Chapter 1001: Wealthy Scholar, Confused Swordsman

"Damn!"

The bard, startled once more, scrambled into another hidden corner.

Thud!

A falling rock descended from the sky, nearly crushing him, but it was suddenly caught by a hand as warm and smooth as jade.

"Be careful."

The warm, magnetic voice sent a flutter through his heart.

The bard looked up, astonished to see that, at some unknown moment, a man had appeared before him. He wore a jade crown and white robes, dressed like a prosperous scholar, appearing to be around twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old.

The man had a clean, radiant face with a broad forehead. His eyes sparkled like stars, his nose was prominent, and his lips were perfectly formed. He was exceptionally handsome and elegant, possessing an otherworldly aura.

"Th-thank you for saving my life."

The bard stared, mesmerized. A man with such an extraordinary appearance surely had a significant background.

He had nothing to offer in return, so he merely pulled a dirty apple from his pocket and held it out.

"W-would you like to eat it?"

"What is this?" the scholar asked, his eyes sparkling like stars as he smiled.

"A-an apple," the bard stammered. "It's something found only in the mortal world. In the Spirit Refining Realm, it's r-rarely available..."

The scholar subtly glanced at the black stains on the apple, then smiled as he politely declined. He looked towards the long street and meaningfully remarked, "Your words show extraordinary insight. How did you end up in such a state?"

"Heavens above!" the bard cried, tugging at the vegetable leaves tangled in his hair, tears of gratitude streaming down his face. "Has someone finally understood me? You're willing to believe everything I've said is true?"

"Yes," the scholar nodded slightly.

The bard wailed again, clutching the scholar's leg. He wiped his snot as he poured out an endless stream of bitter complaints:

"I'm miserable!

"After all these years, I've finally met a kindred spirit! The profession of 'bard' is truly not for humans.

"Even so, I was once an old master who composed the 'Ten Revered Seats' ballad, on the same world-renowned level as the Spirit Refiners of that era.

"Who would have thought that now, with times changed, I can't even earn money. I just want to get a full meal..."

The bard picked up the apple, pinching it with a relatively clean vegetable leaf, and took a fierce bite. "I still have to rely on this method!" he said sadly.

The scholar was speechless.

He finally managed to pull his leg out from the disheveled poet's embrace, not bothering to mind the strange liquid on his clothes. Frowning, he asked, "That ballad, 'Ten Revered Seats,' was it composed by you?"

"It was me!" the bard said, lifting his head and patting his chest, a spark of pride in his eyes. "How about it? Catchy, isn't it?"

"It is quite catchy..." The scholar hesitated, then asked again, "But isn't the order wrong? For example, why isn't the first position swapped with the last? And why isn't the second swapped with the second to last?"

"Uh, what?" The bard jumped in surprise, a look of dismay flashing across his face.

Over the years, he had indeed been beaten by many people because of the order of the 'Ten Revered Seats' ballad.

For instance, in the Eastern Domain's Sword God's Heaven, too many people felt that the phrase "Eight Revered" in the line "Mighty Thunder Han, Eight Revered, gods and ghosts unfathomable" should be placed first.

But it couldn't be changed!

He had thought he'd finally met a kindred spirit with whom he could chat about past romantic anecdotes. He never expected that this seemingly easygoing scholar-like fellow was also bothered by the sequential order of the Ten Revered Seats.

"Is there a problem with that?"

The bard forced his head up, trying not to let his confidence waver, and retorted, "Besides, it really can't be changed. If the positions are swapped, I can't compose anymore!"

The scholar was momentarily stumped.

"My abilities are limited, hehe, please forgive me..." Seeing that the prosperous scholar had no impulse to hit him, the bard chuckled self-deprecatingly and resumed gnawing on his apple.

"My benefactor must have a question for me, which is why you sought me out?" He quickly looked up again, because he simply didn't believe anyone would gratuitously save a dirty person like him.

"Yes," the scholar nodded.

"I will tell you everything I know, without reservation," the bard declared.

The scholar smiled, pointing towards the long street, and said, "What you said there was very insightful. I want to ask you if you still know the whereabouts of the City of the Sky's Fifth Gate, the 'Qilin Gate,' also known as the 'Void Gate'?"

"Uh." This time, the bard's expression froze. "I don't know..."

"You truly don't know, or you can't say, or dare not say?" The scholar didn't give up, pressing him with curiosity.

His earnest expression truly made it impossible to lie. The bard gritted his teeth and replied seriously:

"To be honest, benefactor, if I knew, I would point out its exact location on Mount Gui Zhe, because I'm not afraid of death...

"But right now, I truly don't know. I'm just a bard who can only boast. Otherwise, I wouldn't have ended up in this state..."

He looked helpless, his eyes filled with the weariness of a life tormented.

The scholar frowned slightly, his handsome face looking even more delicate, and asked again, "Then do you know if there's any other way to enter the Void Island besides these five gates?"

"Void Island..." The bard savored the words, casting a surprised glance at the man before him, thinking, "Your background is extraordinary."

But he showed no unusual reaction, replying seriously, "Yes, as long as benefactor finds the Void Token, you can enter the City of the Sky!"

The scholar sighed helplessly, "I just don't have the Void Token..."

"Then there's one more way!" The bard racked his brains, determined to give his benefactor something in return. "In this world, there's a Sixth Gate that allows benefactor to enter the City of the Sky effortlessly, without even needing to perform a sacrifice."

"Oh? What is it?" The scholar asked, quite interested.

"The Gate of Time and Space!"

The bard said it gravely, then let out a long sigh:

"But benefactor likely won't find it. The 'Gate of Time and Space' possesses the ability to traverse all time and space. Unless something unexpected happened, it should currently be sealed within the forbidden grounds of the 'Negative Gate Clan' in the Central Domain.

"I have insights but no practical ability to help you, benefactor. I'm truly sorry."

After listening, the scholar fell into contemplation.

"Your words have awakened some memories in me...

"The Gate of Time and Space shouldn't be with the Negative Gate Clan anymore..."

He murmured.

After a long while, he lowered his head again, took off a small ornament strung on a black thread from his neck, and handed it over, asking, "Do you recognize this?"

The bard took the small ornament, finding it to be a tiny, crudely made wooden carving the size of two thumbnails.

It was shaped like a gate.

On it, the characters "Time and Space" were carved in crooked script.

At this, the alley suddenly fell silent.

After a long moment, the bard, holding the wooden imitation, looked up at the scholar, wanting to see if he was joking.

But he found that the scholar was looking back at him with an extremely serious, inquisitive gaze, his face filled with genuine curiosity.

"What's going on?!"

The bard became frantic at this sight, his expression turning unnatural, his mouth twitching slightly. "If my knowledge hasn't... er, become muddled, then it... shouldn't be the 'Gate of Time and Space'?" he stammered. "It's more like an amulet... a fake?"

The hope on the scholar's face immediately turned to disappointment.

The bard was inwardly shocked.

What kind of rare creature is this?

Has he lived this long without ever being exposed to the darkness of the mundane world?

How can he be so naive?

To hold a wooden carving and dare to hand it over, and so seriously... What kind of absurd answer was he expecting from me?!

Watching the scholar dejectedly retrieve the gate-shaped wooden carving, the bard suddenly felt a surge of helplessness.

"Oh, right."

As if he'd remembered something, he no longer dwelled on the previous matter. He quickly bit and swallowed the apple core, then said solemnly:

"I haven't even asked for your name, benefactor. I can't help with other things, but if you want to gain some fame, I could compose some verses for you later and spread your name."

"Something like the 'Doggy Poem'?" the scholar asked, smiling as he reattached his treasured pendant.

"Uh!" The bard's expression froze, and he nervously scratched his head. "That was just the... tip of the iceberg of my ability!"

"No need," the scholar waved his hand in refusal, taking a step to leave.

"You can't just leave without even giving me a name to repay, can you?" the bard shouted at his back.

This made the scholar pause his steps.

But he didn't turn his head, his tone casual: "If you want to repay, then do so. But you only need to repay in your heart; I don't seek worldly fame... Also, my name is Kong Yuhen."

"Kong Yuhen?"

The bard, with a vegetable leaf still in his mouth, thought to himself, "That's a remarkably dramatic name."

But as his thoughts turned, a beautiful line of verse suddenly appeared, completely unlike his usual need for deep contemplation.

Great writing flows naturally, aided by flashes of genius.

The bard didn't mind; he often had such bursts of inspiration. He immediately swayed his head and chanted aloud:

"How does benefactor like this line? It will surely help spread your fame...

"The moon drunk in wine remains... Uh!"

His words abruptly stopped.

The bard seemed to have remembered something; his pupils contracted, and his calves began to tremble.

When he looked up again, the imposing, scholar-dressed man ahead had disappeared without a trace.

He stared at the alley corner, then scanned the alley entrance, looked up at the sky, and finally down at the ground...

The bard's lips trembled, his old eyes wide with disbelief.

"Kong Yuhen?"

"He's that Kong Yuhen?"

***

A place shrouded in mist.

His initial impression was that it should be a celestial realm.

But looking at the dilapidated tall stone monument before him, the ancient building wall panels filled with the marks of time's vicissitudes, and the moss-covered, seemingly untrodden ground...

The swordsman, Gu Qingyi, fell into deep thought.

He had been standing still in a daze for a full fifteen minutes.

However, the question that lingered in his mind was still the one that arose the moment he arrived.

"What in the world is this place?"

Everything changed from the moment he pushed open the ancient door in the deep sea.

After Gu Qingyi was pulled into the ancient door, it was as if he had entered another world.

It wasn't that he didn't want to leave, but it was somewhat difficult, and with his mind in a state of confusion, he had to stop and ponder some things.

The gravity here was at least a hundred times that of the Saint Divine Continent, making it difficult for the swordsman's frail body to move.

The deep-sea forbidden barrier was gone, meaning this place shouldn't be in the deep sea. Gu Qingyi could also use the tiny bit of spiritual energy in his Qi Sea.

But all this only made him more confused.

"Was that a portal?

"What should I do now?

"Second Junior Brother is still waiting for me on Solitary Sound Cliff; he wouldn't be tired of waiting and cursing me, would he? My communicator is unusable, and it seems I can't contact Master either...

"What on earth is this place?!"

A sense of loneliness permeated the mottled streets of the ancient city.

Gu Qingyi faintly felt that this sensation was somewhat familiar.

He was finally startled.

Because when he was in the Eastern Heavenly Royal City, he also had this strange feeling whenever he looked up at the City of the Sky, which obscured the heavens.

"Could it be that this is the City of the Sky?

"Void Island? Outer Island?"

A look of shock flashed across Gu Qingyi's face.

He couldn't imagine that the door in the deepest part of the deep sea would actually connect to the Void Island, located at the highest point of the heavens.

These two extremes seemed destined never to intersect.

But now it seemed...

Wasn't absurdity the true portrayal of everything that happened in the Eastern Heavenly Royal City after the City of the Sky appeared?

"I need to move..."

He heavily lifted his steps. Gu Qingyi didn't immediately run into the distance, but instead laboriously approached a blurry stone monument about a dozen steps away.

He hesitated for a moment, then stretched out his hand, wanting to wipe away the moss and dust from the stone monument, but felt that doing so might be dangerous.

Clang!

The Evil Sword Yue Lian was slightly drawn, its blade only a finger's width from the scabbard, and the sound of space being cut "chi chi chi" filled the void.

Then the blade returned to its scabbard, and the dust and moss on the stone monument rustled down, revealing its true appearance.

"Void Island!"

The three large characters completely shattered Gu Qingyi's last hope.

He was somewhat joyful, yet also somewhat anxious.

His joy was that he had arrived first at the City of the Sky, longed for by all, and would surely find more opportunities.

His anxiety was that he had entered this ghostly place, but without a way back home, even if he gained more opportunities, what good would it be if those opportunities died with him on Void Island?

Gu Qingyi, stepping with difficulty, thought as he walked past the Void Island stone monument.

Not long after, he stopped, because he noticed many extremely scrawled, fragmented carvings on the back of the human-height stone monument.

Upon closer inspection, it was densely covered with many... names?

He ignored the ones Gu Qingyi didn't recognize.

But with a quick scan, besides the unfamiliar names, he could also spot many historical figures from ancient times.

"Hua Weiyang, Cheng Xue, Xiao Hei, Feng Wuchen..."

"Heavens! What does this mean? These sword masters have all been here?"

Gu Qingyi's face was filled with horror.

If it were an outsider, they might not recognize these names.

But he was the next successor of the Sword Burial Mound. Not only did he study swordsmanship, he also understood its history.

Legend had it that the Sword God of the Eastern Domain, Gu Louying, had nine Great Sword Saints under his command.

Among them, the Great Sword Saint Hua Weiyang had extremely high attainments in illusory swordsmanship, even innovating and nearly surpassing the Sword God.

As for the remaining ones...

This Cheng Xue was also one of the nine Great Sword Saints at the time. After he was accidentally killed by his close friend, his treasured sword became his monument, known in later generations as the famous sword "Grave-name Cheng Xue."

His close friend was named "Xiao Hei," who walked the path of slaughter and was often in a state of qi deviation. He was also the first wielder of the Four Evil Swords.

As for this "Feng Wuchen"...

In the history of swordsmanship, he was the only peerless swordsman who contended with the Sword God Gu Louying for the title of 'Sword God'. Though he ultimately failed, he still earned the esteemed reputation of 'Divine Sword Feng Wuchen.'

Feng Tingchen, one of the Seven Sword Immortals of the current era, should, unless something unexpected happened, be the direct descendant of the 'Divine Sword Feng Wuchen' lineage...

Gu Qingyi was completely stunned by this thought.

He used to listen to these swordsmanship histories as if they were fictional stories.

But now, looking at the monument before him, were those past figures and histories actually real?