Chapter 1000: Xuanwu Gate

Uh.

Xu Xiaoshou quickly averted his gaze and accidentally caught sight of Tan Shen in the distance, slumped on the ground and completely uninterested in refining any dan. A light bulb suddenly lit up above his head with a "ding."

"Little fatty, come here!"

"Meow."

Once Tan Shen confirmed that he was the one being called, he instantly perked up, fully revived, and flew over, forgetting all about the earlier incident where he had been swatted away.

Tan Shen never lacked enthusiasm for his master and mistress.

"I might need to take Tan Shen away for a while. During that time, you'll still have to stay in Yuan Fu." Xu Xiaoshou stroked the cat, feeling a bit embarrassed as he spoke, as if he were imprisoning someone.

"What for?" Lei Xier asked.

"Some... minor matters." Xu Xiaoshou chuckled and casually pulled out a jar of honey refined by Tan Shen, opening it to feed the creature.

"Meow."

Tan Shen immediately buried his head and started lapping it up eagerly.

"Tasty?" Xu Xiaoshou bared his devilish fangs with a smile.

"Meow meow."

Tan Shen lifted his eyes and meowed happily. He had refined the dan, but rarely got to eat so openly like this, so of course, his response was that it was delicious.

"If it's tasty, then activate 'San Yan Tong Mu.' Keep it open from now on—I'll take you, little fatty, out for some exercise to digest, burn off some food, and lose weight." Xu Xiaoshou petted Tan Shen's fur.

"Meow."

Without a word, Tan Shen manifested three gray flowers in his left eye, spinning them rapidly.

Lei Xier sensed something off and glanced over, her light voice now laced with suspicion: "Something's happened again?"

"Just a small trouble." Xu Xiaoshou petted the cat's head and met her gaze with a grin, then manifested a spatial passage. "I'll take Tan Shen first. Later, I'll come back and take you out to have fun."

Lei Xier's red lips parted as if to speak, but she held back.

Xu Xiaoshou noticed but didn't plan to explain.

Even though he knew Lei Xier's Shen Mo Tong was very powerful and could help, he was afraid of any accidents.

After all, this time, it involved the Du Sheng Ju.

"The burden on you is already too heavy—don't take on extra dangers. Let Tan Shen handle it." This was Xu Xiaoshou's inner monologue.

Stepping into the spatial passage with Tan Shen, who was only interested in eating, cradled in his arms, Xu Xiaoshou suddenly paused and looked back, hesitating as he asked: "Is Yuan Fu really boring?"

Lei Xier pouted her red lips, as if she had a thousand complaints to voice, but in the end, she summed it up in a few words: "It's alright. I can grow flowers and plants."

Xu Xiaoshou couldn't help but laugh.

A noble Wangzuo, a heir of the Lei family, actually growing flowers and plants in the Yuan Fu world—who would believe that if it got out?

He raised his hand and promised earnestly: "Next time I come in, I'll take you to a place you've absolutely never been to before, but it's really fun... we'll go explore!"

"What place?" Lei Xier's eyes lit up in an instant, her lips parting to reveal gleaming white tiger teeth.

Xu Xiaoshou felt as if two faces were overlapping before his eyes, finally merging into one with a flushed, oval face that turned slightly away, as if hiding behind a plum blossom.

After a moment, Xu Xiaoshou snapped out of his daze, shook his head, and smiled: "It's a secret."

Lei Xier: "..."

"Cursed, passive points, 1, 1, 1, 1..."

Dongtian Wangcheng.

In broad daylight, the entire Dongtian Wangcheng remained shrouded in perpetual darkness.

"Rumble..."

Overhead, thunderous rumbles echoed, harmonizing with the real thunder from the Yunlun Mountains, yet the people in the Wangcheng were so accustomed to it that they barely noticed.

On the main street, a woman holding a child walked away from a vendor's stall, a vegetable basket hanging from her arm.

In the world of Ling Shi, people still needed to eat, as there were burdens to bear—especially once they had families and their children hadn't grown up yet.

"Liang Qin Liang Qin, bad look bad look, the sky boom thing is gonna fall down!"

The little girl, with her hair in pigtails and hanging around her mother's neck, pointed at the sky and babbled excitedly, her rosy cheeks trembling with agitation, though no passersby turned to look.

Smack!

The woman rolled her eyes and swatted her daughter's bottom, scolding: "You little crow mouth, shut it! Last time we went out and stepped in dog poop, all because of your mouth."

The innocent little girl's attention shifted immediately. She turned her head and asked curiously: "Liang Qin Liang Qin, but isn't it said that our Wangcheng doesn't have dogs? I haven't seen a dog before—they say dogs bite people! But in the pictures, dogs look so cute..."

The woman adjusted the hefty bundle in her arms and replied gruffly: "So, that's why you kids shouldn't just poop anywhere anymore!"

"What's a 'dog kid'?" The little girl tilted her head.

"It's you, you little fool!" The woman poked her child's head and laughed.

The little girl sucked on her thumb, thinking seriously, then became excited and shouted: "I'm a dog kid! I'm a dog kid!"

Passersby turned in surprise.

"Shut up!" The woman was mortified and swatted the "dog kid's" bottom again.

After a round of fussing, the little girl leaned back, hugging her mother's head, her big eyes blinking as she asked again: "Liang Qin Liang Qin, if I'm your kid, and I'm a dog kid, then what are you?"

"???" The woman, holding the vegetable basket, froze on the spot.

"Ha ha ha ha..."

Surrounding vendors and passersby burst into laughter.

A wandering bard munching on an apple passed by and sighed: "Dog gives birth to a kid, named dog kid; dog kid, dog kid, the dog's own child... What a poem, what a poem!"

"Ha ha ha ha..."

The laughter erupted uncontrollably.

Passersby pointed at the mother and daughter, teasing them mercilessly.

"Dog kid... you naughty child, just shut up and stop with all the questions!" The woman swatted again, making the little girl yelp in pain.

By now, though the street was wide, there was no place left for this mother and daughter.

The woman, holding her child, wished she could teleport home and immediately summoned her wind attribute to make a quick escape.

But just then...

Bang!

A massive rock plummeted from above, smashing into the ground and creating a crater with spiderweb-like cracks.

The woman was terrified, her eyes wide.

The rock had landed right in front of her feet.

If not for that little "dog kid" distraction earlier, it might have hit them head-on.

And the first to bear the brunt would have been the "dog... uh, naughty child" on her head!

"What happened?"

"How could such a huge rock fall from the sky?"

The surrounding people stopped in their tracks, frightened, because although Dongtian Wangcheng had an upper city in the sky, any fragments from it were usually kept out by the protective barrier.

But how had this one broken through and crashed into the city?

The barrier wasn't made of paper—how could a single rock pierce its defense?

"Liang Qin Liang Qin, look, it's like a meteor shower! Such a big meteor shower! This is the second one this silly girl has seen!"

The little girl kicked wildly in her mother's arms, as if she wanted to fly up.

"You silly girl, I told you 'silly' isn't used like that..." The woman instinctively ducked her head, afraid of more mockery.

But her words trailed off, because she saw that everyone's attention had shifted from the word "silly" and was now fixed on the sky, their faces etched with shock and fear, as if their souls had been sucked out.

This sight was terrifying!

The woman thought of something, her eyes bulging as she pulled the "silly girl" from her head and looked up at the sky.

"This..."

At a glance, her scalp jingled.

High above, the Sky City, which had only partially emerged from the spatial fragments—less than a third of it—had now detached by about seventy or eighty percent.

Now, a massive portion of the Sky City was exposed and tilting, as if the heavens were collapsing, even revealing its weathered ancient gates.

The rumbles continued.

The Sky City was pulling away from the spatial fragments at a visibly accelerating rate.

Chunks of cracked stone, etched with the marks of time, fell from the spatial seams in droves, bombarding the protective barrier.

"Is this... a meteor shower?"

The woman recalled her daughter's earlier words.

But what she saw now was no treasure-filled meteor shower from the Yunlun Mountains.

This was a catastrophe!

The rumbles persisted, and with each thunderous crash, a sense of impending doom gripped everyone's hearts—it was an unstoppable force.

"Surely it won't really fall, right..." someone murmured.

This quiet mutter, amid the falling rocks, sounded ominously prophetic.

Because the Sky City above, with that ancient gate as its pivot, if it dropped any lower, it would smash directly onto Dongtian Wangcheng.

"Impossible, absolutely impossible!"

"We have the Sheng Shen Dian Tang protecting us. With the Sheng Shen Dian Tang, the Wangcheng can't fall!"

"That's right, we have to trust the Sheng Shen Dian Tang. All these years, their great deeds are well-known—they even sealed off other-dimensional spaces. A mere Sky City is nothing!"

Everyone was deluding themselves.

The bard munching on his apple suddenly looked away from the sky and scanned the crowd, uttering something untimely:

"Other-dimensional spaces are just minor troubles, but this Sky City is one of the 'Qi Duan Jin,' isn't it? Have you all forgotten?"

"Uh..." His words left everyone speechless, and then they erupted in anger, hurling vegetables and eggs at the hapless bard.

"You bastard, shut up!"

"You crow mouth, if you don't speak, no one will think you're mute. Go write your crappy 'dog kid poem' somewhere else!"

"Take this flying kick—die, you scum!"

The bard was so startled that he dropped his apple and scurried back into the dark alley.

Bang, bang, bang...

As time passed, piles of debris accumulated on the ground.

The rocks were falling faster, making it feel like the end of the world, and the protective barrier—the last line of defense—seemed utterly useless.

"How is this possible? The barrier hasn't even broken—how are the rocks getting in?"

"Do they have minds? Can they burrow through?"

"But... the barrier doesn't have any gaps; it's seamless!"

Everyone was baffled.

Though ninety-nine percent of the rocks were blocked by the barrier, a few lucky ones somehow slipped through and struck some unfortunate souls.

From the alley, a filthy head popped out, sneering as it mockingly explained:

"You ignoramuses, the Sky City is one of the 'Qi Duan Jin'—its oppressive force is immense!

"Even if it's caught in spatial fragments, if it doesn't fall completely, how could ordinary space withstand it?

"Under such pressure, space distorts, and massive rocks fall right into certain spatial nodes—perfectly normal, isn't it?

"Some get teleported elsewhere, out of sight; others land nearby and crash into the Wangcheng. What's so strange about that?"

This sarcastic explanation didn't anger the street people.

But when they turned and saw it was that crow-mouthed bard speaking, they exploded in fury.

"You bastard, get back in your doghole? Showing off, are you?"

"Everyone, get him!"

Whoosh, whoosh—

Vegetables, rotten eggs, and spoiled apples flew again.

The bard dodged a few hits, grabbed a somewhat intact apple from the ground, and slunk back into the alley, drawing circles and cursing under his breath.

"Look, there's writing!"

While dodging the falling rocks and gazing curiously at the shifting Sky City, a pedestrian suddenly pointed to the ancient gate tilting toward the ground and exclaimed in surprise.

Before today, only a corner of the Sky City's walls had been visible, not the gate.

Now that the gate was exposed, did that mean everyone could enter and seek opportunities?

"Xuanwu Gate..."

Someone with broad knowledge recognized the complex characters as ancient script and murmured: "What does it mean? Is the Sky City's gate called 'Xuanwu Gate'? That's something we've never heard before. How do we get in—does anyone know?"

"Ignorance!"

From the opposite alley came a mocking voice again.

"The Sky City, as one of the 'Qi Duan Jin,' has five gates in total, named after the Four Symbols: 'Qinglong,' 'Baihu,' 'Zhuque,' and 'Xuanwu.'

"But without the 'Xu Kong Ling,' even a Ban Sheng can't enter the Sky City, not even through the main gate.

"Because the 'Xu Kong Ling' is the key to opening the five gates of the Sky City. Without it, you could bash your head in, and the doors won't budge!"

This insightful explanation enlightened everyone, and they felt respect for the speaker, assuming he must be extraordinarily learned.

But when they looked back, they saw egg yolk dripping from his head and a wilted vegetable leaf on his nose.

The pedestrians' mouths twitched.

Suppressing the urge to act, someone asked along the voice: "Sir, you mentioned five gates but only named four. Why is that?"

The bard chomped into an apple and strode forward, gesturing grandly:

"Because the fifth gate isn't in the Sky City—it's lost on the mainland, called 'Qilin Gate,' or also 'Xu Kong Gate.'

"'Xu Kong Gate,' as the fifth gate, is the only one that can be opened without the 'Xu Kong Ling.' Find it, get the offering ritual from it, and perform the ceremony properly, and you can enter the Sky City.

"Legends say that in ancient times, many lucky ones found the 'Xu Kong Gate,' offered others' lives, and achieved Ban Sheng status for themselves...

"Tsk tsk, splendid, truly splendid."

He shook his head in admiration, clearly envious of such wicked acts of sacrificing others for personal gain.

"Done?" The pedestrians endured and listened to this nonsense, then confirmed.

"All done." The bard bit into his apple, puzzled. "Nothing left out. Why, doubting my vast knowledge?"

The pedestrians erupted again.

"He's done—get him!"

"This time, don't let him escape, you fraud! Talking like it's all true!"

"Charge!"

"I've got a blade!"

"Whoa, hold the blade—don't kill anyone, just teach him a lesson."