The Great Adventure
The day after they emerged from the secret realm, the Heavenly God Palace began questioning people one by one, even separating those who had already answered questions from those who had not, to prevent people from asking each other and spreading false information.
The interrogation process seemed to be very long; a whole day had passed and less than fifty people had been questioned.
When it was Gu Ding's turn, it was already the third day after they came out of the secret realm.
"Gu Lotte, come with us!" A group of people knocked on Gu Ding's door and led Gu Ding away.
The group led Gu Ding into a room in the Main Hall.
The room was quite grand, with three people seated opposite Gu Ding. The Vice Palace Lord, Kornahan, sat to the left, while the man in the middle was a slightly thin middle-aged man whom Gu Ding hadn't seen before. To the right was one of the elders he had met earlier.
"The one in the middle is the Grand Elder of the Heavenly God Palace, who is said to be very skilled in interrogation techniques. The one on the right is the Second Elder, whom you have met before," the Sea Emperor communicated with Gu Ding using his consciousness.
"Your name is Gu Lotte? Your performance in the preliminary rounds was quite amazing." The Grand Elder paused, then suddenly asked, "But there's something strange. Why is it that our Heavenly God Palace has absolutely no record of a genius like you? Normally, whenever a genius appears in a city, the city lords would report it to us immediately. Especially a genius of your caliber, even if they appeared in a third-rate subordinate city, we should have known about it immediately. But why is it that you seem to have appeared out of thin air?"
This is a very pertinent question. It raises questions about Gu Ding's identity.
Gu Ding hadn't expected that the other party would directly seize on the very issue he least wanted to expose. If this issue wasn't handled properly, his identity as an outsider would likely be revealed.
"Tell them about the Abyss Soul Crystal," the Sea Emperor immediately reminded them.
"I wasn't actually a genius before. It was just that I accidentally swallowed a Black Crystal a few years ago. This caused my soul strength to surge, and my power began to increase significantly afterward." This was the story that the Sea Emperor had taught Gu Ding to use to deal with Celestine.
"Black Crystal? What kind of Black Crystal?" the Grand Elder asked curiously, and even the Second Elder and Kornahan beside him showed curious expressions.
Seeing the expressions on the three people's faces, Gu Ding knew they definitely didn't know about the Abyss Soul Crystal, but Gu Ding still described what it looked like. The Sea Emperor had shown him a 3D projection before. It wasn't much different from seeing the real thing.
"I've never heard of such a thing. What about you two?" The Grand Elder turned to look at the two people beside him.
Both Kornahan and the Second Elder shook their heads.
"Let's put that question aside for now." The Grand Elder glanced at Gu Ding meaningfully. "There's another question I'm curious about: how did you find Stabilization Point in the secret realm?"
"I didn't find them. I was very close to where the Vice Palace Lord and the others were fighting. I was knocked unconscious by the blast of the battle, and when I woke up, I found myself already in Stabilization Point." Gu Ding was still using the same story taught to him by the Sea Emperor.
"Wait a minute, you mean... you've entered Deadpool's attack range?!" Kornahan asked, his face full of surprise.
Kornahan and his group didn't know about Deadpool before. It's clear that after leaving the Secret Realm, they had already spoken with Celestine and learned that the monster in the Secret Realm was a Deadpool.
"Are you talking about that monster that's hundreds of meters tall and wrapped in a huge cloak?" Gu Ding asked rhetorically.
"How is this possible? You weren't zombified!" Kornahan's face was full of disbelief.
"I have Darkness Immunity ability," Gu Ding finally told the truth. "That kind of zombification curse has no effect on me."
"Darkness Immunity? But besides the curse, that area also has powerful soul attacks. How could you possibly have broken in alive?" Gu Ding's immunity ability did explain the zombification issue, but Kornahan still didn't quite believe it. He had personally experienced the Deadpool's power. This made it even harder for him to believe Gu Ding. "With my soul strength, I need Pseudo Profound Artifact- level soul defense artifact to resist his soul invasion."
"Because my soul is stronger than yours, have you forgotten that I ate that black fruit?" Gu Ding grinned.
Gu Ding's answer was clearly unpleasant, Kornahan and the others looked rather uncomfortable upon hearing it.
"You don't believe me? Then try a soul attack." Gu Ding's words were clearly a provocation.
He said all this with a simple purpose: he wanted to get Celestine's attention.
"Since you've put it that way, then I won't stand on ceremony." Kornahan hadn't expected to be provoked by a junior, so he decided to teach Gu Ding a lesson. His Soul Impact crashed down on Gu Ding like a tidal wave.
Unbeknownst to him, his soul attack of that intensity was, in Gu Ding's eyes, nothing more than a ripple on the surface of water. Gu Ding simply let the Soul Impact pass him by, then looked at Kornahan with a slight smile.
Kornahan immediately realized that his Soul Impact was ineffective against Gu Ding and was preparing to launch a second attack when the Grand Elder stopped him.
"Vice Palace Lord, his soul strength is indeed stronger than ours. There's no need to test him anymore."
Kornahan glared at Gu Ding, then turned his head away and said nothing more.
"So, the third question: since you were so close to Deadpool, you must have seen some things, right? We hope you can tell us what you saw as completely as possible." The Grand Elder's expression also began to become increasingly serious.
Gu Ding nodded and began to recount what he had seen, including Deadpool's appearance, the resurrection of the underground corpses, the battle between the Heavenly God Palace and Deadpool, and even the entire process of Lorinda's fight with Deadpool. The information was even more detailed than Kornahan and the others knew.
"Lorinda died for us..." Kornahan only knew that Lorinda had saved his group before, but he heard the whole story from Gu Ding, and learned that Lorinda threw them out of Deadpool's attack range and then single-handedly stopped Deadpool from pursuing them.
"I only saw the monster unleash some kind of attack, freezing the Vice Palace Lord, and then I was also affected and passed out. I don't know what happened after that. When I woke up, I found that my location had changed, and Deadpool had been killed by someone." Gu Ding did not hide anything about what happened.
"What he said is all true." Kornahan and the Second Elder nodded and transmitted their Way of Sound to the Grand Elder, because they had personally experienced part of the story that Gu Ding was telling them.
The Grand Elder remained silent for a long time before speaking again, "Your situation is a bit special. I think it would be better to tell the Palace Master. The Palace Master may have some questions for you then, just answer truthfully."
"Hmm." Gu Ding knew he had finally achieved his goal. He had taken such a risk to reveal so many truths all for the sake of meeting the current master of the Heavenly God Palace — Celestine. (To be continued~^~)