Guo Long frowned.
"If he enters a gate, it will be months before he gets back out and the chances of him dying are high. His Sword Aura is still weak, and so is his body making it unstable." Guo Long said, "If we send him through an Asura Gate, he may not return. Perhaps a Beast Gate?"
An Asura Gate? Beast Gate?
Shou Xin drew up blanks.
He was never taught this, or heard of it.
Noticing this, Elder Yu headed down stairs, gesturing for them to follow.
"Before I answer that question, you should know your plan went well. With the subsidiary heads dead, those clansmen you had run away managed to go to all of the safehouses and spies, detaining or killing."
"My Shouai Merchant Armada also fulfilled it's duty and easily rounded up all of the stragglers who would have been left of the clans. With their heads dead it was a simple task, however, the remaining Patriarchs seem to have gone into 'hiding'."
Naturally, Shou Xin understood the truth.
During that one month of training ceaselessly with Elder Yu, he had made various plans to be carried out.
His forces within the town would spread out after, 'running away', and cleanse it in the chaos.
Guo Long's forces would go out and subdue the unknowing lands without many warriors left behind, and with no way to know of the failure in town, they would be unprepared.
Amidst all of this, those fourth chain patriarchs… were disappeared by a mysterious sword immortal.
"Cut the tree and pull the roots." Elder Yu sighed, "It is a tragedy that such a young man must be so cruel."
"It is the way of the world." Guo Long shook his head.
Arriving at the main floor, tea had already been prepared by the shadow workers who never showed themselves alongside chairs.
"Gates." Guo Long said as he raised his cup, shooting Elder Yu a look.
He took a sip.
"Yes, gates. They are tears left by the Endless Path when it first arrived at this world. A sort of hidden pocket dimension with strange and dangerous laws of reality. This does not mean that in some places, a sword cut is not a sword cut, but rather that a sword cut may have it's Sword Aura weakened by the conditions within, or one's Law may be sealed whilst inside. It does not change fundamentals." Elder Yu lowered his cup.
"Among these are different names. To say the most common, there are the Asura Gate whose skies are filling with killing intent and the earth is made of bloodthirst from all the corpses laid within, it is plagued by strange demons. The Beast Gate, which is filled with all forms of dangerous flaura and fauna able to kill a Law Enforcement Expert in a single bite."
"Challenge Gates are also common, despite being the highest casualty rating. Within, it is a land that is constantly changing as though one is passing through a different gate every week, and one must survive through the random conditions."
"You challenged one?" Guo Long stared at Elder Yu seemingly shocked.
Elder Yu nodded.
"My Tai School has a Challenge Gate in its center. Every Elder of the Tai School must defeat the Challenge Gate in order to earn the title of Elder."
"Hm!" Guo Long raised his cup to toast and Elder Yu gladly took it though he looked as though his mind was on the horrors he experienced, but it was brief as he smiled quite kindly.
"These gates are not formed, but rather revealed. They exist all around us. Within Shouai there are many as they are littered across the lands, though many are terribly weak, or horrifyingly powerful."
They suddenly stopped speaking as the doors opened.
"Now, now, why did you stop?" A figure floated over the room swirling about smilingly, "It was just getting interesting, wasn't it? Aren't you going to tell him? He's dying to know!"
"Vienna."
"Ah!"
"...Master." Shou Xin grit his teeth, squeezing out the words, "What is it."
"Oh, oh! My disciple is so kind, it makes me shiver." Vienna swirled above like a haunting ghost, "I just came to check on you now that you were awake, and here I find you all talking about such an interesting thing without me! Now then…"
"Stop!" Elder Yu slammed his cup into the table.
Vienna's pupils flashed.
"Why? Are you afraid of him knowing?" Vienna landed in the middle of the table Elder Yu looked incredibly angry, "There is a gate so close by, you know?"
Shou Xin looked at Vienna coldly, but was intrigued.
"He will die." Guo Long said coldly.
"Is there any reason then, to hide it from him? If he chooses to go, it will be his fate." Vienna smiled slyly, "Do you not believe in him? I do."
"You know that is not the case!" Guo Long raised his voice slightly.
"Despite knowing how desperate the boy is, you still do this and call yourself his Master. Disgusting." Elder Yu replied in a low furious tone.
"Hahaha, you all are so dreadfully fun. If he seeks out death, then let him peek beyond the veil," Vienna turned to Shou Xin who feeling lost, "There is a powerful gate. One that is like an entire world, it has everything you currently need, enough resources to build a nation."
"Enough strength to destroy a few." Guo Long cut in, "A Demon Gate of such strength should be left alone. The last lord of this place sought to challenge it and caused a disaster which rocked the town."
"It lies beneath the town, a Demon Gate of high level. Within it are resources enough to create powerful formations and raise even your weak self to at least the seventh chain within a few months, at most." Vienna rolled his eyes, "It would even be able to bring even you to Law Reinforcement within a few years."
"Enough!" Elder Yu's beard raised as his sQi was barely restrained, "The Young Master is not-!"
"I will do it."
Vienna let out an eerie laugh as he kicked off the table, flying through the air on it as though a person floating at the top of a calm current.
"See?" Vienna's grin reached ear to ear, "The boy himself wants it, come!"
With a flick of his wrist, Shou Xin vanished from the table.
—
As though his organs had switched places back and back again, Shou Xin vomited out his insides as he appeared in a large underground cavern.
"Dreadful as always, the Demon Realm."
Shou Xin wiped his mouth and looked up.
"This place doesn't know well the inner working of the Endless Dao, nor the Great Path they are beneath, not at all." Vienna's words rang like a low rolling thunder in his ears.
"There are countless realms, all of them fighting for supremacy in order to get the largest share of resources they plunge themselves into the Chaos. These gates are the residual tears in time and space caused by them in their searches through the Chaos, creating rifts which takes one to alien worlds, abandoned colonies, or even their true worlds."
Vienna, who was shocking talkative, appeared just behind Shou Xin who had just straightened himself out.
"I'll take care of everything for you."
Shou Xin felt a force on his back and he shot forward!
He turned back mid-air, only to see Vienna's ever motionless grin, his gaze like an insatiable blaze.
A shadow shot from the walls!
"Wuqing, don't!" Shou Xin screamed!
He didn't know how she got here, but he was certain of one thing.
He could not allow her to come!
In an instant, he drew Fukkatsu, but the pull of the Demon Gate was far too powerful, cucking away the Qi he sought to use to forcefully blow her away!
Umph!
She slammed into him, her lips making words with no noise which he could not hear, but Vienna seemed to understand.
—
"Ack!" Shou Xin let out a hard breath as his chest heaved, the earth beneath him felt brittle and rigid whilst the winds in the place cut his skin almost constantly though his Primeval Body Art managed to keep up with healing.
His eyes widened as he came to his senses.
"Wuqing!" He got up quickly and shouted!
They were in a large, cracked plains.
The land seemed to be floating in chunks, each one a little farther away than the next as well as larger or smaller, little floating rocks and bits inbetween the islands.
"Mm…mm…?"
His head turned so fast, he almost hurt his neck.
"Wuqing…" Walking over to the sleeping figure, he took a knee and began checking her for any injuries, yet as his hands reached her, she grabbed him her eyes flying open as she pulled him down.
"You bastard!" She shouted wrathfully.
"What?" Shou Xin's eyes were wide as he tried to grasp what was happening.
"You almost died after telling me not to worry! I hate liars." Feng Wuqing's gorilla like strength seemed to want to crush him, but at the same time, felt warm.
She slowly released after the initial grab, and Shou Xin slid off to the side, laying beside her and staring at the blood red sky, clouds of beasts flying above.
"Wait a minute." Shou Xin's pupils shrank, "Beasts!"
He grabbed Wuqing and hurled himself and her into a nearby crack which was less than accommodating, causing them to crush together, yet neither had time to be embarrassed as a massive pressure descended from above as the seemingly endless flight of beasts passed overhead.
Neither of them dared to even breathe.