Chapter 215: The Ghost Gate
The Ghost Gate, the place where yin and yang converged.
In the mythological legends of Blue Star, there were many different accounts of the Ghost Gate and their purpose. Some said they were one of the six gates of Luofeng’s six heavenly realms. Others claimed that the Ghost Gate were a mountain range that existed in the real world. Still others said they served as the barrier protecting the entire underworld.
Cheng Qisheng’s understanding, however, was simple: do whatever required the least faith power.
In Blue Sea’s version of Youdu, as long as the yin energy was sufficiently dense, the Ghost Gate would become visible.
This arrangement was intended for the living who had been gravely injured and were on the brink of death but had not quite died yet. Their souls had left their bodies, but since they were not technically dead, their names had not yet been recorded in Youdu.
At that point, these disembodied souls were somewhat like people out on the high seas back when they were on Blue Star: beyond surveillance, beyond any country’s jurisdiction, and beyond the reach of the law. If someone was murdered out there, nobody would ever know.
But now, after a dying person’s soul left their body, it could see the Ghost Gate through its own yin energy. That way, even if the ghost officers had not yet received the notification that “So-and-so has died,” the soul could still make its own way to the Ghost Gate.
Naturally, under the condition that anyone with yin energy could see them, the odds of living people being able to see the Ghost Gate had also increased considerably.
But this, too, was within Cheng Qisheng’s expectations.
Of course people had to be able to see them! Otherwise, how was she supposed to promote Youdu? How could she make sure the native inhabitants of Fallen Heaven Star knew that such a place existed? And how could she gather faith power?
What Cheng Qisheng had not expected, however, was that the first group of living people to break into the Ghost Gate would not be seriously ill patients or ordinary civilians who had unfortunately been contaminated by yin energy after encountering evil spirits.
Instead, they were a group of human-path cultivators who had chased an evil ghost all the way here.
These cultivators were not Cheng Qisheng’s believers, so she had not noticed their arrival at first. The one who discovered them was Old Eighth, in his role as a ghost officer. Whenever he was assigned a role, he took the job seriously and carried out his duties exactly as the character was supposed to.
—“Such dense yin energy! What is this place?”
More than a dozen cultivators from Fenglu Mountain stood back-to-back, warily surveying their surroundings.
Even though they had not yet had a chance to do anything, an icy chill had already enveloped their bodies, and cold sweat was pouring down their backs.
They were all professional ghost-exorcising cultivators, so they naturally knew why they were reacting this way.
The yin energy here was simply too dense. The bodies of the living could not withstand it.
The dozen or so cultivators immediately tried to turn around and leave, only to discover that the path that had appeared out of nowhere had vanished at some point. All that remained around them was a thick expanse of white fog.
“Hey! You lot! What are you doing here?!”
Qian Heng wore a suit of dark, blackish armor and led dozens of yin soldiers. She thrust her spear forward and barked at them sternly.
The world of Fallen Heaven Star was different from that of Moon Silk Star.
Back on Moon Silk Star, Qian Heng had been disguised as a Regional Integration Officer for the [Ota Company]. Every word and action of hers had been scripted by Blue Sea’s relevant departments.
But Fallen Heaven Star had never had a Heavenly Court to begin with.
Naturally, no one had ever laid down rules dictating how officials of the Heavenly Court should behave or how the gods and spirits of Youdu were supposed to act.
Cheng Qisheng did not want Old Eighth and the others to spend all their time pretending to be someone else.
Even if they sometimes enjoyed their disguised personas and played their roles with convincing enthusiasm, that sort of thing was fine as an occasional performance. Constantly suppressing their true natures to maintain an act was not good for them.
Therefore, aside from the initial period when Blue Sea’s residents encountered the locals and had no idea how to react, they no longer needed to recite lines provided by the Script Department.
By now, Youdu had been established, and Blue Sea’s residents had adapted to the way people spoke on Fallen Heaven Star. The oracles issued by the great Creator God of Blue Sea had made the instructions quite clear: ‘Do your assigned jobs well. Beyond that, do as you please.’
In Qian Heng and the other Blue Sea residents’ eyes, their current situation was no different from working a job back in Blue Sea.
The only difference was that, back in Blue Sea, she had been the deputy minister of the Economic and Trade Department. Here, her job was to serve as the Ghost King guarding the gates of the underworld.
Back in Blue Sea, her subordinates called her Minister Qian.
Here, they called her Lord Qian.
Either way, they were all working for their God. What difference did it make? None at all.
And precisely because they were working for their God, Qian Heng, like all the other residents of Blue Sea, was exceptionally conscientious about her duties.
To match her identity as a Ghost King, Qian Heng had even gone to the mortal world to commission a custom outfit from Blue Sea’s version of the God of Fire. The order included a forehead guard engraved with ghost-face patterns and fitted with two menacing black horns that curved upward on either side, as well as armor featuring bronze ghost heads mounted on both upper arms and at the center of the abdomen.
Qian Heng was extremely satisfied with her new look. The Blue Sea version of the God of Fire had demanded an outrageous amount of tribute as payment, but considering that he was worshipped by a local blacksmith and could do little every day except hang around a furnace, the offerings he received rarely included anything to eat, drink, wear, or use. Unlike him, she had the privilege of working directly for their God. In light of that, she decided not to quibble over the price.
If only hair dye could be brought down to Fallen Heaven Star! She would have loved to dye her hair red, too. She felt it would make her look even cooler.
And now, Lord Qian stood nearly 1.9 meters tall, clad in that imposing armor, with a two-horned forehead guard and a long spear engraved with ghost patterns in her hand. As expected, the moment she appeared, she struck the Fenglu Mountain cultivators with an overwhelming sense of oppression.
The dozen or so cultivators were already being suppressed by the surrounding yin energy. Now, their presence weakened even further.
They needed only a single glance to realize that they stood no chance against this being before them, who seemed at once human, ghost, and god—especially since she had brought an entire contingent of soldiers with her.
Qian Heng also noticed the cold sweat on their foreheads, and she slightly reined in her eagerness to launch into battle.
Lord Qian had thoroughly studied the supernatural beings and strange phenomena of Fallen Heaven Star. Ghosts and gods could shed tears, but they could not sweat.
“Living humans?”
She was genuinely impressed. Youdu had only recently opened its gates, yet human cultivators had already found their way here.
“Impressive courage! You dare trespass through the Ghost Gate in your mortal bodies!”
The senior disciple of Fenglu Mountain, Ming Moyu, had no trouble interpreting those words as a threat.
However, this figure had not immediately attacked them or shouted for their deaths. Instead, she seemed willing to communicate. Moreover, the evil ghost they had been pursuing all this way was lying on the ground, its head severed from its body. Clearly, this area was not something the evil ghost had created, contrary to what they had previously suspected.
Suppressing the tremors that ran through her body under the pressure of the overwhelming yin energy, Ming Moyu performed a Taoist salute toward Qian Heng.
“Esteemed lord, we are seventh-generation cultivators of Fenglu Mountain. Our unauthorized entry into this realm was not intentional. We were pursuing an evil ghost that had been harming the common people when we inadvertently stumbled into this place. We ask for your understanding and hope you will allow us to leave.”
Qian Heng immediately understood. So they had entered by accident.
Most Blue Sea residents were the sort of people who, upon discovering something new and suspicious, would roll up their sleeves and dive right in to take a look. Her first assumption had therefore been that these people had noticed something unusual and deliberately entered to investigate.
“So that’s what happened.”
Qian Heng was not one to dawdle. As the Ghost King guarding the gates, she had the authority to open the Ghost Gate to the outside world.
She was just about to go open the gates when the imposing, dashing Ghost King suddenly paused.
She glanced respectfully up at the mist-shrouded sky above the Ghost Gate, then stopped in her tracks. Raising her left hand, she let a flash of white mist pass over it. In an instant, more than a dozen wooden identification plaques with cords appeared in her palm.
“Tie these plaques on. They’ll protect you from being eroded by the yin energy.”
The dozen or so cultivators from Fenglu Mountain hurriedly thanked her and accepted the plaques. Once they had put them on, warmth spread through their bodies. Aside from feeling a little weak, they were no longer affected by the yin energy.
They were both astonished and filled with a sense of wonder.
What kind of place was this, exactly?
Why were there city walls and soldiers here? And why had that evil ghost been killed the moment it arrived, while living people like themselves were treated quite well? Then there were these miraculous plaques that could shield them from yin energy.
Ming Moyu casually picked up her plaque and glanced at it. She saw two large characters written on it: Ghost Gate Guard.
Beneath them, in smaller characters, were the words: Issued by Youdu.
Turning it over, she found another line of text:
[Ghost soldiers on gate patrol may pass freely while carrying this token.]
She was about to examine it more closely when Qian Heng came striding over with a hearty laugh, already acting as though they were old acquaintances. She gave Ming Moyu a friendly pat on the shoulder.
“You probably followed the yin energy left by that evil ghost and ended up here. The Ghost Gate can only be opened to let living people come and go at midnight, so you’ll have to wait here for a while.”
As she spoke, she immediately began pulling them toward the city gate.
“Come on, come on! It’s not every day we get living people coming down here, especially righteous cultivators who hunt down evil ghosts. I simply must give you a proper welcome!”
While dragging them along, she also called out instructions to the ghost soldiers behind her.
“Xiao Liu! Head up to the mortal world and bring down some food for the living. I’ve got distinguished guests to entertain!”
