Chapter 606 - Gate of Ghosts - Part 3

Evening settled over the Eastern Sea.

The clouds split, and the sunset spilled through in a cascade of golden pillars.

“There’s too much spiritual energy in the air. It’s blocking some of the light,” the little crow said.

At this moment, Sheng’er no longer needed to hide the fact she could speak in crow form. In the Eastern Sea, demonic beasts with awakened intelligence were hardly rare.

Li Yuan tossed a golden nugget toward the innkeeper and said simply, “Room.”

The innkeeper scanned him quickly, eyes sharpening with recognition. He rushed forward with a flurry of bows, pushing the gold nugget back with both hands and speaking with deference.

“Senior, the local lord has already instructed all the inns in town. If you come to stay, we’re to offer only the best rooms, no charge. You must be an extraordinary figure. Please, this way.”

The little black crow perched on Li Yuan’s shoulder chuckled, “The rulers of these mortal kingdoms are all appointed by the sects. This message definitely came from the Arcane Supreme Sect.”

The innkeeper flinched as soon as the crow spoke. His face paled, and he lowered his head quickly, leading the way with more caution than before.

Now that so many demonic beasts had awakened spiritual intelligence, they often stirred up chaos. Travelers had to pay a steep price to hire cultivators for protection just to leave a city safely. And inside the city walls, if a demonic beast did appear, a stationed cultivator would act immediately to keep order.

Now here was a talking crow, clearly a demonic beast. How could he not be terrified?

Worse yet, part of him wondered if he had made a mistake. What if the local lord didn’t realize this man was consorting with a demonic beast? After all, in this land, humans and demonic beasts had always stood on opposite sides. The conflict ran deep.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

A short while later.

Li Yuan, freshly bathed and dressed, stepped outside his room.

Waiting at the door was an older man with ashen-red skin and neatly tied white hair. It was Zhu Ban.

“Father-in-law,” Li Yuan greeted.

Zha Ban bowed quickly, eyes full of reverence.

Back in the Central Capital, when he’d first heard that the one who wiped out the entire He Faction was named Li Yuan, he’d been shaken.

But it wasn’t until that morning, when he witnessed Li Yuan pluck a single lotus petal from the air and hurl it down to annihilate an army, that he truly understood.

His son-in-law had ascended to a realm beyond human comprehension. A level he could never have imagined in his wildest dreams.

Just earlier, he’d spoken with Ping'an and learned that two of the cultivators who tried to block their path that morning were among the top thirteen strongest in the entire Eastern Sea’s Immortal Domain.

That revelation left him speechless.

Memories of past events came flooding back, stringing themselves together with alarming clarity.

And with that came a sobering realization. The young man before him was likely far older than he looked. A true ancient monster. A hidden hand that had long been pulling strings in the mortal world.

“All the arrangements I made back then,” Li Yuan said gently, “were only due to the pressure of circumstance. You don’t hold it against me, do you?”

Suppressing the fear in his heart, Zhu Ban replied quickly, “No...no, of course not.”

Li Yuan smiled. “You don’t need to be so formal. You’re my father-in-law, and my teacher too. I’ll always treat you with the respect of a senior. If you’re free later, how about we share a few drinks?”

Zhu Ban could see the sincerity in his eyes. Though he didn’t quite believe that

teacher

bit, he still nodded and said, “Alright. Let’s drink.”

Later that night, beneath the full moon glowing like a silver plate in the sky, the two sat drinking together.

The wine wasn’t of immortal make, but it carried the flavor of the mortal world, earthy, raw, and honest.

Li Yuan and Zhu Ban sipped slowly, chatting about the wine’s taste and comparing notes with the kind of relaxed curiosity shared between old acquaintances.

Ping'an sat beside them at the table, quietly taking in the conversation.

At another table nearby, Meng Xingxian, Han Feng, and Ying Zhuoyao sat together.

One crow lounged on the roof. Another perched on Li Yuan’s shoulder.

And farther off still, Zhu Ban’s disciples gathered at a round table of their own, stealing glances at the young-looking man in the center of it all, some full of curiosity, others of awe, and all of them carrying emotions too complex to name.

As the drinks continued to flow, the little black crow leaned close to Li Yuan and whispered, “The innkeeper just sent a servant to the local authorities, seems he’s trying to report us for harboring a demonic beast.”

Li Yuan nodded faintly, showing no reaction.

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Elsewhere, the servant ran through the night to the city office and filed a report. The officials immediately began arranging for cultivators to arrest the group. After all, exterminating demonic beasts was state policy, one zealously enforced by the immortal sects.

But once they learned that the current guests had been personally arranged for by the kingdom’s ruler, everything ground to a halt. The magistrate, having spent half the night verifying the details, flew into a rage.

He shouted at the waiting bailiffs, “I don’t care if they brought one demonic beast or a thousand. You didn’t see a damn thing. Got it? Now get moving and make that clear to everyone else!”

The bailiff, still nursing his scolding, stormed out and snapped at the servant. “Get lost!”

“But sir,” the servant said, panicked, “that crow can talk!”

“You heard wrong,” the bailiff growled.

“I didn’t! I swear I didn’t! It

talked

. It’s definitely a demonic beast!”

The bailiff drew his blade and pressed it against the boy’s neck. “Say that again.”

The servant gulped. “I...I heard wrong...”

“There was no demonic beast. It’s fake. All of it’s fake.”

The servant, though trembling, was quick on the uptake. His eyes lit up with sudden understanding, and he rubbed his hands together nervously. “Then...then who exactly was that man?”

The bailiff pointed to the sky. “Figure it out. Now get out of here.”

The servant’s eyes went wide with realization. He bowed repeatedly in thanks, then scampered off without another word.

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Meanwhile, the little crow reported everything back to Li Yuan.

Li Yuan was left speechless. He didn’t like the authorities’ reaction, this trembling deference, this impulse to look to the heavens and bow. He had never wanted to become one of those people who made others point skyward in fear. And yet...it seemed he had become exactly that.

After a moment, he asked, “Are demonic beasts really so rampant these days? So feared?”

Ping'an, seated nearby, replied, “Humans and demonic beasts have always had a blood feud. Once the beasts gained intelligence, all they could think about was revenge. After generations, the hatred has become something that can’t be resolved.”

Li Yuan asked, “Then who’s the strongest among them?”

“There are six kings,” said Ping'an. “The Golden Wasp King, Black Ram King, Ghost Gate King, Silver Wolf King, Great Ape King, and Giant Toad King. All six made it to the third rank through various encounters and lucky breaks. They’re likely still in the early stages, either first or second stage.”

Li Yuan raised a brow. “The Ghost Gate King? What’s that?”

“It’s said that this demonic beast accidentally stumbled onto the path of the Earth Soul. It can summon a strange ghost gate. Through that gate...” Ping'an paused, thinking, then continued, “They say all sorts of animal-shaped ghosts walk out of it. Ghosts in beast form.”

Li Yuan narrowed his eyes. “So...when animals die, are they still reborn as animals?”

Ping'an shook his head. He had no answer for that. The truth about reincarnation remained a mystery, even to the immortals.

But then something else came to mind. “There was an elder from the Arcane Gold Hall who once faced off against the Ghost Gate King. He said that during the fight, he accidentally looked directly into the gate. And what he saw was a road, a long, endless road. All those ghost beasts had come from the far end of it.”

Strangely, the elder from the Arcane Gold Hall claimed that at the end of that ghostly road, he saw the silhouette of a person.

But as that figure walked down the path and emerged from the ghost gate...it had become one of those twisted beast ghosts.

Li Yuan’s gaze darkened in thought.

That description stirred a strange memory, something from before he crossed into this world. It was the Beast Path, one of the Six Paths of Reincarnation.

In that belief system, a human soul, after being judged in the underworld, could be sent to one of Six Paths. The Beast Path was one of them, where a human spirit, upon entering, would transform into an animal and return to the world in that form.

Only, in those tales, the spirit didn’t walk directly out of some haunted gate.

Still, it was close enough to pique his interest in this so-called Ghost Gate King.

𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

Next, he asked about the Black Ram King.

That name tugged at a certain Lovecraftian instinct in him, something dark and ritualistic about black goats.

But after hearing the details, he was relieved. This Black Ram wasn’t some

Black Goat of the Woods

horror. Rather, it took the form of a female spirit rider on a sheep, and was known not for fertility rites or madness, but for its hypnotic powers.

Like the Ghost Gate King, it too had somehow stumbled into the path of the Earth Soul.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

A day later.

News of the battle at the air harbor had already spread like wildfire.

“What?! That Li Yuan bloomed a red lotus in his palm and with just one petal crushed an assault involving Fire and Earth Hall Masters and multiple spirit town lords?!”

“The Fire and Earth Hall Masters didn’t fight back at all? The missing Cui Huayin has reappeared?”

“He didn’t go straight to the Arcane Supreme Sect, but instead stopped at an inn in some mortal kingdom?!”

The major powers across the realm buzzed with speculation.

And as hours turned to days, the storm only grew. Word of the incident spread farther and wider.

Some were filled with awe. Others with doubt. Still others sneered with disdain.

In a realm steeped in deception and schemes, the truly powerful never took anything at face value. They lived by the rule,

What you hear is false until proven otherwise.

Even so, their curiosity had been well and truly hooked.

Wave after wave of people began making their way toward the mortal kingdom.

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Skygale Sect, Mount Jade Cloud.

Two women, one poised and elegant, the other a striking red-clad swordswoman, opened their eyes inside a chamber brimming with spiritual energy.

They had heard the name Li Yuan. A name neither of them could avoid.

At the Arcane Wood Hall, Cui Huayin had just returned Ping’an’s abode.

She, too, had heard the news.

But for most of the women, aside from Yao Jue, their last memory of Li Yuan remained frozen at the moment of their parting.

To suddenly hear his name again now, wrapped in rumors of terrifying power, left them stunned, confused, even suspicious. Was it someone else with the same name?

But when Yao Jue finally came clean, Cui Huayin chased her long-legged junior across the courtyard, swinging a blade and shouting, “You little brat!”

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

Storm clouds were gathering. The wind was already rising.

And Li Yuan? He left the mortal town behind and continued onward, slow and unhurried, toward the next place on his path.

Falling leaves drifted to greet the carriage as it rolled along.

Spring and autumn existed even in the Immortal Domain. In the end, it was just another world full of people.