Cat Language

According to the usual rules, the Tribunal's assessment of newcomers mainly focuses on four aspects:

Strength, Speed, Mental Power, Control.

This fifteen-day special training revolves around improving these four points. Nan Jin is responsible for "Strength," Zhong Wei for "Speed," and Senior Apprentice Sister Luo for "Mental Power" and "Control," which corresponds to their respective Transcendent traits.

"I'm back..."

Late at night, 11:30 PM.

Gu Shen, having finished a day of training, returned to his apartment, wearily pushed open the door, leaned against the wall, and barely managed to stand steady.

Today's special training was truly brutal.

After the Awakening of Insects Dream Realm ended, Gu Shen was dragged by Nan Jin to the Boxing Ring. Ostensibly, it was Strength training, but in reality, it was a beating session. Nan Jin was a top expert in close combat, proficient in vital points, and inflicted all kinds of torment. Gu Shen was like a sandbag, beaten black and blue, yet somehow still had enough energy to stand up.

Calculating the time, that bad woman had drilled him for a full six hours... and the intermittent breaks totaled less than twenty minutes.

Those six hours felt like an eternity.

So much so that on the way back, Gu Shen's legs were constantly trembling.

"Meow!"

Upon hearing Gu Shen's voice, the Orange Cat happily meowed and trotted out of the room.

"Here... food."

Gu Shen was in no mood to pay attention to this silly cat. He tore open a large bag of cat food, threw it in the corner, and hurried to wash up.

Then he collapsed onto the bed, utterly exhausted.

His whole body felt like it was falling apart... It was hard to imagine that, in Nan Jin's words, this was just a so-called "appetizer," a "warm-up exercise."

How terrifying would tomorrow's training be?

In fact, Gu Shen was not afraid or timid. On the contrary... today in the Boxing Ring, every time he was knocked down, he would immediately get back up.

Getting up was not about showing off, but because he didn't want to fall down just like that.

He let out a long breath.

Gu Shen stopped thinking about it. He stretched out his hands, looking at the calluses on his palms with satisfaction.

Today's training was still very fruitful.

He had begun to get used to using "Awakening of Insects" to replace normal breathing, and each breath took away three points of mental fatigue.

Often, only in extremely quiet, confined spaces did Gu Shen feel that he truly existed...

For example, at this moment.

In the closed room, there wasn't the slightest sound.

Not even the sound of wind.

Gu Shen slowly closed his eyes, falling into a doze, the experiences of the past few days flashing through his mind.

Both real and dreamlike.

He didn't know when he had pushed open the door to the world of the Transcendent.

His heart was uneasy, as if something was missing. Gu Shen reached out a hand, groping under the pillow, and felt much more at ease after touching the Truth Ruler.

Mm... that's reassuring.

In the future, it's better to bring the Truth Ruler with me when I go out, in case anything unexpected happens... After all, I'm lucky enough to meet A-009 on a train ride, so nothing would be surprising.

"You got your wish and became the bottom of the barrel... How does it feel?"

Orange Cat pushed open the door and tiptoed onto the bed, its eyes flashing with brilliance.

Chu Ling was online.

Gu Shen gave a wry smile, "To be honest... I regret it a little. Senior Apprentice Sister Luo said that comprehending it within two hours would be directly rated as 'S' grade. If I had known, I would have broken the record, and maybe the Tribunal's review result would have come down."

"No..."

"Looking at it now, your choice at the time was actually correct."

Chu Ling said slowly, "Someone within the Tribunal has already set their sights on you. Being too outstanding is not a good thing."

Gu Shen became alert at once.

"Someone inside... is targeting me?"

"Yes. This person is called 'Han Dang'."

The Orange Cat licked its paw. It came to Gu Shen's side, raised its paw, and the bedroom projector automatically turned on, displaying page after page of files in blue light.

Chu Ling, from who knows how far away in the Deep Sea, was controlling the system here, projecting Han Dang's information.

Gu Shen frowned as he watched.

He had already vaguely guessed that there were struggles and divisions within the Tribunal.

At the end of the last trial against him, Qinghe Tribunal Head Yan Shicheng mentioned a name—

Zhu Wang!

At that time, he felt that there would be some twists and turns in the follow-up.

"Han Dang is Zhu Wang's star pupil, with a status and strength comparable to Senior Apprentice Sister Luo. He is also a Mental-type Transcendent."

In the Deep Sea's archives, all of Han Dang's information was retrieved by Chu Ling, from his birth date to his honorary medals... After reading through it, Gu Shen clicked his tongue in admiration.

This man named Han Dang had achieved remarkable results and was indeed a dazzling new generation in the Tribunal.

Worthy of being someone on par with Senior Apprentice Sister Luo.

And seeing Han Dang's latest action message, Gu Shen suddenly became clear.

Sleepiness vanished completely.

"He came to Da Teng City and went to the Old Building of the Fire Disaster Case immediately..."

Gu Shen sat up, the fatigue in his body swept away. He quickly browsed through the electronic file. In the distant cloud, a packaged video showed that it was still uploading.

He knew very well that Mental-type Transcendent beings often developed the ability of "Profiling," and the top-notch ones, like Senior Apprentice Sister Luo, could even profile the environment of the case a day after the Fire Disaster Case occurred.

Senior Apprentice Sister Luo recreated her Transcendent methods and almost saw through the Truth Ruler.

This person named Han Dang is the top disciple of Mr. Shu's mortal enemy. This time he came to Da Teng... what he wants to do is self-evident.

He's coming for me!

He's here to investigate the Fire Disaster Case and my Transcendent abilities!

"This section is the action video I captured."

The video download from the cloud was completed and popped up immediately.

In the video, smoke and dust splashed everywhere, and the vision was blurred. Gu Shen saw the scene of the helicopter arriving at the scene of the Fire Disaster Case... The next scene was really shocking. After Han Dang fell from a high altitude, all the security personnel prepared to counterattack immediately, but they didn't know what happened. They all stood there blankly, abandoning their weapons like puppets.

"Were these people 'hypnotized'?"

Gu Shen was still afraid, recalling the encounter in the afternoon.

Facing Senior Apprentice Sister Luo's dream invasion, he had no resistance... The security personnel of the Fire Disaster Case were all suppressed by Han Dang's Transcendent Strength without exception.

"He went to the Old Building to investigate... Due to the lack of monitoring, we don't know what happened inside the Old Building." Chu Ling was still calm and composed, "Fifteen minutes later, Han Dang erased the memories of these people."

"This is a bit too scary..."

After watching the video, Gu Shen asked with trepidation, "Han Dang's Transcendent Strength can manipulate people's hearts so easily, who can be his opponent?"

"Han Dang is indeed very powerful."

Chu Ling paused, "But perhaps... he is not as powerful as you think. There is no doubt that only Transcendent beings can defeat Transcendent beings... but no one is perfect. Everyone has weaknesses, and in a life-and-death duel, this weakness is a fatal flaw."

Gu Shen saw that there was an extremely conspicuous red document in this pile of files.

Is this a confidential file about Han Dang?

Gu Shen was a little curious. He manipulated the cursor and hovered over it, with a crisp click—

The file was not opened, but a tough prompt sound popped up.

Then there were strings of garbled characters.

Finally, the screen was filled with a large red cross and four conspicuous bold characters.

"Insufficient Permissions."

Gu Shen was shocked.

All along, he thought that Chu Ling was omnipotent... linking to Deep Sea permissions, providing omnipotent monitoring, analyzing real-time data, planning strategic deployments... This is simply another Deep Sea that has mastered the highest authority.

And this time, it hit a wall.

"You seem surprised?"

The Orange Cat calmly licked its paw, "I don't think I ever said I could do anything."

"Yes..."

Gu Shen subconsciously opened his mouth, "But... this is just Han Dang's file..."

"You're thinking, this is just Han Dang's file, above Han Dang there's Zhu Wang, and above him, there are Councilors of the East Continent Council, and the highest seat..." The Orange Cat turned its head, "I'm not omnipotent, there are still many things I can't do now, maybe I'll be able to in the future."

She suddenly asked, "If you could open the Five Continents Speaker's file right now, would you want to take a look?"

"I'd want to see... but I wouldn't dare, I wouldn't have enough heads to lose, would I?" Gu Shen understood the sarcasm, and he immediately chickened out, muttering, "Am I already on a pirate ship?"

It was a bit ironic.

Clearly, he was the one who initially advised Chu Ling not to do such illegal things.

And now, he's the one who's skilled at saying 'it smells so good'.

"You've been on the pirate ship for a long time, do you want to go back on your word?" The Orange Cat counted on its paws, earnestly suggesting, "If you go back on your word now, you'll probably only get a life sentence. If you're discovered later, it'll probably be a death sentence."

"'Pah, pah, pah, why are you saying such unlucky things?" Gu Shen solemnly raised the Orange Cat, "We are upright and outstanding youths, we never do bad things that violate laws and regulations... as long as we're not discovered, who would know?"

The Orange Cat was a little unaccustomed to being held up.

It struggled to protest.

To no avail.

So it gave up.

"In short... you need to know that someone is watching us, we must be vigilant at all times." Chu Ling sighed, "That guy named Han Dang is no pushover. He came all the way to Da Teng, probably to mess up your audit, and then take advantage of the 'Amnesty Decree' to make things difficult, and further overthrow Zhou Jiren."

Gu Shen fell into thought.

"The worst case is that he profiled the existence of the 'Truth Ruler' and suspects your Transcendent ability. If there is contact in the future, he will definitely test you. You need to think of a countermeasure."

The Orange Cat wagged its tail, and the radiance in its eyes slowly dissipated.

"Alright, I'm tired, court dismissed."

A meow awakened Gu Shen from his deep thought.

The big Orange Cat, halfway through its meal, was first shocked to find itself being held in the air, then became very angry, growled, and took the opportunity to hug Gu Shen's face, puffing out a pile of yellow smoke, and then flounced away unhappily.