Gu Yanshu made the Clock Family sect move backward, then forced it to settle back down to the ground again. He controlled the entire structure as though it had weight only because he allowed it to have weight. After that, he exited the Clock Family, raised his blade, and tore through Karna Aoi Kama's skin before throwing him into the jungle.
Then Gu Yanshu grabbed Xon Leon, because he wanted him for an experiment.
He threw Xon Leon back to the Clock Family, then entered the sect again himself. He walked to the main area, where he made the house rise into the sky and start moving again. After that, he threw Xon Leon into the training area. Then Gu Yanshu walked toward him and sat beside him as if nothing had happened.
Qin Jinzhe looked at him and asked, carefully, why he had killed Karna Aoi Kama when he had already been dealt with, why he had thrown the junior brother into the jungle, and why he had taken Xon Leon instead.
Gu Yanshu answered plainly.
"Training."
He looked at Xon Leon with calm eyes.
"The senior brother is for experiment. The junior brother is basically used in the jungle."
Qin Jinzhe lowered his head slightly and said, "As you wish, Lord."
Gu Yanshu then took Xon Leon, opened the window, and let the air move toward the training area.
It did not move toward Xon Leon.
There was a reason for that.
If a mage's heart was still beating, the air would not come for him in the same way.
If the heart was not beating, then the air would come toward him.
Gu Yanshu already knew this.
Xon Leon was dead, but his heart was still beating.
So he was dead, but also not dead.
Gu Yanshu grabbed his neck and aggressively threw him into a wall in the training area.
The wall cracked and shattered into pieces.
Gu Yanshu did nothing more than make it shatter.
Then he sat beside Xon Leon again and began thinking.
Maybe Karna Aoi Kama was also a good mage.
Maybe he could have been part of the experiment too.
Yes, that might have been possible.
But Gu Yanshu had already missed that opportunity.
There was no point regretting it now.
That had been his chance, and he had thrown Karna Aoi Kama into the jungle.
Now monsters would be hunting him.
So Karna Aoi Kama might die there.
But maybe he would not.
Maybe his strength, his cultivation, his blade, and everything else would let him survive.
Gu Yanshu grinned at that thought, then grabbed Xon Leon again and threw him into the ground.
Not with enough force to destroy the whole area.
Just enough to throw him down.
Then Gu Yanshu took a glass of water and turned it upside down.
The water fell onto Xon Leon.
As Gu Yanshu expected, his own hand was not wet.
To confirm it, he touched his hand with his shoe.
He felt something.
Yes.
But it was not wetness.
It felt like he had touched the ground itself.
This was all happening because the heart was still beating.
Just like normal.
But if a mage was still alive in that strange state, the heart would not simply stay quiet.
If a lifeless mage still had a beating heart, then there were many more things that could happen.
It was not like a human.
It was different for a mage.
Very different.
Gu Yanshu leaned down and whispered a spell to Xon Leon.
Then he told Qin Jinzhe to take a glass and point it at Xon Leon's left hand.
The instant the spell was whispered, fire shot toward the glass.
That happened because if someone whispered spells to a mage, and that person was not a mage, even a lifeless mage could still shoot fire.
Qin Jinzhe was shocked and jerked the glass away.
Gu Yanshu crushed the glass under his shoe and grinned again.
Then he walked to the window and opened it.
He saw that the house had crossed Area 902 and then Area 903.
Right now it was in the middle of Area 904, and slowly it was still crossing farther through that region.
Gu Yanshu closed the window again and returned to Xon Leon.
He grabbed him once more and lifted him up.
Then he crushed Xon Leon's head away from his body.
But Xon Leon's heart was still beating.
So his head regenerated again and returned to how it had looked before.
Gu Yanshu remembered something else then.
He had already cut Xon Leon into 365 billion pieces once.
And now Xon Leon had fully regenerated again.
Gu Yanshu stared at him and smiled.
He thought carefully.
He had cut him into 365 billion pieces, and yet he still regenerated before the heart stopped.
That meant there was a limit.
Before the heart stopped, regeneration could continue.
But once the heart truly failed, it would no longer work.
Xon Leon could regenerate.
Karna Aoi Kama could not do that in the same way.
That meant Gu Yanshu had been overthinking Karna Aoi Kama.
Karna Aoi Kama was actually more like trash than he had expected.
Interesting.
Very interesting.Gu Yanshu looked at Xon Leon and laughed loudly.
Then he took him away and carried him to the main area of the Clock Family sect.
By the time they reached the main area, everything was already moving even faster than before. Gu Yanshu's speed remained steady and calm, and with a faint smile on his face, he walked right up to Xon Leon, took his hand, and gave him a direct hug.
The moment he did that, Xon Leon's heart exploded.
But his brain remained.
The brain was not the thing causing all of this. The brain was only the disk that restrained the heart. And if both the heart and the brain were destroyed, he would return again somehow. The heart had exploded, but it regenerated because of the brain.
Xon Leon was immortal, but also not immortal.
If he was not alive, then he was immortal.
If he was alive, then he was not immortal, because he died first and then came back into that lifeless form. And only in that lifeless form was he truly immortal.
That was the point.
Gu Yanshu looked at him and said that his heart had regenerated.
Then Gu Yanshu slowly pulled his hand out of Xon Leon's chest. There was a large amount of blood on it.
He washed his hands and sat down.
One disciple asked respectfully, "Do you need anything, Lord?"
Gu Yanshu answered, "No. I am just relaxing, so there is no need. I do not need any of your help."
Another disciple bowed his head and said, "As you wish, Lord."
Gu Yanshu stood up.
Then it started raining.
The rain grew harder very quickly.
The house was moving on its own, and because of the rain, it started shifting even more violently. It looked like it was becoming even more damaged while the movement continued.
Gu Yanshu frowned slightly and asked, "Why is it suddenly raining?"
Without changing his expression, he opened the window and looked outside. No one had caused the rain.
Wait. That could not be natural.
The rain had been gone for 370 years.
He knew that because the book inside the Library of Knowledge had mentioned it before.
How much should it rain?
He did not know.
The book had said it should not rain for 500 billion years, but there was not even close to that much time in the world's history. He could not understand how this was happening.
Then a voice appeared.
Before the voice even appeared fully, Gu Yanshu had already closed the window.
The voice said, "Return senior brother back and heal junior brother. Make him return."
The window nearly shattered from the force of that voice.
The house itself was barely moving now.
Then the rain changed again.
This time it was raining fireballs and solar crystals.
Gu Yanshu immediately walked to the main area, controlled the house properly, and dodged almost every single fireball that came toward it.
He did not understand what was happening.
A random voice had somehow been able to command those two back.
Maybe this was a god-level mage.
But he could not cover that mystery right now, and there was no benefit in trying to cover it.
If it was useful, he would learn it later.
For now, he needed to focus on controlling the house.
Slowly, Gu Yanshu moved out of the fire rain.
Then the storm stopped.
Everything became normal again.
Gu Yanshu made the house speed up once more.
Then it happened instantly.
Just when the fire rain was about to end and the house was about to move even faster, Xon Leon started moving.
But Gu Yanshu could still sense that Xon Leon had a deep pace to him.
What did that mean?
That was not normal.
It did not feel like a normal living state.
Then Xon Leon started fighting Qin Jinzhe.
Qin Jinzhe somehow barely managed to handle him with the strength he still had left.
Gu Yanshu stepped in instantly.
He raised his blade and cut Xon Leon's head off.
For a few moments, the head just stayed there.
Then it regenerated again.
Gu Yanshu still showed no expression.
He threw a glass of water directly at Xon Leon.
And again, it was not getting wet the way it should have.
Gu Yanshu confirmed the state carefully.
It felt like he was touching air.
Not warm.
Not wet.
Not hot.
Just air.
Then Gu Yanshu grabbed Xon Leon by the hand again and threw him directly into the wall at high speed.
Xon Leon stretched toward the exact place Gu Yanshu aimed at.
The wall scattered into pieces instantly.
It was as if it had only been touched lightly, even though the force behind the throw was violent enough to destroy it.
The rock and stone were strong, but Gu Yanshu's force had absolutely broken through them.
Xon Leon's hand was cut too.
Oddly enough, it was not actually odd.
This was just normal behavior for a mage whose heart was still beating even though he was not truly alive.
Then, after some seconds, Xon Leon regenerated his heart.
Gu Yanshu watched him closely.
After Xon Leon regenerated again, Gu Yanshu grabbed him once more, lifted him up, and started smashing him into the ground.
His head did not fully break apart, but it began bleeding heavily.
That was the only part that did not look strange, because it was something that would happen to a normal human too.
But the blood kept erasing itself without anyone erasing it.
It was as if the blood was disappearing on its own, which meant he had regenerated again.
Gu Yanshu opened the window and looked outside.
They had crossed Area 904 and were now in Area 906.
Not in the middle, but at the start of it.
Gu Yanshu closed the window with an expressionless face.
Then he walked back to the main area and pressed a button.
The house moved faster again.
His goal was clear now.
He wanted to reach Area 917.
They were only moving toward his goal.Gu Yanshu stepped out of the training area and walked toward the Library of Learning.
The long corridor was silent. Only the faint sound of his footsteps echoed across the stone floor. He pushed the door open and entered slowly, his eyes immediately landing on the book resting in its usual place.
He did not move closer at first.
The memory of what had happened before was still clear in his mind. Touching it carelessly could trigger the same reaction again. Maybe the power inside had grown stronger. Maybe it had weakened. There was no way to know. In a place like this, assumptions were equal to death.
Be cautious of everything.
That thought passed through his mind as he slowly walked forward.
Gu Yanshu stopped in front of the book and stared at it for a few seconds. The air around it felt calm, almost too calm, as if nothing dangerous existed. But that kind of calmness was exactly what made it dangerous.
Without hesitation, he reached forward and grabbed the book.
Nothing happened.
No pressure. No energy surge. No sudden reaction.
He opened it and began reading.
In 487 AD, there was a war.
At first, it was nothing special. Just a normal war between forces that wanted power and land. Soldiers fought, countries clashed, and battles continued like any other conflict in history. There was nothing extraordinary about it in the beginning.
Then the wise men entered the war.
Everything changed after that.
Plans became sharper. Strategies became deeper. Every movement was calculated, every decision precise. The war slowly turned ruthless. Cities were destroyed with perfect timing. Armies were trapped and eliminated without mercy. Supplies were cut off before battles even began. Entire regions fell before they even realized they were under attack.
Fear began spreading across the lands.
This was no longer a normal war.
The wise men continued planning without stopping. Their strategies became colder, more brutal, more efficient. Mercy disappeared completely. The only goal was victory, and victory required destruction.
No country was able to stop it.
No alliance could suppress it.
No ruler could control it.
The war kept expanding, swallowing everything in its path. Old wars and new wars could not compare to it. None of them carried this level of destruction. None of them carried this level of ruthlessness.
It became the biggest war in history.
People later said that if anyone wanted to surpass that war, they would have to create a world war, where the entire world fought at once. Only then could something reach that level of destruction.
The war was officially named the Battle of Destruction.
Gu Yanshu turned the page calmly.
The next stage of the book began.
The balance of power created steam and wood.
It was written that the balance of power understood humanity's future. It predicted that humans would create tools, machines, and objects that required materials not naturally formed together. Steel and wood would become essential. They would be used to build tools, structures, and weapons.
A hammer was not natural.
It required steel and wood.
The man of power predicted that humanity would combine these materials and create tools from them. Because of that prediction, the balance of power allowed steel and wood to exist in the world, shaping the future of human development.
But the prediction was incomplete.
Humanity did not create only one tool.
They created many.
Hammers, structures, machines, weapons, and countless other things were formed from steel and wood. The man of power predicted only one result, yet humanity created far more than expected.
Gu Yanshu slowly closed the book.
The information settled quietly in his mind.
He placed the book back in its position and walked out of the Library of Learning without making any unnecessary movement.
The corridor was still silent.
Step by step, he returned to the training area.
Xon Leon was still there.
The senior brother remained in his strange state, neither fully alive nor completely dead, his presence unstable and quiet at the same time.
Gu Yanshu walked toward him and sat down beside him calmly, as if everything that had happened was nothing more than a small interruption in his routine.
His gaze remained steady as he looked at Xon Leon, silently observing, waiting to see what would happen next.Xon Leon's chest moved once.
It was a very small motion.
So small that anyone careless might have missed it, but Gu Yanshu did not miss it. His eyes stayed fixed on the senior brother's body, and the instant that pulse changed, his expression remained the same. He only shifted his gaze slightly, first to the chest, then to the fingers, then to the throat, as if he was comparing the body to a set of invisible rules inside his mind.
Qin Jinzhe saw that movement and immediately stepped closer.
Gu Yanshu did not look at him yet. "Do not stand too close," he said.
Qin Jinzhe stopped at once.
Not because he was afraid of being scolded, but because Gu Yanshu had spoken with the kind of calm that made disobedience feel stupid. It was not a loud warning. It was a quiet one, and that made it more effective.
Yu Cheng stayed by the window exactly as ordered. His eyes kept jumping between the frame, the sky beyond it, and the moving body of Xon Leon on the floor. He did not know what he was supposed to look for first, so he looked at everything.
That was good.
Gu Yanshu noticed that too.
He leaned forward slightly, one elbow resting against his knee. "Yu Cheng."
"Yes, Lord."
"Tell me what changed."
Yu Cheng froze for half a breath. He had seen several things change, but he did not know which one mattered most. That hesitation was dangerous. Gu Yanshu saw it immediately, but he did not strike it down. He let the silence sit there long enough for Yu Cheng to feel it.
Then he said, "Do not give me everything. Give me the first thing you noticed."
Yu Cheng's throat moved.
"The window," he said quickly. "The frame trembled first. Not the glass. The frame."
Gu Yanshu nodded once.
That answer was enough.
It was small, but it was right.
The first point of movement always mattered more than the last.
He turned his head toward Qin Jinzhe. "And you?"
Qin Jinzhe had been watching Xon Leon the whole time. His answer came after a brief pause, but it came with confidence. "His pulse changed before his body did. The movement came from inside first."
Gu Yanshu's eyes shifted slightly.
That was also correct.
Not only correct, but useful.
The disciples had both given the right kind of answers because he had arranged their attention in advance. He had not just asked what they saw. He had told them where to look before they knew why. That meant their observations were already moving inside the shape he had made for them.
Gu Yanshu stood up.
"Good," he said.
One word.
Nothing more.
But Qin Jinzhe's shoulders loosened a little at once, and Yu Cheng straightened more than he had before. That was the kind of reaction Gu Yanshu wanted. Not gratitude. Not fear. Alignment.
He stepped toward the window and looked outside.
The house was still moving through the sky. The world below shifted slowly, the areas changing one after another like a map being carried under a moving hand. The house itself remained steady, but the speed was not the same as before. There was still a strange pressure inside the structure, and Gu Yanshu could feel that the earlier voice had not fully left.
It had only retreated.
He turned back to the room.
"Qin Jinzhe."
"Yes, Lord."
"Stand where you are. If the heartbeat changes again, I want you to tell me before anyone else hears it."
Qin Jinzhe gave a firm nod. "Understood."
Gu Yanshu's eyes narrowed a little. "Do not say 'understood' to make yourself feel obedient. Say it because you actually know what to do."
Qin Jinzhe froze for a second.
That was a small thing, but it cut deeper than a simple correction. It forced him to think about whether he was truly following or only pretending to. Gu Yanshu did that well. He did not yell. He did not humiliate. He only touched the exact place where doubt and pride met.
Qin Jinzhe lowered his head. "I know what to do."
"Good."
That was the right answer.
Yu Cheng watched all of this from the side and immediately felt the pressure rise in his own chest. He did not want to be the slower one. He did not want to be the one who had to ask twice. Gu Yanshu saw that reaction too and let it happen.
He turned toward Yu Cheng.
"Window again," he said.
Yu Cheng straightened. "Yes, Lord."
"Not the sky. Not the whole house. The window."
Yu Cheng nodded quickly and moved half a step closer to the frame.
Gu Yanshu watched him for a moment, then added, "If you catch the change first, I will remember it."
That sentence made Yu Cheng look up.
It was not a promise of reward. It was stronger than that. It was a promise of recognition. In a place like this, being remembered by the one in control mattered more than being praised loudly by everyone else.
Yu Cheng's hands tightened.
He nodded again. "I will not miss it."
Gu Yanshu did not answer. He had already gotten what he wanted from that exchange.
He moved back to Xon Leon and looked at the senior brother's chest again. The pulse had changed. Not much. Just enough to show that the body had begun another cycle. Gu Yanshu crouched and studied it for a few seconds, his eyes moving with cold precision.
Then he reached out and placed two fingers just above the chest without touching the skin.
The air there was slightly warmer.
Not much.
Just enough.
Interesting.
That meant the body was already preparing to react before the heart had visibly changed. The pulse was not only a sign. It was a trigger. The body had its own timing, and the timing itself could be affected.
Gu Yanshu withdrew his hand and said, "The body is answering before the heart fully settles."
Qin Jinzhe stepped slightly forward before stopping himself. "Then the heart is not alone."
Gu Yanshu looked at him.
That answer was good enough to be considered useful, but not complete enough to be called smart. Still, it was the kind of answer that could be shaped into something better, and that mattered.
"Yes," Gu Yanshu said. "It is not alone."
He let the sentence hang there for a moment.
Then he continued, "But do not try to guess the rest yet. Guessing makes people careless. Carelessness makes them easy to use."
That line entered both disciples at once.
Qin Jinzhe frowned slightly, not because he disagreed, but because the phrasing made him think of the earlier voice. Something that appears, says what it wants, and waits for a reaction. Something that speaks only to guide the next movement.
Yu Cheng glanced at the window again.
Gu Yanshu noticed the glance and knew the thought was already working.
Good.
He wanted them to look at the world through a pattern.
That was more useful than panic.
He stood again and walked slowly toward the center of the training area. His steps were not hurried. He did not need haste here. The point was to keep the room under control, and control was easier when everyone else was forced to wait for him.
He stopped beside the table.
There was still a cup there from earlier.
Gu Yanshu picked it up, turned it once in his hand, then set it back down.
The simple motion drew both disciples' attention without effort.
"Qin Jinzhe."
"Yes, Lord."
"If the senior brother changes again, you do not rush toward him."
Qin Jinzhe nodded immediately. "I will not."
"You will wait for the change to finish," Gu Yanshu said. "If you move too early, you will misread it. If you move too late, you will miss the opening. So you will stand still until it becomes clear."
Qin Jinzhe understood the logic well enough to feel it sink in. The rule did not just restrain him. It made him think in the same rhythm as Gu Yanshu. That was the real part.
Yu Cheng, hearing this, also became more careful. He did not want to be the one who moved too soon or too slowly. That kind of pressure had a way of sharpening a person if it did not break him first.
Gu Yanshu looked at both of them.
"You are both still here because you can notice small things."
Neither replied.
He continued, "Not because you are strong. Not because you are loud. Because you notice."
That landed cleanly.
It was a simple sentence, but it made them both feel useful in a way that was hard to shake off. It also made them want to keep being the ones he relied on for observation, which meant they would stay close and stay responsive.
Gu Yanshu let his gaze slide back to Xon Leon.
The heartbeat beat again.
He watched it carefully.
Then he said, "See?"
Qin Jinzhe and Yu Cheng both looked.
The pulse had shifted.
Not violently. Not dramatically. But enough.
Gu Yanshu pointed lightly toward the chest. "This is the kind of thing that matters. Not the noise. Not the fear. The change."
Qin Jinzhe's eyes sharpened.
Yu Cheng's breathing slowed.
Both of them were learning how he thought, and that was exactly what made them easier to direct. Once they began seeing the world through the same landmarks he used, they would start trusting his judgment automatically.
Gu Yanshu did not rush to explain further. He knew better than that. A person trusted what he learned himself more than what he was forced to accept. So he only gave them enough to keep their minds moving in the direction he wanted.
He turned slightly and looked at the window again.
The sect had crossed farther than before. The view below had changed.
A new area was coming into sight.
He could feel the house moving with a kind of strange discipline now, as though it had already started obeying a path it had chosen long before anyone inside understood it.
Gu Yanshu noticed the pattern.
Area 917.
He had not forgotten it.
That goal remained fixed somewhere ahead.
He returned his attention to the two disciples.
"Yu Cheng," he said.
"Yes, Lord."
"If the window changes before the house does, then the danger is already close."
Yu Cheng swallowed. "I understand."
"Do not understand too quickly," Gu Yanshu said. "Watch first. Understand after."
Yu Cheng lowered his head again.
This time, he did not answer right away.
That was better.
Gu Yanshu shifted his eyes to Qin Jinzhe. "And you."
Qin Jinzhe immediately looked at him.
"If the heartbeat changes," Gu Yanshu said, "you tell me exactly how. Faster, slower, irregular, or flat. One word is enough."
Qin Jinzhe nodded once.
That was another hook.
It made him pay attention to detail and made him feel that his own precision mattered directly to Gu Yanshu. Not as a follower. As a witness.
Gu Yanshu looked at both of them, then slowly sat back down near Xon Leon.
The senior brother had not moved much, but the body still carried that strange, unfinished energy. The sort of state that existed between certainty and collapse. The kind of thing the book might have explained if it had been willing to reveal more, but it had not. Not yet.
Gu Yanshu rested one hand on his knee and watched the chest rise a fraction.
Then again.
He spoke without looking away. "Do you know why I asked you to stay here?"
Qin Jinzhe and Yu Cheng both stayed still.
Gu Yanshu continued, "Because if the next change comes, I do not want the wrong person reaching it first."
He did not explain who the wrong person was.
He did not have to.
The words were enough to make both disciples think of every possible danger in the room and decide that the safest thing was to remain under his direction. It was a small line, but it tightened their dependence without ever feeling like a command meant to trap them.
That was the best kind of pressure.
Xon Leon's heartbeat changed again.
Gu Yanshu's eyes narrowed slightly.
This time the change was clearer.
Not the body.
Not the window.
The heart.
He raised his hand and said, very quietly, "Now."
Qin Jinzhe and Yu Cheng both reacted instantly, each in the way he had trained them to respond over the last few minutes. Qin Jinzhe focused on the chest and the movement beneath it. Yu Cheng looked to the windows and the air around the room. Both moved without speaking, because Gu Yanshu had already made silence feel safer than guessing.
Gu Yanshu watched them both for a moment and said nothing.
The room stayed quiet.
The training area held its breath.
And in that stillness, the senior brother's heart gave another strange pulse, as if waiting for the next step to reveal itself.