Chapter 38: Opening the Door

The Mystic Realm gate hasn’t opened yet, but quite a few people have already gathered at the entrance.

Disciples from various sects and independent cultivators combined, about forty to fifty people, were gathered in small groups.

Qu Hongling stood at the center of the crowd, followed by three disciples from the Heaven Origin Sect.

She was wearing a dark red form-fitting outfit today, much more practical than her usual red dress.

A black wide belt was tied around her waist, with two short swords and a small cloth pouch attached to it.

Her hair was tied up high into a ponytail with a red string.

She still wore the veil, only revealing her eyes.

But those eyes were not smiling like when she looked at Lin An.

Instead, they carried a serious, scrutinizing gaze as they slowly swept across the crowd.

“Senior Sister Qu, over there, the people from Azure Cloud Sect seem to be looking at you.”

A male disciple behind her leaned in and said in a low voice.

“Let them look.”

Qu Hongling withdrew her gaze, her tone very casual.

“It’s not like I haven’t been looked at before.”

“No, their eyes don’t seem right, like they’re sizing up an opponent.”

Qu Hongling chuckled.

“Once we enter the Mystic Realm, everyone is an opponent. They’re sizing us up, and we’re sizing them up. It’s nothing.”

The male disciple nodded and didn’t speak anymore.

Qu Hongling’s gaze swept around again, this time stopping at one spot.

Shen Qishuang stood in the Canglong Academy team.

She wasn’t wearing the academy’s uniform disciple robes but a goose-yellow long dress, standing out conspicuously among a group of dark-colored clothes.

She held a folding fan in her hand, not opened, twirling it in her hand for fun.

Qu Hongling walked over.

“Junior Sister Shen.”

Shen Qishuang turned her head, saw her, smiled, put the fan away, and tucked it into her waist.

“Senior Sister Qu, you’re leading the team this time?”

“Yeah, by the way, there’s something I want to ask you.”

“Hmm?”

“What’s your relationship with that Servant Disciple from our Heaven Origin Sect, Junior Brother Lin?”

Qu Hongling didn’t directly mention Lin An.

Shen Qishuang curved the corners of her mouth.

‘She couldn’t help but ask, huh?’

“Are you talking about Lin An? Nothing much, just acquaintances.”

“Acquaintances?”

“We came from the same place, so of course we know each other.”

Shen Qishuang said very naturally.

“My house is only one street away from his. We grew up together.”

Qu Hongling raised an eyebrow.

‘Could it be that somewhere I don’t know about, these two have already met?’

“Childhood sweethearts?”

“You could say that. Senior Sister Qu seems quite interested in him?”

“Yeah, a little bit.”

Qu Hongling didn’t deny it.

“He’s an interesting person, and he looks good too.”

Shen Qishuang’s smile didn’t change, but her fingers tightened slightly.

“Senior Sister Qu, if we women only look at a man’s appearance, we can easily be deceived. What if he’s a trash man?”

Qu Hongling was unfazed.

“That’s why I came to find you, Junior Sister Shen. You know him better than I do.”

Now that the identity was confirmed, she didn’t bother pretending anymore.

She had previously wondered what the relationship between these two was, but now it seemed…

Childhood sweethearts?

Hmph, little girl, don’t you know that childhood sweethearts are always synonymous with losing dogs?

The Holy Son’s wife can only be me!

Shen Qishuang’s smile turned a bit stiff.

“I do know him pretty well. Anyway, let’s talk about this later.”

The two chatted idly, and Qu Hongling didn’t press further.

She could tell that Shen Qishuang didn’t want to talk about this topic.

But it was fine.

She was the one on the offensive.

There would always be a chance.

*

*

Lin An crouched in the canopy of a large tree, hiding himself completely.

He took two talismans from his chest—one Conceal Breath Talisman and one Shadow-Concealing Talisman—and deftly slapped them onto his body.

Two faint flashes of light passed, and his aura and figure became blurred, merging with the surrounding branches and leaves.

Gu Yingge had given him the most of these two types of talismans.

Lin An hadn’t thought much about it before, but now he understood Senior Sister Gu’s intentions.

When walking the martial world, being low-key was paramount.

If you can’t win, run.

If you can’t run, hide.

Only if you can’t hide do you fight to the death.

He focused his attention on the independent cultivators not far away.

Those people were not as organized and disciplined as the sect disciples.

Some leaned against trees, some sat on rocks, and some even lay directly on the ground, eyes closed as if sleeping.

But every single one of their gazes swept over that gate inadvertently.

Lin An pricked up his ears, catching fragments of words carried by the wind.

“…The rules have been deciphered again.”

His spirits lifted, and he quietly moved toward the direction of the voice.

The speakers were two independent cultivators, one in gray and one in black, crouching behind a large rock, speaking in low voices.

“They say there will be food in the Mystic Realm, but you can’t eat it. The most absurd part is that if you feel thirsty, it’s not really thirst—it’s that your body no longer needs water. It’s something imitating your memory of being ‘alive.’”

The black-clothed cultivator shuddered.

“Why does that sound so creepy?”

“There’s even creepier stuff after that. ‘Your body no longer needs water anymore.’ It means that after entering the Mystic Realm, a person will slowly turn into something else, but they won’t feel it themselves and will still think they’re human.”

“Damn.”

The black-clothed cultivator cursed.

“Then why even go in?”

“To find opportunities.”

The gray-clothed cultivator glanced at him.

“Great fortune lies in great danger. Don’t you understand that?”

The black-clothed cultivator was silent for a moment.

“Are there other rules?”

“There is. There’s one about ‘paths.’ It says there are no two identical paths in the Mystic Realm. If you walk the same path twice, the first time you walk the path, the second time the path walks you.”

“The path walks you? What does that mean?”

“Who knows? Anyway, it’s telling you not to backtrack. If you find you’ve walked the same path, do something to break the pattern, like hopping on one leg or touching your right foot with your left hand.”

“…Do you believe these rules?”

“The words are on the Stone Gate. Whether I believe them or not, I have to.”

The gray-clothed cultivator stood up, patted the dust off his pants.

“Anyway, just be careful once we’re inside.”

The two stopped talking and turned to leave.

Lin An crouched in the canopy, repeating these two rules in his mind.

Don’t eat anything in the Mystic Realm.

Don’t backtrack.

Also, the body would stop needing water…

What the hell was all this?

He shook his head, temporarily suppressing these thoughts.

His gaze swept across the crowd, then stopped.

He saw two familiar figures.

Qu Hongling…

Lin An’s heart went thump.

He remembered something.

He hadn’t told Qu Hongling that he had returned from Grey Wastes City.

Although she thought he was the Holy Son, with Qu Hongling’s personality, if she suddenly couldn’t find him, she would definitely start thinking wildly.

She was now an important shield against Mu Qinghan.

Without her in front to block, that woman Mu Qinghan, who wanted to silence him, could come knocking at any time.

No, he had to stabilize her.

Lin An activated “Observe Like and Dislike” and focused his gaze on Qu Hongling.

Hmm?

The color of the mist on Qu Hongling had changed.

Previously, it was mostly white, mixed with some blue.

Now, the blue mist had taken up the majority, and the white had become the minority.

‘This, this can’t be right?’

Lin An blinked and looked again.

Right, still blue.

‘This senior sister is really off, isn’t she?’

He suddenly disappeared, without greeting, without explanation.

Logically, even if Qu Hongling didn’t suspect him, her favorability shouldn’t have increased.

‘Does she have some problem?’

‘Or… the more I ignore her, the more she falls for it?’

Lin An couldn’t figure it out, but it seemed… to be a good thing.

‘Whatever, an increase is better than a decrease.’

He shifted his gaze to Shen Qishuang.

The golden mist on Shen Qishuang was more than the last time he saw her.

‘This girl, I haven’t really done anything, have I? Why did hers increase too?’

He thought for a while, but couldn’t find an answer.

Suddenly, Shen Qishuang frowned slightly and turned to look in one direction.

Qu Hongling followed her gaze but only saw a patch of forest and a few large trees.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing…”

Shen Qishuang’s gaze swept back and forth over that forest twice, as if looking for something.

“Probably I’m overthinking.”

She had just felt a gaze fall on her, very familiar.

No mistake, that idiot was here.

Shen Qishuang sighed inwardly and withdrew her gaze without moving a muscle.

She gritted her teeth.

Just as she was about to find an excuse to leave the crowd, at that moment—

The gate moved.

The patterns on the gate began to flow, like snakes awakened, gathering from the edges of the frame toward the center.

The patterns gathered more and more, denser and denser, finally converging into a fist-sized point of light in the center of the door panel.

Hum—

A low resonant sound came, as if drilling in from under the feet, from the crevices of the bones.

Everyone held their breath at the same time, forty or fifty pairs of eyes all fixed on that gate.

The point of light grew brighter and brighter, from the size of a fist to the size of a washbasin, from the size of a washbasin to the size of a well mouth.

It expanded open.

The light spread outward, like a flower blooming, white petals rolling outward layer by layer.

“The gate is open.”

Someone called out.

The crowd stirred, but no one stepped forward, nor did anyone retreat.

Qu Hongling raised her hand and pulled her veil up a little higher.

Her eyes were brighter than before, with no fear, no hesitation—only excitement.

Shen Qishuang stood beside her, her folding fan no longer twirling.

She glanced at the gate, then at the forest.

‘Lin An, you stay put outside. Don’t go in.’

Then, she took a deep breath and took the first step.