The overhead light emitted a buzzing sound of electric current, and the light along with the holographic screen flickered.
The next moment, the light source extinguished.
The entire bedroom plunged into darkness.
Gu Shen reacted immediately, rising to pull back the curtains and looking out. In the dead of night, the street lights that were usually lit by the old unfinished building were also off, and everything was pitch black as far as his gaze reached.
Someone wanted to kill him.
Those people had already made their move... Cutting off the power was just the first step.
"Meow."
In the darkness, a calm cat's meow sounded. The orange cat, who had been lazily sleeping in its bed, now appeared beside Gu Shen, standing on its tiptoes and nudging his pant leg.
In his mind, Gu Shen recalled what Chu Ling had said—
["I will contact you in another way."]
Gu Shen paused, "Could it be...?"
But the orange cat just gave him a cold look and nodded, simultaneously raising its paw and pointing towards the door.
Accompanied by the "thud, thud, thud" of pounding noises, hissing, burning smoke seeped from the door gap, the door lock's bolt eroding. Such outdated and old residential security doors simply couldn't withstand this corrosion. The door frame trembled, and the uninvited guests outside were about to break in soon.
"Meow."
The window was opened, and Da Ju lightly jumped onto the sill, motioning for Gu Shen to act quickly.
"Has there been a mistake... this is the seventh floor..."
Gu Shen's complexion slightly changed.
Da Ju meowed, leaped out, and landed steadily on the external air conditioning unit's frame, coolly looking back down at Gu Shen.
Gu Shen took a deep breath, glanced at the door frame that could break at any moment, and made a snap decision to jump out the window.
There wasn't much time left to hesitate!
He actually had quite good physical skills; he climbed out onto the window sill, gently leaped, used the external air conditioner frame as a stepping board, then grabbed a pipe, stepping onto the exterior ledge of the old building's wall, where the protruding stones barely supported half of his foot.
"Huh... I made it..."
Gu Shen exhaled in relief. Just as he was about to rest for a moment before sliding down the pipe, Da Ju urgently called out, signaling him to quickly climb upward.
Upward... Was it a dead-end below?
Gu Shen didn't hesitate. He quickly followed the orange cat, climbing upwards.
"Boom!"
The next instant, a violent roaring blast of air explosion erupted from below, rolling airwaves surged, shattering glass, and among the sound of the heatwave, it seemed to carry several faint screams that were swallowed by the flames before they could spread.
Gu Shen's face suddenly turned pale.
The spurting blaze rendered the peripheral vision into a crimson red, the pipes became scorchingly hot to touch, but in the crisis, Gu Shen climbed incredibly fast. The old unfinished building had eleven floors, and after reaching the top there was a spacious rooftop, where layers of clothing and bedding rustled loudly, draped over the iron rails and blown by the hot wind.
"Is there no justice anymore? No law?"
Gu Shen couldn't believe the scene he had just witnessed.
He barely stood by the edge of the rooftop, leaning down to look, feeling dizzy.
These people were utterly deranged; what had just happened was not merely a case of breaking and entering... Were these people intending to blow up the entire building?
The sudden explosion broke the silence of the night, waking many people with the loud noise. By then, the fire had spread, rapidly expanding from the seventh floor. From a close distance, the old building stood tall in the thriving inferno, wavering in the Blazing Flame like a mirage of Hell.
However, the real disaster was not just this fire—
As people woke in alarm, they tried to make calls but failed. For some reason, the signal was unusually poor, with both power and network cut off.
In the face of disaster, human beings themselves were too insignificant.
They could do nothing but watch a scene from human Hell unfold—
Several charred, indistinct figures struggled in the flames, attempting to shout for help.
Even without hearing their voices, one could feel the pain and despair of the sufferers at that moment.
The sudden explosion had trapped all the innocent residents above the seventh floor in the tide of fire.
Some chose to jump out the windows to escape.
"Whoosh—Bang!"
The burning torso drew a shattered arc through the air and landed on the ground with a brittle crack, black charred pieces scattering, still speckled with faint sparks.
Those who jumped from the building didn't know that the flames from the explosion were also mixed with a strong corrosive force.
Seeing this scene, Gu Shen silently clenched his fists. He realized he had made an incredibly right decision just in the nick of time... If he had fled downward, he would have been a charred corpse by now.
But now, trapped in this surge of fire, what should he do?
Those pursuing him... with such tumultuous intent to kill, would soon arrive at the rooftop...
At this moment, Gu Shen was calm as never before. Due to the massive explosion, his body was still shaking from the physiological reaction, but his fingers no longer trembled.
He looked towards Chu Ling... the orange cat, standing venerably at the highest point of the rooftop, also looking back at him.
Their gazes met.
In that second, fortune struck his mind, and Gu Shen pulled out the "Silver Ruler" A-009 given to him.
The orange cat spoke again, its voice still that of a cat's "meow" and the like.
But after hearing it, Gu Shen unbelievably understood the orange cat's thoughts.
"There are two enemies, estimated to arrive at the rooftop in 20 seconds and 40 seconds... The way out is sealed, you need to use the 'Truth Ruler' here to counterattack."
Truth Ruler... so that's the name of this ruler, "Truth Ruler"!
"How do I use it?"
Gu Shen held his breath anxiously, gazing towards the door lock... time was running out, it might have been an illusion, but at that moment he seemed to hear the heavy footsteps!
The orange cat quickly said, "Channel your spirit, imagine the scene. The Truth Ruler can transform thoughts into reality... The stronger the spiritual power, the more successful the transformation."
"Thud—"
A loud crash.
The door lock was violently smashed, nearly shattering.
Gu Shen gripped the Silver Ruler in both hands, focused his attention, and stared intently at the door.
His mind was blank, all his spiritual power concentrated at one point, the image of Nan Jin confronting A-009 speeding and colliding in his mind, those two long swords forming a silver Sword Domain, which now seemed to turn into converging beams of light.
The markers on the Truth Ruler gradually lit up.
Wind arose out of nowhere, sweeping across the rooftop, whirling up rows of clothes and bedding—
"Boom!"
A brief silence followed.
The second impact smashed the door lock completely. A tall black shadow burst in, shouldering the door and charging, his robust body like that of a fully grown bull!
It was at this moment that the Silver Ruler blazed with a brilliant light.
The clothes thrown about the rooftop were sliced by thousands of fine threads, tearing open countless tiny slits, the silver blades swirling in the violent wind, slashing in layers, and colliding instantly with the reckless figure like a bull—
Nan Jin drove back Ba Chi's wife with two swords.
Gu Shen aimed the Ruler at the tall man.
Then, as now, the two scenes were strikingly similar, except the latter was bloodier and more harrowing.
"Oomph..."
The loud man who smashed out of the rooftop burst out a horrified grunt from his throat, the brief moment of silence was his deliberate pause as if he was toying with a mouse, according to intelligence, the target was just an ordinary person.
But he could never have imagined... that he would be met with such an immense killing intent. His petrified skin was torn in an instant by the overlapping blades, and the huge inertia from smashing through the door pushed him into an irreversible abyss—
Numerous blades hung above the rooftop.
The tip of the Truth Ruler, wrapped in silvery light, transformed the rooftop into the Sword Domain of Nan Jin "as imagined" by Gu Shen.
The reason it was "as imagined" Sword Domain was because Gu Shen couldn't understand how the Sword Domain deployed by Nan Jin at that time was created... So, he rebuilt a Sword Domain based on his imagination.
The opponent's actions were simple and overconfident... casually setting an entire building on fire, most likely a life-despising figure... thus, treating himself as insignificant... was also a matter of course.
In an instant, thinking of all this, Gu Shen decided to set up the rooftop as a mire hanging with blades.
And the "intruder," who crashed into the mire at breakneck speed, now seemed like someone willingly seeking a gruesome death... In this static scene, slicing himself open—
Blood burst forth.
And some hot blood splattered on Gu Shen's face.