When Zhou woke up, she saw a blurry throne.
There were gaps in her memory.
It took a long time before she slowly began to remember what had happened.
She had been hypnotized.
And the person who had hypnotized her was the young man sitting on the throne.
The moment she looked up, her spirit received a strong impact, and the man sitting on the throne was no longer wearing the white robe of the New Moon Church but was enveloped in countless glimmers of light.
This was a sensation she had never felt before... as if billions of strands of light were enveloping her.
Her skin, her blood, her soul, all seemed to warm up.
As a believer of the New Moon, at this moment, she suddenly felt her faith waver.
If one could be close to the "Blazing Sun," who would believe in the "New Moon"?
She slowly looked around, the vast wilderness under the warm breeze, though empty, didn’t feel desolate.
The flat wilderness was growing wild grass.
The world seemed newborn, everything here was so... intoxicating.
Gu Shen sat on the Iron Throne, his eyes slightly narrowed.
Scenes from Zhou’s memory appeared in front of him.
These scenes, like a movie, flicked quickly according to Gu Shen’s will, pausing at any moment.
His gaze settled on a certain scene.
After he left the Holy Image.
Zhou stood atop a building, watching him leave... Judging by her reaction at that time, she had no intention of coming to find him, but soon she lowered her head to glance at the communicator.
It seemed that someone had sent her a message.
The memory began to tremble, the image started to blur... Gu Shen sensed that this woman’s spiritual power was not stable, and forcing a read could cause a "collapse."
Was this some kind of secret technique of the New Moon Church?
Gu Shen waved his hand to dispel these psychic images, stopping his memory plundering.
He wasn’t panicked and asked softly, "Who sent you the message?"
This voice sounded very gentle.
But in reality... it carried an irresistible authority, like a Divine Oracle.
Zhou’s spiritual power gradually returned to calm, she could not control herself to keep silent, and with difficulty she hoarsely said, "I... don’t know."
To prove her innocence.
"I couldn’t find the sender’s name, nor the address... That person seems like a ghost, as if they only wanted to send a reminder email." Zhou spoke again, softly, "That ghost told me you are not called Amir and not a New Moon follower."
Gu Shen silently watched the woman.
It was clear, this was not a lie.
Zhou truly did not know.
But the situation suddenly turned eerie, a single email had unraveled his file?
And then... there was this current investigation.
Gu Shen felt lucky that this woman acted quickly, starting her investigation immediately upon receiving the message, then voluntarily came to his door, something the New Moon Church probably still did not know about.
But the problem was...
If there was a first email, there could be a second one.
Gu Shen didn’t say much more, and directly erased Zhou’s memory... The hypnosis process went very smoothly, much simpler than he had imagined.
Throughout the entire battle, the emblem of the Storm God’s Throne seemed to only have burst forth a thread of "shock" effect, which made the supposed divine object not as powerful as he had expected, or perhaps it was just a perfunctory gesture from a god to his people?
Perhaps... he just had too many followers.
Or maybe... he simply didn’t care.
But either way, it bolstered Gu Shen’s confidence while "playing on an away field."
He erased Zhou’s memory and, like treating a boss, applied some guidance to her mental content, and in the end, gave Zhou a clear memory of going back to where she lived, having a good sleep, and nothing had happened.
After sending Zhou away,
Gu Shen suddenly understood... the feeling that Xiao must have had when establishing the Changjiu Foundation in Da Du District.
If a Transcendent’s spiritual power was strong enough,
Strong enough... that he could continuously expand Spiritual Links, gathering "believers," then these hypnotists would become the most devoted "Believers," the most trustworthy group in the world, growing entirely around you, ready to give their lives at any moment.
Only, Transcendents meeting such criteria were too rare.
Spiritual Transcendents, even when reaching the twelfth tier, could not maintain stable, long-lasting links with others.
Xiao’s "Blood Fire," and Gu Shen’s "Chi Huo," were one in a billion exceptions.
Although he didn’t like being compared with Xiao, Gu Shen had to admit, their abilities seemed to exist solely to "subjugate others."
Now, he was clearly feeling the terrifying aspect of "Chi Huo"... his Four Seasons Wilderness seemed capable of accommodating many "souls." If Gu Shen wished, he could even gather enough followers in the land of faith that was the Southern Continent to enact his own created doctrine.
"Wait a second... Xiao..."
At this thought, Gu Shen suddenly realized something was wrong!
He immediately spoke up, "Can you check on the email Zhou received?"
"Before you even spoke, I was already looking into it." Chu Ling’s actions were even faster than Gu Shen’s, her tone was unperturbed as she calmly displayed the results, "The sender of that email cannot be traced, the reason being the ’Deep Sea’ authority was borrowed, causing a bug. From the results, it indeed appears to be a ’ghost email’... but knowing this information seems to be enough."