Chapter 4: The Mysterious Round Gate

  "These things are really delicious! Better than the big chef at Jiyang Building in JJ City!" Qingqing couldn't stop praising the compressed biscuits and canned goods.

  Jin Tianxing's appetite wasn't as good as Qingqing's, he was full after just eating a little. Looking at Qingqing gobbling down her food, he said, "That's compressed biscuits, eat less of it, or you'll burst to death later."

  He let out a satisfied "ahh" and continued eating his big meal.

  Jin Tianxing closed his eyes, perked up his ears and listened carefully, but didn't hear the familiar rustling sound. He deliberately waved the rifle in front of Qingqing's clear eyes, trying to catch her attention, thinking that a water bandit living in wartime couldn't possibly be uninterested in guns.

  Perhaps the food was really too delicious, Qingqing was oblivious to Jintian Xing's actions, focusing on the can of cookies in front of her. When Qingqing was about to finish eating, she finally saw the gun in Jintian Xing's hand, swallowed the food in her mouth and asked, "Where did that gun come from?"

  "The Type 99 rifle found on the Kōbe Maru, a standard-issue rifle for the Japanese." Jin Tianhang intentionally misstated the model of the rifle to test Qingqing.

  Qing let out a sound, picked up a can of beef, and poured the remaining beef into her mouth. Her eating manners were not elegant at all. Jin Tian Xing was helpless, he couldn't tell if Qing was too focused on eating to hear his words, or if she just wasn't interested in guns because she liked flying darts more, or if it was what he feared most - Qing wasn't from that era at all, and she didn't recognize the gun in Jin Tian Xing's hand.

  Her expression suddenly became very strange, she stared widely at Jin Tian Xing and stretched out her hand, "I'm choking, is there any water?"

  Jin Tianxing hastily pulled out a bottle of water from his bag and handed it to Qingqing, who was urging him to hurry up. As he did so, he caught sight of the notebook in his bag, which might hold the information he had been searching for. Qingqing prompted him again, "Hurry up and give me the water, do you want to choke me to death?" Jin Tianxing handed over the water and took advantage of Qingqing's distraction to secretly pull out the notebook and hide it on himself.

  He poured down half a bottle of water, stood up and jumped vigorously twice, patted his chest and said, "Your food is delicious, but it's a bit dry, almost choked me to death."

  "Judging from your eating habits, it's hard not to choke."

  A faint blush appeared on her face as she lowered her head and said in a soft voice, "The heroes of Liangshan Po are all big eaters and drinkers."

  Jin Tian almost forgot that this beauty in front of him was the daughter of the Water Gang's leader, and wanted her to pretend to be a gentle lady? Dream on.

  After eating and drinking enough, the two of them rested for a while before continuing on their way. In the endless darkness, there was no concept of time, everything relied on feeling. Jin Tianxing felt that it had probably been about a day's worth of time.

  As they walked along without any issues, the two of them started chatting casually. Qingqing asked Jintian Xing, "What if we can't get out?"

  Jin Tian Xing said resolutely, "We will definitely get out of here! I will definitely find Roy!"

  "Did you believe in gods and monsters? I think whoever brought us to this place without our knowledge, must be either a god or a monster. I suppose we probably offended the lake spirit."

  Jin Tian Xing thought for a moment and said, "Don't talk about strange powers and supernatural things. In your time, it was popular to talk about ghosts and spirits. In my time, people believe in science. It's not necessarily gods or monsters that brought us together."

  "Then tell me," Qing continued, "how did Kamuro Maru get in?"

  Jin Tian Xing was speechless when asked, the cave had big and small holes, but somehow managed to get the enormous God's Door Ball in intact, it was indeed unbelievable.

  The two continued walking forward, and the cave gradually became more spacious, large enough to hold a large aircraft.

  Suddenly, Jin Tianxing's feet transmitted an unusual feeling, and Qingqing seemed to have also sensed it. The two of them simultaneously aimed their hawk eyes at the ground.

  A gigantic dark red circle with a diameter of about five meters, Jin Tianxing hadn't looked closely yet, but there was one thing he was already very sure of - the circle was absolutely not formed naturally.

  Jin Tianxing crouched down and touched it, it wasn't painted with pigment, the texture was like ceramic, and there were scorch marks. Jin Tianxing speculated that the ground rock had been melted by high-temperature flames and then cooled and condensed to form a strange circle. This idea reminded him of the scene when the rocket took off, he pointed his eagle eye at the top of the cave, the top was covered with cone-shaped stone icicles. It's impossible for a rocket to fly out from here.

  "What did you find?" Qing asked.

  Jin Tian Xing shook his head, "Nothing." He took a last look at the mysterious strange circle and pointed his eagle eyes forward, saying, "Don't waste time, let's continue moving forward."

  Qing didn't say anything and just followed closely behind with big strides.

  The cave narrowed again, and Jin Tianxing no longer had the mood to care about how a natural cave could form such a structure. He heard the familiar creaking sound, but this time it wasn't coming from underground, it was from ahead. Jin Tianxing listened carefully, yes, ahead. No matter what was in front of him, he only felt that the truth was very close to him, within reach. He quickened his pace. Qingqing almost had to jog to keep up.

  As they proceeded further, the atmosphere became somewhat oppressive. The ground and stalactites also changed to be quite different from what they had seen before, the eagle eye shone on them reflecting an eerie green light, giving off a hint of the underworld. Qingqing tightly grasped Jin Tianxing's hand, her own hand trembling slightly, with sweat in her palm. Even the bravest girl has a natural fear towards certain things. Qingqing's voice was somewhat distorted as she spoke, "What do you think is ahead?"

  "Nothing to be afraid of," Jin Tianxing comforted, "no matter what's ahead, even if it's a god, I'll invite him to eat a bullet first. Even if it's a ghost, I'll skin it first." After hearing his words, Qing felt much better, at least her hands stopped shaking.

  They had advanced ten or more meters when they were forced to stop, a strange circular door blocking their path. Even an idiot could see that the circular door would not have formed naturally. The edge of the door had mysterious patterns made up of dots and short lines, seemingly following some sort of rule, trying to convey some meaning, but Jin Tian Xing couldn't understand it, let alone Qing Qing. The most bizarre thing was that above the circular door, there was an eyeball about one meter in size. No matter which direction Jin Tian Xing turned to, he had a feeling that the eyeball seemed to be alive, staring at him, making his heart feel anxious and panicked.

  Qing walked to the edge of the door, touched the round door with his hand, and asked strangely, "You said this door is made of what material, it feels like stone, but has a metallic luster."

  Jin Tian Xing was asked, and even he, who thought himself to be knowledgeable, couldn't determine the material of the stone gate. He leaned against the gate and heard a constant "creaking" sound from the other side, but no matter what was on the other side, the circular gate blocked his path of exploration. After careful examination, he found a narrow slit in the middle of the circular gate, "Give me your dagger to use for a moment."

  He took the dagger from Qing's hand, and it felt a bit heavy in his hand. Jin Tian Xing was slightly surprised, and when he brought it up to take a closer look, a strong killing aura burst forth, and the cold light reflected off the blade was dazzling. On the knife, there were two ancient characters "Ying Xu". It took Jin Tian Xing some effort to recognize these two characters, and just from this point alone, this dagger was no ordinary item.

  In ancient times, master craftsmen had a habit of only engraving their names on their most prized daggers. Daggers with names would inevitably leave a deep mark in history, such as the famous "Yu Chang". Jin Tian Xing had been fascinated by knives since he was young and couldn't help but praise it, saying "This is a great knife! Where did you get it from?"

  Qing Qing said, "It was a birthday gift from my dad, if you like it I'll give it to you."

  Jin Tianxing naturally knew how precious this dagger was, and although he really wanted it, he didn't dare to take it casually. "I'm just curious and asked casually." He inserted the dagger along the gap and poked it halfway before getting stuck. The two of them used force together to poke the dagger in, but the round door didn't change at all. After another great effort, they pulled the dagger out again, Jin Tianxing was so angry that he wanted to scold someone.

  Then the two of them tried almost every method, but the round door didn't budge. Jin Tianxing was really angry now, and without hesitation he picked up his 38 rifle and pulled the trigger at the round door. The recoil shook his arm, which felt a bit sore, and with wide eyes and an exaggerated expression, he pointed at the round door.

  The surface of the circular gate rippled with a wave-like pattern, and the bullets were like small stones thrown into water, creating a splash before the gate returned to its original state. "Damn it!" Jin Tianxing's curse finally couldn't be held back, bursting out of his mouth.

  Her expression turned solemn, "Desecrating the gods will be punished."

  "Damn it to hell." As soon as Jin Tianxing's words left his mouth, the surface of the Yuan Gate rippled again, and the bullet he had just fired was deflected back, hitting him right in the leg. Jin Tianxing fell to the ground, clutching at his wound with one hand, which came away covered in blood.

  Qing Qing felt a little schadenfreude, "Serves you right."

  "Hurry up and help me, do you want me to bleed to death?" Qing Qing ripped open Jin Tian Xing's pants with force. "Fortunately, the bullet isn't too deep, this should be a warning from God for you." She rolled up a piece of cloth into a ball and stuffed it into Jin Tian Xing's mouth, "Bite on it." Qing Qing held up a silver needle, Jin Tian Xing was in so much pain that he almost fainted. He saw a metal object with a trail of blood fall beside him. He picked up the bullet and grasped it in his hand. Qing Qing sprinkled some medicine on the wound and did a simple bandage. The bottle of medicine was almost empty now. Jin Tian Xing stood up, limping. If he was filled with anger earlier, now his chest was burning with fury that could rival an erupting volcano.

  Jin Tianxing expressionlessly pulled Qingqing a little further away, Qingqing was somewhat perplexed and didn't know what he wanted to do. Jin Tianxing's next action made her lose color in her face. He took out a Japanese military-style hand grenade from his backpack behind him, pulled the safety pin, forcefully knocked it on the ground once, and threw it towards the circular gate.

  "No!" Qingqing wanted to stop him but it was too late already.

  A loud rumble, flying rocks and dust scattered everywhere, after the dust settled, the round gate was intact.

  Jin Tian walked a few steps forward, he didn't believe that Yuan Men would be completely unscathed after taking this hit.

  "Come back quickly," Qing said in a tense tone of voice.

  "What?" Jin Tian Xing turned his head around and Qing Qing rushed towards him at her fastest speed.

  The strange eyes on the round door emitted a weird sound. He looked up to see that next to the strange eyes, a row of black gun barrels had appeared. Before he could react, a strong force pushed him out. The deafening gunfire was still ringing in his ears when he struggled to get up, and then the gunfire stopped, and the gun barrels retreated back into the round door. If it weren't for the bullet holes all over the ground, he would have thought that everything that had just happened was just his hallucination.

  Suddenly remembering Qingqing, eagle eyes swept across the ground, Qingqing fell in a pool of blood.

  "Ah." Jing Tian hurriedly rushed to Qingqing's side, ignoring the pain in his leg, and picked her up.

  Her slender eyebrows were knitted together, her face pale, and she spoke in a soft, almost inaudible voice, "Hit...I see...it hurts so much."

  Jin Tian Xing immediately examined Qingqing's injuries, and found that she hadn't been shot in the torso, but rather in both legs. The bullets had passed through her body, leaving five or six thumb-sized holes in her legs, with fresh blood gushing out like a fountain. Jin Tian Xing panicked, shouting loudly, "Where is the hemostatic medicine?"

  "Just now... used... finished..." Before he could finish speaking, Qingqing fainted from the pain. If they didn't stop the bleeding, Qingqing would be dead for sure. Right now, he didn't have time to investigate how Qingqing knew about the danger ahead of time or what kind of person Qingqing was. He clearly understood that if it wasn't for Qingqing's push earlier, he would have become a corpse riddled with bullets. Now his mind only had one thought: save Qingqing.

  Jin Tian took a few deep breaths, muttering to himself to calm down, and suddenly thought of a solution. He remembered seeing a medical room on the Godo Maru, where he was sure to find something to treat Qingqing's injury. He tore his clothes into strips, threw away all his equipment, only bringing his Eagle Eye and notebook, and carried Qingqing on his back as he sprinted towards the Godo Maru with all his might.

  He hadn't run many steps when a sharp pain shot through his right leg, almost causing him to fall over. He ignored it and continued forward, his legs gradually losing sensation. The wound on his left shoulder reopened. He ignored that too, feeling the cool breeze growing weaker, as thin as a strand of silk.

  After running for a distance, Jin Tianxing was exhausted and bit his teeth to persist. Qingqing woke up slowly in the bumps, "Am I dead?"

  The clear voice at this moment was like a heavenly sound to Jin Tian Xing, "Sorry to disappoint you, but you're still alive in this evil cave."

  Qingqing thought of laughing but didn't laugh out loud. After a faint hum, Jin Tianxing was startled and asked, "Qingqing, are you okay? Qingqing!"

  "I'm fine, just a bit cold and really sleepy, I want to sleep."

  Jin Tianxing directly called out to Qingqing, "Qingqing, you can't sleep, you have to talk with me."

  Qing Qing suddenly hugged Jin Tian Xing tightly, "I... can I call you Tian Xing?"

  "No problem, you can call it whatever you like, as long as you like it."

  "Heavenly Path"

  Jin Tian Xing replied, "Ah!"

  Qingqiang seemed to want to say something difficult to mention, finally gathered the courage, "Tianxing, do you know? I like you. From the moment I saw you, I liked you. Even if you have a wife, I still like you. Tell me, do you like me? A little bit is fine."

  "Huh?" The legendary love at first sight? In this situation, Jin Tianxing didn't know how to react. He looked down at his pale hands clenched tightly on his chest due to severe blood loss. "I like you, you're a good girl."

  She let out a soft "oh" and fell silent.

  "Hey, don't sleep, if you fall asleep, you won't be able to wake up and see me again." Jin Tian Xing used all his might to look up and finally saw the enormous body of Shen Huo Wan.

  Qing was laid on the bed in the infirmary of the Kobe Maru, and Jin Tianxing found iodine, gauze, alcohol, and hemostatic pads in the cabinet. With these things, Qing seemed to be saved. Turning to face Qing's wound, he hesitated again, as Qing's gunshot wounds were concentrated on his thigh, with one bullet even hitting the base of his thigh. Qing's pale face also had some blush.

  Jin Tian Xing used scissors to cut open Qing's pants, revealing a large area of snow-white skin. He said to himself, or perhaps to Qing, "This is unavoidable, I'm doing this to save you."

  "In a daze and suddenly awake, Qingqing spoke up, 'Don't worry, Roy will be fine, you'll definitely see her again.'"

  Jin Tianxing was very surprised, if he wasn't mistaken, he had never mentioned his wife's name to Qingqing before. He wanted to ask further, but Qingqing closed her mouth and turned her head to the other side.

  Time passed, Jin Tianhang finally finished treating Qingqing's wound, the bleeding stopped, and Qingqing's life was saved. She fell asleep, and Jin Tianhang found a bed sheet to gently cover her with.

  After finishing everything, Jin Tian sat on the ground at the door with a thud, regardless of the blood and sweat all over his body, nor the years of dust accumulated on the ground. Leaning against the wall, he fell asleep, he was really too tired.

  He soon fell into a deep sleep, and he had a dream. In the dream, all the people he knew, Roy, Qingqing, and Zhou Xiangzi, turned into three-eyed monsters, chasing him, shouting to kill him and drink his blood and eat his flesh. Jin Tianxing was shocked and woke up. Opening his eyes again, he saw the endless darkness, "Damn it, fortunately it was a dream, scared Grandpa to death."

  As he opened the Eagle Eye flashlight and looked towards the hospital bed, the scene in front of him made Jin Tian Xing almost go berserk. The originally spotless hospital bed was now empty, with no sign of Qing Qing anywhere. With her injuries, it would be a miracle if she could walk on her own within three months. There was no doubt that someone had taken advantage of Jin Tian Xing's sleep to take Qing Qing away. Jin Tian Xing walked over to the bedside and found some bloodstains, which were freshly left behind. The anger in his heart erupted once again, and he decided to fight to the death with whoever or whatever had taken Qing Qing away.

  Guns and hand grenades were found in the cabin, Jin Tianxing followed the newly left bloodstains all the way to the round gate, where the bloodstains disappeared, Qingqing was on the other side of the round gate!

  Jin Tianxing's eyes turned bright red with rage, his hair disheveled as he stormed forward. "You think I'm afraid of you? You're nothing but a bunch of gods and monsters! I don't care about my life anymore, and neither will you!" He then proceeded to throw hand grenades one by one towards the circular door, shrapnel flying everywhere, dust filling the air making it hard for Jin Tianxing to breathe. He didn't even flinch at the stray bullets, his back and legs seemingly injured from the shrapnel. Only when he ran out of grenades and ammunition did he stop. After the dust settled and visibility improved slightly, Jin Tianxing walked up to the circular door, which now had a gap of about one centimeter. He leaned against the door and peered inside, but it was still pitch black, unable to see anything.

  "He sneered, 'Damn it, I thought you were a piece of iron plate that couldn't be penetrated by knives and guns, wait for me.' He found box after box of hand grenades on the Godo Maru, and with a few more trips back and forth, he was confident he could blow the porthole to pieces."

  The ground suddenly shook violently, he felt the sky and earth spinning, a dazzling white light came out of the round gate, this was exactly like his experience on Changjiang 7, with only one difference being that one was on the water surface and the other in a cave. Jin Tianxing closed his eyes. When he opened them again, he was at the bottom of the water, surrounded by swaying aquatic plants and various fish. He opened his mouth to shout but swallowed some water, the pressure wanted to squeeze out the last bit of air from his lungs, he could only desperately swim upwards.

  After surfacing, Jin Tianxing took a few deep breaths of fresh air and observed his surroundings in the first moment to explore where he was. Soon, he had an answer, and it seemed that he had returned to Lake Poyang again.

  After swimming on the water for more than half an hour, Jin Tianxing, who was exhausted, finally met a fishing boat and was rescued.

  Jin Tian Xing got on the boat and asked the owner, "What year is today?"

  "On June 24, 2009." The owner of the boat told him as it was, although he suspected that he had been driven mad by the water.

  Jin Tianhang lay in the cabin of the fishing boat, as if he had been transported to another world, like he had just woken up from a ridiculous dream. He asked the owner of the boat, but unfortunately, the owner was an ordinary fisherman who had never heard of Changjiang No. 7. Jin Tianhang could only pray in his heart that Roy was safe and sound, and in fact, another concern had been added to his heart - Qingqing.

  After the fishing boat docked, he looked at Qingqing again, but she had cut her hair short and was wearing a modern police uniform.

  "Ah!" Jin Tian suddenly stood up with a bright smile, but his eyes turned black and his body involuntarily leaned forward. His hand, however, landed on the policewoman's chest.

  "Pervert!" Jin Tianxing heard an angry voice before he passed out.