Light Fortress-Chapter 1514 - 218: Lifeborn From Death

This is the seventy-third day of Gu Shen’s conscious awareness.

In the depths of the Ice Sea, there is no sunrise or moonset, only the surging tides. The endless darkness engulfs this narrow wall of longevity stone. Perhaps because countless beast spirits from the Sangzhou Cave finally threw themselves into the volcano, this array pattern absorbed a significant amount of life force, becoming unusually sturdy, withstanding not only the volcanic eruption but also the erosion of deep-sea currents...

Yet this did not change Gu Shen’s predicament.

Time had lost its meaning here.

But Gu Shen did not give up. He started counting from the day he became conscious.

He released a wisp of Chi Huo, placing it in the Pure Land World to calculate the passage of time, second by second.

If "time" were truly lost, then being "alive" or "dead" would make no difference.

"The cost of undergoing three Super Realms is exceedingly high."

Through meditation, Gu Shen arrived at his Heart Lake, where his Soul condensed into a tiny figure, standing before it, gazing into the distance and taking a deep breath.

The scale of this Spirit Sea was truly immense.

For an ordinary Ninth Layer Transcendent of the Deep Sea, the Spirit Sea would probably be only one-twentieth of this size!

Even among Fourth-tier Experts, this Spirit Sea was a top-tier existence!

Three Super Realms had endowed Gu Shen with top-tier fourth-level spiritual power within the Deep Sea Ninth Layer. But to continue breaking through had become incredibly challenging...

The more Super Realms one undergoes, the stronger the breakthrough, yet the harder it becomes!

"If I hadn’t killed Xiao, I would need to first increase the Chi Huo and then transform it into the ’Fire of Life’..."

Standing on his Heart Lake, Gu Shen murmured softly, "Luckily with Blood Fire now, I can skip the first step."

Xiao had hidden in the Sangzhou Cave for years, amassing a large fortune, all of which was stored within this longevity technique array pattern stone wall. He became the final yellow sparrow, devouring Xiao’s Blood Fire completely!

The soul spirit, in the form of a tiny figure, sat cross-legged on the Heart Lake.

Gu Shen’s brow spontaneously ignited with the Fire of Life, this flame symbolizing "vitality" was continuously absorbing nutrients. A large amount of Blood Fire was summoned around his soul spirit, flying out and transforming into tiny scarlet light particles, sweeping into Gu Shen’s brow... This was the essential task to ascend to the fourth level, with no shortcuts available.

But in fact, devouring Blood Fire was already considered a shortcut.

Without this Blood Fire, Gu Shen would truly have no idea how long it would take to ascend to the fourth level... because his quantity of Chi Huo was far from enough, the first step itself might last a very long time.

Now, the tiny figure sitting cross-legged on the Heart Lake continuously absorbed the Blood Fire.

He could also multitask, simultaneously utilizing the source matter in the Pure Land to nurture the Chi Huo.

The spectator mindset ensured absolute efficiency.

Time passed bit by bit...

By the two hundred and ninety-fourth day, the Blood Fire had been completely exhausted, transformed into Gu Shen’s own "Fire of Life"; the Domain Embryo at this point could cover a thin layer over Gu Shen’s body surface. However, it was still far from extending the "domain" necessary to ascend to the fourth level because the Heart Lake had expanded, requiring more materials for the Fire of Life domain.

Gu Shen was already prepared in his heart. He began to transform his portion of the "Chi Huo."

It was not that there were no living creatures in the deep sea.

Throughout these two hundred and ninety-four days of devoted cultivation, he occasionally saw massive deep-sea fish sweeping past the edges of the longevity stone wall... Probably because the "ancient text array pattern" shielded his presence, these deep-sea fish didn’t discover Gu Shen, nor did they launch any attack.

Their size was truly enormous.

Some fish had eyes larger than the entire array pattern land!

They swam by, their tails creating waves that continuously propelled Gu Shen, drifting him into the unknown.

Gu Shen had no strength to resist and was too lazy to resist.

Anyway, he had long lost his bearing, and he didn’t rely on the source matter within the Ice Sea to live.

So drifting around in the depths of the Ice Sea, wherever he drifted didn’t matter...

In this period, he also discovered that remnants of ancient source matter lingered in the Ice Sea. Contrary to the expectations of the Five Continents, it wasn’t a place of complete life extinction.

The reason these fish survived was due to a change in their genetic makeup... Although he hadn’t made direct contact, Gu Shen intuitively sensed that those enormously large fish had likely undergone Extraordinary Awakening, with several even exerting a strong sense of pressure on him!

Their strength might not be inferior to the experts at the pinnacle of the human hierarchy!

"These deep-sea fish likely rely on the unique source matter in the depths of the Ice Sea to sustain life... Hence, they can never swim to the coastal areas."

"But the existence of Extraordinary Life in such a place, does it imply that there are other ’species’ still living at the deepest part of the Ice Sea?"

For six hundred years, humanity had been pushing northwards.

Because the north was once their homeland.

Yet, the southern Ice Sea had seldom been explored...

The survival environment of the Ice Sea is harsher than the [Old World], and the area is too vast. Once, a powerful extraordinary team went southward into the sea, delved extremely deep, only to return empty-handed. This discouraged everyone’s desire to explore the Ice Sea, especially when every northern expedition to the [Old World] bore some fruit.

Piecing together the unknown map, unearthing ancient seals, seeking lost ancient texts.

These are the rewards brought by exploring the northern [Old World].

As for the Ice Sea.

It is too vast, too cold, and a sea voyage often yields nothing to bring back.