"Drip."

"Drip."

Blood fell.

Gu Shen held a ruler in one hand and wiped his cheek with the other. The surge of fire rushed through him. The only door leading to the rooftop had been shattered, and the person who broke the door was now in every direction on the rooftop.

Time slowed down.

For Gu Shen, one second felt as long as an hour.

He could see the angle at which every bedsheet on the rooftop fluttered, he could see every shape the flames took as they flew, he could see everything within his line of sight, and he could sense all living beings around him.

After grasping the ruler of truth, his thoughts became clear, but also numb.

This power, rather than being a gift from the gods, was more like a deal with the devil... As you hold onto power and gaze into the abyss, the abyss is also gazing back at you.

The orange cat quieted down, not saying a word, standing on Gu Shen's shoulder as small and delicate as a sparrow. Its eyes flickered with ever-changing fluorescence, observing Gu Shen at this moment.

"This person is dead."

Gu Shen looked at the messy door panels and blood clots in front of him, and this thought appeared in his mind.

"I did it..."

Immediately followed by a long confusion.

"What?"

In the long passage of time, countless thoughts were cut off, repeatedly asking, and the answers were all the same.

"He killed himself."

Gu Shen sighed deeply, feeling as if all his strength was being drained... as if he had experienced a century-long ordeal, but in reality, only 20 seconds had passed in the real world.

20 seconds later.

Gu Shen wiped away the blood from his cheek and silently looked at the second "assassin" who appeared at the end of his vision, shocked by the bloody scene.

There were two people who wanted to kill him.

The person he had just killed possessed some kind of enhanced physical strength... This could be seen from the scene of breaking through the door lock.

He was a brute.

And now, the person he saw was completely different from before, thin and weak, not tall.

This person should be the one who tried to break into his house earlier.

At that time, he heard the sound of the door panels corroding... He should possess a similar power, so he was the one who started this arson case.

Gu Shen looked slowly.

At the end of the corridor, he saw a thin man who had turned into a pile of broken corpses, pale-faced and trembling.

"What... is this a joke?"

He doubted what his eyes were seeing.

Was all of this real?

On the rooftop, the young man holding the ruler, with thousands of blades floating behind him, stared coldly at him. Just his gaze alone brought an invisible sense of oppression...

How could this be an ordinary person?!

"He is afraid."

Gu Shen understood the meaning behind the other person's eyes.

Is he afraid of himself... or of this ruler?

He looked slowly at the silver ruler. From the clear and bright silver body, he saw his own reflection at this moment. His familiar face became unfamiliar because his eyes were filled with an overwhelming killing intent.

"I have killed so many people..."

"You... deserve to die..."

Gu Shen heard his own voice slowly squeezing out from his chest.

This time, the image he imagined was what he had just seen when he leaned over the rooftop... Because of the explosion, the innocent people were trapped in the surge of fire and burned to charcoal.

The voice settled.

"Whoosh!!!"

The silver light of the ruler of truth suddenly burst out, and this bright light instantly collided with the darkness at the end of the corridor.

The night turned into day!

Under the power of the ruler of truth, the transcendent with unimaginable power seemed to have turned into an ant.

The fearful man suddenly caught fire. He screamed and frantically slapped himself, even rolling on the ground. He tried to extinguish the flames, but the fire instantly erupted, engulfing him like a tidal wave.

This was a fierce and gentle devouring flame, burning only on him... Even when the man crashed into the stacked wooden boards in the corner, only a few dim sparks splattered and quickly extinguished.

This flame did not spread.

It only burned him alone.

After a few breaths, the arsonist who was screaming and howling was burned to ashes by the flames he ignited.

This flame that completely defied logic and cognition... slowly extinguished.

A miracle.

In a sense, this was a miracle.

Gu Shen stared at this scene, watching the flames surge and slowly extinguish in the dark corridor. What burned with each passing second was his own thoughts.

It was something ethereal and elusive, yet it existed.

That man was burned.

His own "thoughts" were also being burned.

What supported the performance of this miracle was himself holding the ruler... In the depths of his mind, his spirit was being used as fuel.

After the burning ended, only exhaustion remained.

Gu Shen let out a long breath.His hand gripping the ruler began to tremble violently, a pain as sharp as a needle surged like a tide. He gasped for breath, trying to inhale fresh air, but perhaps due to the intense heat wave, his chest felt so suffocated that he could hardly breathe.

"Just a bit of side effects." The orange cat emphasized the words "just a bit", calmly saying, "To command the wind and summon the rain like a god, there's always a price to pay, isn't there?"

"...Yes."

Gu Shen chuckled hoarsely, "Thank you for reminding me."

His overdrawn spirit was constantly reminding him that it was time to let go.

But he didn't let go of the ruler, instead, he held it tighter and slowly looked up at the sky.

His scattered spiritual power began to condense again.

The orange cat looked up along with Gu Shen.

Above the rooftop, the dome shrouded in the smoke of the heat wave inexplicably began to gather clouds. These clouds thickened and covered the old building in a matter of moments, and soon rain began to fall, quickly turning into a curtain of rain.

Although this scene was absurd, it was within the scope of the ruler of truth.

"You really are... a madman." Chu Ling murmured softly.

Gu Shen smiled, "Can I take that as a compliment?"

He was like a withered plant, finally receiving a long-awaited downpour.

The raindrops pattered down.

Gu Shen felt a headache, a real headache, both inside and out.

The final rainfall drained all his spirit. At this point, Gu Shen could no longer precisely control the size of the rain as he did when he first created the knife domain... However, judging from the roaring momentum of this heavy rain, extinguishing the heat wave was not a problem.

After doing all this, Gu Shen was now in a state where even if he closed his eyes, his brain was in extreme pain.

It was indeed a deal with the devil.

After the deal, not only would he be reduced to his original state, but he would also fall into hell.

"Meow..."

The orange cat meowed.

Gu Shen looked confused, he could hardly hold the ruler anymore, Chu Ling's voice had turned back into a cat's meow... As the rain fell, he leaned against the wall and sat down, his consciousness gradually drifting away.

The orange cat sighed, its small head burrowed into his arms and pulled out a cell phone.

Gu Shen's lips were dry, he no longer had the strength to be surprised, he helplessly watched the orange cat dial the number for him.

"Beep—"

"Beep."

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The second beep was answered.

"Hello..." Gu Shen squeezed out the last of his strength and asked laboriously, "It's me..."

There was a burst of laughter on the other end of the phone.

"I'm in trouble... Can you help me out?"

"Of course!" The person on the other end of the phone laughed heartily, "No matter how big the trouble is, we can handle it!"

"Really..." Gu Shen also laughed, "There were two terrifying guys who wanted to kill me, but I killed them instead, that's self-defense, right... Can you handle it?"

The laughter on the other end of the phone disappeared.