He staggered a step, suddenly kneeling at the edge of the rift in Broken Spine Ridge, a metallic taste surging in his throat, and vomited a large mouthful of thick, black blood with a "wah" sound.
That black blood landed on the grayish-white rock and actually wriggled like a living thing. The moment it seeped into the rock crevices, it emitted a faint "hissing" sound, as if even the essence of the mountain stone was being corroded by it.
The excruciating pain surged through every inch of his meridians like a tide, but at this moment, what Gu Xuan cared about more was the earth-shattering Aberration occurring within his Spirit Sea.
That pool of Black Water, which had been deathly still, was now churning and roaring with unprecedented violence.
At the bottom of the pool, the nine corpses of the Igniters he had forcibly dragged in were being decomposed by an invisible force.
With the disintegration of every corpse, a twisted Soul Shadow would escape. In the final moment before dissipating, each Soul Shadow would utter a vague and venomous whisper, converging into a demonic sound that pierced the soul:
"...Beyond the gate is darkness, only devouring remains..."
"...The Gatekeeper... must feed on all living things..."
Again and again, like the most malicious curse, it was branded deep within his Soul.
Only now did Gu Xuan finally understand to the bone—the Demon Suppression Hall's cold greeting, "Welcome back," was not a welcome at all, but a confirmation!
A confirmation that a Destiny closed loop, of which he was still unaware, had snapped perfectly into place with his arrival.
He was being pushed step-by-step by this mysterious system into the predetermined role of the "Gatekeeper"!
By what right!
He clenched his fists tightly, his fingernails digging deep into his palms, the oozing blood mixing with the black blood on the ground.
He ground his back molars and squeezed out a few words from between his teeth. His voice was not loud, but it carried a ferocity capable of smashing a hole through the heavens: "I am not some Gatekeeper... I am the one who will smash the gate!"
Just then, a weak cough came from behind him.
The Traveling Taoist slowly woke up. He struggled to sit up, his face even paler than when Gu Xuan had last seen him, like a sheet of Xuan paper soaked in water.
He instinctively reached for his chest. It was empty; the protective Talisman had long since turned to ash, leaving only a few scorched finger marks on his palm, as if he had truly used his bare hand to hold up that flame which burned everything away.
He raised his head, his cloudy eyes fixed on Gu Xuan's back, his voice hoarse as if ground by sandpaper: "You... you used me as bait... you calculated everything!" He took a breath, a flicker of fear crossing his eyes, "But do you know what kind of monster is behind that gate?"
Gu Xuan did not turn around, nor did he even stand up.
He merely retorted coldly, his voice devoid of any warmth: "Did the City Lord of your Trap City Ruins send you here truly to investigate the movement at Broken Spine Ridge? Or... to deliver a Sacrificial Offering?"
The three words, "Sacrificial Offering," struck the Traveling Taoist's heart like an invisible sledgehammer.
His pupils suddenly constricted, his lips moved several times, but he could not utter a single word.
That shock was far greater than the anger of being used as bait.
After a long silence, he seemed to have lost all strength, slumping: "The three cities of Bei Jing secretly formed an alliance a hundred years ago. Trap City Ruins, Winter's Keep, and No Return Pass... Every year, one city takes turns selecting an 'Igniter' to come to this location and light the Altar..."
"Otherwise?" Gu Xuan pressed.
"Otherwise, the black mist enveloping Bei Jing will completely swallow us." The Traveling Taoist's voice was filled with despair and helplessness.
"Heh." Gu Xuan let out a cold laugh filled with utter mockery, "So, you were never driving away evil spirits or suppressing anomalies; you were... raising ghosts."
That single sentence tore apart the self-deceiving disguise of the three cities of Bei Jing spanning a hundred years.
The Traveling Taoist's face turned ashen; he could no longer refute it.
Gu Xuan ignored him, sitting cross-legged, drawing upon the vast Yin Energy from the Black Water Pool in his Spirit Sea to begin repairing his damaged meridians.
The energy of the Black Water Pool was pure and domineering; wherever it passed, the broken meridians healed rapidly, like withered wood meeting spring.
However, during this process of repair, he keenly sensed an extremely unusual anomaly!
The projection energy of the crystal core forcibly absorbed during the Altar Ritual had not been completely refined and absorbed by the Demon Suppression Hall and the Black Water Pool as he had expected.
A trace of imperceptible residue had settled into the deepest part of his Spirit Sea, quietly condensing into a black dot smaller than a speck of dust.
This black dot was inconspicuous, yet it continuously released an extremely faint, low-frequency vibration.
This vibration was not an energy fluctuation; it was more like a... call.
It was establishing a faint resonance with some existence extremely far away!
Gu Xuan suddenly opened his eyes, a murderous glint flashing through them!
This was not residual energy! This was a "beacon"!
Someone was using the residual mechanism of the Altar to reverse-locate every living being that had come into contact with the core energy!
If left unchecked, he would be like a traveler carrying a Lantern in the dark night, completely visible to the hunter lurking in the shadows, no matter where he went.
Not only would he be completely exposed, but even his yet-to-be-reached destination—Trap City Ruins—was likely already under that thing's surveillance!
I must clear the field proactively before it locks onto me!
A cold light flickered in Gu Xuan's eyes, and a plan bold to the point of madness instantly took shape.
Without hesitation, he took out three blank Talismans made from Mayfly Remnant Cores from his robes—these were some of his few remaining supplies.
He sliced open his fingertip, letting his vital blood flow. He did not draw any known Fu Wen, but instead used the blood as ink to rapidly sketch a twisted and complex circuit onto the Talismans.
This circuit was precisely the trajectory of spatial distortion when the Demon Suppression Hall devoured everything in his Spirit Sea!
He forcibly replicated this trajectory and completely rewrote the Talisman's target from the originally intended "suppress aberrant energy" to—"simulate Altar resonance"!
Having done this, he grabbed the corpse of the Igniter with the most intact aura among the nine Igniter corpses on the ground, and precisely pressed one of the Talismans into its crown.
Then, moving like lightning, he buried the other two Talismans on hidden high ground on either side of the rift, forming a line of three points, echoing each other from a distance.
Finally, he returned to the center of the rift and cut open his wrist again.
This time, blood poured out like a torrent, and he rapidly drew a huge and bizarre inverted five-pointed star formation on the ground.
This formation did not belong to the Taoist school, nor the Buddhist sect, nor any known cultivation system; it was purely a "Pseudo-Divine Realm" that Gu Xuan had reverse-engineered based on the Demon Suppression Hall's law of devouring!
What he intended to do was not to hide his tracks, but to take the initiative and create a more convincing "false Altar restart"!
The hour of Zi approached, and the Yin wind howled fiercely.
The beacon hidden deep within Gu Xuan's Spirit Sea suddenly intensified its vibration frequency!
As if responding to its call, the vortex cloud layer that had never dispersed in the distant night sky fluctuated violently again.
It was coming!
A long, ink-line-like Black Shadow descended silently from the sky, like a fishing line cast by a deity, extending precisely toward Broken Spine Ridge!
That was the Guiding Touch!
It was the sign that a higher-level anomaly had sensed the Altar's activity resuming and was about to descend!
The Traveling Taoist was already paralyzed by this world-shattering pressure. He stared in horror at the black line drawing nearer, feeling as if his very Soul was about to be torn apart.
Just a split second before the black line touched the ground, a sharp light burst from Gu Xuan's eyes, and he violently activated the three Talismans he had already laid out!
"Buzz—!"
The three resonance sources erupted simultaneously!
They perfectly simulated the energy frequency present only when the nine Igniters gathered, creating a brief but intensely strong false signal!
The descending black line suddenly paused, trembling violently like a venomous snake that had caught the scent of blood.
The next second, it ignored the original center of the Altar where Gu Xuan was, violently whipped around, and with lightning speed, plunged fiercely into the corpse implanted with the Talisman!
Instantly, the corpse swelled wildly, twisted, and deformed like a balloon being inflated!
Skin tore apart inch by inch, flesh and bone squeezed and reorganized, and within mere seconds, it transformed into a writhing, proliferating mass of twisted flesh!
A "Wretched Spawn" that did not belong to this world was being forcibly birthed!
This was exactly what Gu Xuan had been waiting for!
His eyes widened, the phantom image of the Demon Suppression Hall in his Spirit Sea roared into operation, and the all-consuming suction force was compressed to its extreme, condensing into an invisible needle point that locked onto the newly formed, struggling Wretched Spawn across the distance!
"Come... inside!"
With a low roar, the Black Water Pool exploded, and the mass of flesh was forcibly drawn into Gu Xuan's Spirit Sea by an irresistible force before it could even let out a scream!
【 Detected 'Extraterrestrial Parasitic Species - Initial Hatchling', energy extremely unstable. Initiate deep Refinement? 】
The cold prompt from the Demon Suppression Hall sounded in his Spirit Sea.
At the same time, the Traveling Taoist staggered backward. He stared in horror at the empty rift, then looked at Gu Xuan, who was wiping blood from his mouth but whose aura was growing increasingly domineering, his voice trembling uncontrollably: "You... you weren't avoiding it... you tricked the real 'eye'... into coming down?!"
Gu Xuan casually wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, but his gaze was fixed tightly on the black shadow struggling and roaring madly in his Spirit Sea. A cold and cruel arc curved his lips.
"Now, it's my turn to see... who is waiting outside the gate."
And the moment his words fell, a hundred miles away, in the deepest part of the ruined capital of Trap City Ruins, on a massive bronze gate buried deep underground and sealed for countless years, countless complex patterns silently lit up.
The light was dim and profound, and the pattern it outlined was exactly the same as the Copper Token formed by the Demon Suppression Hall on Gu Xuan's chest.