Light Fortress-Chapter 74 - 72 Cocoon Killing
74: Chapter 72: Cocoon Killing
74 -72: Cocoon Killing
A hiss.
The explosive’s fuse was ignited by the man without hesitation.
Dazzling flames burst forth within the dim room.
Like a moth, he leaped from the chair, vaulted over the long table, and lunged at Gu Shen.
At that moment, the stone sculpture engraved with evil ghosts sent out rippling waves of spiritual energy that induced sleep—
It was a crudely crafted trap designed to kill.
But it was effective.
Spiritual Extraordinaries could resist the influence of the stone sculpture, but they could not stop the explosion of the explosives.
If one belonged to the offensive or nature types, it might be possible to prevent the explosives from detonating.
However… the stone sculpture would greatly reduce their reaction time.
Gu Shen stared at the man flying towards him, who now filled his entire field of vision—
A shadow loomed over him.
Yet, his thoughts remained incredibly calm.
In that moment, as the world in his eyes seemed to freeze in time, everything around him slowed to a crawl, each and every object… the paper fluttering in the wind, the tilting swaying cabinet, the tossed recording pen, all immobilized in this single frame, frozen into a spattering painting.
Within Gu Shen’s field of vision.
The main character of this frozen painting was the fervent Believer who ignited the explosives and charged at him.
And from a perspective overlooking the entire room…
The main character of the painting was the youth holding the Ruler, with the blazing Chi Huo upon his brow.
“1.5 seconds…”
Gu Shen’s attention was more focused than ever; his entire gaze fixed on the man’s waist where the fuse lay.
At that moment, his spirit seemed to condense into a single point.
He identified the explosives the other was carrying.
They were high explosives made primarily with trinitrotoluene, portable, safe, stable, and once ignited with a detonator, powerful enough to flatten an entire building.
This rudimentary and ancient method of producing explosives had been replaced by newer ones, effective yet flawed due to a delayed detonation.
From lighting to detonation, the explosives needed about 1.5 seconds.
This… was the delay time.
It was also the time Gu Shen had left in the real world.
As the 1.5-second countdown just began, the stone sculpture on the table engraved with the evil ghost bared its fangs.
And then a spiritual ripple, faster than the burning fuse, spread instantaneously, enveloping Gu Shen.
The paper, cabinet, recording pen, and even the curtains tossed to the fringes of his peripheral vision, all were replaced by a black mess of code—
He was pulled into the dream sphere of the stone sculpture.
For Gu Shen, this wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.
In the dream world created by the sealed objects, time flowed differently than in the real world… Perhaps only extended by a few seconds, but those few seconds were often enough to save a life.
Gu Shen stood within the familiar dark dream sphere.
His thoughts spread swiftly.
The Changjiu Foundation’s setup, although crude, was actually very effective.
The stone sculpture combined with high explosives, this simple and brutal method, could almost eliminate any unprepared newbie Transcendent.
The only loophole was that they had misjudged his Dream Interpretation ability…
The Ghost Cage, which was once a Class S sealed object with an embedded dream sphere, was several levels stronger than the stone sculpture.
It took him only one minute to complete the Dream Interpretation.
The emergence of this dream sphere… on the contrary, provided Gu Shen with extra time for calm contemplation.
What truly troubled him was the high explosive that ignited the detonator.
If faced with this trap, a Spiritual Transcendent of Senior Sister Luo’s caliber would likely “reverse the rule” without hesitation.
Ignition would turn into extinguishment, and the explosives would not detonate at all.
Even… if the explosives actually detonated, Senior Sister Luo would have the ability to “take it back” with her own hands.
But Gu Shen couldn’t use the Truth Ruler to mimic such a feat… because he still couldn’t grasp the principle behind such a method.
The Truth Ruler could gather spiritual power, but it couldn’t directly act upon causality.
If he were to use the Truth Ruler, wanting to accomplish a miracle akin to Broken Mirror Reunion, one would need to gather spiritual power to reattach each shattered piece back onto the frame, each stick a separate, complicated process unto itself.
By the same logic,
it was impossible to use the Truth Ruler to directly change the fact that the explosives had already been detonated.
“If I let the explosion happen, the entire building will be blown apart.”
Gu Shen took a deep breath.
“Stay calm…
stay calm…
there must be a way to solve this…”
Could his extraordinary ability save the situation…
Chi Huo…
creation…
barriers… freewebnoveℓ.com
“Got it!”
At the critical moment, a flash of inspiration surged through his mind, and Gu Shen’s eyes suddenly lit up.
He lifted his arm and tore fiercely.
The pitch-black nightmare instantly ripped apart, and the menacing evil ghosts above the dream realm let out a wail.
Bright as Chi Huo, like a long spear, accompanied Gu Shen’s lifting hand, instantly pierced through the evil ghost.
It took only a moment, the stone-carved dream shattered!
Gu Shen opened his eyes.
In reality, less than a second had passed from entering the nightmare to completing the dream interpretation.
The cluster of black shadows that had jumped towards him off the desk was about to hit him; they were less than a meter apart, and he saw the splashing blaze of fire and the eyes of the foundation members, more intense than the fire itself.
“Hoo…”
In the silent 0.5 seconds, Gu Shen could hear the sound of his long breath being exhaled.
The surface of the silver ruler, its dull scales slowly lit up one by one.
A burst of snow-white light fiercely enveloped him.
In the gathered picture, the young man seated on the chair appeared to be the king who ruled the world’s laws.
Gu Shen calmly gazed at the man hurling himself toward him.
He heard his own voice in his Heart Sea.
[“Ants…”]
The Ruler was raised.
At the pointed spot,
a burst of surging light exploded suddenly.
An explosion powerful enough to level the entire building stopped half a meter in front of Gu Shen, the splashing light and fire seeming to hit a transparent wall.
Not just one wall.
Front, back, left, right, up, and down.
The large amount of trinitrotoluene in the fire-thunder tube detonated completely in the violent collision, yet these high explosives seemed to be held in a cage like tides, the mighty flames suppressed to the extreme, crashing into the walls of the cage like waves hitting a cliff, only to retreat.
The barriers on all sides vibrated with countless threads of pale light, and the dim and narrow room seemed to experience a stellar explosion, instantly brilliant as if in broad daylight.
Gu Shen, holding the silver Ruler, calmly watched the scene.
After using the Truth Ruler, he felt as if he had truly become a God, coldly observing all things from above.
His expression was calm, as if admiring a painting.
Sheets of paper picked up by the wind gently returned to their place, the tilting, shaking shelves no longer trembled, a dropped pen fell back to the table, the curtains no longer fluttered; everything in the room was tranquil.
The only exception was that small blazing fire cage.
The intense explosion wouldn’t leak out of the barriers at all; there was no worry that anyone outside would hear it.
Blood and bone were flattened in the instant the explosion began.
The crimson color appeared for only a flash, then was covered by pale light.
The blood was burnt by the intense heat, the bones ground into ash.
This was like a pantomime.
A moth embracing fire, fluttering towards the sun.
So, there was only…
a fleeting brilliance.
The light enveloped him.
Like a giant cocoon.
