Chapter 1009: Chapter 1009

Capítulo 1009: Chapter 164: Winter Breathing

The scene stops here.

Gu Shen opened his eyes.

This time… he had returned to the Moon City Disaster Realm.

The snow wind howled, and unknowingly, Gu Shen’s back was soaked with sweat.

It was just a casual spirit exploration. He never expected that he would be able to spy on the secrets between the former Netherworld King and the traveler, these two “Divine Thrones”.

Evidently, the scenes recorded on Black Snow Mountain… came from this black gem in his hand, referred to by the traveler as the “pitch stone”.

Gu Shen lowered his head.

His eyes flickered with a strange light.

An ancient stone capable of infinitely absorbing spirit… with a material similar to “jade”?

After hearing the traveler’s introduction, why did he feel that this black gem was very similar to the “jade ring” in his Spirit Sea?

The cold wind was like a knife, the snow mountain like an anvil.

He stood up, his expression somewhat desolate.

The clues about [the traveler]… were intricate and entwined, and even though he had collected the spiritual fragments of the black gem, and glimpsed some details of the transaction between the traveler and the Netherworld King, he still could not unravel them.

“Teacher, senior brother, senior sister…”

Gu Shen murmured softly, “Have you… really been engulfed by the snow tide?”

The Empress verified the spirit of the traveler. Those memories could not be falsified.

Being engulfed by the snow tide must be true.

But what happened after being engulfed?

At this moment, Gu Shen suddenly felt a bit ironic… He suddenly thought of the image of the traveler and the Netherworld King cursing each other, a curse only effective for the one who swore, but why did he feel like a pitiful person bearing the curse at this moment?

After the turmoil in the cemetery subsided.

Gu Shen began to worry… about his future after merging with the “Netherworld Fire”, when the hundred-year-old tree in the Gu Family Ancestral Hall would wither and shed its leaves overnight, and his closest friends and old acquaintances would inevitably be tainted with misfortune.

At present, he had only absorbed a wisp of Netherworld Fire.

What would happen in the future if he fully merged with the “Netherworld Fire”?

Gu Shen sat on the snowy mountain in the Moon City Disaster Realm for an entire day.

For a Transcendent, a day is not long.

He sat cross-legged in the withered snow, silently facing the vanished [door] in the void.

The [door] that his teacher and senior sister opened had not opened even after a year.

Let alone a day, even if he sat there for ten more days, no miracle would happen…

On this day, all he did was “silence”.

Mr. Shu led him into the door of Extraordinary Cultivation, and he remembered the grace of teaching, the sentiment of transmission in his heart. This old guy, who usually seemed unreliable, was indeed the teacher who was most proficient in “teaching disciples” in the East Continent.

In the deep water area, there was a saying: To fuse the Flame Dream, one must abandon something to gain something.

From the mundane to the Divine.

The “Seven Deities” seem like “saints” stepping on clouds, uncontaminated by dust, they are transcendent, ethereal, beyond the touch of the mundane.

They naturally must abandon, and their abandonment exceeds the imagination of the mundane.

Her Majesty the Empress of the North Continent was just a little girl who knew nothing of the world following Gu Changzhi before she became a Divine Throne.

She sits on the second floor of the loft, sitting for years, for more than a decade.

The world pursues the path to divinity with fervor, for a wisp of the “Flame Dream”, they can abandon their baseline and go mad with plunder… even if after the dream shatters, they have not a single connection with the words Divine Throne.

But for the true “chosen ones” who embark on this path.

There is no need for the “Flame Dream”.

Every step they take is actually a “path to divinity”.

Progress sometimes means abandonment.

Gu Shen gazed at the drifting pure snow before him. The news of the teacher being engulfed by the snow tide was, in fact, like a choice thrown at him by the “Netherworld Fire”.

The devil in the Ruler, though suppressed.

The devil within, however, has always been intangible and cannot be restrained.

That wisp of flame flickered with the wind.

In the depths of Heart Lake, it seemed there was a voice speaking to him.

“Abandon these, and you will gain more.”

The sadness that surged in Gu Shen’s heart during this quiet sitting had already calmed… not because he was cold-blooded and heartless, but because the sadness and joy in this world, no matter how strong they initially impact, always fade with the passage of time.

No matter how much you want to hold on.

In the end, it’s all in vain.

Gu Shen did not heed the allure of the “Netherworld Fire”, deliberately indifferent, severing this strand of heart connections.

Nor did he magnify the sorrow in Heart Lake to remind himself that at this moment, he should shed tears of sorrow.

He did not sever a trace of mundane desire.

Nor was he swayed by the nightmare in Heart Lake.

Gu Shen simply felt all this calmly and silently.

The snow tide collapsed, all news vanished.

But he believed deep down… the teacher and the others were still alive…

No evidence, just a premonition.

If he refines the “Netherworld King’s Spark” to attain a Divine Throne body, then he will traverse the Old World, tear through the Storm, and personally verify his premonition—

But for now, all he could do was wait.

The vague chaos in his heart, the elusive insights he never managed to grasp, suddenly became clear in his contemplative sitting at this moment.

The Pure Land World, originally in the “spring” season, unexpectedly welcomed a sense of desolation…

Tie Wu and Hong Zhong looked up.

During this time, Gu Shen constantly contemplated “Summer Breathing.”

The two had become accustomed to this world suddenly undergoing changes, followed by yet another transformation.

Typically, a scorching wind should blow.

Then a refreshing rain would fall.

Thunder rumbled, sweating profusely.

But today… it seemed abruptly different.

The skytop of the Pure Land World no longer churned like waves, filled with thunderous rumbling, but a pitch blackness swept across the world, plunging it into darkness, an oppressive black weighing down.

Tie Wu and Hong Zhong were both taken aback.

Deep within, they felt a chill…

Desolate, barren, bleak!

Gu Shen entered his own Pure Land, waving his hand to isolate Tie Wu and Hong Zhong from himself, standing beneath the massive susbending tree, countless sprouts bowing.

In the past, upon seeing this tree full of vitality, Gu Shen’s Heart Lake naturally gave rise to a feeling of “warmth and harmony.”

But now, his state of mind was only frozen, cold.

Gu Shen didn’t resist the barrenness within his Heart Lake.

He gazed at the giant tree…

The susbending tree, with myriad leaves drooping, slender branches dancing lightly in the wind, as if responding to Gu Shen’s gaze.

A layer of fine frost formed on the surface of these branches and leaves.

The entire world turned cold.

“Is this considered… reverse contemplation of the ‘Breathing Method’?”

Gu Shen reached out his hand, gently embracing a branch.

He had always been stuck at the threshold of “Summer Breathing,” unable to break through, yet this time, upon receiving news of his teacher’s plight, sitting quietly in contemplation, he pushed the “Spring Breathing” in a reverse direction.

Perhaps even Mr. Gu Changzhi, who created this discipline, hadn’t imagined it.

Four Seasons Rotation—spring, summer, autumn, winter—follow this sequence.

Thus, Gu Changzhi’s “Spring Breathing” is the most wonderful and powerful among the “beginner breathing methods” for all Transcendents!

All things rejuvenate, life begins to sprout!

No breathing is more suited for a Transcendent’s entry than Spring Breathing!

However, upon careful consideration, spring, summer, autumn, winter… although adhering to natural laws, this cultivation may not be the best contemplation sequence for a Transcendent… the further along, the more silent annihilation.

As the state of mind falls into silent annihilation, so must the spirit.

Mr. Gu Changzhi, until the moment of his death, only contemplated up to “Great Cold”… perhaps corresponding to the name “Great Cold,” the completion of this final breath signifies his life’s end.

Gu Changzhi’s demise was unrelated to his cultivation; he encountered an extremely terrifying source energy storm in the Old World, and fought a life-and-death battle with the uncontrollable Netherworld King… when returning to Changye, he was severely wounded and couldn’t recover.

But what if his last contemplation wasn’t “Great Cold,” but rather the life-peak-signifying “Great Heat”?

Gu Shen stood dazed beneath the susbending tree.

That long-standing locked “threshold” received an unusually bizarre answer at this moment—

What if one cultivated the “Four Seasons Breathing” in reverse?

Indeed, this might be an idea even Mr. Gu Changzhi hadn’t imagined—a heaven-defying thought… countless Transcendents cultivating “Spring Breathing,” upon reaching the spiritual peak with “Summer Breathing,” must bear the desolation of “Autumn Breathing,” and finally the silent annihilation of “Winter Breathing!”

But if cultivated in reverse.

From annihilation, back to rejuvenation!

This is undoubtedly a path more difficult than “order,” entering winter from spring, extremely arduous… even if someone conceived this thought, he might retreat on the path of trying.

Because the foundation is insufficiently profound, directly attempting contemplation of annihilation… might truly lead to annihilation.

But Gu Shen is different.

“The Netherworld King is the god governing all life’s silent annihilation.”

He murmured: “Let me try annihilation… what does it matter?”

Winter winds howled, the entire Pure Land instantaneously transitioned from spring to winter, those crops sprouting tiny buds were coated in frost, frozen in the reversed “season.”

In this “Divine Domain,” Gu Shen as the absolute master still decided… the growth of these crops.

He came before a barren patch of new soil, squatting down.

A sprout emitting a green bud was frozen with white frost.

Gu Shen reached out his palm, slowly “lifting,” as the sprout followed his palm’s rise, constantly emerging from the soil, the consumption rate of Extraordinary Essence soared, as the sprout “grew,” vast amounts of white frost and ice fragments snapped and crackled.

Shortly after, Gu Shen looked at the “deadwood” as tall as him before him, softly chuckling, saying: “So… reverse breathing is feasible, I merely need to pay more essence as the cost for world growth…”

He lifted his head, gazing at the susbending tree nurturing all, containing infinite possibilities, murmuring.

“Since that’s the case.” The rightful source is novel✦fire.net

“Let the Pure Land… enter winter.”