The deep voice echoed within the pendant’s Spirit Space.
That curled-up soul was jolted awake, and Gu Shen didn’t give "Hong Zhong" a moment to react. The moment his voice sounded, Chi Huo surged up, covering and engulfing that wisp of soul...
Hypnosis was completed in an instant.
In Gu Shen’s heart, this cross pendant was a highly rated sealed artifact.
The ability to preserve the "spirit of the deceased" was beyond the scope of normal sealed artifacts, and calling it a "divine object" was not an exaggeration at all.
So, from the moment he immersed himself in the pendant’s space, Gu Shen was on full alert.
The whole process went more smoothly than imagined.
The curled wisp of soul stretched out, Hong Zhong’s facial features were blank, and a wisp of Chi Huo was burning slowly at the soul figure’s brow... This guy’s Spirit had already been completely controlled by Gu Shen.
With just a thought, it could be erased.
"Is the hypnosis done just like that?"
Gu Shen was somewhat surprised too.
He originally thought this pendant was Hong Zhong’s last resort for himself, in case of an accident, to preserve his soul. But now, it seemed not to be the case...
"Hong Zhong, the Hong as in flood, and Zhong as in sincere."
"Investigation Corps Second Team member, currently... acting temporary captain for Labyrinth Mission Thirty-Eight."
Gu Shen tried asking a few simple questions, and Hong Zhong’s soul answered them, indicating that he still retained the memories from before his death.
"What is this sealed artifact?"
The next question, Gu Shen went straight to the point.
The pale soul raised its head, looking blankly at Gu Shen, his eyes full of emptiness and confusion.
Evidently, this question stumped him.
Gu Shen frowned: "How did you come here?"
Another spell of dead silence.
This too was a "beyond the scope" question.
This solitary soul, though able to answer questions under hypnosis, did not seem very intelligent.
Hong Zhong’s voice was hoarse, intermittently speaking: "I don’t know... I should have died, but thanks to ’it’, I seemed to have grasped the last strand of life."
Chi Huo burned at the brow.
Gu Shen sensed the soul’s Spirit condition... Hong Zhong’s memory was slightly damaged, his cognition impaired, trapped in a state between life and death, unaware that he was only a soul left, nor did he understand what Gu Shen referred to as "here".
"Do you recognize this thing?"
Gu Shen raised his palm.
He used spiritual power to converge a virtual image of the "cross pendant," projecting it above his palm.
"Of course, I recognize... it was ’it’ that saved me!" In the hypnotic state, Hong Zhong’s voice was fervent for a moment, then lowered again, murmuring: "’It’ saved me more than once..."
The pale soul, feeling the burning flames at the brow, murmured: "If you are asking for its name, there should be no answer. I found this pendant in the [Old World], and I call it ’Goddess of Destiny’s Sanctuary’..."
Chi Huo completed the fusion with Hong Zhong’s soul.
A torrent of memories surged out from the flames.
Gu Shen no longer asked questions.
He silently observed these memories...
Years ago, Hong Zhong once went beyond the fortress to carry out a mission, a long-forgotten matter from when Zhong Yuan had not been transferred to the Second Team as captain.
On that mission, the explorer team was completely annihilated.
The reason was simple... he found this "cross pendant" in the [Old World].
By a twist of fate, Hong Zhong wore this pendant, and at the brink of death, he miraculously avoided several large Black Holes, and successfully touched the [Gate] that could traverse long distances, directly returning to the Fortress, completing an incredible journey... Watching this memory, Gu Shen felt somewhat complicated because what Hong Zhong experienced back then was somewhat similar to his own recent events.
That incident naturally caught the attention of the North Continent Army.
However, at that time, Hong Zhong was weak, his records completely reasonable... no one focused on him, the North Continent high-ups just considered him merely a lucky person.
As it turned out, Hong Zhong’s luck far exceeded everyone’s imagination.
In every subsequent mission beyond the fortress, Hong Zhong always wore the pendant, and this cross pendant repeatedly took him out of dangerous situations... and in the years to come, he slowly began to explore and attempt to master the power within the pendant.
Through this "fortunate encounter," he became an elite member of the Investigation Corps Second Team and could serve as the captain for high-risk missions like the [Labyrinth Mission].
However, Hong Zhong was always very cautious.
He carefully guarded his "luck," never mentioning the pendant’s existence to anyone...
He was not an ambitious man.
He knew he had stumbled upon something extraordinary, but he just wanted to live a bit longer.
This guy’s memories were quite easy to read.
And also very ironic.
At this moment, probably no one in the North Continent would believe that the hero who fell from the Divine Altar, condemned by so many, Hong Zhong, had such simple true intentions: obtaining such a divine-level sealed artifact, he never even thought of using this power to become the captain of the Investigation Corps... Hong Zhong’s life plan was incredibly simple, leveraging the power within this sealed artifact to safely complete missions with his close brothers in the corps, retire peacefully, enjoy his later years, and finally, before dying, hand this sealed artifact over to the corps high-ups.