After Madam left, the clinic closed early as an exception.

Gu Shen returned home and fed Orange. Chu Ling was still offline.

He connected to Deep Sea alone.

This time, as Gu Shen had expected, after summoning the Blazing Fire in the real world, the trial of maintaining stability on the first level of the Deep Waters no longer posed any difficulty.

Perhaps it was because his mental power was several times stronger than before, but his mental space was unusually stable. The Blazing Fire, which had previously struggled to maintain its form, was now dancing energetically in his palm, blooming and retracting, playfully changing shapes.

Thanks to the assassination attempt by the Eternal Foundation and the life-and-death battle with Qu Shui, summoning the Blazing Fire and maintaining its stability was now as simple as eating and drinking to Gu Shen.

Rather than calling it a gradual buildup, it was more like a reconstruction after destruction.

The cultivation of transcendental power is indeed a slow process, but it doesn’t mean I can’t reach the sky in a single step, Gu Shen mused while his consciousness immersed in the Deep Waters. Deep Sea merely helps transcendents understand their power… It’s like a baby growing up and learning to run and jump. Once these basic movements are mastered, they can be combined and integrated. For those with high talent, once they learn to run, it won’t take long before they can run fast.

When transcendental power just awakened, trancendents were like babies. To learn to walk, they needed to crawl on the ground first.

Even the most talented people needed to go through this process.

After learning to walk, running and jumping would quickly follow. After mastering the basics of their power, transcendents could branch out and develop in various directions.

The first three levels… is probably just the most basic stage of mastery.

Gu Shen made up his mind. “Deep Sea, I want to enter the second level.”

After a few seconds of silence, the simulated lights transmitted a message. “Serial number V340011250001, access granted. Entry to the second level is permitted.”

The scene in front of him suddenly changed.

The Blazing Fire suddenly spread out and turned into endless fluorescence. In the dispersing flames, Gu Shen felt the fluctuations of his consciousness. He seemed to have returned to the dream of removing the imprint from Madam during the day.

Mental power was intangible.

But it truly existed.

The trial of the Second Level of Deep Sea… is related to the ‘minute’ control of the mind. If the first level is to help me summon and stabilize the Blazing Fire, then the second level should be reminding me to use the Blazing Fire to perform hypnosis.”

From the looks of it, my Blazing Fire is really a mental-type ability.

This second level… doesn’t seem that difficult.

Gu Shen smiled.

He immersed himself in the Transcendent Trials.

…

In the virtual world was a vast sea, and every thread of consciousness was an electric current in the water. Billions of threads of consciousness wandered in the Void. No one could prove that this world truly existed, but likewise…

No one could prove that it was false either.

This was the Deep Waters of Deep Sea.

The mental power of transcendents intertwined with this vast virtual space, and supported by computational power beyond human comprehension, it developed and advanced at incredible speed. Perhaps this was a brand new world. Now, at the beginning of this explosion, billions of threads of consciousness were spreading like snakes toward the depths of Deep Sea, creating independent mental spaces.

The first three levels of the Deep Waters were trial areas for transcendents to familiarize themselves with their powers. Almost everyone spent time to reach the fourth level. From this point on, souls could interact with each other, and countless mental serpents entangled with each other.

Of course, all of this happened under the watchful eye of Deep Sea.

It could accommodate everything.

And it monitored everything as well.

It had no physical form, yet it existed everywhere, so it didn’t need ‘eyes’. Every tread of transcendental consciousness that came to the Deep Waters was its eye in a sense.

However, nothing was perfect, and there were always exceptions. Even in the myths widely believed in by the West Continent, the omnipotent ‘God of Creation’ had made the mistake of creating Lilith.

In the Deep Waters, there were mental spaces that were not monitored by Deep Sea.

As long as there was a secret key with high enough authority to lock the door, then the disappearance of one or two rooms among the billions of mental edifices was… nothing.

…

Symbols densely covered a scarlet door.

Every symbol on this door was an obscure ancient character. Even with the highest authority in Deep Sea, it could not be deciphered because it had never been manually entered into the database… The only proof of the existence of this ancient script existed only in the minds of a few people.

At every moment, countless scanning programs swept across the surface of the blood-red door. But under the cover of the ancient script, what Deep Sea saw… was ‘nothingness’, ‘itself’.

This mental space, represented by the door, floated incongruously in the Deep Waters like a sinking solitary island.

Behind the door were the ‘drowned ones’ descending with the island. Thanks to the ancient door remaining undamaged, the interior still retained a relatively intact mental space.

The consciousness of the drowned ones would not be submerged, and they could still survive in a relatively ‘dignified’ manner.

It was a small meeting room with only a long table and a hanging lamp. The dim, blood-red light in the meeting room was flickering, reminding every drowned one who had awakened that… it was a precarious moment.

“Everyone…” A hoarse voice sounded. “Deep Sea is evolving faster and faster. After a new round of upgrades, self-repair will commence again. If we can’t find the ‘secret key’ left behind by Mr. Turing, we won’t be able to keep this door.”

The first drowned one woke up. A red light swirled at the edge of the table in the meeting room, gradually condensing into a tall virtual figure. But this tall figure did not represent anything concrete.

In the mental world, all images were illusory.

The second drowned one also woke up.

His figure was slender, resembling that of a seven or eight-year-old child. It was clearly a false image. His voice was not serious and instead carried a relaxed tone. “Zero-Three, don’t be so anxious. Finding the key isn’t something that can be done overnight. At least this door is still safe for now, right?”

Zero-Three’s expression became even more despondent as he sighed. “But… it’s been ten years already, and the hope of finding the key is dwindling…”

One after another, the dormant consciousnesses in the meeting room woke up and expanded.

The space inside the door was very small. Putting aside the vacant chief position, the long table in the meeting room could accommodate about ten people, five on each side.

There were a total of six people condensing their consciousness in the meeting room.

“Who initiated this meeting?” the tall figure of Zero-Three asked in a deep voice. “I still have something very important to do. I only have ten minutes in the real world.”

“I initiated it. Ten minutes will suffice.”

The speaker was the only female in the meeting room. She was a petite girl of about fifteen or sixteen years old. She looked thin and small, but her voice was exceptionally calm. “Regarding the Act… we can’t delay any longer. We need someone to stand up and prevent all of this from happening. If the East Continent passes the Act, the possibility of us finding the key will dwindle even more. The full awakening of transcendental essence will accelerate Deep Sea’s evolution, and Zero-Three’s concerns will become reality. Without the key, this door will soon be discovered.”

“The Five Continents’ parliaments are relatively independent. I’m currently in the West Continent. Sorry, I can’t help you.”

The young man’s voice in the corner of the meeting room was regretful. As blood-colored swirls condensed, his consciousness took shape. A nameplate representing his identity appeared on his chest, engraved with the three numbers 957.

“Central Continent, sorry,” an old man with the code name 064 said succinctly.

The girl’s gaze landed on the tall man, 073, and the jovial young man, 031.

“I’m not in the East Continent, but if I have the means to try… The East Continent Parliament might delay the enactment of the Act,” Zero-Three said. “What about you? From what I know… you’re in the East Continent.”

The young man shrugged and said indifferently, “Regarding stopping the Awakening Act… I’m afraid I can’t help. This matter has garnered too much attention. Even if I were a member of the Parliament, there would be a limit to what I could do. Besides, I’m not.”

Zero-Three frowned. “If I remember correctly, you have significant influence in the East Continent.”

“Unless Gu Changzhi wakes up, who can single-handedly decide whether to enact the Act or not?” the young man said calmly. “But I’ve found another solution. Let’s just say… there’s no need for you to worry anymore. I’ve found the key.”

Zero-Three was stunned.

“Aha… I can understand your current emotions. It’s probably a mix of shock, doubt, and a little disbelief.

“In the new world, the key of hope still exists… After all, this is just a sentence left by Turing before he died.”

The young man smiled. “It’s just a fleeting remark. No one can be certain there’s really a key that can surpass the omnipotent authority of Deep Sea, break all shackles and restraints, and lead us toward the light. Over the years, we have been struggling in pain, striving to find the key with all our might. But sometimes, all we need is just a little bit of…

“Luck.”

Even though time was limited, everyone endured this fellow’s verbose and self-satisfied boasting.

“Not long ago, I stumbled upon the key, and he passed my verification.” The young man suddenly stopped smiling and became grave. He looked at the girl and said, “Of course, the most important verifier here is you. I’ve already sent the key to the city where you are.”

The girl fell silent.

She furrowed her brows, trying her best to recall the details of these days.

Then she shook her head.

“I’ve encountered some trouble lately…” she said with difficulty. “I didn’t sense the existence of the suspected key, and there’s no sign of the red door opening.”

The young man fell into contemplation.

“Although I don’t know what method you used to verify it, it’s obvious that the red door didn’t respond… It’s not the key.” Zero-Three was a little disappointed. He looked at the young man and shook his head. “The matter of finding the wrong key has happened more than once. I hope you’ll be more careful.”

“We’re running out of time. Let’s end this meeting here,”

Zero-Three said, “Finally, according to the rules… in order to prevent the worst outcome, please look into my eyes. I will seal the memories of this meeting to prevent anyone from being spied upon. If this door is breached, the only thing that can remain in the Deep Waters is useless code names.”