Chapter 1065: Chapter 22: Life Sacrifice (Part 2)

Similarly, in the experiment years ago that went terribly wrong, leading to the death of his fiancée, Holin wished to make amends. Looking ahead, only the legendary “Longevity Technique” could create such a divine miracle.

And the most crucial evidence supporting this hypothesis—

was this “lifeless” young man before him.

The entire room bathed in bloodlight emanated from his own “doings.” He had bled himself, engraved patterns, and his recovery speed was astonishingly fast. This was beyond the normal powers a Transcendent should possess.

“Did you figure all this out by guessing?”

“Hu Po” quietly listened to everything and seriously asked Gu Shen.

This question was in itself a kind of answer.

“Sort of.”

Gu Shen silently took out a broken pendant and shook it in front of him. “Hu Po” didn’t understand the meaning of the pendant, but he vaguely guessed that Gu Shen might have used some divination techniques.

“Truly a key.”

The youth’s voice turned ancient once again, and he gave a lukewarm compliment.

Unexpected.

The other party didn’t deny anything.

Gu Shen raised his eyebrows slightly.

The youth stood with hands in his pockets, quietly watching the flickering bloodlight pervade the room. Perhaps because he had lived for too long, he no longer bothered with many things; if it had happened, then might as well accept.

The longer one lives, the more they understand a truth.

In everyone’s heart, there is a set view of the world, and over the years, that view gradually solidifies and never changes, and the view belonging to “Ian” had settled over twenty years ago, never to change again.

“What this room holds is the Ancient Text Diagram of the ‘Longevity Technique.'”

Ian said calmly, “But, it is incomplete.”

He casually picked up a thick stack of diagrams from the table, his gaze mocking: “These diagrams cost me countless years of time… I deciphered them all. Every paper, every word in this room, I’ve deciphered, yet combining them only formed an incomplete power.”

He spoke with anger as he tossed the stack of papers into the air.

“Allen Turing took the crucial diagrams! He ventured far away and even took the secret of ‘Longevity’ with him!”

Papers swirled chaotically in the air, stained with a layer of blood.

This time it was Gu Shen’s turn to be silent.

After revealing the truth, the youth spoke in a low voice, “Do you know how Allen Turing rose to prominence? Do you know how his extraordinary ideas were realized one by one? Do you know who initially supported the Ancient Literature Society?”

“It was me!!”

He slammed the table forcefully, questioning, “I gave so much to him, I gave so much to the Ancient Literature Society… yet at my life’s end, he took ‘the life-saving’ thing. He said I was the best mentor he ever had! Look how he repays me!”

The room filled with the haze of bloodlight.

Gu Shen coldly asked, “Then how have you treated others?”

The youth was stunned.

If the “Hu Po” standing before them was indeed Ian, who had lived for 121 years.

Then the one sitting in a wheelchair was his serving student.

Everything made sense.

The words he unconsciously said while pulling weeds in the yard.

[“One, Ian does not meet strangers. Two, Ian doesn’t acknowledge you.”]

It stemmed from Ian’s own perspective.

“I have to survive.”

The youth quickly regained his composure, his gaze showing no hint of pity, confidently affirming the previous statement, repeating, “To survive, I must do something.”

“So… he’s just a pawn…” Gu Shen said, “You never cared about his feelings either.”

“You’re overthinking it, he has no feelings, why should I care?”

Ian said coldly, “After the life absorption, he lost his hearing, vision, speech, touch… he’s merely a puppet in a wheelchair. Every word you speak to him originates from my ‘spirit.’

The linkage device was placed by him.

Because his memories truly existed, no matter how much questioning, nothing would slip through the cracks.

On one hand, he played the role of the dutiful student Hu Po.

On the other, he played the aged Ian.

In this absurd play of fate, he toyed with everyone who intersected with the courtyard…

Yet every Forbidden Technique in this world demands a price.

The stronger it is, the more fiercely the cost will backfire; the Longevity Technique is no exception!

From current circumstances, Ian deciphered part of the “Longevity Technique,” but it is incomplete, requiring him to pay an even more extreme, more unstable price… and the elderly man sitting in the wheelchair, unable to speak, see, or hear, is one of those costs.

The other cost is not difficult to guess.

“You are searching for the next ‘life absorption’ target.”

Gu Shen looked at the dense bloodstains on the ground, his gaze slightly mournful, “Your Longevity Technique is flawed, needing to absorb other people’s lives to replenish yours… only the absorption and conversion rate is not one to one.”

“One to twenty.”

Ian gazed at the old man in the wheelchair, saying indifferently, “Hu Po was the best ‘Sacrificial’ I’ve seen, providing me with over three years of life.”

“Over three years… so your time is almost up, allowing me and Chu Ling into the courtyard to find the next target.” Gu Shen asked, “So, Mr. Ian, you plan to make me the ‘life absorption’ target, even though… I’m the key?”

“After absorption, I gain the absorbed’s memories.”

Ian said calmly, “By then, whether you are the key or not, it will no longer matter. If I wish, I can become the ‘key’ anytime.”

Indeed… Ian possessed perfect “credentials,” and coupled with the key’s memories, if he wished, he could reassemble and unite the scattered Ancient Literature Society.

After hearing this, Gu Shen looked at the man before him, his expression complicated.

He still remembered, not too long ago, when the ancient literature inheritance nearly started, Ian said in the Spirit Sea.

“Life is a finite journey, and the time I’ve traveled is much longer than others, I am very content.”

Now, how laughable do these words seem?

“You may try to harm me, I will not defend… because it all is meaningless. The more severe the injury you cause me, the greater the consumption of life for your companion, whom I will absorb and convert.”

Ian’s voice was light as he said, “This frail body of mine has little time left, so injuries matter little, nor does pain. The Spirit Sea inheritance I left for her is a chaotic, illogical knowledge; when she comprehends it to the end, she will only initiate this array pattern’s ‘sacrifice.’

He spread his arms, offering no resistance.

In the room, wisps of dim bloodlight ignited.

Interpreting the ancient texts, Chu Ling indeed headed towards the “end of thought.”

Ian left her no genuinely useful information… these years of ancient literature inheritance, within the spiritual link, scattered into numerous fragmented, meaningless words.

At the endpoint of all collected information, the ancient texts converged into a vast sea.

Countless blood hues gathered at the basement depths of the attic.

Under Gu Shen’s feet, the dead ancient text symbols seemed to gain life, astonishingly coming alive at this moment… a sea of blood rose in the cramped cellar space.

The white cat mask cracked open with a snap, revealing the girl’s bewildered expression.

Her spirit, soul, seemed to be forcibly stripped away under the array’s function, departing.

“Sorry… the next few decades of your life, all will be given to me.”

A cold, indifferent yet withering voice reverberated above Chu Ling’s soul sea.

A withered soul body hovered, ascended above the youth’s head.

“I will live on for you.”

That withered soul spread its arms, embracing Chu Ling’s ethereal soul across the distance.

Then it opened its mouth, biting down on the soul’s neck as if savoring fish… slowly gnawing down.