Light Fortress Chapter 1984 - 43: Dragonbone

The world was silent.

The sound of the wind rustling through the grass reached the ears.

"Sure enough... have I encountered a Source Material Storm again?"

Gu Shen knew that he had arrived at his second reboot, now lying in a hospital room.

This time, he didn’t open his eyes, not because he didn’t want to.

But because the tragic scene of the explosion at Gu Castle kept swirling in his mind!

As he expected, the moment the airship departed from Gu Castle Fortress, it encountered a Source Material Storm. The Rust Bone General opened the Destruction Origin to resist, but it couldn’t change the outcome...

With his current frail body, even with the protection of the origin, he couldn’t escape death.

"This reboot feels completely different from before."

Gu Shen frowned slightly, feeling as if his Spirit Sea had been pierced by dozens of knives and stirred around.

"Even if this is a fake world, being blasted to death by a Source Material Storm brings terrifying ’negative effects’..."

Gu Shen silently absorbed this pain.

"Hey, teacher?"

A cold voice came from beside the bed; it was Nan Jin connecting a communicator.

Gu Shen’s head was still buzzing.

He couldn’t hear the voice on the other end clearly, but knowing it was the teacher calling was enough.

"He’s not awake yet..."

Nan Jin’s voice was obviously a bit surprised. After a brief pause, she slowly said, "Are you sure you don’t need to worry about it?"

"..."

"Okay, I’ll take care of it now."

A moment later, the call ended.

Gu Shen felt a warm body approach, and his senior sister adjusted the blanket for him, then closed the hospital bed’s door.

About ten minutes later, Gu Shen recovered control over his body. He sat up, and through the mirror, he saw his current face, ghastly pale like a sheet of white paper.

"Is my body too weak?"

Gu Shen let out a bitter laugh.

Recalling his senior brother Zhong Wei’s painful reaction, this time personally experiencing it, he understood how terrifying a Source Material Storm could be.

This isn’t something ordinary people can withstand.

He scooped up some water to wash his face but suddenly froze.

A faint layer of mist formed on the mirror’s surface.

Gu Shen raised his head, staring intently at the center of his brow in the mirror... A strange feeling surged up within him.

"Ssshhh!"

At the center of Gu Shen’s brow, a flame suddenly ignited.

This flame was very weak but illuminated the boy’s dim eyes in the mirror.

"Chi Huo?"

"Chi Huo!"

Gu Shen was initially overjoyed, but then he plunged into deep thought.

Logically, he should be awakening his ability during the dream trial half a month later... However, with this second reboot, he directly awakened "Chi Huo" early?

Gu Shen immediately realized something was off.

"The awakening of Chi Huo was ahead of schedule... this doesn’t conform to the rules."

According to the rules of this reboot world.

With every reboot.

The ’power’ of outsiders would return to the starting point.

So, in the two previous reboots, he didn’t even have an Extraordinary Ability...

But this time, he could summon Chi Huo.

Gu Shen pinched the flame, examining the flame that belonged to him. This Chi Huo was small... yet its essence was undiminished.

"Is it because I fused with the fire seed? The reboot world can’t restrict my extraordinary ability..."

Gu Shen pondered.

He thought of another possibility.

Every reboot in the Spiritual World would also consume time in the real world!

The real-world self is "growing"!

In other words, the imprisonment of the Divine Infant is gradually being broken—

With Chi Huo’s rank, no matter how many shackles this Spiritual World imposes, it cannot stop the influx of "Chi Huo." In other words, he doesn’t need to follow the original world trajectory to cultivate, just staying here longer makes Chi Huo’s ability stronger!

"Creak."

The hospital room door was pushed open; Nan Jin, who had gone out for errands, returned to the room. She looked at the pale boy in the bathroom and paused for a second.

In the next second.

The wisp of Chi Huo flickered in her pupils.

"Senior sister."

Gu Shen’s voice was gentle.

He softly said, "Just pretend you haven’t seen me, and have a good rest."

Nan Jin nodded blankly and sat on the bed.

Hypnosis succeeded.

And without any resistance—

In this reboot world, Nan Jin at this moment was only at the third level, and Gu Shen’s great success Chi Huo, even if it was only a tiny wisp, was beyond her ability to resist.

Gu Shen closed the hospital room door and quickly left, the flame in his brow fluttering in the wind.

The tension in his mind relaxed significantly at this moment.

Gu Shen had been troubled about how to break the stalemate—

The appearance of Chi Huo offered him hope.

With a wisp of flame, he could do many, many things.

...

...

A moment later, Zhou Jiren and his three disciples met first, still on the old building’s rooftop.

"Little junior brother, are you okay?"

Zhong Wei asked with concern as soon as they met, having noticed that Gu Shen’s face didn’t look good.

"Not too well."

Gu Shen smiled and said, "But also very well."

He summoned the wisp of flame between his brows, and both the teacher and senior sister instinctively held their breath.

"Very weak... yet also very strong."

At their prime, Tian Tong gave a very high evaluation.

She cast a meaningful glance at the little junior brother.

As a Spiritual, she knew very well the immense spiritual power contained within this wisp of flame; just this alone should be able to fight a Fourth-order Transcendent.

She was now one hundred percent certain that the little junior brother in the real world was standing at the pinnacle of Transcendents, breaking the mundane boundaries.

At least, he far surpassed her former self.

"Has Chi Huo awakened already at this time?"

Zhou Jiren asked with a frown.

"Worthy of a teacher..."

Gu Shen put away Chi Huo and said slowly, "This is precisely the crux of the problem. According to the rules of this rebooted world, I shouldn’t have awakened Chi Huo yet, at least for another half month. But now, with the second reboot, I have mastered ’Chi Huo’ ahead of time. What does this imply?"

Luo Er murmured, "This world cannot prevent the arrival of ’Chi Huo’."

The status of Chi Huo was too high!

The "Origin Will" of this world could not stop the revival of Chi Huo!

Zhou Jiren asked, "Speaking of which... what did you and Mr. Rust Bone see at the Gu Castle Fortress during the last reboot?"

"Source Material Storm, and it was exactly the same as the previous Source Material Storm."

Gu Shen said in a deep voice, "The last reboot was sufficient to verify one guess. As long as we attempt to leave Gu Castle early, the ’Origin Will’ will strike, and that storm will descend every time."

This is inevitable! Not accidental!

"So... is the plan to leave early stillborn?"

Zhong Wei felt a bit regretful.

"No, it’s quite the opposite."

Gu Shen said, his eyes shining with spirit, "This means we should leave early even more!"

Zhong Wei was puzzled.

A Source Material Storm of that magnitude, once it descends, would be a catastrophe of annihilation, estimated that only a Divine Throne can withstand it.

How can we leave early under such circumstances?

"Calculating the time, it should be soon."

Gu Shen glanced at the time and took a deep breath, "I have an agreement with Mr. Rust Bone. Once Gu Castle Fortress explodes and the world welcomes a new reboot... the first thing he needs to do is to leave the Five Continents by flying a single-person airship through the giant wall at the northeast border!"

"Gu Castle will certainly face a Source Material Storm, but other places may not."

"The ’Origin Will’ of this world is not as powerful as we imagined. It can manipulate the order of events in the world’s original trajectory, but it cannot ’conjure out of thin air’ a Source Material Storm."

"So... targeting the entire Northern Continent Border, we must be able to find a safe departure point."

This hypothesis is being verified by Mr. Rust Bone.

The clock hands went by, minute by minute, second by second...

Gu Shen awaited the world’s reboot, this feeling was very peculiar, the lives of outsiders were tied together, every minute they "lived" was exceptionally precious.

"Beep."

In less than ten minutes, Zhou Jiren’s communicator rang.

"This is Mr. Rust Bone."

The voice on the other side was slightly weary, but more joyful.

"Tell Gu Shen... his guess is correct, just now I left the giant wall of Dragon Bone Fortress without encountering a Source Material Storm. Upon leaving the giant wall, an extremely strong cold current arrived, which was the highest level of ’natural disaster’ experienced in Dragon Bone Fortress’s history. However, my Destruction Origin can completely block it."

Now Mr. Rust Bone has already piloted the airship back inland.

At the moment of giving up leaving the fortress.

The natural disaster abruptly stopped.

In just a few minutes, the giant wall of the Dragon Bone Fortress had frozen into ice scum, although knowing everything in this world was false.

But seeing the internal chaos of the fortress, Mr. Rust Bone couldn’t help but sigh.

According to the original plan of Gu Shen and him.

After confirming a fortress capable of carrying out the leaving plan, it would be best for Mr. Rust Bone to ascertain the stability of the surrounding fortresses for comparison.

Obviously, the safer the departure point, the better.

Yet the Northern Continent Border has always been fraught with disasters, according to the current pattern, once one chooses to leave each fortress will face the highest level of "natural disasters" in history.

Continuously searching for departure points will only waste time and may trigger a new round of reboot, consuming the outsider’s spirit.

Mr. Rust Bone asked hoarsely, "Gu Shen, do I still need to test the stability of other fortresses?"

"No need."

Gu Shen quickly answered, "Continuing to test further might trigger a new round of reboot... if there’s no issue, then let Dragon Bone Fortress be the departure point for the voyage."

...

...

Two hours later, Gu Shen and the three of them arrived at Mr. Rust Bone’s main ship.

Gu Shen used Chi Huo to project a huge map, then connected points into a line.

A convoluted route was drawn by his fingertips.

He replicated the map of golden spike flowers from his mind.

Dragon Bone Fortress is not far from Gu Castle, starting from the giant wall here, the airship can detour to the originally planned route.

This is a suitable departure point, the greatest disaster in history was the [Old World] cold current invasion.

"Gentlemen, are you ready?"

Mr. Rust Bone started the main ship, and as the giant wall of Dragon Bone Fortress was barely covered in thick ice, it ushered a howling fierce north wind again, the defenders of this fortress wore black masks of the "Heavenly Dog," at this moment opening the domain, spreading massive black wings behind, took off with difficulty, Mr. Rust Bone had already sent the intent of "leaving the fortress" to Dragon Bone Fortress.

As citizens of the North Continent, pillars of the legion, they unconditionally obeyed and supported the general’s decision!

"Open the giant wall passage..."

"Open the line of umbrella defense!"

Amidst a series of high shouts, the surging wind and snow poured in, Mr. Rust Bone unfolded the Destruction Origin, the magnificent sound wave shattered billions of tons of frost and snow.

The pitch-black Origin Power was like a shell filled with power!

With a boom!

The umbrella defense line of Dragon Bone Fortress cracked open, the main ship was enveloped by the Destruction Origin, rushed out dozens of miles in an instant, amidst violent jolts, the frost and snow were burned away—

Chunks of shattered floating land came into view.

"This is..."

Zhong Wei stood outside the porthole, looking at the scene outside, the entire world from extreme boil turned into utter silence in an instant.

"This is the Old World."

Gu Shen’s brows, Chi Huo gently flickered.

He whispered, "We successfully left the fortress."