Gu Youwei turned around blankly, only to find Gu Chen clutching her still-beating heart in his hand!
"Don't!"
Gu Youwei cried out in terror and jolted awake from her dream.
She panted heavily, her thin clothes already soaked through with cold sweat.
She quickly looked around and suddenly realized that she was still in He Changsong's room.
Everything that had just happened had merely been a dream.
"Gu Chen, you despicable bastard!"
"You actually tried to kill me even in my dreams!"
"Heh, but dreams are always the opposite of reality."
"One day, I'll personally clutch your heart in my hand and make you kneel before me in repentance!"
As she vented the fury in her heart, Gu Youwei discovered in astonishment that she seemed to have regained the ability to move.
Very soon, she recalled what had happened before she lost consciousness.
Gu Youwei hurriedly felt over her body, and it seemed as though nothing had happened.
Only then did Gu Youwei remember that He Changsong had apparently had something to do and left immediately.
In that case, today was a once-in-a-thousand-years chance to escape!
Thinking of this, Gu Youwei hurried to the door.
She peered through the crack, quietly checking whether there were guards outside.
After observing for quite some time, Gu Youwei finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"Looks like something happened to the Cangshan Sword Sect. Otherwise, that old bastard wouldn't have left in such a rush."
Gu Youwei thought to herself as she carefully opened the door.
After confirming there truly were no guards nearby, Gu Youwei hurriedly ran outside.
But after taking barely two steps, Gu Youwei seemed to crash into something and fell straight to the ground.
"Damn it, it's a barrier!"
Gu Youwei should have thought of it long ago.
He Changsong had not neglected to arrange guards here.
Rather, he had already set up a barrier. There was no need for guards at all!
Staring at the invisible yet tangible barrier before her,
Gu Youwei's gaze grew several shades sharper.
She had originally believed that once she joined the Cangshan Sword Sect, she could steadily raise her Cultivation Level,
then avenge her grievances and hatred, return home, and live a peaceful life with her parents.
But she had never expected
that He Changsong, the sect master of the Cangshan Sword Sect, would be such a vile, disgusting, despicable wretch!
At that moment, Gu Youwei felt certain that her father had not known He Changsong was this kind of person.
Otherwise, her father would never have sent her here!
"Old bastard, you think a petty barrier can trap the mighty Empress?"
Gu Youwei stretched out both hands, probing the barrier's energy before her and circulating her inner power in an attempt to collapse it from within.
But after several attempts, Gu Youwei still could not damage the barrier.
The toughness of the barrier before her had already surpassed Gu Youwei's imagination.
Drawing on the experience of her previous life, Gu Youwei could tell
that the person who had cast this barrier had a Cultivation Level of at least the Foundation Establishment Realm!
One had to know that Body Forging, Innate, Profound Gang, and Foundation Establishment were the first four realms of cultivation.
Even the Gu family head, someone as powerful as Gu Zhengchun, was only in the Innate Realm.
Yet the master who had cast this barrier had actually reached the Foundation Establishment Realm.
That was enough to show just how terrifying He Changsong's strength truly was!
"No, there must be a way."
"Gu Youwei, you were the Empress in your previous life. In this life, you are destined to become the Empress as well."
"A mere barrier cast by someone in the Foundation Establishment Realm can never trap you!"
Gu Youwei muttered to herself, her mind constantly searching for a way to break it.
After all, she had no idea how long He Changsong would be gone.
If she still had not escaped before He Changsong returned,
then something might truly happen to her!
All of a sudden, Gu Youwei recalled something Gu Chen had taught her in her previous life.
"Any barrier and any formation does not arise from thin air. There must be a core somewhere."
"It's merely that the higher the realm, the more cleverly the Formation Core is concealed."
"But no matter how things change, their essence remains the same. The countless barriers and formations are all old wine in new bottles."
In her previous life, Gu Youwei had only thought Gu Chen was trying to show off before her, deliberately spouting such profound and unfathomable words.
But thinking it over carefully now, Gu Youwei felt that Gu Chen's words truly did make some sense.
"So where could this barrier's core be?"
Gu Youwei continued to recall Gu Chen's words.
She suddenly remembered that Gu Chen had said barriers and formations were generally circular.
Therefore, in order to keep a barrier's or formation's energy stable, the core was usually located at the center of the circle.
With the thought of trying her luck, Gu Youwei hurriedly sensed the full range of the barrier.
In the end, she discovered that the barrier only enclosed this room.
And the center of the circle was actually the wooden tub where she had just bathed!
East Desolation Commandery, Lingxu Secret Realm.
After passing through the First Divine Hall, Gu Chen crossed the long stone-walled corridor and finally stood atop a bridge built from glazed crystal.
Memories from his previous life suddenly surfaced in Gu Chen's mind.
He remembered that in his previous life, neither he nor Gu Youwei had known about the mechanisms within the Lingxu Secret Realm.
The moment they saw such a beautiful Glazed Long Bridge, they had walked right onto it.
Who would have thought that when they reached the middle, both ends of the bridge would suddenly break apart.
Gu Chen and Gu Youwei then fell directly into the Second Divine Hall.
The damage from falling from such a height had weakened Gu Chen and Gu Youwei by more than half.
That was why Gu Chen had found himself so powerless when facing the guardian beast of the Second Divine Hall afterward.
"I didn't have enough of fighting you in my previous life."
"In this life, let me properly cross swords with you again!"
After saying this, Gu Chen leaped forward and jumped straight into the bottomless abyss beneath the long bridge.
As he fell, Gu Chen continuously used protruding rocks on the cliff face to slow himself down.
As a result, when he landed at the bottom of the valley, his body suffered no adverse effects whatsoever.
But if one fell from the middle of the corridor bridge,
they would likely need to reach the Profound Gang Realm and gain some ability to walk through the air before they could avoid injury.
Standing beneath the abyss, Gu Chen was surrounded by utter darkness.
Gu Chen could not help holding his breath as he warily sensed the energy fluctuations around him.
He left the rock wall and slowly walked toward the heart of the darkness.
Although Gu Chen could not see anything right now,
he knew clearly in his heart that that fellow was waiting for him nearby.
In an instant!
Gu Chen suddenly sensed an intensely scorching aura sweeping toward him.
It was like the wave of heat that billowed up when water met a blazing-hot wok of oil, carrying a fierce burning sensation.
Immediately afterward, all the candles around Gu Chen lit up.
The entirety of the Second Divine Hall was revealed before Gu Chen's eyes!
Rather than a divine hall, it was more like a lavishly decorated enormous pit.
Above the pit lay boundless darkness that even the candlelight could not disperse.
Before you continue