Light Barrier

My head… hurts.

The pain was comparable to using the Ruler of Truth.

But this time, it was not an overwhelming pain that turned his entire body upside down, but only in the head.

To be precise, it was neck pain.

His neck felt as if it were being tightened by silk threads, with a faint prickling and strangling pain.

Elsewhere… I don’t feel anything. Is it numbness?

Gu Shen slowly opened his eyes.

In front of him was a transparent mirror reflecting his current appearance.

After he saw himself clearly, his complexion instantly turned pale.

In the mirror was a familiar face, just a familiar face.

He only had a head left.

There was nothing else, no torso, arms, or legs, so he only felt pain around his neck. He had no sensation anywhere else… He had lost his body, leaving only his head.

Memories flooded back like a tide.

He immediately realized that he was in a dream. The reason why he fell into the dream was that the moment he touched the most harmless-looking Rubik’s Cube and held it, his eyes flashed with the light bursting from the cube.

Immediately after, the cube began to rotate crazily, bringing him into a dream!

“Phew… Phew…” Gu Shen took two deep breaths to calm himself down.

He thought that he had already experienced two dreams and that nothing would surprise him anymore, but the scene in front of him was still too shocking. Despite only having a head left, he still had complete consciousness. There’s such a dream… Was I too naive?

Gu Shen moved his head. He found himself imprisoned in an environment similar to a closed box. All six sides were mirrors reflecting different angles of his head. Is the most harmless-looking cube actually the most dangerous?

Looking at the pale face in the mirrors, Gu Shen smiled faintly.

“Chu Ling didn’t appear, and I didn’t hear her voice.” He waited quietly for a while before quickly calming down. It seems she didn’t connect. Then, this dream… I can only rely on myself.

In fact, Gu Shen had never thought about relying on Chu Ling’s power for this assessment.

The more dangerous the situation, the more rational he became. Although he no longer had a chest to speak of, he still felt his blood boiling, and he even vaguely felt freshness and anticipation.

Interesting. He only had his head left.

He couldn’t use his hands, nor could he escape. He could only be imprisoned here.

The Rubik’s Cube was restored. After I touched it, it started scrambling on its own. Gu Shen narrowed his eyes. This was the last piece of information he had been able to gather from reality. His memories stopped one by one as he recalled the scene of the Rubik’s Cube flying and rotating. It was the initial movement he saw.

Then he remembered what the assessment team had said.

Regarding Dream Decipher, I’ve already completed the first step, Gu Shen thought. I woke up in the dream and realized that everything here is illusory. Next, I have to find the patterns, the peculiarities.

The space here was small and suffocating.

But because of this, the scope of his search narrowed. There were almost no other clues here except for the mirrors.

The mirrors are the only clue. Up, down, left, right, front, back, a total of six sides, corresponding to the faces of the Rubik’s Cube.

Gu Shen narrowed his eyes. If the Rubik’s Cube being scrambled in reality affects the dream, then what I have to do is to solve it. It doesn’t seem difficult to guess.

The question was, how should he go about turning it?

Would his actions affect the turning?

Gu Shen slowly moved forward. He was very close to a mirror. After touching the mirror directly in front of him, a strange feeling appeared.

Click.

The world rotated… but only a part of it.

Gu Shen felt the pain in his neck disappear, but what replaced it was pain in his torso and waist… After the world rotated, his neck connected to his chest, but the scope of the pain increased.

His left arm, right arm, left leg, and right leg were all in the ‘nothingness’ of the mirrors.

The box that imprisoned him also became bigger.

Hmm… So turning the mirror restores the Rubik’s Cube.

Gu Shen felt a little weak.

After turning the mirror world once, he felt as though his mind had been cut.

If I’m not wrong, every turn consumes my mental power. If I try aimlessly, my mind will collapse before I can restore the Rubik’s Cube.

This dream was much more difficult than Jingzhe.

He finally understood what the assessment team meant by intense. You can slowly comprehend in Jingzhe, but here, every time the mirror rotates, it’s torture.

He couldn’t help recalling the other two sealed objects on the table. They were likely dream seal objects on the same level as the cube. This assessment was indeed very difficult.

Fortunately, no one is controlling this Rubik’s Cube. I still have time to think. Gu Shen slowly sorted out his memories.

Although the Rubik’s Cube’s rotation was very fast, I’ve memorized it. As long as I restore it according to the pattern, I’ll soon be able to complete the Dream Decipher. He entered an extremely calm state. After ensuring that everything was fine, he turned the mirror again.

Click.

This time, the connection between his torso and neck broke, but the feeling of his left hand appeared out of thin air. Gu Shen looked down at himself. He looked like a divided wooden puppet. Every part of his body was embedded in the empty mirror spaces, and only by connecting to his head could he restore his senses. At this point, he could already confirm this.

The final condition for completing the Dream Decipher was to restore the entire body.

Following the movements in his memory, Gu Shen began the restoration!

Click.

Click.

Click.

…

“Among the three sealed objects, the Blue Cube should take the longest.” The Redwood chief justice looked at the young man with a complicated expression. “I propose… if Gu Shen doesn’t complete the Dream Decipher in four hours, we should end the assessment.”

“Agreed,” the assessor who had explained the rules said. “If he can really last four hours in the Blue Cube, he’s already stronger than most A-grades.”

“Elder Zhao is very interested in him. Perhaps we can afford him some patience,” the grand magistrate said leisurely. “There are many people who sleep in the Blue Cube for two to three hours. Let’s wait until he realizes he’s in the dream before we start the countdown.”

Just as he finished speaking…

The Rubik’s Cube dice suddenly moved.

The Redwood chief justice’s eyes lit up. It looked like a casual movement, but it was actually not without method.

This was the first step of restoration.

“He’s awake.” The chief justice was surprised. He glanced at the time. “Three minutes… He woke up in the Blue Cube and got the first turn right! Could he have remembered the order of the Blue Cube was scrambled before entering the dream?”

“Perhaps it’s just good luck.” The grand magistrate smiled at his companions and gently knocked on the table. “Let’s wait a little longer.”

Next was… a long five minutes.

Five minutes passed without any movement.

Just as everyone was ready to welcome another long wait, the Rubik’s Cube rotated again!

It was still following the movements of restoration.

Then again and again.

Click… Click… Click…

The five members of the assessment team all showed looks of incredulity.

Every rotation of the Blue Cube brought mental pain. But the frequency of this young man’s rotations was always stable, indicating that he had mastered the technique and firmly believed that he had made the right choice.

There was appreciation and praise in the chief justice’s eyes. “This young man’s memory is not bad. It seems he really remembered the order the Blue Cube was scrambled. Moreover, he’s calm enough to recall the restoration steps in that environment.”

However, his eyes were full of pity and regret.

Every rotation of the Blue Cube consumed mental power, so it was very slow.

About ten minutes later.

All the rotations were completed.

The Rubik’s Cube was restored to its original state and lay quietly in Gu Shen’s hand.

But Gu Shen… did not wake up.

“This young man is really not bad. Unfortunately…

“The colors of the cube can be painted over. The simplest way to restore the cube is to recolor it.”

The chief justice said regretfully, “The interior space of this seemingly restored Blue Cube has long been scrambled. Restoring it completely is not as simple as piecing it together according to the rotation movements.”