Light Fortress
Chapter 112 - 100: The Great Fog

Chapter 112: Chapter 100: The Great Fog

Monday.

At half-past seven in the morning, the majority of the working population had just set out from their homes, hitting the metro at its most crowded time with everyone still on their way.

Though Da Du was bustling, most commercial streets didn’t start business until nine o’clock, so at this time, the streets usually only had a scatter of pedestrians and weren’t crowded since most shops were still closed.

However, a small queue had already formed in front of a certain shop on Lipu Street today.

When Zhou Yexin arrived at the sleep-talker’s at eight, she was taken aback and double-checked twice... these people were queuing up in front of her own shop, and they came as a group, a minibus parked not far away.

"Everyone line up in order."

A woman seriously urged beside the queue, "No cutting in line."

The few people in line looked exhausted, tired and numb, but unexpectedly obedient.

Zhou Yexin furrowed her brows, feeling that this woman seemed familiar...

She remembered!

It was the distinguished lady who had brought a banner to thank Gu Shen before, now dressed differently in a khaki trench coat dress, looking several years younger, about twenty-four or twenty-five.

If she remembered correctly... this woman’s name was Jiang Wan, right?

"Good morning, Dr. Zhou, is Dr. Xiao Gu about to start work?"

Jiang Wan said with a smiling face, "We’ve been waiting here for almost half an hour."

They were here for Gu Shen?

Zhou Yexin paused for a moment, hurrying to open the door.

After Jiang Wan gave a wave, these queued people slowly entered the door.

"Did you bring all these...?"

"Because of my work, I can come across some patients," Jiang Wan nodded and said with a smile, "Dr. Xiao Gu is so skilled, I just thought of introducing some clients to him, to earn a little extra... By the way, you settle accounts by commission here, right?"

Introducing clients?

Zhou Yexin looked at Jiang Wan with suspicion, feeling increasingly uneasy...

Why did she feel this woman’s motives were less than pure?

"Don’t misunderstand, I just purely admire Dr. Xiao Gu’s abilities," Jiang Wan sighed, smiling helplessly, "I’m a whole cycle older than Xiao Gu, how could I have any bad intentions?"

...

...

When Gu Shen arrived, he was astonished to see the clinic filled with patients.

The business was... better than he had ever imagined.

"Xiao Gu."

Sister Xiao Xin pulled Gu Shen aside and whispered, "All these people were introduced by Jiang Wan, I suspect she has a thing for you, you’d better be cautious."

Upon hearing this, Gu Shen was startled.

Sure enough, among these people, he saw a familiar face.

It was Jiang Wan.

Seeing Jiang Wan looking at him with a smile that, with Sister Xiao Xin’s reminder, somehow made Gu Shen feel a bit wary.

The last one who looked at him with such an expression was Qu Shui.

However, Gu Shen had personally checked Jiang Wan’s dream.

She was just an ordinary person, with no Extraordinary Ability... There was no need to worry about her being another killer from the river bank.

"There’s something wrong with these people... Their spirits seem to have some problems."

Gu Shen glanced at the patients in the clinic, these seven or eight, all in old clothes, with dispirited expressions, but this dispiritedness was not caused by insomnia.

His expression grew serious and he whispered to Sister Xiao Xin, "Anyway... let’s get to work first."

He took the youngest child to a partitioned area.

The child had a dazed expression, his face showing complete bewilderment. After sitting down in the partition, no matter what was asked, he wouldn’t speak, as dull as a block of wood... Seeing this, Gu Shen directly summoned Chi Huo.

Deep Sea Second Layer, minor hypnosis.

Gu Shen directly entered the child’s dreamscape.

It was just a shame Tang Qingquan wasn’t present, otherwise he’d certainly lament deeply... Mr. Shu, the old rascal, might be old, but he had a sharp eye.

Incredibly accurate at judging people.

In the realm of Extraordinary Abilities, Gu Shen was a player who couldn’t be measured by common standards.

His Chi Huo wasn’t one of those high-risk abilities that were inherently powerful at birth... but it had enormous growth potential, and it was growing very fast, though of course, that had to do with Gu Shen’s own perceptiveness.

Different babies learn to walk at different times.

And Gu Shen was definitely among the fastest of that bunch.

Now, his Chi Huo was just a thread, only able to drift within the Spirit Space, but in Gu Shen’s hands, it could sweep across the majority of dreams.

"Awake."

This immersion was exceptionally quick.

It only took an instant for Gu Shen to regain consciousness, he looked at the haze surrounding him, in the dreamscape of the child, it seemed there was an invisible wall blocking everything, all the scenery shrouded in a mist, with extremely thin visibility.

"Is this... fog?"

So dense that one couldn’t see their own hands.

This dream was eerily quiet... as if miles into the deep sea where all sounds had perished.

The moment Gu Shen raised his hand, the silence was shattered.

"Whoosh—"

The fog shattered like a mirror.

Chi Huo turned into a lantern, hanging above the dreamscape, piercing through the dream eroded by a sealing spiritual substance.

"These streets, old alleys, they feel familiar..."

Gu Shen stared at the mottled walls, decorated with graffiti of children running around, balloons, birds, and clouds. The walls surrounded everything like a labyrinth, with courtyard walls enclosing the houses. Such old buildings would never appear in the new district of Da Du.

"This is the old city district."

He understood the identity of this child.

He also understood why all these patients were dressed in old-fashioned clothes.

These people, they must be residents of the old city district...

Even after the fog was pierced with light, there was still an area enshrouded in mist. Gu Shen, controlling the body in the dream, attempted to walk deeper, but this dream seemed to be blocked by an unseen barrier of air.

"This is it... the end. I can’t go any further."

Gu Shen stopped in his tracks, holding a lantern, and muttered, "The Spiritual Imprint left behind this time... is more formidable than the stern stone sculpture."

Pulling it out forcefully wasn’t a problem.

After all, it was just a strand of imprint.

But what truly caught Gu Shen’s attention... was the area of dense fog on the other side of the air barrier.

"In this child’s dream... there’s fog a hundred times thicker there, which can only be explained by a seal. But if this scene were real, it couldn’t have escaped the Judgement Institute’s notice..." Gu Shen pondered, "It must be the power of at least a B-level seal, right?"

"Let’s remove the Spiritual Imprint from this child first, then take a look at the other people’s dreams."

He made up his mind.

With a snap of his fingers, Gu Shen gently tapped the surface of the lantern. The floating lantern was struck into the air by his finger, turning into thousands of streams of light, spectacularly hitting the surrounding fog in the dream from all directions... Just as Gu Shen had guessed, every direction was blocked by walls of air; the child’s Dream Space was limited.

As Chi Huo passed by, the fog dissipated quickly.

This process of removing the imprint, for Gu Shen... was actually a form of cultivation.

Although the Extraordinary Essence was scarce, consuming it could enhance him!

A few breaths later, all the dream fog within the barrier had been devoured.

Gu Shen left the dream.

The child, who had a lost look in his eyes, slowly had the numbness fade from his eyes, which had previously seemed covered in a layer of mist. Now, at last, a hint of spirit appeared... only to be quickly replaced by exhaustion.

Gu Shen pushed the door and left the cubicle.

"How is it?" Jiang Wan saw that Gu Shen had come out, quickly stood up, looking a bit nervous, and upon seeing the child sprawled asleep inside, she sighed with relief, it seemed he had been cured.

Gu Shen noticed her reaction.

"These people... did you bring them all?" he asked quietly, "Take the child to the car."

Jiang Wan quickly complied.

Right then, another door to the cubicle was opened. Zhou Yexin looked frustrated and said, "This person is so strange, like a block of wood... no reaction no matter what..."

It seemed she was out of options.

Indeed.

The hypnosis ability of the pocket watch was limited.

It was meant to protect Zhou Yexin; the last strand of Extraordinary Power could only ensure her safety.

"Leave it to me. Sister Xiao Xin, you go ahead with your work," Gu Shen said with a smile, using the hypnosis power of Chi Huo in his words, and whispered, "The rest of them... come with me."

The remaining seven patients, upon hearing this, all slowly stood up and moved into Gu Shen’s cubicle.

"Deep Sea Second Layer is for small-scale hypnosis, hypnotizing individuals."

"The third layer... is Great Hypnosis, spreading the spirit, radiating it across an area."

Gu Shen closed the cubicle door and faced the row of patients. He recalled the scene when Han Dang hypnotized him.

Truth Domain.

Within that Spiritual Domain, no matter how many people entered, they could only become fish on Han Dang’s chopping board... Gu Shen felt that when spiritual power was strong enough to condense and emanate, it would form a "domain."

Small-scale hypnosis is to harness the inherent hypnosis ability of Chi Huo.

Great Hypnosis is to project the spiritual power outwards, spreading it towards the domain.

"Let me try... hypnotizing multiple people at once."

He took a deep breath.

Gu Shen released Chi Huo. After digesting half of Qu Shui’s Extraordinary Essence, Chi Huo had grown more than twice as potent as it was at its inception, but the spreading light barely enveloped the room.

"Enter the dream."

"Enter the dream."

"Enter the dream."

A voice echoed by the ears of these people at the same time.

Chi Huo solidified, gathering a room full of radiance.

Gu Shen entered a Dream Space crafted by his own spiritual power. He successfully performed Great Hypnosis and arrived at the foggy dream of the old city district. This time, carrying the lantern, he traveled much farther. The dreams of these few people were like pieces of a puzzle, representing segments of an unlocked area. Once connected, there were still barriers of air, but he had a much larger area to move around.

"Fulin Lane."

"Lion Alley."

"Rui’an Alley."

Carrying the lantern and dispersing the fog, Gu Shen slowly recognized the scenery in the dream, eventually identifying several streets and alleys in the old city district... A detailed map immediately came to his mind. Through these cleared streets, he figured out his position.

Then, he looked toward the deep, fog-enshrouded area of the dream far in the distance...

He reached out his hand.

An invisible and solid wall blocked his progress.

The deepest fog.

Inaccessible, untraversable, untouchable.