Spiritual Immersion

Gu Jianlin gasped for breath, still shaken.

He never would have imagined that such a terrifying thing was hidden within that soul.

If he hadn't gained spirituality and recovered the Black Kirin's power, he would probably be dead by now.

The hospital room was quiet, with only the evening breeze drifting in and sending a chill through him.

"So this is the one Joker mentioned—the person who gave him a new life."

He murmured, "No, this probably isn't a person."

Gu Jianlin took out his phone, opened a drawing app, and made a quick sketch.

He hadn't seen much, but he had managed to draw a strange profile.

Its face looked like a dragon or a snake, with a huge blood-red vertical pupil. Its body was wreathed in lava, its scales were pale blue-green, and it had only one leg!

"What kind of monster is this? Did it escape from the Kirin Immortal Palace?"

Gu Jianlin tried searching online and found only one mythological creature that resembled it.

—Kui!

The Eastern Classic of the Great Wilderness in the Classic of Mountains and Seas recorded: "In the East Sea, seven thousand li from shore, there is Mount Liubo. On it lives a beast shaped like an ox, with a blue-gray body, no horns, and one leg. Whenever it enters or leaves the water, wind and rain must follow. Its light is like the sun and moon, and its roar like thunder. It is called Kui."

Gu Jianlin's scalp prickled. If his guess was right, this had to be an Ancient God.

A true Ancient God.

Not a human like him who had somehow obtained the power of an Ancient God.

"Gu Ci'an, what exactly are you doing, getting mixed up with these things..."

Gu Jianlin's thoughts were in turmoil. Putting together the clues he had so far, he came up with two important leads.

First, Old Gu's mental state really was abnormal. He had most likely gone mad.

But the problem was that when Old Gu returned from the airport that day, he had seemed perfectly normal, if a little flustered.

He hadn't shown any signs of being Fallen.

Second, there wasn't just one Ancient God sleeping in the Kirin Immortal Palace.

The organization Joker belonged to was backed by an Ancient God!

Now that the trail had gone cold, how was he supposed to continue investigating?

Gu Jianlin's clearance within the Ether Association was too low for him to access any useful channels.

All the evidence pointed to his father.

"This is such a pain."

Gu Jianlin gazed out the window and let out a long breath.

It was late at night. Traffic roared outside, and the footsteps of the nurses on duty could be heard faintly in the hallway.

"The only way forward is to raise my rank and position step by step, so I can access more clues. As long as I keep the power of the Kirin hidden, I can use the Ether Association's resources to grow."

Gu Jianlin thought, "The problem now is that the thing behind Joker is terrifying. And according to the Ether Association's plans, how did Li Changzhi find me? They've been watching me from the shadows. Did the Ether Association not notice? No, something's definitely wrong here."

Until he resolved this, the dark cloud would keep hanging over him, leaving him deeply uneasy.

Gu Jianlin fell silent for a long time. Then he suddenly felt the Kirin stirring deep within his consciousness.

Somehow, he seemed to hear a distant summons, coming from another world.

The voice was so ethereal and elusive.

And yet so real.

It was like a call from a dream.

Gu Jianlin could clearly feel the world around him warping and collapsing, crumbling inch by inch as cracks spread everywhere.

Crimson light spilled from the fissures, like a rising tide.

"O Supreme One of Antiquity..."

So that was it. Those five people were summoning him again from the ancient tomb.

Gu Jianlin heard the familiar summons and suddenly froze.

Right. He still had the five-person team in the ancient tomb.

If he couldn't investigate it himself, he could have those five look into it!

·

·

The shattered world reassembled. As the crimson light faded, the cracks that had split it apart silently sealed shut.

Gu Jianlin found himself once more in the dark, deep ancient tomb, swallowed by its cold, desolate atmosphere.

When his consciousness recovered from its brief daze, he found himself lying in the Golden Coffin again, his body bound by pale burial cloth and black chains like dragon bones, like a demon trapped in a prison.

After his last experience, he had grown used to it.

What truly surprised him was that he had undergone Ancient God Transformation again!

There were the grim horns, the grotesque bony protrusions, black scales covering his entire body, and sharp, sinister claws.

But this time, his transformation seemed to be skin-deep.

His body had once again evolved into the form of a Kirin, but the tearing sensation inside him hadn't gone away.

Nor was he filled with the wrathful power of a god.

Ever since he had undergone Ancient God Transformation in the school cafeteria, Gu Jianlin had been on cooldown up until now.

During that cooldown, he couldn't use any extraordinary abilities because he had no spirituality.

He hadn't expected that entering the Kirin Immortal Palace would let him transform so easily.

This time, he hadn't even lost consciousness, and he hadn't felt any pain from the evolution.

"Wait."

Gu Jianlin suddenly sensed something. He instinctively sat up, making the chains on his body clank.

Even though his transformed body was still extremely weak, he could clearly sense the chaotic, intangible presence of life pervading the darkness. It was as deep and vast as the sea, yet as pervasive as mist.

It was somewhat similar to the life force inside Joker, but the difference between them was vast!

If the former was only a drop in the ocean,

then the latter was a tsunami capable of devouring the world.

In both quality and quantity, the gap between them was as unimaginable as that between a firefly and the bright moon.

This chaotic, intangible aura filled the tomb like oxygen. It was everywhere.

"No wonder. The rules really are different here. In the real world, I need to draw on the mutated life force inside a Fallen to complete Ancient God Transformation. But in the Kirin Immortal Palace, I don't need to, because this place is full of it!"

Gu Jianlin finally understood. If he was right, transforming into an Ancient God in the Kirin Immortal Palace had no side effects.

Even if he used up all his power, he would probably only exhaust his spirituality.

He wouldn't be limited to a mere ten seconds like in the real world, after which he'd lose his ability to fight and collapse like a corpse.

Bathed in this aura, he could even feel the side effects of Ancient God Transformation fading!

His recovery was at least ten times faster than in the real world!

"So next time I transform, I can speed up the cooldown in the Kirin Immortal Palace..."

This discovery delighted him.

Because the next time he entered the Kirin Immortal Palace, he wouldn't be as helpless as he had been before.

He would have a trump card in hand.

As long as his spirituality was sufficient, he could still roar and use that strange syllable to shake his enemies to death.

The weakness caused by using that strange syllable last time had only been because he had too little spirituality. After all, he had only just gained the potential to Awaken, and he didn't even have a legacy path yet!

Of course, there probably wouldn't be any enemies now.

He had a use for the five people in the tomb.

After all, Gu Jianlin already had a drop of Ancient God Blood inside him.

He could use it entirely as a bargaining chip.

With a thunderous rumble, the tomb's gates opened once more, revealing the silhouettes of five people.

"O Supreme One of Antiquity."

The mentor knelt and said respectfully, "Thank you for summoning us."

His four students followed suit, kneeling in reverent gratitude. "Thank you for summoning us."

All five were cautious. Their voices had been altered, and their figures were completely hidden beneath their hoods.

But this time, Gu Jianlin was no longer the novice who had just entered the extraordinary world.

As a first-tier Divine Priest, he had a passive ability: Life Perception!

In the world of perception unique to him, the rhythms of life were crystal clear.

The mentor's life rhythm sounded like a sorrowful melody played on a dilapidated erhu. Every so often, a sharp note broke through, like a snapped string. It gave the impression of someone on the brink of death, struggling to survive.

The level of his contamination was extremely severe.

Next, Butcher and Book Elder were in bad shape too. The former sounded like a dull rumble just before something exploded, while the latter sounded like fingernails scraping across a blackboard.

Among the two women in the group, Sea Siren's contamination was relatively mild. Her life rhythm was like a stream flowing through the mountains, though it carried a hint of murky confusion.

And finally, there was Moon Maiden.

Gu Jianlin glanced at her without drawing attention to himself and tried to listen for her life rhythm, but heard nothing at all.

For a moment, he was taken aback. This was the first time he had encountered anything like this. Once he had ruled out the life rhythms of the other four, all that remained in the tomb was silence. There wasn't another sound to be heard.

The Fallen named Moon Maiden gave off no signs of life at all.

"Since becoming an Ascender, Life Perception has never failed me. Even with that pair of master and apprentice in the general store, I could sense their hollow, echoing silence. The only exception would be the dead."

Gu Jianlin was surprised. The girl kneeling across from him was clearly breathing, and her heart was beating.

She was alive, not dead.

How strange.

Gu Jianlin silently withdrew his gaze and looked down at them, beginning to understand.

The mentor was the most severely contaminated of the five. His life rhythm was a chaotic mess, as if he were relying on drugs to stay upright. Otherwise, he would probably have lost his mind or undergone a mutation by now.

Next came Butcher and Book Elder, the two men. They were both teetering on the brink of losing control.

Sea Siren was relatively safe, with a low level of contamination.

As for Moon Maiden, she was the strangest of them all.

Gu Jianlin guessed that she had used some method to hide her life rhythm.

Interesting.

"I didn't summon you here just to kneel."

Gu Jianlin remained calm this time and said coolly, "Get up and speak."

In the silence, the mentor signaled his four students with a glance, and they all stood. "Understood."

He kept his head bowed as he secretly studied the Golden Coffin in the distance—the place where the god resided.

To humans, Ancient Gods were taboo beings as terrifying as devils.

Throughout history, countless kings and ministers had lost themselves in the pursuit of evolution and power, only to meet miserable ends.

The mentor knew how dangerous it was to deal with the devil, but he had no way back.

He took a quiet breath, thinking this was his last chance. He had to seize it.

Still, this Supreme One of Antiquity was acting more and more like a human.

That only made them more afraid.

This was the Supreme One of Antiquity, a being regarded as paramount throughout all of human history.

For insignificant ants like them, kneeling before a god was already an immense honor.

As far as fortune went, they could even call themselves children of destiny.

They were among the luckiest people in all of history.

They had to cling tightly to this powerful patron!