Chapter Thirty-Six: The Five Sons Locking the Door

  "We're trapped...!" Ze Heng and Shi Tong were trapped in the illusion created by the ghost. "Damn it, this is my first time encountering a ghost, I don't believe I can't break its mirror!" The three of us were trapped in a room with doors everywhere. After Ze Heng finished speaking, he jumped up and chopped at the wall, "Clang!" Ze Heng's wooden sword broke...

  "Zehong! Are you okay?!" I walked over to help him up, even though it wasn't a fatal blow, but just a blood offering. Zehong's mouth corner was bleeding slightly, and he wiped it off with one hand, "I'm fine, fortunately it wasn't a fatal blow..."

  "Huh? Where did Shitian go?" I just realized why Shitian suddenly disappeared, this is the worst! "Shidi!" Zehong kept shouting for Shitian, but no one responded.

  "Has he gone into another room?" I looked around the space we were in, with many colorful doors, and didn't know which one Shitian had entered. I was just about to open a door at random and go in.

  "Don't worry! Since he's the leader, the ghost won't be too powerful and there must be a way to break the illusion! Don't wander around for now, let me think!" I saw Ze Heng sitting there muttering to himself... "Eight gates... eight... Ah! Zi Chuan, I know it now!"

  "This demon is using the Eight Gates Formation, I've figured it out!"

  "The Eight Gates of Trouble?"

  "Do you know Zhuge Liang? The Eight Trigrams Formation he used to defend against the enemy back then is very similar to this! This illusionary realm has given rise to eight gates: Rest, Life, Injury, Du, Death, Jing, Shock, and Open. We just need to find the Gate of Life!"

  "Zhuge Liang I know, but the eight gates you mentioned I don't understand." No way, my master didn't teach me these before he disappeared.

  "Ah, you don't understand, just follow my instructions! Among the eight gates, Kan represents metal! Shou represents earth! Jiu represents water! Dou represents wood! Jing represents fire! We just need to find them based on the attributes of the eight gates! The five elements technique is connected to them!"

  "Still not quite clear... Do you mean that the attributes corresponding to Wuxing and Bagua have a reaction?"

  "Hmm! Right! Your Nine Character Gate isn't about character secrets or five element spells, is it? Just use the earth attribute and that's all!"

  "Ah! Now I understand! The five elements: metal, wood, water, fire, earth! The three births and the five phases!... Sorry, I still don't know how to do it."

  "...I won't either! I admit defeat! My junior brother is gone again!"

  The two of us had just come up with a plan when it was ruined. "Is the only way out really just the Gate of Life among the Eight Gates?"

  "It's not necessarily, considering the ghost's ability, all three doors of birth, death and rest should be safe, only the door of life can be opened. The doors of death and rest are just safe inside until the long calamity is bored with us..."

  "Then just say you want to give birth!" I was speechless at Ze Huan's words, and in the end it still came down to this. "Right! Instead of us choosing one out of eight, why not eliminate some first?" Ah, yes, I couldn't control earth elements, but at least I could use Golden Blade Technique and Fire Separation Curse to eliminate them!

  "How did you become so clever... Four Images of Azure Dragon, Eastern Palace returns to its position, Seventh Star in one, Dragon Shadow constantly separates!" I saw Ze Heng use it afterwards and the two doors seemed to be responding by emitting light! There really is a connection!

  "Present! Metal Wood Water Fire Earth, Three Births Five Elements! Shape Metal Knife, slay evil spirits!"

  "Present! Metal Wood Water Fire Earth, Three Births Five Elements! Departing Fire gives birth, Departing Fire burns!"

  "Now there are only three doors left: life, death and rest! Choosing one of the three won't be so bad, will it?" I looked at the remaining three doors, really not knowing what would happen if I chose the wrong one.

  "I was at the northern part of the艮 palace, in this room I couldn't find my direction, forget it, let's take a gamble and walk through that door!" I walked in with Ze Heng, I carefully pushed open the door, little by little, inside was pitch black. "How come there's nothing here? Let's go, change to another door." Only then did I realize how naive I was, before I even took a step forward, as soon as the door opened it sucked me and Ze Heng in!"

  "Damn it!" I cursed out loud, and a snow mountain appeared in front of me, while I was on the snow mountain! I'm freezing to death! I felt like all the heavy snow was covering my body. "Zehong... is there any way..."

  "Who knows... it's so bleak... just entered the gate of death!" Ze Heng and I were both buried by the increasingly heavy snow. Am I going to be buried alive by this heavy snow?!

  "What the...!" I saw myself on a island-like surface again when my cold will was almost gone! Is that below sea? Can it be called sea?! Waves of fire were rolling around! Like waves, they were rolling around! A wave of fire rolled over! "Zehong, run quickly!" At this time, I already felt like I was about to be cooked! I felt the water on my body being evaporated! Sweat dripped onto the ground and made a sizzling sound!

  "Zehong!" I saw that wave of flames engulf Zehong into the sea of fire! I saw the sea of fire swallowing Zehong, and I jumped down! It felt like my whole body was being burned to a crisp. "Ah!" I couldn't bear it anymore and shouted out, feeling the fire inside me being devoured by the flames! I grabbed onto Zehong but saw that Zehong had turned into a lump of gelatinous substance dissolving in the sea of fire! This isn't Zehong! Where did Zehong go?! "Ah!"

  That feeling of being engulfed in flames all over my body, inside and out, as if all my internal organs had been incinerated, everything around me changed in an instant. I saw myself kneeling on the ground, gasping for breath with both hands supporting the earth, sweat dripping from my forehead to the ground! And Ze Hong and Shi Teng appeared beside me, that Nie Bing, Chang Shang was right in front of me! "We... came out... did we?!" Unbelievable that we had actually escaped from the gates of death.

  "Zehong, Shiteng, are you guys okay?!" Just as I was panting heavily, three people came over and squatted down to look at us. What's going on?!

  "Ah! Big Brother Master! How did you come here! Haha, and Second Brother Master, Fifth Younger Brother Master are all here!" I saw Ze Hong's face become very relaxed, he called them as Brother Masters! Are they all related by blood?!

  "We didn't just come, we brought your life-and-death knives too!" Ze Heng, who was called Big Brother Master by the three of us, helped us up. "Next" Two big knives were tossed into the air and flashed with light, Ze Heng and Shi Teng jumped up to catch them, and Ai Xi lovingly stroked the knife tip. I saw five people standing in a row, each holding a knife in their hand!

  "Hah, Zhang Shang, Nie Xun, you think you can just barge in and cause trouble while our doors are closed? Do you really think we're not home?! The lead senior brother's aura was extremely powerful, and he let out a cold snort. I saw that Nie Xun and Zhang Shang didn't look too good on the other side! It was just Ze Hong's senior brother who had rescued us earlier."

  "Hmm, all five of the Guan family have gathered. Today, I'd like to see what kind of disciple Guan Yi has produced." Chang Shang didn't release his soul this time, but instead sat on the ground, doing who-knows-what. "Chang Shang, a disciple of the Yin Soul Sect, has arrived at this place. I invite all ghosts and spirits from the four directions to come and assist!" He drew a circle around himself with his own blood after slashing his forehead, trapping himself inside. Just as I was wondering what he was trying to do, many ghostly spirits slowly emerged from the ground in front of him! One by one, they stood before Chang Shang with ferocious faces! And that's not all - even more ghostly spirits slowly approached from a distance!

  "Damn it, what blood!" I subconsciously cursed.

  "Heaven is yang! Earth is yin! Hook its three souls and seven spirits, transform its shape, resent heaven, resent earth, resent people, three resents gather in one body, give birth to a fierce ghost!" Nie Xun still dared to release his life soul? That fierce ghost crawled out of his chest again, that fierce ghost roared at the group of yin souls in front, those yin souls seemed to have received some command and rushed towards us!

  "Junior brothers, let's go up together! Canglong transforms into gold, the East Palace returns to its position, the golden tip transforms into sharpness, and the sharp edge suppresses evil!"

  "Four Auspicious Creatures Azure Dragon, East Palace Return to Position! Seven Mansions One of Them, Dragon Shadow Constantly Flying!"

  "The Azure Dragon transforms into earth, the Eastern Palace returns to its position! The Earthly Dragon grasps the land, the earthly energy beheads the evil!"

  "The dragon enters the sea, the East Palace returns to its position! Water returns to the four directions, overturning the river and stirring up the sea!"

  "The Fire Dragon appears in the world, the East Palace returns to its position! The three fires are ruthless, burning away evil spirits!"

  I saw five people with knives tucked behind their backs, the blades scraping against the ground as they charged towards that group of dark spirits! So strong! Guanmen Wuzi! I seemed to see five dragons on the knife tips, faintly visible and opening their mouths to roar! The five people swung their knives, one slash per person! All of them jumped into the air and slashed downwards with their horizontal knives! Directly cutting the dark spirits in half! A group of dark spirits was completely dispersed by the five of them, and the remaining few all retreated into the ground! I saw Nie Xun and Chang Shang become panicked!

  "Golden Dragon Breaks Evil! Dragon Shadow Flies Forever!" The master who closed the door threw his knife at Nie Feng's soul, then rushed up. When the knife was in mid-air, a golden dragon seemed to run out and wrapped around Nie Feng's soul. One knife stabbed forward. Master brother received the knife, danced two circles, and stuck it behind him. Nie Feng slowly flowed blood from the corner of his eye, kneeling on the ground.

  "Do you want to try again?" The tone was so disdainful, I saw Master Brother looking down at Chang Shang who was sitting on the ground. "Alright! This time I'll remember that you closed the door!" I saw Chang Shang get up and walk away with Nie Xun. I chased after them "Why did you let them go?"

  "Zi Jiang, after all they are the leaders of the Yin Hun Sect. Our Master is not back yet and we don't dare to provoke such a big trouble." Ze Hong explained to me, I also understood him, and just watched them disappear.

  "You must be Zi Chuan, I am Yan Dengfeng, Ze Hong's senior brother. I've heard Ze Hong mention you before, the third master's disciple, indeed not bad. This is my second junior brother Huang Baoxi and fifth junior brother Wu Zhide." Upon hearing Yan Dengfeng say that I'm good, I felt ashamed "No way, I'm actually useless, this time thanks to all of you."

  "Let's head back to the sect first, there's still a distance to go." The six of us were walking on the mountain road, I don't know how long we walked. I have to admit that my physical strength is not as good as theirs. It wasn't until we crossed over this mountain and arrived at the highway that we saw cars and hailed one down. "Big Brother Master, how did you know we were there?" Ah, Zehong asked what I wanted to ask, this was too much of a coincidence.

  "I didn't know either, a few days ago we received a letter at the entrance of our sect, which said that you and Fourth Brother would encounter danger in the Qinling Mountains, so we rushed here yesterday to search everywhere, fortunately we made it!"

  "Who stayed behind?" "Why would anyone inform on them?"

  "I don't know, I didn't see who it was, just saw a letter at the door and we rushed over," said Yan Dengfeng, leaving me feeling somewhat perplexed. Who knew our whereabouts? Director Jiang? Impossible, he doesn't even know where the door is.