Desert.

An endless desert.

White sand particles floated in the air, with heat waves sweeping through, distorting the distant space.

Gu Shen opened his eyes, and his first reaction was to lower his head and check his body composition. He saw that he still had a complete body... He breathed a sigh of relief.

Phew... This time I wasn't completely dismantled.

Unlike the previous dice dream, the space of the Sands of Time dream was extremely vast, with endless sand dunes forming the entirety of this dream.

"Chu Ling--"

Gu Shen spoke.

In the next moment, the space around him distorted, and countless garbled characters appeared, forcibly creating an oasis in the Sands of Time dream.

A barefooted girl in a white dress appeared out of thin air and slowly landed on the scorching sand.

Gu Shen looked at the girl and pondered for a moment.

He said seriously, "I'm sorry."

Chu Ling was a little surprised and asked with a smile, "Why apologize?"

It can be hard to make great work when its stolen from bit.ly/3iBfjkV.

"I want to take back what I said in the Awakening dream... Who wants to be left behind if given the choice?"

Gu Shen slowly said, "When Nanjin was in the hospital, she said something to me... If you want to wear the crown, you must bear its weight. At that time, I just wrote it down but didn't really listen."

"At first, I just wanted to escape." He took a deep breath, "But now, I'm ready!"

"Besides, from the perspective of dream interpretation... I'm not as bad as I imagined."

The girl smiled and shook her head.

"Not just not as bad?" Chu Ling said softly, "The external auditors said that you are a once-in-a-lifetime genius."

Gu Shen spoke from the bottom of his heart, and the last piece of the puzzle finally fell into place.

"Alright, no more sentimentality."

He squatted down, extended his finger, and pinched the sand, saying, "I promised Senior Luo that I would achieve an 'S' grade in this audit, and I will do it. Since I have already broken the record... I might as well go all out and show them my true strength."

The color of the sand was the same as the texture observed inside the seal.

"What is the fastest record in the Sands of Time?" Gu Shen asked.

"The fastest record recorded in the Deep Sea system is 2 hours and 18 minutes." Chu Ling crossed her arms and asked with a smile, "Do you need help? If you go all out, I can help you clear it within ten minutes."

"Clearing it in ten minutes is too outrageous..." Gu Shen smiled bitterly and shook his head, "Although I want to clear it quickly, achieving a 'ten-minute' result would probably lead to being taken away for slicing research."

"Don't worry. This is the final audit." Chu Ling lazily said, "The person who can cheat under the noses of the five auditors, besides you, hasn't been born yet. If you really achieve this result, you will be marked as a national treasure surpassing 'S'... As for slicing research, they won't have time to protect you."

"Rarely do we encounter a seal of this level. In the previous dream, I seemed to have felt some inspiration. This time, I still want to interpret the dream with my own strength." Gu Shen thought for a moment and said, "But the biggest problem is the consumption of mental power..."

After unlocking the blue dice, his mental power was already a bit tired.

"Just focus on interpreting the dream, don't worry about anything else, I'll take care of everything."

After Chu Ling said this, she didn't speak again.

She returned to being a quiet audience, with a howling wind in front of her, countless grains of sand, and only Gu Shen in her eyes.

...

...

So far, Gu Shen stood in the Sands of Time dream and did not rush forward.

He recalled what the Chief Judge had said.

The Chief Judge said that the three dream seals on the table all had very intense characteristics... He had already witnessed the characteristics of the blue dice, which completely dismantled him.

And this seemingly peaceful world of sand dunes was a danger lurking beneath the surface.

It was so big here that he couldn't observe it up close like he did with the bronze dice.

"Do I have to move?" Gu Shen tentatively took a step forward.

Just one step.

He realized that something was wrong.

The quicksand wrapped around his lower leg and sank... In the Sands of Time dream, the entire world was composed of soft sand particles. Every step he took carried the risk of being swallowed by quicksand.

"Indeed... this dream is very dangerous."

Seeing himself being swallowed by the quicksand, Gu Shen felt somewhat relieved.

What he feared was the unknown danger caused by not fully understanding the rules of the dream!

"As long as I envelop it with mental power, I can temporarily stop the quicksand... So every step forward consumes mental power." He gradually understood the rules of this dream seal. The dreamer might quickly discover the tricks, but to complete the interpretation of the dream, a solid foundation of mental power was needed. The Sands of Time dream in front of him was the best example.

Gu Shen speculated that there might be an exit that guided the correct direction here.

Even if he was on the right path, he still needed enough mental power to support him in order to reach the end.

"Sizzle..."

Gu Shen felt himself sinking, and just as he was about to use his mental power, the speed at which the quicksand engulfed his legs slowed down significantly... Invisible garbled characters appeared in the quicksand.

Chu Ling took action.

The speed at which the quicksand wrapped around him instantly decreased several times, and Gu Shen easily pulled his leg out of the sand marsh.He turned to look at the young girl who was smiling at him, once again feeling incredulous... Chu Ling was actually able to modify the rules of the Sands of Time dream... Was it achieved using the Deep Sea? It was an unfathomable technical method.

With this, he could "unrestrainedly" explore the Sands of Time dream.

No need to consider the consumption of mental power, Gu Shen suddenly felt much more relaxed.

He observed the wind direction, deciding to run in the direction of the floating sand grains... If "inversion" was the sign of activating the seal, then the movement direction of the sand grains might be the breakthrough.

Ten minutes later.

Gu Shen returned to the starting point.

Chu Ling smiled without saying a word, quietly watching him.

"Try changing the direction again?" In the vast and boundless Sands of Time dream... Gu Shen made his second attempt.

Ten minutes later, he returned to the starting point again.

This seemingly "endless" world actually had an invisible air wall. The results of both attempts were to return to the starting point. Whenever Gu Shen traveled a certain distance, he would be enveloped by sand and dust from all sides. Whether he went with the sand wind or resisted it, the outcome was the same... He returned to the starting point.

And Chu Ling hadn't moved a step from beginning to end.

Obviously, she knew the characteristics of the "Sands of Time".

"If it were only me... then it would take a long time to discover that this world is 'cyclical'." Gu Shen realized a very serious problem, "If Chu Ling wasn't here, I might think that the direction I'm going is correct, and keep moving forward... In fact, I'm just repeatedly returning to the starting point in vain."

He was silently counting numbers in his heart.

Each time he returned to the starting point, it was about six hundred seconds, ten minutes.

Did this mean... the boundary of this world was the length of his full-speed run for six hundred seconds?

"Wait..."

Gu Shen thought of another possibility.

He squatted down and began to dig a sand pit. The quicksand in the dream was already surging. After digging the pit, the flow speed increased. Seeing Gu Shen's actions, Chu Ling's eyes flickered slightly.

This time no garbled text appeared to slow down the collapse of the quicksand.

Gu Shen dug a sand pit and jumped into it, waiting for the quicksand to slowly engulf him, while silently counting time in his heart. The sandstorm swept over, first his calves were swallowed, then his thighs, his lower body lost sensation, as if being tightly bitten by two thick walls. Gu Shen closed his eyes.

"600...599..."

"120...119..."

With only two minutes left, the quicksand reached his neck. Gu Shen felt his heart being grasped by a powerful hand.

The pressure was great.

At this moment, the garbled text appeared!

A series of blurry symbols appeared out of thin air, encircling Gu Shen's neck. The erosion of the quicksand greatly decreased, preventing Gu Shen from suffocating. He looked like a diver wearing a breathing mask, although in a sorry state, he was safe.

He closed his eyes.

Submerged in the quicksand.

The world was pitch black... even blacker...

"10...9...8..."

The last few seconds.

The feeling of suffocation and restraint all disappeared.

Gu Shen opened his eyes, he easily lifted his hands, not hindered by the quicksand at all... because he was not buried in the sand at all, but standing on a small sand dune, the sand pit he had dug before was gone.

The world was leveled by the sandstorm, boundless and despairing.

"Ten minutes..."

Gu Shen looked at Chu Ling and murmured, "I know the characteristics of the Sands of Time dream now."