The eyelids, which had not moved for ten thousand years, finally tore open a barely perceptible slit in the dead silence of the darkness.
In an instant, an ancient will, indescribable in words, surged up from the depths of the earth like an invisible tide.
It was not a physical impact, yet it was more terrifying than any physical force, instantly sweeping across the entire Trap City Ruins.
Gu Xuan, who was stealthily moving along the edge of the ruins, suddenly froze. His heart felt as if it were grasped by a cold, large hand, causing even the Black Water Pool in his Spirit Sea to ripple with ominous signs.
That will was filled with chaos, hunger, and malice, as if a ferocious beast that had slept for eons was letting out a silent roar upon waking, announcing its return.
Gu Xuan's expression changed drastically. He unhesitatingly suppressed his entire aura, locking the power of the Demon Suppression Hall deep within his body, becoming like a stubborn stone, instantly blending with the surrounding broken walls and ruins.
He knew the source of this will lay beneath the completely collapsed central Altar!
He did not retreat; instead, like the most patient leopard, he used the cover of shadows to sneak toward the center of that will.
The closer he got, the heavier the mental pressure became, and the air was permeated with a chilling coldness that seemed capable of freezing the Soul.
Finally, he reached the edge of that bottomless giant pit.
A fierce wind poured out from the hole, carrying bone-chilling coldness and the whispers of lost souls.
Gu Xuan’s gaze was sharp, piercing through layers of darkness. He clearly saw that beneath the collapsed Altar ruins, there was not solid earth and stone, but a... spiral stone staircase leading underground!
The stone steps were ancient and massive, winding downwards, resembling a path to the Nine Hells.
What shocked his spirit even more was that on the rock walls flanking the staircase, every few steps, a rusty Copper Token was embedded!
Hundreds of them, perhaps more!
The style, size, and the faint Soul Breath remaining on these Copper Tokens were identical to the Copper Tokens of the Xu Zi Ying in his Spirit Sea.
He subconsciously took out one of them, sinking his spiritual sense into it, and then comparing it with the arrangement of the Copper Tokens on the rock wall—his pupils suddenly contracted!
This arrangement could precisely correspond to the numbers on the Copper Tokens he held!
A world-shattering realization struck his mind like lightning, clearing away all the fog.
So that’s how it is!
So the Trap City Ruins were never an ordinary border dead city from the start.
It was the Demon Suppression Hall's first "Container"!
After that tragic great war, someone used supreme divine power to Seal the original Hall Core beneath this land, and then used the entire city and hundreds of thousands of unwilling souls as chains to set up an unparalleled grand Suppression formation!
The three hundred and seventy-two soldiers of the Xu Zi Ying—their Copper Tokens were the formation eyes of this grand array, the key to the Seal!
His arrival, and these few Copper Tokens he obtained from corpses, were like pebbles dropped into a calm lake, unintentionally and gradually undoing this Seal that had been sealed for ten thousand years!
The awakened eyeball deep underground was the object being suppressed!
Gu Xuan felt a chill shoot straight from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head.
He dared not venture deeper. What lay below was a terrifying existence that even the original Demon Suppression Hall had to pay such a price to suppress. For him to go down now with his current strength would be no different from a moth flying into a flame.
He made a decisive move, flashing away to hide behind some concealed ruins.
With a thought, a Black Shadow appeared silently before him—it was the tall and sturdy Zixian General puppet.
"Not enough..." Gu Xuan
He formed hand seals, and the Black Water Pool in his Spirit Sea churned violently. He forcibly pulled out the remnant Souls of three Corpse Generals that he had recently refined and had not yet fully absorbed.
The three distorted Soul Bodies let out silent shrieks but were firmly suppressed by Gu Xuan's more domineering Soul Power.
"Merge!"
With a low shout, he slammed both hands onto the chest of the Zixian General.
The three remnant Souls were forcefully driven into the puppet's Soul Core. The Zixian General's body trembled violently, black energy surged around its surface, and its bones emitted a series of teeth-grinding creaks.
Its aura increased visibly, and a trace of struggle and sentience appeared in its hollow eye sockets.
But it wasn't over yet!
Gu Xuan flipped his hand and took out a blank Copper Token he had never used before.
This was the first Origin Copper Token spontaneously condensed within the Hall after he became the Dian Zhu.
He bit his fingertip, and a drop of blood containing his origin essence dripped onto the Copper Token, emitting a light sizzling sound.
Immediately after, he closed his eyes tightly. A tiny blood mark split open on his brow. A strand of golden spiritual sense, thinner than a strand of hair yet incredibly condensed, was forcibly stripped from his Soul Origin!
Intense pain struck, and Gu Xuan's face instantly turned deathly pale, his body swaying slightly.
This act was akin to splitting his Soul, causing immense depletion to his Soul.
But he didn't hesitate in the slightest. He Sealed this wisp of spiritual sense, which carried a portion of his consciousness and thinking ability, into the blank Copper Token.
The Copper Token flashed with light, and the patterns on it seemed to come alive.
Gu Xuan grabbed the scorching Copper Token and pressed it firmly into the Zixian General's chest, embedding it where the Soul Core was located.
"From now on, you are me." He stared at the Zixian General, his voice hoarse and low, "Walk down there for me, remember everything you see, and then... come back and tell me."
He had to ensure that this puppet could "think like him" and make the most correct judgment when facing unknown changes.
The Soul Fire in the Zixian General's eye sockets flickered, as if processing this complex instruction.
A moment later, it stiffly knelt on one knee, then rose, turned, and began walking step by step toward the bottomless spiral stone staircase.
Gu Xuan immediately sat cross-legged, his mind completely immersed in the connection with the Zixian General, sharing all its perceptions through that wisp of spiritual sense.
The stone steps were cold and long.
As the Zixian General went deeper, ancient murals began to appear on the rock walls on both sides.
The murals depicted a world-shattering war using the most primitive lines.
In the images, countless Towering and Upright human cultivators were jointly fighting a giant "Black Shadow" descending from a rift in the sky.
That Black Shadow had no fixed form; its mere existence caused the heavens and earth to lose color and all things to wither.
Countless cultivators turned to dust under its shadow, and mountains and rivers shattered.
At the end of the war, three hundred and seventy-two human heroes, their bodies burning with the fire of life, used themselves as Sacrificial Offerings to activate a divine artifact, ultimately driving a part of that "Black Shadow" beneath this land, and constructing a great hall to Suppress it above.
At the end of the murals stood a solitary, imposing figure before a massive, Towering gate.
His figure was straight, holding a bronze token, gazing at the sealed darkness.
When Gu Xuan's "sight" fell upon that figure, his entire Soul trembled violently!
That figure, that posture, the way he held the Copper Token... it was clearly the appearance of the Lao Shao Chang, who raised him, taught him martial arts, and eventually died in the beast tide, when he was young!
So... so the old man was... a survivor of that original Sealing ritual, one of the first guardians of this first Demon Suppression Hall!
He wasn't just some ordinary old soldier; his entire life was spent guarding this secret!
The immense shock agitated Gu Xuan's spirit, but he forcibly suppressed his surging emotions and continued to "watch."
The Zixian General's steps did not stop. It passed through the long corridor of murals and finally reached the very bottom of the spiral stone staircase.
This was an incomparably vast, circular Secret Chamber.
In the center of the Secret Chamber, a black crystal shaped like an eyeball, with a diameter exceeding ten zhang, floated quietly in mid-air.
It was closed, but that heart-palpitating will emanated from within it.
Around the black crystal, nine figures, long since reduced to dried corpses, wearing the attire of past City Lords, maintained a posture of kneeling with palms facing up, as if eternally worshipping this sinister crystal.
The moment the Zixian General stepped into the Secret Chamber, an aged figure composed of faint light slowly materialized on the ground.
His form was illusory, like a candle flickering in the wind, ready to extinguish at any moment.
"Who... who has come?" The remnant will of the tomb keeper uttered a dry, hoarse voice. "Those not holding a Copper Token are forbidden to approach."
The Zixian General stopped, and following Gu Xuan's preset instructions, slowly raised the Copper Token embedded in its chest, which bore Gu Xuan's spiritual sense.
That remnant will gazed at the Copper Token for a moment. Its illusory body actually trembled slightly, and then it slowly bowed to the Zixian General: "The bloodline of the Gatekeeper... is not severed... the Seal... can continue."
Bloodline?
Gu Xuan sneered in his Spirit Sea.
This remnant will probably sensed the aura of the Demon Suppression Hall on the Copper Token and mistakenly believed he was a descendant of those original Gatekeepers.
He immediately seized the opportunity, controlled the Zixian General to step forward, and imitated human speech, saying in a low voice, "The Seal is about to break; a new sacrifice is needed."
"No..." The remnant will shook its head, its voice becoming more ethereal. "Not a sacrifice of flesh and blood, but eternal imprisonment of the Soul—one person must voluntarily establish a Soul Vow, transforming into the new Gatekeeper, guarding here for life, never allowed to leave for eternity."
So that's it. Gu Xuan understood instantly. This Seal required a living "lock core."
The Zixian General fell silent for a moment, as if making a difficult choice.
Suddenly, under the astonished gaze of the remnant will, it knelt on one knee before the central black crystal and uttered three words in that emotionless tone: "I volunteer to sign."
The moment the words fell, the giant black crystal shone brightly!
A Covenant composed of countless bizarre Fu Wen shot out from the crystal like a black lightning bolt, instantly Sealing into the Zixian General's Soul Core, which was that Copper Token!
Rumble!
The entire Secret Chamber shook violently, and the previously restless ancient will slowly subsided under the effect of this Covenant!
The light on the surface of the black crystal gradually receded, and the eye slit that had just opened closed again.
The power of the Seal had actually been temporarily restored and strengthened at this moment!
The Zixian General stood up, turned around, and began its return journey.
However, the moment it stepped onto the stone staircase, Gu Xuan, who was far above in the ruins, suddenly changed expression!
He clearly felt a cold and domineering power, flowing through the spiritual sense connection between him and the Zixian General via that Fu Wen Covenant, drawing energy backward from the Black Water Pool in his Spirit Sea!
That so-called "Soul Vow" not only bound the puppet but also acted like a greedy worm, frantically devouring the foundation of his Demon Suppression Hall!
"What a 'voluntary' act... what an 'eternal imprisonment of the Soul'!" Gu Xuan laughed in extreme anger, cold light surging in his eyes. "So you don't want a Gatekeeper, you want to devour me, the new-generation Dian Zhu, to fill your Seal!"
He no longer hesitated. His divine sense turned into a blade, violently slashing at the spiritual sense chain connecting him to the Zixian General!
"Sever!"
Gu Xuan spat out a mouthful of reverse blood, his face as pale as paper.
Deep underground, the Zixian General climbing upwards suddenly froze, and the Soul Fire in its eye sockets instantly extinguished.
The black energy and bones constituting its body began to disintegrate inch by inch after losing Gu Xuan's power support and spiritual sense control, turning into the most primitive death energy and dissipating on the dark staircase.
He opened his eyes, his deep gaze seeming to pierce through ten thousand feet of earth, looking directly into that darkness which had returned to silence.
"You want a Gatekeeper?" He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and murmured softly, his voice carrying a trace of cold madness, "I can give you one... but it must be one... I forge myself."
And deep within his turbulent Spirit Sea, beneath the bottom of the Black Water Pool, behind that ancient stone door that had been half-open since his rebirth, a long and ancient sigh suddenly sounded.
That sigh seemed to carry a trace of relief, yet also a trace of expectation, like a master who had waited for countless ages, finally... hearing the belated knock at the door.
Gu Xuan's figure flickered as he stood up from the ruins, gazing afar toward the endless Huang Yuan outside the Trap City Ruins.
This place had become a deadly restricted zone and was not suitable for lingering. The immediate priority was to find a place to recover his losses and search for enough "materials" for his insane plan.
His figure flashed, and he vanished like a ghost into the deep night, leaving behind only a dead silent ruin swept by the cold wind.