chsdbacks Chapter 364 The Gatekeeper
Chapter 364 The Gatekeeper
"Hard-headed." Nezha landed, the tip of his spear touching the ground, "harder than the head of the Dragon Prince of the East Sea."
The Bone Blade Realm God twisted his neck.
New barbs quickly regrowed from the broken barb on the back of the neck. The new barbs were longer and thinner than the original ones, and had barbs on their tips.
It did not respond to Nezha's words, but crossed its two swords in front of it, with the tips pointing downwards and stuck into the ground.
The causal runes on the blade spread out along the cracks in the floor tiles, weaving a black talisman net beneath Nezha's feet.
The net tightened, locking Nezha's feet in place.
The Bone Blade God from beyond the realm charged forward, stepping on the net of runes, his twin blades slashing horizontally at Nezha's waist and ribs from the left and right.
With his feet sealed, Nezha decided not to dodge.
He planted the fire-tipped spear in the ground, the shaft standing upright beside him. He then released the shaft with both hands and grabbed the blades of two bone knives with his bare hands.
The moment the palm made contact with the blade, the skin and flesh of the palm were cut open, and blood seeped out from between the fingers.
He grabbed the blade and pried it outwards, the runes on the bone knife crackling as the blade split open in two thin slits.
The Bone Blade, drawn back by the extraterrestrial god, could not be pulled away.
Nezha yanked the two bone knives outwards, straightening the arms of the Bone Knife God and leaving his chest and abdomen wide open.
Nezha rammed his head into the nose of the Bone Blade Realm God. The skull struck the armor with a dull thud.
The helmet and visor of the Bone Blade God from Beyond the Realm were dented, his upper body leaned back, and his twin blades slipped from his hands.
Nezha released the bone knife he had snatched, pulled the Fire-Tipped Spear from the ground, and thrust it into the gap in the armor of the extraterrestrial god. The spear tip pierced through the armor of law and penetrated the core of causality.
Gray law fragments exploded on the chest of the Bone Blade Outer God, his armor cracked from the inside out, and his entire humanoid form disintegrated, with fragments scattered in the dark red mist.
"It's stained with blood." Nezha looked down at the ash marrow stuck to the tip of his spear and flicked the shaft.
The other four extraterrestrial gods did not stop because of the death of their comrade.
The creature, crawling like an insect, slithered swiftly along the cracks in the city bricks, its limbs snapping and cracking as it moved. It bypassed the gun barrage in front of Nezha and pounced from his left blind spot.
Four folded limbs opened, revealing a dense array of mouthparts on the abdomen, from which fine needles formed from causal fluid were ejected.
The rain of needles covered half of Nezha's body.
A gentle breeze cut in from the side. The broken sword slashed horizontally, shattering the first row of causal needles that came rushing towards them.
The remaining golden patterns of the Dao of All Beings on the sword blade lit up for a moment upon contact with the liquid of cause and effect, and the golden light burned a notch in the subsequent rain of needles.
Qingfeng stepped into the gap, holding his sword in his right hand, protecting Nezha with the broken sword.
"Your hand is bleeding." Nezha glanced at the blood-soaked strip of cloth on Qingfeng's right hand.
"You're flowing too." Qingfeng didn't turn around, staring at the reptilian extraterrestrial god in front of him who was recharging his strength.
The extraterrestrial reptile changed its angle and pounced again.
The joints of the limbs snapped straight, and the whole body was like a tightly compressed spring suddenly released, much faster than before.
Qingfeng met it head-on, using his broken sword to block the mouthparts of the reptilian extraterrestrial god.
The blade was wedged into the serrations of the weapon, and the caustic liquid inside the serrations sprayed out and poured onto the broken sword. The white light and gray liquid on the surface of the broken sword corroded each other, making a sizzling sound.
Qingfeng gritted his teeth and held the sword, stepping on one of the reptilian extraterrestrial gods' forelimbs with his right foot, forcefully pressing it to the spot.
A human warrior emerged from under Qingfeng's armpit.
He had no legs, so he used his elbows to support himself and climbed along the city bricks until he reached the abdomen of the reptilian extraterrestrial god.
Switch the broken knife to the reverse hand, blade facing upwards, and stab it through the gaps between the abdominal mouthparts.
The tip of the blade pierced through the first layer of the law skin, and then he smashed it upwards with the broken handle, the entire blade sinking into his abdominal sac.
The insectoid god from beyond the realm let out a high-frequency hiss, its abdominal mouthparts all exploding, spraying gray marrow onto the faces of the human warriors.
The human warrior continued stabbing with his eyes closed, the broken blade twisting half a turn inside his abdomen.
The reptilian extraterrestrial god's limbs twitched and curled into a ball, its law-based body collapsing from the inside, becoming a pile of gray empty shells.
The human warrior crawled out from beneath the empty shell. His face was covered in gray marrow, and a layer of skin had been burned off his lips by the causal fluid.
He wiped his face, grinned at Qingfeng, and said, "What did I say? You can crawl and fight even with your hands."
A gentle breeze pulled him up.
Since the human warriors had no legs and couldn't stand, they used the hilts of their broken swords to brace themselves against the city bricks, suspending their upper bodies in mid-air.
The other two extraterrestrial gods, moving in unison, had already rushed to within ten steps of the battlement.
The two extraterrestrial gods' battle tactics were perfectly synchronized.
The one on the left is responsible for frontal suppression. When its arms are spread out, it transforms into two rectangular bone shields, the edges of which are covered with sharp causal teeth.
The one on the right is hiding behind a shield, weaving causal runes in the void with his hands. Each time he weaves a row of runes, he attaches one to the shield. The causal teeth on the bone shield grow longer and longer as the runes accumulate.
The two bone shields joined together and pushed forward from the front. Due to the high-speed rotation of the cauldrons on the shields, fragments of city bricks were swept in and turned into powder. As they advanced, a dust wave composed of gray debris was formed in front of the shields.
Gongsun Bao stood in the center of the battlement. His broken sword was held horizontally in front of him, and he called out in a hoarse voice, "Bow!"
Although the hundred Heavenly Dao Repairing Bows of the archery battalion behind them had lost the blessing of the Heavenly Dao Repairing Technique, the bowstrings were still intact.
The archers drew iron arrows from their quivers. The iron arrowheads were not illuminated by white light, but the arrowheads still bore the remnants of the golden patterns of the Path of All Beings left from the previous volley of arrows.
One hundred iron arrows were released at the same time, and the rain of arrows struck the bone shield. The gold patterns on the arrowheads exploded, breaking off most of the serrated edges on the shield.
The remaining arrow shafts got stuck in the cracks in the shield, momentarily halting the bone shield's advance.
Taking advantage of the pause, Gongsun Bao leaped into the air, raised his broken sword above his head, and slashed down from the blind spot directly above the bone shield.
The Bone Shield God from beyond the realm raised his head and shield to block, but Gongsun Bao's broken sword struck the causal teeth on the edge of the Bone Shield, breaking off another piece.
The sword tip flew off, leaving only half its original length. Gongsun Bao didn't stop; he gripped the broken half of the sword and thrust it into the side of the bone shield.
The sword pierced through the gap in the shield, penetrating the wrist joint of the outer god who held the shield.
The hand holding the shield lost its grip and loosened, causing one side of the bone shield to tilt. The left portal opened wide.
"Attack the left!" Gongsun Bao roared.
He didn't need to shout a second time.
The infantry battalion in the rear had already rushed into the gap on the left, following the tilt of the bone shields.
The infantry battalion had no magical artifacts or Taoist arts. Each soldier had a different weapon: some had short swords, some had axes, some had spears, and some simply used broken city bricks as stone hammers.
But these weapons have one thing in common: all of them bear the last trace of white light left behind by the Heavenly Dao Repairing Technique before it dissipated.
The white light was insufficient to launch a law-based attack, but it pushed the physical sharpness of these weapons to the extreme.
More than thirty weapons simultaneously smashed into the gap on the left side of the bone shield, and the left arm and left shoulder of the Bone Shield God were shattered at the same moment.
The shield-wielding extraterrestrial god's body began to disintegrate from the left side, and the bone shield fell to the ground and shattered into causal liquid.
The other extraterrestrial god who was composing runes lost the shield wall and was exposed less than three steps in front of Gongsun Bao.
Just as the extraterrestrial god finished weaving the last row of runes with his right hand, before he could even strike it out, Gongsun Bao's broken sword had already pierced his right wrist.
The broken sword severed the meridians of the wrist, and the entire right hand was severed from the wrist, with thick gray liquid gushing from the cut.
The extraterrestrial god raised his left hand, intending to continue drawing runes with his fingertips, but Gongsun Bao stepped on his severed hand that had fallen to the ground, crushing the still-twitching knuckles with the sole of his shoe.
"I'll let you make this up."
Gongsun Bao struck again with his sword at the law node on his left shoulder, causing the body of the extraterrestrial god of the rune domain to crack from the shoulder down, with rune fragments scattered all over the ground.
Gongsun Bao sheathed his sword, turned around, and shouted down towards the city wall, "This route is cleared out, who's coming next?"
A thunderous roar erupted from the city wall.
The breathing of ten thousand people became heavy under the suppression of the laws of the outer territory, and each exhale carried the smell of blood.
But the smell of blood did not deter them in the slightest.
Su Fan stood at the edge of the crack.
The second axe strike he unleashed was still burning on the dividing line, the azure power of creation preventing the crack from closing.
The man in black robes stood at one end of the crack, his hands tucked into the edge of the crack, and causal fluid kept gushing out from his sleeves.
The three-foot gap between him and Su Fan was like a knife's edge, with each side holding its own position.
"Your close-quarters combat is indeed quite tough."
The black-robed man's voice came through the crack, "But these extraterrestrial gods are just the first batch of expendable resources, used to hold off your first wave of attacks."
"Every soldier behind you is fighting for their lives, fighting until they are completely exhausted. But I still have many more comrades behind me."
Su Fan did not turn around. He could feel the city wall behind him, and every soldier on the wall was fighting for their lives against the extraterrestrial god.
Nezha's spear tip traced gleaming silver arcs through the dark red mist. The gold patterns on the broken sword had dimmed by half after repeated slashes. The human warrior used the broken sword to support his body as he crawled forward, his trousers dragging on the ground, leaving a trail of broken bloodstains.
Gongsun Bao pulled the broken sword from the chest of an extraterrestrial god, and before he could catch his breath, he was already facing the next one.
The archers' iron arrows were embedded in the gray fog of the outer territory. The shafts were corroded by the causal liquid and rotted into powder one by one, but new arrows kept coming in, without a single round of stopping.
A force of 10,000 men fighting against 26 or 27 extraterrestrial gods seems like a case of overwhelming numbers.
However, the extraterrestrial gods do not consume physical strength, and their physical bodies can be reassembled even if they are shattered.
The flesh and blood of the primordial soldiers would lose a piece of flesh with every cut and a layer of skin with every claw strike.
The cloth strip on Qingfeng's right hand was soaked with blood in three layers. He tore off a piece of cloth from his clothes with his teeth, wrapped it with a new cloth strip, and then continued to grip his sword.
Gongsun Bao's shoulder was ripped open by the bone spurs of the extraterrestrial god, tearing from his shoulder blade all the way to his elbow. He rolled up his torn sleeve, tied the two ends of the wound with the sleeve, made a tight knot, and raised the broken sword with one hand to continue slashing.
Such injuries were increasing on the city wall every moment, and the number of figures surging out from the depths of the outer territory was also constantly increasing. Before the first batch of empty shells that fell had a chance to be swallowed by the gray mist, the second batch had already stepped over the empty shells and rushed up.
Su Fan gripped the Pangu Axe tightly. The will of the Path of All Beings continued to surge into his body from all directions, its power unstoppable.
The will may never cease, but the flesh and blood that bear that will will tire, weapons will chip, and bones will break.
"Laojun," Su Fan called out. His voice wasn't loud, but it pierced through the gray mist and landed on the ridge.
Yuanshi Tianzun opened his eyes.
The light on the whisk was almost extinguished. All one hundred and eight runes had burned away, and the last ray of light on the whisk's strands barely kept him sitting.
His white beard was covered in dried blood, while the fresh blood seeping from the corner of his mouth was still bright red. He responded, "I am still here."
"Could you lend me another law?"
"The Heavenly Dao Repair Technique has been exhausted. The golden patterns of the Dao of All Beings have also become ineffective in the outer territories. I now have no laws left to use."
"I don't want rules."
What do you want?
"I need you to keep watch over the depths of that territory behind the man in black robes. More and more extraterrestrial gods are pouring out of there, and I don't know how many are still inside."
Yuanshi Tianzun placed his whisk on his lap and remained silent for two breaths.
"I do not possess the Heavenly Eye. I cannot see that deep."
"No need for the Heavenly Eye," Su Fan said. "Use your Dao Heart to listen. The flow of laws within the outer realms will produce sounds. The Dao Heart can hear them."
Yuanshi Tianzun took the whisk from his lap and placed it in his palm. He closed his eyes, and the last wisp of clear light from the whisk moved from the whisk's strands to his brow.
A clear light seeped into the space between his brows, and then from there into his sea of consciousness. Deep within his sea of consciousness, his Dao Heart struck a blow in the darkness. After that, his Dao Heart began to listen.
Listen to the flow of laws within the outer territories.
The Primordial Celestial Venerable heard this. The laws within the outer realms are not static; they are flowing, circulating along certain fixed paths.
The center of the cycle is deep within the territory, in a place he cannot fathom.
That place was too deep, so deep that the Dao Heart could only grasp a vague outline. But that outline was large enough, larger than the Black Star, larger than the cage, larger than the Pillar of Chaos.
The interior of the outline is empty, and no laws flow within the void. At the center of the void is a well.
"There is a hollow," said Yuanshi Tianzun, his eyes closed and his voice extremely slow. "In the center of the hollow, there is a well. The well faces downwards."
"What's in the well?" Su Fan asked.
"I cannot hear you. The well is too deep. My Dao heart cannot reach it."
"That's enough." Su Fan looked away. "Knowing there's a well is enough."
He took a step forward, stepping over the crack he had cleaved himself.
His left foot trod on the territory of the outer domain, while his right foot remained in the remnants of the primordial world. He switched the Pangu Axe to his left hand, freeing his right hand to raise it towards the city wall behind him.
"Great Sage".
Sun Wukong squatted on the rooftop, his golden cudgel resting across his knees. His monkey eyes never left Su Fan. When Su Fan called him, he responded, "I'm here."
"I'll go to the other side of the crevice. You're in charge of the Southern Heavenly Gate."
"Do you know what's on the other side of the crack?" Sun Wukong took the golden cudgel off his knees.
"have no idea."
"There is that well."
"right."
There's something in the well.
"There should be."
Sun Wukong was silent for a moment. Then he slung his golden cudgel over his shoulder and stood up.
"You just said you'd use your life to chop it down next time. You mean you want to use your life to fill that well?"
Su Fan did not answer the question. He opened his right palm, where the dark gold scar from when he cut off his own palm was still embedded in the web between his thumb and forefinger.
He transferred the Pangu Axe from his left hand back to his right, gripped it tightly, and held the blade outwards.
"No matter who's in the well. I'll cut in and seal the crack. It doesn't matter if I can't get out. The Primordial One can't fall into the well."
"Bullshit." Sun Wukong's voice was calm, so calm it didn't sound like he was cursing. "When I, Old Sun, wreaked havoc in the Heavenly Palace, the Jade Emperor used the entire Lingxiao Palace to suppress me, and I didn't even have anyone block the gate. You want me to block the gate of my own people?"
Nezha cut in from the side. His spear tip was still dripping with the gray marrow of an extraterrestrial god, and blood was still seeping from the crack in his armor on his chest, which had been slapped open by a dark palm print.
After listening to Sun Wukong's words, he slammed the gun into the ground.
"The Great Sage is right. I disagree."
Su Fan turned his head to look at Nezha.
"I'm not asking you to block me. I'm asking you to guard the Southern Heavenly Gate. Extraterrestrial gods are still pouring out of the outer territories. If you don't let people through, the extraterrestrial gods outside the gate won't be able to enter the Primordial World. If you can't guard it, the Primordial World will cease to exist."
"Then what were you doing in the well?" Nezha asked.
"Find the source of the extraterritorial territories. The black-robed man transformed chaos into extraterritorial territories, and the power of all extraterritorial gods originates from this territory. The source is most likely that well. If there is anything in the well, it is the root of the extraterritorial laws."
"According to the rules, we can no longer fight them in these territories. The Primordial Laws are ineffective, the Golden Patterns of the Path of All Beings have been extinguished, and all ranged attacks are ineffective. You can only fight in close combat with your physical bodies."
"But close combat is too costly. The more we fight the extraterrestrial gods, the more they will appear. When your stamina runs out, they can replenish themselves indefinitely. To completely stop the influx of new extraterrestrial gods, I must nip it in the bud."
Su Fan said.
No one spoke on the city wall. Only the sounds of clashing weapons and the shattering of the extraterrestrial god's body could be heard.
Muffled thuds, sharp thuds, deep murmurs, and crisp sounds intertwined within the dark red mist.
Qingfeng pulled the broken sword from the shell of an extraterrestrial god. The cloth strip on his right hand was soaked with blood, dripping down. He shook the blood off his hand and spoke.
"You're going alone. You have no idea what's in the well."
"If you don't know, just chop. Whatever you chop, that's what it is."
"How much longer can the Pangu Axe last?" Qingfeng asked.
"I don't know." Su Fan looked down at the axe blade. White light, blue light, and golden patterns intertwined on the axe surface.
The white light had dimmed by four-tenths, the azure power of creation was still circulating in the middle, and the golden patterns held the last piece of the formation at the outermost edge. "It should be enough to hold out until the bottom of the well."
Qingfeng nodded and said nothing more. He switched the broken sword to his left hand, gripping it for the first time with his left hand, which had lost its bare hand.
His left hand was devoid of light, leaving only an empty sleeve. He used his right hand to wrap the sleeve three times around the hilt of the sword, biting it tightly with his teeth. The broken sword hung from the end of the empty sleeve.
"Even though I've lost my left hand, I can still stab with a sword wrapped in my sleeve. With your Pangu Axe in hand, one person is enough."
The human warrior crawled over from the edge of the rampart. He climbed on his elbows, reached Su Fan's feet, and tapped Su Fan's boot with the back of his broken sword.
"Even if I don't have legs, I can still crawl and fight. Even if you have nowhere to retreat, you can still hack and slash, right?"
Su Fan looked down at the human warrior. The human warrior's face was covered in ash marrow, and a layer of skin on his lips had been burned off by the causal liquid, revealing the swollen, red flesh underneath. He was smiling, very softly.
"Hit it with a chop," Su Fan replied with three words.
Gongsun Bao planted the broken sword in the ground and stood up straight, his hands gripping the hilt. He spoke in a hoarse voice, enunciating each word clearly.
"When Pangu separated heaven and earth, he was just one person. You are far inferior to Pangu, but you were chosen by us. When the will of ten thousand people was twisted into the will of all living beings, we stood on the city wall, and you twisted it for us. Now you go down the well for us, and we guard the gate for you. It's fair."
Su Fan looked at Gongsun Bao for a couple of breaths, then nodded.
"fair."
He turned to face the crack. The man in black robes was still bracing himself against the edge of the crack with his hands tucked in, his dark eye sockets reflecting the golden armor on Su Fan's body. He had heard everything Su Fan had said to everyone on the city wall.
"You're going down the well," the man in black said in a low voice.
"You know there's something in the well." Su Fan stared at him.
The man in black robes remained silent for a moment.
"Know."
"What is that?"
"I don't know its name. I only know that the power of the Dao of Cause and Effect comes entirely from it. Thirty thousand years ago, when my comrades entered the Chaos, I thought I was an invader. Later, I realized that was not true; I was merely a tool driven by it."
"So you're admitting that you're also subject to it?" Su Fan looked at him.
"I admit it." The man in the black robe said hesitantly.
"Since you were also controlled by it, why didn't you say so sooner?"
"Do you think you'd believe me if I told you? In the past 30,000 years, I have destroyed nine great realms, and each of them had guardians like you who forced me to retreat at the last moment."
"But none of them could change the outcome of my continued progress. Even if I told the truth, all the guardians would still fight to the death. Even if they fought to the very last moment, they still couldn't stop the power in the well from continuously reshaping the causal path."
"Then why are you saying it now?"
"Because the axe that cleaved into the crack was not the power of chaos, not the power of the Heavenly Dao, not the power of any law system."
The man in black robes paused for a moment.
"I have come to understand the source of this power. What you call the will of all living beings in the primordial world, I call the unknown, and the well has never absorbed the unknown."
Su Fan gripped the Pangu Axe tightly. He took the final step forward, crossing the rift and standing on the territory of the outer domain.
Beneath their feet was a dark red mist, above them a dark red sky, behind them a crack, beyond which lay the Southern Heavenly Gate, and above the Southern Heavenly Gate, the breathing of ten thousand people.
The man in black robes pulled his hands out from the edge of the crack. The crack began to close.
He withdrew all his causal fluid back into his body, using his last bit of strength to condense a barrier in the center of the crack.
"I will not stop you, but I cannot control what is in the well. They are both cause and effect, the highest form of extraterrestrial laws."
Su Fan walked past the man in black robes deeper into the territory. The dark red-gray mist parted automatically in front of him.
Nezha watched his figure disappear into the mist and then pulled the Fire-Tipped Spear from the ground.
"Great Sage, the boss went in alone."
Sun Wukong squatted on the roof ridge, his golden cudgel resting on his knees. He looked in the direction Su Fan had disappeared, his monkey eyes reflecting a dark red mist.
"I, Old Sun, know."
"What should we do?"
"Guard the gate." Sun Wukong's voice suddenly became serious when he said these two words.
He took the golden cudgel off his knees, slammed it against the roof ridge, and stood up. The aftershocks of the great calamity on his golden armor still danced on his fur. "I'll stay until he returns."
"What if he doesn't come back?" Nezha asked.
"If they can't come back, throw them into the well." Sun Wukong said these two words in a very low voice, so low that only Nezha could hear them.
The first wave of attacks from the extraterrestrial gods on the city wall had just been repelled.
The shattered shells of the laws piled up outside the stack, forming a grayish-white heap of remains.
The second wave of attacks followed closely behind, with even more extraterrestrial gods emerging from the depths of the territory, their forces doubling in size compared to the first wave.
Nezha held his spear horizontally in front of him, glanced at the dense outlines of extraterrestrial gods outside the ramparts, then at the sky where only dark red and gray mist remained after the crack disappeared, and took a deep breath of the thick air of the extraterrestrial territory.
The air was filled with the sour smell of caustic sourness, so sour it choked my throat.
"Let him guard the gate."
Nezha brandished his fire-tipped spear and charged down the rampart.