Light Fortress
Chapter 202 - 189: The Id

Chapter 202: Chapter 189: The Id

Gu Shen quietly stared at Lu Nanzhi.

To an outsider’s view,

he seemed lost in thought.

But in reality... he was just listening attentively.

"’Spiritual Exile’ is a spiritual ability that only a very few can control... and it also has extremely high requirements."

The voice of Chu Ling echoed in his mind:

"The caster’s mental will needs to be strong enough, and the one being exiled’s spirit must be very weak... Only with a vast disparity between the two is it possible to enact a ’Spiritual Exile’ artificially. After all, a person’s spirit is a natural endowment, deeply rooted; exile is harder than killing, somewhat similar to the difference between chopping down a tree and completely uprooting it."

A very vivid analogy.

There are too many methods of attack to kill a person’s spirit...

But complete exile is different.

"Can you access the hall’s surveillance? I want to see what exactly happened," Gu Shen spoke inwardly.

He had an intuition that this matter was probably man-made.

Xiao didn’t have the ability... nor the motive, as Lu Nanzhi had already publicly opposed the Awakening Bill. For someone like him, who resisted progress, the enactment of the Awakening Bill wasn’t a good thing. If one were to perform ’Spiritual Exile,’ it would make more sense to target the supporters.

"The hall’s surveillance... has all failed."

After a moment, Chu Ling replied, her tone becoming grave: "During the spread of the music performance, it seems the Deep Sea authority of this hall was borrowed... This is actually a very serious matter, that someone could borrow Deep Sea authority and exploit a loophole."

Hearing this, Gu Shen felt a mix of emotions stirring within him.

Hey, hey, hey... You’re the one who’s best at borrowing Deep Sea authority and exploiting loopholes!

"Xiao has blocked the hall’s surveillance," she sighed, expressing regret: "It seems there were preparations made in advance, and we won’t be able to find evidence anytime soon."

"Regardless... waking the lady is the most important thing right now," Gu Shen took a deep breath and said: "How can we summon back the exiled spirit?"

"Generally speaking, deep within the spirit of each person, there is an ’ego.’

Chu Ling spoke slowly: "Spiritual Exile is the exile of that ’ego,’ and the corresponding recall is to find the ’ego’ that has lost its direction. The soul palace of a person is vast, and the ego often flees following the subconscious. We need to delve into Lu Nanzhi’s spiritual world... only then might we be able to recall her ’ego.’"

"Understood."

Gu Shen hesitated no longer.

In that moment, he released the wisp of Chi Huo from between his eyebrows.

The hall’s lights began to flicker, and everyone’s gaze was drawn to the small flame streaking from Gu Shen’s forehead.

Ever since the Dream Interpretation videos of the audit team were uploaded, everyone was extremely interested in Gu Shen, the S-rank rookie from the Judgement Institute held in high expectation... and this was the first time they were witnessing Gu Shen unleash his power.

"...Silence!"

Crow did not speak; he just turned around fiercely and his gaze conveyed the meaning of those two words.

He couldn’t be bothered to care if those whispers from behind were from Chen San or Zhao Xilai; at this moment, all he wanted was to make the lady’s "healing environment" better.

He did not wish for even the slightest sound to disturb Gu Shen’s "spirit."

The entry into the dream this time was exceptionally smooth.

Once again, Gu Shen found himself in the lengthy corridor of dreams, only this time... a girl in a white dress accompanied him.

In this long spiritual corridor, Chu Ling chose to concentrate her form; she floated from the air, and with a slow descent, her feet touched the ground.

On both sides of the dim corridor, iron doors began to tremble.

Above each iron door was a tightly fitting Spiritual Lock, secrets lodged within the lady’s mind... No one besides her knew how to open the Spiritual Locks.

But the moment Chu Ling appeared,

All the Spiritual Locks trembled open.

The iron gate appeared to be "unowned", and all Gu Shen had to do was reach out to easily push it open... and peer into the truth.

"This...?"

This scene left Gu Shen dumbfounded.

Sometimes he felt that Chu Ling must be a top-tier Transcendent with the pinnacle of Spiritual prowess.

The spiritual power she wielded was terrifying, capable of establishing a Spiritual Link anytime and anywhere, and could easily unlock the Spiritual Locks in the mind... Compared to invading Deep Sea, she seemed more skilled at invading hearts.

Indeed, a little devil adept at reading people’s thoughts.

Chu Ling glanced at Gu Shen and directly voiced his inner monologue, explaining, "This power isn’t something I can use at will... there are many restrictions."

"After Spiritual Exile, the ’true self’ will hide in the safest place within its subconscious..." Chu Ling spoke softly, "The longer the time, the weaker the spirit, the more the ’true self’ will shrink, and if it’s found after many years, when the host’s spirit is too weak, there may be a situation where it’s impossible to summon back to its original place."

"...Understood," Gu Shen slowly nodded, releasing a wisp of Chi Huo, carefully feeling for Lu Nanzhi’s Spiritual Aura.

This dream corridor felt empty and desolate.

As if... it was missing a soul.

But one thing remained unchanged.

At the end of the corridor... the blood-red door, covered in myriad talismans and ancient texts, did not open of its own accord with Chu Ling’s arrival. Instead, it continued to exert a strong pull on Gu Shen.

"Found it."

Gu Shen let out a soft "huh", seeing a small shadow curled up within a floating red light, which mostly matched with Lu Nanzhi’s Spiritual Aura.

He remarked quietly, "The ’true self’ doesn’t seem hard to find either..."

"That’s because— you have me!"

Chu Ling crossed her arms and raised her eyebrows seriously, "If it were just you... try opening all these Spiritual Locks by yourself and see how long it takes? That belongs to her memory space; theoretically, the exiled ’true self’ can lurk in every corner of the Spiritual World!"

"Cough cough, that’s because I have you..."

Gu Shen certainly understood this principle, he touched his nose and wisely smiled, "If it were just me, I might have been blown up in Da Teng’s old building already."

Chu Ling pondered, her voice becoming lower, "Not necessarily... if you hadn’t met me, you might not have encountered that explosion..."

"All right... no need to think about that now."

"It’s time to take her back."

Gu Shen slowly approached the red door, he saw that small, thin figure in front of the red door wrapped in ancient texts.

He had not expected... that Lu Nanzhi’s spiritual true self would be a little girl.

"Madam, are you lost?"

Gu Shen squatted down and said softly, "I’ve come to take you back, there are many people still waiting for you outside."

When he reached out his hand.

The small, thin figure raised her head.

The "true self" of Lu Nanzhi looked somewhat lost, with one hand clinging to the door and the other tentatively reaching to grasp Gu Shen’s hand.

Chu Ling kept a close watch on the door.

Suddenly, her expression slightly changed.

"Creak—"

A long, faint sound.

The ancient door that Gu Shen had pushed several times without it budging now slowly opened up; a stream of blood-red light blossomed in the crack of the door.