Yu Xian rose from his beach chair, holding the Hero's Key in his hand.
In an instant, the positive intent gathered by the Serpent Heart slowly flowed toward his right hand and poured entirely into the Hero's Key. A colossal Golden Gate gradually materialized ahead.
Yu Xian looked toward Zhenwo Changjing and asked, "Auntie, do you think I should open this gate?"
"I do not know. This is already beyond the scope of my abilities," Zhenwo Changjing replied, slowly shaking her head as she looked at the Golden Gate before them. "You must make the decision yourself, for better or worse."
She could not discern the gate's true nature. In fact, if she did not look at it with her bare eyes, none of her other abilities could even detect its existence.
Yu Xian glanced at the Hero's Key, his mind gradually made up.
Since this key was called the Hero's Key and had condensed from positive intent, whatever lay behind the gate shouldn't be anything evil.
He stepped forward and inserted the Hero's Key into the keyhole of the Golden Gate. In an instant, all the positive intent within his body was completely drained by the gate.
The numbers above the keyhole on the Golden Gate shifted slowly, finally settling on '7'.
The gate then slowly swung open. Yet standing outside, Yu Xian could not see what lay inside at all. Zhang Shou and the others walked over at that moment. Staring at the massive gate, Zhang Shou asked, "Salty Fish, don't tell me this gate is another one of your new abilities?"
"More or less," Yu Xian replied.
Gong Qian tried to touch the gate, but her hand passed right through empty air. "What's inside?" she asked.
"No idea," Yu Xian said, shaking his head.
Zhang Shou gave a wry smile. "Then we won't get in your way. Just be careful. If you need our help, say the word."
"Yeah, don't worry. Nothing major should happen," Yu Xian said with a nod and a smile.
With that, he stepped through the gate and vanished within an instant. Zhang Shou and the others looked on in wonder. Gong Qian tried approaching the gate, only to pass right through it. Evidently, aside from Yu Xian, no one could touch the gate, let alone enter it.
"Salty Fish's abilities are getting more and more enigmatic. No, I have to work hard to get stronger too!" Zhang Shou said, gritting his teeth.
With that, he turned around to train his skills. His system tasks were very simple: accumulate skill casts. Every time he reached a certain number of casts, the system would level up once, and he would level up along with it, thereby unlocking new skills.
However, for most Transcendents who had eaten a Forbidden Fruit, their leveling speed was actually quite slow, and the longer their lifespan, the slower their advancement became. Barring unexpected fortunes, reaching the Dragon rank would take him at least hundreds or even thousands of years.
Hearing Zhang Shou's words, Gong Qian reflexively glanced at Xiong Da. Xiong Da instantly shuddered, sensing an ill omen in Gong Qian's gaze.
"Xiong Da, spar with me!"
Rubbing her fists and palms, Gong Qian walked over to Xiong Da. Looking up at him from her lower height, she offered a smiling invitation.
Having hung around Qilin for a month, however, Xiong Da knew all too well how terrifying Gong Qian was. He spun on his heels and bolted, screaming, "Noooo!!!"
"Halt! Don't you run!"
Gong Qian shouted at once, dashing off in pursuit of Xiong Da.
...
Meanwhile, inside the Golden Gate.
Before stepping inside, Yu Xian had made plenty of assumptions—such as a vast trove of treasures, countless weapons and equipment, or statues of heroes from which he could receive inherited powers.
All in all, his imagination had been lush and rosy.
Yet the reality was the exact opposite of what he had envisioned. He found himself standing in a gloomy, pitch-black, narrow corridor lined with cell after cell up ahead.
Swallowing hard, he walked slowly toward the first cell. Inside was a remarkably tidy man.
The man possessed gentle, refined features. He sat in a corner holding a book, looking for all the world like a cultured intellectual to Yu Xian.
Yu Xian's arrival seemed to catch the man a little off guard.
Closing the book in his hands, he smiled. "Greetings. It has been a very, very long time since a guest visited. Welcome to the Land of Glory."
"Hello. The Land of Glory? What does that mean?" Yu Xian nodded in greeting first before asking in confusion.
This place was dark and narrow, packed with cells. No matter how one looked at it, it seemed to have nothing to do with the word 'glory.'
"The hero defeats the demon king and makes him face his deserved punishment—is that not the hero's supreme glory?" the man countered.
Yu Xian froze for a beat before his Super Brain processed the words. Staring at the man, he asked, "So... you are a demon king defeated by a hero?"
"Why... don't I look like one?" The man squinted with a smile.
Yu Xian nodded. "Not at all. You look more like a teacher, a poet, or a writer."
"You have quite a sharp eye. In the past, I was indeed a teacher. I taught my students how to cultivate faster, how to become successful cultivators. Yet many considered what I taught too cruel, and thus harbored hostility toward me.
"Gradually, to defend me, my students came into conflict with these dissenters, which ultimately escalated into violent confrontations.
"Alas, my students lost, and I too was defeated by a hero. Thus, I was imprisoned here. The sentence is... perpetual," the man said with a smile.
While the man spoke, Yu Xian noticed that there was actually a serial number on the left side of the cell, beneath which was information regarding the prisoner within.
He walked over to the number and carefully read the text beneath it.
[Serial Number 001. Prisoner Name: Luomo, Sect Master of the Myriad Demons Sect. Crimes: Founded the Myriad Demons Sect thousands of times across different regions, directly or indirectly causing the deaths of lives equivalent to the sum total of 911668621578691244663388774452212395541239857889544621455 Level-9 worlds. Heinous beyond redemption. Perpetually imprisoned.]
After reading this, Yu Xian looked back at Luomo inside the cell, utterly unable to imagine that such a gentle, cultured person was actually an arch-demon among arch-demons.
Sure enough, one truly could not judge a book by its cover; judging people by appearances was simply too shallow.
Yu Xian lost all desire to continue conversing with Luomo. He immediately moved toward the second cell, where he saw a dragonman.
The figure cast a sidelong glance at Yu Xian before shutting his eyes, not bothering to pay him any heed.
Yu Xian did not mind. He walked to the serial number and examined the profile carefully.
[Serial Number 002. Prisoner Name: Ao Hai, Dark Sect Dragonman. Crimes: Inadvertently destroyed thirty major branches of the Tree Universe while battling Luomo, plunging living beings into misery and devastation. Heinous beyond redemption. Perpetually imprisoned.]
Yu Xian sucked in a breath of cold air after reading it. It turned out that Serial Number 001 and Serial Number 002 were both Mighty One-level beings!
Could it be that all the criminals imprisoned here were Mighty Ones?
Yu Xian hurried to the third cell.
Inside this cell was a woman more beautiful than any woman Yu Xian had ever seen. Sitting in a corner with her cheek resting in her hand, she seemed to be lost in thought.
When she saw Yu Xian appear, her eyes locked onto him immediately, and a captivating smile graced her lips.
"Hey there, boy. Am I pretty?" she asked with seductive allure, gazing right at Yu Xian.
Fortunately, the cell isolated the transcendent allure radiating from her, leaving behind only the beauty of her physical appearance. Far from being bewitched, Yu Xian snapped wide awake the instant she spoke.
Realizing just how terrifying this woman was, Yu Xian quickly lowered his head, stepped over to the serial number, and checked her background.
Chapter 180