GRMFBS CH311

Zhan Suiru couldn’t help shooting Gu Jiancheng a look filled with sheer admiration.

Truly fearless!

She quietly stole a glance at Ji Yueming. Tsk, tsk, tsk, it had been a long time since she had seen this half-smiling, half-chilling expression on her mother’s face.

When Mom got fierce, she was far more terrifying than Dad!

Under the gaze of Chongming Demon King’s double pupils, Gu Jiancheng’s expression remained completely flawless.

The faint crackle of electric currents seemed to buzz through the air.

Ji Yueming said with a sweet smile, “Do you truly not know what sort of ‘profound bond’ it is? From before last year?”

Gu Jiancheng: …

He couldn’t shake the feeling that the concentration of lightning in the air was steadily rising; at this rate, in another two minutes, he’d be generating static electricity just by rubbing against the atmosphere.

“I have a guess,” Gu Jiancheng sat up straight and proper, his expression solemn and upright. “Sometime before January—the exact time, I’m not sure—an extra star appeared in my Sea of Shadows.”

“What kind of star?”

“Can we see it?”

And so, everyone entered Gu Jiancheng’s Sea of Shadows together.

The Sea of Shadows beneath Gu Jiancheng’s feet resembled a massive slab of obsidian, while the once perpetually pitch-black sky was now transparent and limpid.

A tiny little star occupied the highest point in the entire firmament, treating itself like a miniature sun, flooding every single corner with light, and even attempting to bore its way down into the sea.

Gu Jiancheng’s Sea of Shadows hadn’t surged with unruly waves in a very long time. Normally, it behaved itself obediently, pretending to be a solid surface.

Looking up at that tiny star that didn’t hold back in the slightest, Zhan Yunkai clicked his tongue softly.

This was an auspicious beast’s protective imprint; every auspicious beast had a different mark. But even though it was called protection, it was still an external power. In ancient times, when great demons bestowed protection upon the high shamans who made offerings to them, the imprints fell either upon the brow or over the heart. When exchanging blessings between friends of equal standing, it might land upon a single feather or a single scale.

Who was ever like him, dropping it straight into someone else’s core ability, and brazenly seizing the highest throne to boot?

And look at Deep Shadow. At first glance, his expression was completely placid and his gaze seemed utterly prim, but that smug, bubbling delight was proving exceedingly difficult to suppress.

Zhan Suiru craned her neck to glance at that little star, feeling that this thing was somewhat similar to her own spiritual imprints. She wanted to study it. Glancing at Deep Shadow—tsk, looking at him, he definitely wouldn’t be willing.

She lowered her head and began studying the sea surface beneath her feet.

She constantly felt there were plenty of dangerous things hidden beneath it. But right now, under the starlight, it was calm to the point of being nearly rock-solid, making it difficult to discern anything.

Ji Yueming narrowed her eyes, observing this space and the starlight suffusing it.

She now understood how Deep Shadow’s sequelae had been healed.

No wonder the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau’s research into resolving the players’ sequelae had always hit dead ends. They had tested purifying pollution, merit, auspicious omens, and so forth; it couldn’t be said that these were useless, but the effects were extraordinarily limited.

Later, after a living example like Deep Shadow emerged, the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau turned all their attention onto him, researching him relentlessly. They studied all his past experiences and related rumors—including that utterly preposterous claim of “because of love” obtained from the Librarian.

Recalling Tu Yue mentioning that this rumor originated from Approaching Science… tsk.

Deep Shadow’s sequelae were cured because he and Bai Ze had shared destiny within the exact same span of time since twenty-seven years ago, and later forged an even deeper connection.

This connection was bidirectional, using emotion as its conduit, profound enough to touch the soul to the point where they could directly share power between spirits. Deep Shadow’s heavily tempered soul nourished Bai Ze’s wounded spirit, while Bai Ze’s deeply accumulated auspicious blessings and merit dissolved Deep Shadow’s sequelae.

Look at that arrogant little star in the sky.

Tsk, Deep Shadow had zero defenses raised against Yan Yan’s power.

Gu Jiancheng was also gazing up at that tiny star, his eyes tenderly brimmed with starlight: “Is it because of this?”

He was an outsider and didn’t know much about the ability systems of this world.

Zhan Jinli: “Pretty much. It’s a warding art. Cultivators who are auspicious beasts or have accumulated vast merit can generally use it.”

Gu Jiancheng: “So it’s a warding art… Do warding arts always look like this when cast?”

Zhan Jinli looked at him. He couldn’t tell if the guy was asking on purpose or had just stumbled into it by accident.

Yet the brat merely looked toward the sky with utter gentleness, showing no other expression at all.

“No, ordinary warding arts aren’t this…” Zhan Jinli looked at the starlight dominating the entire space, ultimately swallowing down the word ‘arrogant,’ “…deep-seated.”

Gu Jiancheng felt smug all over again.

Sensing a faint pressure in the air, he cleared his throat twice to rein in his expression: “I suddenly remembered a method that can wipe out the majority of the anomalies as quickly as possible.”

Although Infinite was weakening overall, because the concept coverage of the mental-network over spiritual energy had developed loopholes, Infinite’s recent impact on the world had actually strengthened. People in reality had their spiritual energy forcibly siphoned by anomalies, and quite a few had already been admitted to the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau’s hospitals.

Even the Truth Science News Agency had been dreadfully busy lately. The editor-in-chief, Zhen Hua, had contacted them multiple times asking if they had time for part-time work, and Zhan Yan had even taken on a few urgent commissions.

If Gu Jiancheng could clear out the anomalies sooner, Yan Yan would be able to level up slowly with more peace of mind, right?

Everyone’s attention shifted immediately.

“Do you know of Soul-Intoxicating Incense?” Gu Jiancheng asked. “Previously, some claws of Infinite attempted to cultivate Soul-Intoxicating Incense targeted specifically at Ghost King Lin Yuan.”

The others couldn’t match the names of artifacts from Infinite, but mention of targeting Ghost King Lin Yuan jogged their memories immediately.

Zhan Suiru didn’t know about this yet, but she remembered that fish bait.

After combing through the matter, everyone pretty much understood.

“Five years ago, I had Zhuo Xun cultivate a stalk of Soul-Intoxicating Incense for me, using the flesh and blood of anomalies,” Gu Jiancheng stated.

Therefore, that stalk of Soul-Intoxicating Incense held an irresistible attraction for anomalies.

As long as this item was utilized properly, it could lure in a massive horde of anomalies and wipe them out in one fell swoop.

“Is it safe keeping it with the Retirees’ Alliance?” Ji Yueming considered this first. Hearing it, she realized instantly that if used well, this stalk of Soul-Intoxicating Incense was a devastating weapon against Infinite; if used poorly, it would be a devastating weapon against themselves. If someone hid this thing inside a bustling city and disguised it well, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Gu Jiancheng: “Zhuo Xun has special abilities; keeping the Soul-Intoxicating Incense with him is no problem.”

Ji Yueming gave Gu Jiancheng a profound look.

Though he phrased it simply, she wasn’t so dense that she couldn’t deduce why Gu Jiancheng had cultivated such a stalk of Soul-Intoxicating Incense back then.

Deep Shadow’s innate ruthlessness—ruthless enough to exploit even his own death—left one unsure whether to feel horrified or heartbroken.

She let out a breath: “Contact him first. This thing… if it can’t be put to use, it must be destroyed.”

She went to contact Ning Xi to see if they could set up an ambush using this stalk of Soul-Intoxicating Incense.

Ning Xi had been swamped to his wits’ end lately; hearing this news made his eyes light up. There was actually such a good thing!

Their side wasn’t lacking firepower at all. With an item capable of forcibly drawing aggro like this, they naturally had to use it—the more the better!

Gu Jiancheng indicated there was only one stalk.

After Infinite’s collapse, items from inside were hard to come by. This stalk of Soul-Intoxicating Incense had been pried out of the Broker’s hands back then. The Broker only had this one stalk, and had Deep Shadow not been unhinged and manic back then, scaring the Broker half to death, the guy might not have been willing to part with it.

Upon receiving Gu Jiancheng’s message, Zhuo Xun unexpectedly became the most nervous of all.

“Boss, are you really going to use that thing?”

Gu Jiancheng: “What’s wrong?”

Zhuo Xun: “All that anomaly flesh and blood you sent over back then—I fed every bit of it to it.”

Gu Jiancheng: “I sent it over precisely for you to feed it.”

Zhuo Xun: “Do you remember how many anomalies you sent over back then?”

Gu Jiancheng: He genuinely didn’t remember. Back then, he was suffering from hallucinations constantly; just keeping himself under control had taken everything he had, so who had the spare time to tally how many anomalies he had slain?

Zhuo Xun: “Boss, you know that our Retirees’ Alliance is pretty average in everything else, but our warehouses are massive and plenty, right?”

Gu Jiancheng: “Mm.”

Zhuo Xun: “Those were all expanded during that period specifically to store the anomalies you sent over.”

Gu Jiancheng: ?

Were there really that many?

He had always assumed the Retirees’ Alliance had so many warehouses because they had nothing to do after “retiring” and liked hoarding junk.

Zhuo Xun: “You delivered them so fast and in such huge quantities. With just that single stalk of Soul-Intoxicating Incense, no matter how much it could eat, there was no way it could swallow tons of anomalies in one gulp. So I kept stockpiling them in the warehouses and have been feeding them to that stalk of Soul-Intoxicating Incense bit by bit over all these years.”

Gu Jiancheng: …

Zhuo Xun: “Boss, you know that the more anomalies the Soul-Intoxicating Incense consumes, the stronger its attraction and the wider its diffusion range, right?”

Gu Jiancheng couldn’t help asking: “How much anomaly flesh and blood was sent over back then?”

Zhuo Xun: “Quite a lot. I fed it about a hundred pounds a day, and only finished feeding it three months ago.”

Gu Jiancheng: …

Was I really that productive?

The great boss Deep Shadow realized in a daze that he really had been a bit of a workaholic back then.

Fed with so many anomalies, this stalk of Soul-Intoxicating Incense wouldn’t end up luring Infinite itself over, would it?

That only made Ning Xi even happier.

He was already designing the layout for the entire trap. Even if he couldn’t get lucky enough to hook Infinite in one go, this would at least cut his current workload in half.

After finishing the serious discussion, Gu Jiancheng stubbornly steered the conversation right back to the previous topic:

“We still can’t confirm whether the warding art is that connection or not. Just to be safe, I think marriage is still something to consider.”

…

In the living room, Zhan Yan held Xingxing while gorging on EXP packs.

He had just maxed out the “Organizations” tab, but this ability tended to manifest implicitly, so nothing noticeable could be seen for now.

With so many new anomalies cropping up lately, the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau and the Wan Yao Alliance would send him a copy of all the intelligence gathered after clearing them out. By now, his “Anomalies” tab was almost full as well.

Constantly taking in massive amounts of new information—especially concerning anomalies—made Zhan Yan feel slightly dizzy.

Still, it wasn’t a major issue. Didn’t Nie Yu say their sequelae all manifested as headaches? He hadn’t reached that point yet.

Just as Zhan Yan was about to continue browsing through the intel, a fluffy little paw suddenly patted his chest.

“Meow-wu.”

Zhan Yan looked down at Xingxing: “Meow-wu?”

Xingxing: “…”

“Meow-yowl—meow-yowl—“

Stop spacing out!

Yan Yan was such a worry for him too! Spacing out at the drop of a hat.

Spacing out for too long would turn a person foolish.

Yan Yan had just gone foolish a moment ago. What kind of gibberish had he just spoken to him?

Zhan Yan: …

Listening to small animals cry for too long, one just couldn’t resist mimicking them occasionally.

Alright, alright, he knew his cat language was terrible.

“What do you think they’re talking about? How haven’t they finished after so long?” Zhan Yan complained to Xingxing, opening up his melon entries to spectate from afar.

[Gu Jiancheng indicated to your father, mother, and sister that the two of you could get married twice.]

Zhan Yan: ???

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