Light Fortress-Chapter 47 - 45 Time Sand

47: Chapter 45 Time Sand

47 -45 Time Sand

Desert.

An endless desert.

Snow-white sand grains fluttered in the air, as heatwaves swept through, distorting the space in the distance.

Gu Shen opened his eyes, and his first reaction was to look down to check the composition of his body, relieved to see that it was still an intact torso…

he let out a sigh of relief.

Whew…

This time, I didn’t get dismembered.

Unlike the previous dice dream, the space of the Time Sand dream was vast, with no end in sight, the rolling sand dunes being all that made up this dream.

“Chu Ling—”

Gu Shen called out.

The very next moment, space beside him twisted, and countless codes emerged, forcibly carving out an oasis of Pure Land within the “Time Sand” dream.

A barefoot girl in a white dress appeared out of thin air and slowly landed on the scorching sand surface.

Gu Shen looked at the girl, brewing his thoughts for a moment.

He earnestly said, “I’m sorry.”

Chu Ling was somewhat surprised and asked with a smile, “Why apologize?”

“I want to take back those words I said in the Jingzhe Dream…

If given a choice, who would want to be the last one?”

Gu Shen slowly said, “When Nan Jin was in the infirmary, she told me something…

‘Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.’ At the time, I just made a note of it but didn’t really take it in.”

“At first, I just wanted to escape.” He took a deep breath, “But now, I’m ready!”

“Moreover, from the matter of Dream Interpretation…

I’m not as bad as I imagined.”

The girl smiled and shook her head.

“Not as bad?” Chu Ling spoke softly, “The external examiners said you were a one-in-a-million talent.”

Gu Shen expressed his true inner thoughts, and the final stone in his heart finally landed.

“Alright, no more fuss.”

He crouched down, extended a finger, and pinched a few grains of sand, saying, “I promised Senior Sister Luo that I’d get ‘S’ rank in this examination, and I intend to keep my word.

Since I’ve already broken the record…

then it’s worth going all out to show them my real strength.”

The sand grains were white, consistent with the texture observed within the Dream Sealing Objects.

“What’s the fastest record for the Time Sand?” Gu Shen asked.

“The quickest record in the Deep Sea system is 2 hours and 18 minutes.” Chu Ling crossed her arms and inquired with a smile brimming with meaning, “Need any help?

If you’re going all out, I can help you pass in ten minutes.”

“Ten minutes to clear it is a bit preposterous…” Gu Shen said with a wry smile and a shake of the head, “Even if it’s a speedrun, a ‘ten-minute’ result would probably get me dragged away for dissection studies.”

“Relax, relax.

This is the final examination.” Chu Ling said lazily, “Anyone who can cheat under the noses of five Grand Judges, besides you, hasn’t been born yet.

If you really did get that score, you’d probably be marked as an important person of national treasure level beyond ‘S’…

As for dissection studies, they’d be too busy protecting you to dare slice you up.”

“It’s rare to encounter a Dream Sealing Object of this level.

In the last session of Dream Interpretation, I seemed to have received some inspiration.

This time, I still want to interpret the dream relying on my own strength.” Gu Shen thought for a moment, adding,”But the biggest challenge is the consumption of spiritual power…”

Having unlocked the Green Dice, his spirit was already a bit fatigued.

“Just focus on interpreting the dream, don’t worry about the rest, leave everything to me.”

After saying this, Chu Ling fell silent.

She returned to being that quiet observer, as the world before her howled with raging winds and millions of sand grains, but in her eyes, there was only Gu Shen.

…

…

So far, Gu Shen stood in the midst of the Time Sand dream without recklessly moving forward.

He remembered what the Grand Judge had said.

The Grand Judge explained that all three Dream Sealing Objects on the table had very intense characteristics…

Gu Shen had already experienced the Green Dice’s trait, which immediately dismembered the whole person.

And this seemingly serene world of sand dunes presented Gu Shen with a sense of danger lurking beneath an undercurrent of murderous intent.

The place was vast, so it was not possible to observe closely as he could with bronze.

“Must I start moving now?” Gu Shen took a tentative step forward.

Just one step.

And he sensed trouble.

Quicksand began wrapping around his calves, pulling him downward…

in the “Time Sand” dream, the entire world was made of soft sand grains, and with each step, he faced the risk of being swallowed by the quicksand.

“As expected…

this dream is quite dangerous.”

Seeing the quicksand engulfing him, Gu Shen felt somewhat relieved.

What he feared was the unknown danger that stemmed from undiscovered rules of the Dream realm!

“As long as you envelop yourself in spiritual power, you can temporarily stop the quicksand…

So, every step forward consumes spiritual power,” he gradually understood the rules of these Dream Sealing Objects.

Dream explorers could perhaps quickly discover the trick, but to truly perform Dream Interpretation, a solid foundation of spiritual power was necessary—the Time Sand Dream before him was the perfect example.

Gu Shen speculated that there might be an exit leading in the correct direction here.

Even if you were on the right path, it would still require sufficient spiritual power to reach the destination.

“Zzzap…”

Gu Shen felt himself sinking.

Just as he readied himself to use his spiritual power, the quicksand around his calves slowed tremendously…

Invisible garbled code appeared within the quicksand.

Chu Ling had intervened.

The quicksand’s speed of engulfing him dropped drastically, and Gu Shen easily pulled his legs out of the sand swamp.

He turned to look at the girl who smiled and gestured to him, feeling incredulous once again…

Chu Ling could actually modify the rules of the Time Sand Dream…

Was it achieved through the Deep Sea’s capabilities?

It was an inexplicable technique.

This way, he could explore the Time Sand Dream “without any scruples.”

Without worrying about the consumption of spiritual power, Gu Shen suddenly felt much more relaxed.

He observed the wind direction and decided to run along the trajectory of the floating sand grains…

If “inversion” was the sign of activating the seal, then perhaps the sand grains’ movement could be the breakthrough point.

Ten minutes later.

Gu Shen returned to the starting point.

Chu Ling smiled quietly, just watching him.

“What if I change direction and try again?” In the vast expanse of the Time Sand Dream…

Gu Shen made his second attempt.

Ten minutes later, he once again returned to the starting point.

This seemingly “boundless” world actually had an invisible air wall.

Both attempts led him back to the start; every time Gu Shen traveled a certain distance, he would be surrounded by sand, whether he moved with or against the sandstorm, the result was the same…

he returned to the starting point.

And Chu Ling hadn’t moved a step from the beginning.

Obviously, she knew the characteristics of “Time Sand.”

“If it were just me…

finding out that this world is ‘cyclical’ would take a long time,” Gu Shen realized a serious issue, “Without Chu Ling, I might think I’m heading in the right direction and keep moving forward…

but in fact, I would just be repeatedly making the pointless effort of returning to my starting point.”

He silently counted numbers in his mind.

Each time he returned to the starting point, it was about six hundred seconds, ten minutes.

Does this mean…

the boundary of this world is the distance one can run all-out for six hundred seconds?

“Wait a second…”

Gu Shen thought of another possibility.

He crouched down and began to dig a sand pit.

The quicksand was already turbulent in the dream, and digging made it flow even faster; seeing what Gu Shen was doing, Chu Ling’s gaze flickered slightly.

This time, no garbled code appeared to slow the collapse of the quicksand.

Gu Shen finished digging a pit and jumped in, waiting for the quicksand to gradually swallow him, while silently counting down in his heart.

The sands enveloped him, first his calves, then his thighs, and soon he lost sensation in his lower body, as if being tightly gripped by thick walls.

Gu Shen closed his eyes.

“600…599…”

“120…119…”

With the last two minutes remaining, the quicksand reached his neck, and Gu Shen felt as if a powerful hand grasped his heart.

The pressure was immense.

Just then, the garbled code appeared!

A series of fuzzy symbols materialized from nowhere, circling around Gu Shen’s neck, significantly reducing the erosive sensation of the quicksand, preventing suffocation.

He looked like a diver wearing a breathing mask, disheveled but safe.

He closed his eyes.

He succumbed to the quicksand.

The world was pitch black…

and growing even darker…

“10…9…8…”

In the last few seconds.

The sensations of suffocation and constraint vanished.

Gu Shen opened his eyes, easily lifting his hands without any resistance from the quicksand…

because he was not buried under the sand, but standing on a small dune.

The pit he had previously dug was gone.

The world was leveled by the sandstorm, boundless and despairing.

“Ten minutes…”

Gu Shen looked towards Chu Ling and murmured, “I now know the characteristic of the Time Sand Dream.”