Chapter 401 - 397: Auric Sea, Gateway Door
Tuo Bihan’s dark expression became twisted, his eyes revealed a rare flame of rage as he stared at the San Emperor’s group. His spiritual aura erupted in a ferocious explosion, causing the expressions of everyone present to change, even the San Clan’s elders beside the San Emperor. They subconsciously took a step back behind their Emperor for safety.
"Grand Sage Tuo, there’s no need for such anger, is there?" The voice of the San Emperor carried a unique charm of a King, someone who ruled over trillions for millennia. It was as if nothing could disturb his calm, that nothing could escape his gaze.
Tuo Bihan’s eyes radiated intense spiritual light, but his spiritual aura and pressure wasn’t capable of being released due to the Auric Sea’s unique environment. After a while, he calmed his raging aura. It took him a few breaths to regain himself.
"How did you know about the Gateway?" He calmly asked. The Gateway Door was a unique opportunity for their juniors to explore the unknown, face a trial to obtain benefits that might elevate their talent or future potential. It was boundlessly important, but with the San Clan’s actions, he was worried that the limited spots for the Spatial Entrance had been used. This was why he had erupted in rage after learning about the news of the other party.
San Emperor’s misty veil remained unchanged. One of his companions stepped forward with a faint smug smile, "Is there anything that can escape His Majesty’s notice. The Tri-Vision Starfield holds no secrets that the San Clan is unaware of."
"..." Everyone was silent. While the disciples were curious about what was happening, the leaders’ expressions were unsightly and somewhat fearful. This was something that had been kept under wraps for so long in the most thorough fashion with the most hellish of Spirit Oaths that held absolutely no loopholes. They had even detained everyone who initially found the Gateway Door’s entrance, leaving no hole for leakage.
While the Elemental Heaven Pavilion had told the Alchemist Association, the Association had already ’knew’ about the matter beforehand. But as a neutral force, an Alchemic Organization, they didn’t carry a hint of desire to risk the lives of their talented juniors to excavate materials that would inevitably make their way into their hands. After all, they were the richest force in the starfield.
Most materials discovered would be too volatile anyway to directly refine, likely forcing the others to send them these materials to refine into alchemical products suitable for cultivators. They had utterly no need to invest anything, so they acted as a mediator after the Elemental Heaven Pavilion discovered this fact. Tuo Bihan was entirely wrong with his original assumption that they wanted most spots, but he lacked that their ambitions were elsewhere and far away, not limited to just this starfield.
Still, they decided to send a few juniors for some reason...
Tuo Bihan scoffed at those words, but he didn’t say anything else. His eyes flashed with radiant light as he inspected the Gateway Door, ensuring that the spatial entrance was still present. When he investigated its state, he was startled. It was still active and unsealed.
A wisp of joy was soon birthed within his heart. The spatial entrance was still usable. This could mean the secret realm belonged to a training grounds, trials, or a world realm meant for descendants. Either case, this relaxed his nerves greatly.
The San Emperor’s voice resounded, "I have no intention of stopping you in sending your juniors in. I’ve only sent in a hundred myself, and after inspection of the Spatial Entrance, it only allows three thousand members maximum before it seals itself from allowing more."
Tuo Bihan, Qingye Yun, and Lin Ruyan’s eyes brightened. They were unsure about the exact details of the Gateway Door yet the San Emperor seemed to have gleaned details beyond their own means. Even Tuo Bihan had investigated the Gateway Door but to no avail, only discovering the life-restriction formation that was present, preventing those of a certain age from entering.
Thus they could only narrow down that it was likely a trial, training ground, or world realm for descendants set up by an ancient expert. This left them excited. They had limited the spots because they couldn’t determine how many would actually be allowed in, using the past standard used by ancient experts for trials.
They had seemingly sent just enough. This was a fated event, with the disciples of the Myriad Monarch Sect, Elemental Heaven Pavilion, and Alchemist Association being short by a hundred or so. This caused them to be extremely startled, their eyes only now revealing shock and disbelief as they simultaneously looked to the San Emperor.
Could he really know all the secrets within the starfield somehow?!
If he sent just enough to fill the gap with that intention, that would suggest a level of foresight into their intentions and awareness of the Gateway Door’s limitations. This was truly concerning. But this still gave them a numerical advantage, so they soon calmed down. Even Tuo Bihan had to reassess the San Emperor, no longer considering him as ’just’ a False Realmlord.
"Enough, let’s go." A voice sounded, one that didn’t lack a single iota of charm in comparison to the San Emperor. Wei Wuyin flew beside Tuo Bihan, his silver eyes sweeping the three groups. "The longer we wait, the greater their advantage." When he spoke, the world listened.
Tuo Bihan took a breath and nodded, "Everyone, ready!" He turned to the disciples and shouted, causing their hearts that were still shaking due to the San Emperor’s presence to harden abruptly. They were now tense and filled with anticipation.
Qingye Yun faintly smiled. While Qingye Ying’s issue wasn’t resolved by Wei Wuyin, the Alchemist Association was already his subordinate to the world. He, too, gave the orders to prepare for his limited numbers. Amongst these numbers were an ordinary looking female elf that wasn’t particularly pretty. He glanced at her for a moment, but swiftly retracted his gaze.
Lin Ruyan could feel the shift, so she too acted. She organized her members as they readied themselves.
Tuo Bihan spoke, glancing at the idle San Emperor for a brief moment, "The Gateway Door is a spatial entrance that leads to a self-created man-made realm that likely houses its own unique environment. We can tell its habitable by living existences, but there are things we can’t perceive: It’s dangers and reactions to individuals sent within. We do not know if it will bring you all to the same location or spread you far away. Whatever it does, you should seek out the aid of your companions if its within your ability.
"As for exiting the realm, every realm has numerous exits that lead outside. If its a trial, you might be brought out upon failure by an autonomous lifeform; if its a World Realm, then it’s up to you to find the exit. As long as the entrance remains, there will be an exit. Furthermore, if ten years eclipses without any sign of your exit, I will rip open an entrance forcefully and send in a special Void Gate. Find it, then use it to escape." As a Realmlord, Tuo Bihan could forcefully send in non-animate objects if he was willing to lose a portion of his cultivation base.
"I won’t tell you what you should do. Use your intelligence to figure it out, act as you will." Tuo Bihan said this solemnly, his eyes sweeping across the faces of all the Myriad Monarch Sect disciples. "With the dangers unknown, you could lose your life. If you wish to step away, no one will blame you or feel you’re a coward."
"..." No one said anything in response, just revealing their steel-like gazes of determination.
With a proud smile, Tuo Bihan nodded. "Then, I’ll open the Gateway Door." He turned away, facing an empty space that the others had hoarded around. With a breath, he used the palms of his hands to face the empty space.
Psssst!
A fizzling sound erupted suddenly. No one could see what Tuo Bihan was doing, but a reaction was happening.
Wei Wuyin’s Celestial Eyes could see clearly what was happening, seeing that the Gateway Door was hidden behind the folds of space between this layer and the artificially created layer of the man-made realm. Tuo Bihan wasn’t using Spatial Force to evoke this change, but actively emitting a form of invisible gravitational force that seemed to interact with the Gateway.
It was distorting the space present, forcing the Gateway to reveal itself. There was no wonder Gravity Emission Phase experts were present in vast numbers. But Tuo Bihan was a Realmlord, his level of Gravitation Forces were beyond their level. What they needed to accomplish with a unified effort, the San Emperor and Tuo Bihan could do alone.
It’s likely that even if the Alchemist Association and Elemental Heaven Pavilion had arrived a hundred days sooner, they might not have enough power to bring out the Gateway Door. This was probably why Tuo Bihan panicked hearing they arrived a day earlier, even coming himself.
If he counted the Sixth Stage experts present, there were eight. There were three from the Myriad Monarch Sect, three from the Elemental Heaven Pavilion, and two from the Alchemist Association. It seemed at least eight experts were prepared to act in concert.
Fortunately, Tuo Bihan had taken it upon himself to act.
Psst! Psst! Psst!
The fizzling sound became even more apparent, but after a few moments longer, it revealed itself. The entire audience of disciples present were thoroughly shocked! They wondered why their leaders often referred to spatial entrances of realms as Gateway Doors, but when they saw it, they finally knew!
It was a door.
An actual door!!
It was roughly ten meters high and four meters wide, rectangular in shape and seemed to have black-colored handles that could be pulled towards them. It was misty white with faint ghostly silver light circulating through its edges. The door itself was greyish, leaning towards the lighter shade.
It faintly looked like a mixture of glass and wood, being semi-translucent with the natural marks of age that would be left on wood, but these marks glowed with faint multi-colored light. It was exquisitely odd, floating in mid-air as if it was connected to nothing but also everything.
"It seems like a door to the world..." A disciple couldn’t help but say, baffled and awestruck by the sight of the door. This impression was the thought that emerged in the minds of everyone present, even Wei Wuyin felt the same.
With his Celestial Eyes, this was even more so. He could see that it was linked to a multi-diverse tunneling network that went into places unknown. But from this, he could tell that entering would likely mean that they would be randomly sent through one of these tunnels of space and arrive at different areas of the realm. This was soon confirmed as the tunnels started to become smaller, like human-sized tubes and split into exactly three thousand tunnels like a division of cells. Furthermore, roughly a hundred of these tunnels had become dim and lacked specks of silver light that dotted the others.
While he was the only one to discover this, his heart started to wildly beat, causing an intense physical pain throughout his entire body as if he was having a heart attack He showed no outward expression change as he interacted with Kratos. But when he did, he felt a surge of intense emotions surge through his mind.
The screams of those within the Auric Sea...
They had become even louder, even more painful, even more hellish and unbearably savage.
The left side of his upper lips and lower part of his nose twitched, feeling extremely disturbed by this knowledge. Unable to do anything at present, he could only ask Eden to console Kratos’ thoughts as he held back his urge to do something reckless.
"..."
Tuo Bihan let loose a long breath after retrieving his hands, "Go! The Gateway Door does not open in a conventional way, simply walk through. May your fortune be great, your gains bountiful." With these final words and inspection ensuring the passage safety, he glanced at the San Emperor who remained a silent existence. He had a faint feeling that this expedition might have more to it than meets the eye. If it wasn’t for Wei Wuyin’s words, he might have considered throwing away this opportunity.
But knowing the San Emperor had already sent individuals in only reaffirms that it was likely extremely beneficial and special, including safer than expected. He hoped Wei Wuyin could grasp whatever opportunities lay within.
The first young disciple soon moved!