... These guys definitely didn't just randomly discover this by luck. They must have come prepared. This place was not just a missionary site, but also a "burial ground" hidden for many years.

The power anomaly in the base lasted for dozens of seconds. Transcendent individuals rushed over quickly, but when they arrived at the control room, everything returned to normal.

The Transcendent cultists who controlled the base were somewhat puzzled.

They quickly checked the surveillance in various places, especially the surveillance of the [Ancient Tomb]. There were no abnormalities, and they breathed a long sigh of relief.

Was the fluctuation just now a mistake?

After re-examining it and confirming that there were no errors, they treated it as a malfunction that the machine would occasionally produce.

And now that it had been restored and there were no abnormalities, there was no need to waste time.

The chanting ceremony was disturbed by the sudden disturbance, but it wasn't interrupted. Every ordinary cultist was immersed in the atmosphere of chanting, and the watch that released the power of hypnosis didn't stop swaying.

But no one noticed.

After the power was restored.

One person was missing from the chanting team.

...

...

In the dark tunnel, electric arcs flickered faintly.

A figure hurried along.

Wherever this figure passed, the gate opened, and he traveled unimpeded, all permissions opened for him alone.

This was the other half of the base.

The absolutely confidential [Ancient Tomb] that was ordered to be strictly sealed!

To ensure the smooth opening of the tomb, normally no one could enter here, but today was an exception. The control room's permissions were completely lost, and all instrument powers were borrowed... As the gates opened one by one, the man wearing a black robe arrived in front of the real tomb.

He stood in front of the ancient coffin.

Silently, quietly, admiring this "history" that had been passed down for hundreds of years.

One gate after another closed again.

Everything returned to normal.

The real "conquest" was not to destroy it.

It was to feign a flawless "repair."

Soon the power would be restored, and after that... from the perspective of the monitoring room, this huge ancient tomb would not show the slightest abnormality, and everything here was deathly silent.

No one would know... that someone had quietly entered this place.

The man admired his work of art.

He stood in front of the coffin and slowly stretched out his palm. This "ancient coffin" that could not be opened... was surprisingly obedient and submissively opened towards the direction of his palm.

He held his breath, waiting for the scene after the vertical coffin was opened.

Wind blew past.

Snow-white radiance flowed out from the gaps in the vertical coffin.

The man narrowed his eyes. When he saw the scene in the coffin clearly, his expression became surprised and complex.

This locked "vertical coffin" did not have a "corpse" inside. There was a faint human figure lying in the coffin, but it was only a figure... It was the trace left after a certain body had been lying there for too long, and it presented a dark shadow under the light.

Besides that, there seemed to be only some messy objects left in the coffin... such as useless bronze lamps and rusty iron clothes. These objects were piled up in the coffin, ancient and soulless.

At the moment when the coffin was opened, these objects poured out all at once.

The man's expression became very ugly.

He couldn't believe... that the Evening Bell Church had spent so much effort on "opening the tomb" for just these things.

He slowly walked towards the vertical coffin.

The closer he got, the more attractive the coffin seemed to be... He saw that there was one more object in the coffin that hadn't fallen out. It was a red rope and white jade necklace, hanging on the neck of the shadow.

It was as if the owner of the ancient coffin was still lying in the coffin.

This necklace had always been worn around his neck.

Even after the coffin was opened.

The shadow did not dissipate under the light, and this necklace did not fall out of the coffin.

The man looked carefully at the necklace. His eyes were fixed on the snow-white "jade," and a series of memories flashed back in his mind... In a certain long night not long ago, that painful memory of blood splashing.

A touch of red appeared in his eyes, and his breathing became rapid.

When he saw this red rope jade necklace, he knew... that this trip had been worthwhile!

The man reached out his hand.

But just as he was about to touch the necklace.

An unforeseen event occurred.

With a "whoosh"!

A thin piece of iron rust wrapped around the white jade and instantly flew out of the coffin. The white jade flew dozens of meters and landed in a dark area behind the man.

There was a second person here!

The radiance in the tomb lit up again the next moment, and the man saw the face of the teenager leaning against the stone wall in the darkness, playing with the snow-white ancient jade.

His expression became extremely shocked and ugly.

"Why... are you so surprised to see me? Do you perhaps know me?"

Gu Shen weighed the white jade expressionlessly.

He narrowed his eyes and sized up the unfamiliar face in front of him.

From the moment the power permission was cut off... he realized that there was a problem. The permission used by this base was an independent closed loop. Even Chu Ling would need to spend a considerable amount of effort to invade.

This showed that these guys were very careful about permission security!

How could there be a low-level mistake like a "power outage"!

There was a second person hidden in this base... And this person had arrived earlier than himself, and most likely had been staring at the "Ancient Tomb" for a long time. In fact, when Gu Shen saw the Evening Bell Church and the trident relic, an inexplicable intuition arose in his heart.

He thought of that night he had experienced in the Free Church of the Capital District.

A certain insane fanatic who established a "believer organization" in the Capital District was killed ten thousand miles away in the "Southern Continent"... The intercontinental Federal Government Investigation Department was responsible for transmitting the results of this case to Mr. Shu, and Mr. Shu in turn transmitted them to himself.

The chain of evidence was conclusive.

The "monster" was killed in a church in the Southern Continent, and the priest and nun personally witnessed everything.

At that time, Gu Shen thought everything was over.

But when he saw the face of the man in front of him... Gu Shen knew that it was all still continuing.

He sighed for a long time, and his fingers caressed the white, snow-like "jade."

Fate was really a wonderful thing... Some things, you thought you would never see a second time.

Unexpectedly, the reunion came so quickly.

Not only people, but things as well.

He tore off the red rope, held the "white jade" together, and his voice became low: "Come to think of it, have we ever met before?"

"I... don't understand what you're saying."

The man wearing the Evening Bell Church's black robe just narrowed his eyes and gave a cold response: "Friend, we both know what we're doing, and those guys outside aren't easy to mess with. It wouldn't be good to cause trouble."

Gu Shen completely ignored this sentence.

"Since your memory isn't very good, then I'll help you remember..."

He said faintly, giving a reminder, "Last November."

The priest fell completely silent.

"Okay... You don't seem to recognize me, so do you recognize this bullet?"

The arc of light from the Ruler of Truth shook the entire tomb as if it were daytime.

Gu Shen raised the Ruler of Truth sniper rifle.

"Avalanche" had already been loaded.

The familiar scene had been staged once in the Free Church last November.

A vast sense of crisis descended.

With the sniper rifle pointed at his head at close range, the man's expression was very ugly.

A wisp of blood fire appeared on his brow, and then the scarlet color surged into a sea.

"Remember, the feeling of being blown apart by my shot."

Gu Shen looked at the man in front of him and asked expressionlessly, "What should I call you... Zhou Yu... Ye Ningqiu... Owl..."

"Or, some disgusting thing that can't be killed."

...

...

(Because this plot is more important, it took a long time to sort it out. I started organizing the detailed outline from 4 pm, and unconsciously wrote until 3 am. I will revise it again tomorrow.)