Wait a minute, where is my master?

In the midst of Five Dragon Mountain, trees concealed the sky with a dazzling array.

Outside a cave, a small Daoist clad in dark cyan robes, with a striking appearance, was in conversation.

A deep voice rang out.

"You've arrived?"

Jin Xu's clear voice responded.

"I've arrived."

"You shouldn't have come."

"But I'm already here."

"What have you come for?"

"I've come to save someone."

"Save whom?"

"Save the one who needs to be saved."

"Who needs to be saved?"

"Are you going to open up or not?"

Jin Xu was losing patience with the Bronze Gate before him, his right hand crackling with Golden Thunderbolt.

If breaking this door would not also possibly kill Zhao Qian inside the cave, he would have blasted this door with his power long ago.

"Calm down, little Daoist master. The old man's Life Soul inside the cave is bound with me; if I break, he won't survive either!"

The Bronze Gate, witnessing the small Daoist conjuring another Hand Palm Thunder, lost its previous deep tone and urgently reminded, its expressionless bronze features somehow conveying panic.

"Then tell me, how can the door be opened!"

Jin Xu raised his right hand, gently waving it in front of the door. He had used his Spiritual Sense to probe, and found an invisible black line connecting this door, and even the entire cave, with Zhao Qian inside.

If he had been certain it would work, he would have already tried to force his way into the cave from another direction.

"Little Daoist master, haven't I told you? Just win this game of chess and I will naturally open," said the door as he glanced at the chessboard on the short tree stump to the right of the cave entrance.

The Bronze Gate was just as clueless; where did this ancestor come from in the wilderness?

Ever since it gained consciousness, it had been deep in slumber in the depths of Changbai Mountain. Thousands of years ago, it was inexplicably pulled from the mountain by a man shrouded in black energy.

From then, it became the grand entrance of what that man called the Divine Sect.

However, a millennium ago, the man wrapped in black energy was sealed, and it too was removed from being the Divine Sect's door, and taken elsewhere.

But it didn't care much; after all, it was just a door. What difference did it make where it lay dormant?

Then, a few days ago, that little girl teleported it here to guard the entrance of such a cave, and even intentionally connected the old man's Life Soul inside with itself.

What nonsense, using such a precaution to guard a cultivator of merely the Nascent Soul Realm in the wilderness? Did they underestimate the door's strength?

However, right now, all it wanted to say was — well played!

If it weren't for this precaution, it might be only a frame by now.

Having slumbered for so long, had the Nine Provinces Realm's Spiritual Energy revived? The fluctuations of Spiritual Power emanating from that small Daoist, along with the Golden Thunder in his hands, were almost comparable to the man who forcibly pulled it out all those years ago.

Being pitted against such a formidable adversary, the Bronze Gate was already considering whether it should find a new home to guard.

Nevertheless, it had to stand firm for now, diligently performing its duty. Since it had agreed to guard this cave, it had to do so properly.

This was the way of the Bronze Gate, and it could not be violated.

Hearing the words of the door before him, Jin Xu gazed at the chessboard and fell deep into thought.

The chessboard on the stump bore a Go endgame, the only clue he could decipher.

That was only because, before arriving in the Nine Provinces Realm, he had spent a few days watching abstract live streams, or else he might have mistaken it for a game of connect five.

"...Is there no other way?"

Not even two chess manuals in the night watchman's library, the small Daoist inwardly complained.

"Or, maybe you could wait here a little longer, little Daoist master?"

The Bronze Gate suggested courteously.

"Wait for what?"

"...Wait for a miracle?"

"..."

Upon hearing this, the small Daoist almost threw the Hand Palm Thunder in his hand; the Bronze Gate was clearly just stalling for time, and something might have happened back in Gusu City.

"Then you wait for a miracle here. I'll make a trip back first, then come back to open your damned door."

After saying this, Jin Xu planned to return to Gusu City first to see what had happened, then come back to save Zhao Qian.

Anyway, he didn't seem to be in any danger now.

"Excuse me, young Taoist master, please wait a moment!"

"Hmm?"

"Ever since you arrived near this cave, the formation inside has been activated. If you leave the cave and exceed a distance of fifteen meters, the old man inside will die immediately."

The Bronze Gate was not keen on the idea of the old man in the cave dying either, not because their life souls were bound together—after all, the man was just a minor cultivator of the Nascent Soul Realm; his death couldn't shake him.

But he was afraid that if the old man died, the young Taoist in front of him, enraged, would strike him directly with the Golden Thunderbolt!

"Hiss~~~"

Jin Xu took a sharp breath and thought that although the Demon Sect wasn't powerful, they did have many ways to be annoying. He decided that when he had the chance, he must eradicate them root and branch.

Then he confirmed with the verdant gate: "As long as I don't leave the range of fifteen meters, the person inside the cave will be fine. But to open the gate, I must win this endgame, correct?"

"Yes."

The Bronze Gate replied obediently.

In fact, the chess puzzle was a dead end, unsolvable. The Demon Sect had set it up just to delay the young Taoist. The real solution was to use the power of Spiritual Sense to gradually unravel Zhao Qian's and the gate's interconnected life souls.

This process was extremely complicated; it would take at least half an hour. By that time, the plans within Gusu City would have all concluded.

Hall Master Xia and the Third Elder were gambling, betting that the young Taoist was kind-hearted, wagering whether he would choose the life of one cultivator over the lives of an entire city's worth of cultivators.

But Jin Xu didn't know. He neither knew the method to unravel the life souls nor could he recognize that this was a Go puzzle without a solution.

However, he had his own way!

...

Inside Gusu City, it had already become a messy pot of porridge.

The cultivators and mortals in the city all noticed the activation of the City Protection Array; the whole city had turned into a fortress.

Members of the Demon Sect, who had infiltrated the city at some unknown time, began attacking the city guards and isolating cultivators of the Righteous Path in an organized manner.

As for the residents of the city, those who were rational went to the watchmen's posts to inquire, while the timid, or rather, cautious, had all hidden in inns or their own homes.

Those with malicious intent had already begun to take advantage of the chaos.

At this time, the city guards and watchmen were severely short-staffed, so caught up in their own issues that they had no capacity to maintain order in the city.

Li Mi casually killed several cultivators taking advantage of the chaos on his way.

By the time he returned to his post, he discovered that within the formation set up by the Three Old Friends of the Wintery Year, there was already a gathering of cultivators who had come to seek refuge and civilians who lived nearby.

He sharply sensed that something was off; even if the great array suddenly sealed off Gusu City, the people inside should not have become so frenzied so suddenly.

After Li Mi entered the formation and cast the ability to move as if threading through space, he ascended to the rooftop of the tallest building in his post and surveyed the surroundings, discovering that a visible greyish-black aura was spreading from the old Zheng family mansion on East Market Street.

The closer to the Zheng family's old mansion, the more frenzied the actions of the city's residents became.

!!!

"Such intense resentment! Being spread directly in the city! What are these people trying to do! Could it be..."

Mr. Li's expression changed, and he had a bad premonition in his heart.

Moreover, at this moment, he was utterly powerless in this situation. To purify such negative resentment, it would take the presence of a high-ranking monk from the Buddhist order or a true Taoist master.

Just the few of them in the city, even if joined by the City Lord who was in seclusion, would run dry of all their spiritual power and still not be able to purify this resentment.

...

Outside Gusu City, at the East Gate.

Zou Xia and the two Hall Masters stood side by side with Officer Lin, looking contentedly at Gusu City, which had fallen into chaos.

"That little Taoist won't suddenly come back, will he?"

A cold and rough voice asked with unease.

"Hall Master Zou, you didn't scare that Taoist into losing his wits, did you?"

Before Hall Master Xia could speak, Officer Lin teased.

"Right, in the time it takes to burn one more stick of incense, it will be too late for that little Taoist to come back even if he does."

The seductive woman in a purple gauze dress laughed lightly.

"It wasn't me..."

Hall Master Zou wanted to retort, but suddenly, they heard a rumbling sound from afar.

Not too far off.

Jin Xu held a massive ball of golden spiritual power in his right hand, within which he had wrapped an entire piece of land including the Bronze Gate cave and everything in it, charging towards Gusu City.

If he couldn't open it, then he would just move the entire thing. There certainly must be someone in the city who could solve the chess puzzle, or so Jin Xu thought.

Then, using his golden spiritual power, he "excavated" the entire cave.

Inside the sphere, the Bronze Gate was still chatting to the young Taoist incessantly.

"Young Taoist Master, I'm telling you, I didn't have a choice before, but now I really want to be a good gate!"