Chapter 2817 - 80: All Within Calculation

"Why won’t you open the gate!?"

On the solemn, ancient sacrificial altar hung a gigantic orb of light in which Chaos surged. At times when the Chaos parted, birds and beasts could be seen, rivers and cloud‑capped peaks. At times when the Chaos gathered, there were green thunder and purple lightning, scarlet flames and ashen gloom.

Beneath the gigantic orb of turbulent Chaos, an angry voice was growling low.

The suppressed pain within it was like a volcano on the verge of eruption.

The one growling was a monk with clear, sharply‑cut features.

A face that should have brought many rays of brightness was, in this moment, buried under suffering.

On his face were wounds carved open by wind‑blades; especially his left brow, where the left third was broken by a narrow gash.

He had come too fast; when he crashed through space, he was wounded by a stray current of wind.

He had almost triggered the counterattack of The gate of all demons and had his Dharma Body ground to dust.

The one he was questioning wore a conical hat, a rain‑cloak, straw sandals, and sat cross‑legged on the ground, a sheathed blade laid horizontally across his knees.

He was, of course, one of the three Human Race Yan Dao serving this term as Town Guard of Suiming City, the Yandao True Monarch of Qing Country who had once faced off against Shi Shanwen on the South Heaven battlefield—Qin Changsheng.

"Is it not open already?" he said mildly.

"You know what I’m talking about!" The enraged monk let out an enraged growl.

"Which gate do you want opened?" Qin Changsheng asked in an even voice.

"Naturally the gate that leads to the Land of Shenxiao!" The monk said excitedly, "Our sect’s Master Xingnian is within it—he is already knocking at the gate!"

Qin Changsheng’s reaction remained very calm: "As far as I know, The gate of all demons does not lead to the Land of Shenxiao. The passage Master Xingnian opened himself has not yet reached the gate. When he arrives at the gate, and we have confirmed it is safe, we will naturally receive him in."

"I want you to open it now!" The monk suddenly leaned close, the scars on his bald head crimson as blood, flaring like incense: "I want to go and meet him!"

Qin Changsheng lifted his eyelids and simply looked at him. He spoke slowly: "Do you understand what you are saying?"

The same words, but this time they were a question.

The monk’s heart was burning with anxiety, his eyes already bloodshot: "Master Xingnian is the highest achiever of the Future Astral Tribulation Scripture in the present age, he is a Great Bodhisattva of Mount Sumeru, and he is also a Yandao True Monarch of our Human Race! True Monarch Qin, you Qin Changsheng—you Qing Country—are you truly going to watch him die and refuse to save him?!"

"Zhao Wu, let me ask you this!" Qin Changsheng pressed his hand to the long blade, still sitting cross‑legged, unmoving: "If this is a trap, if the Demon clan breaks the gate and comes pouring out, who bears that responsibility?"

"I will!" Monk Zhaowu said fiercely, "If anything happens because of this, I will pay with my head!"

"You cannot afford it!" Qin Changsheng’s voice was ice‑cold: "What is your body shattered to broken bones worth, Zhaowu? Even if we throw in the whole of your Mount Sumeru, could you ever compensate for Ten Thousand Demon Sect?"

Zhaowu, eyes reddened, said, "Master Xingnian has made great contributions to the Human Race; our Mount Sumeru has risked our lives time and again for the Human Race! Look at the present world—there are few whose calculating power can stand shoulder to shoulder with his. If he can live, he will be of great use to our Human Race!"

"Leaving aside the fact he has not settled any accounts in five hundred years. If you hadn’t come here today to make a scene, I would have thought he was still in the mountain." Qin Changsheng said slowly, "Let me speak to you of standards."

"These are not standards set by me, Qin Changsheng, but regulations the Human Race has laid down for The gate of all demons since ancient times. They are not aimed at you alone, yet you must abide within their outline."

"For all who have ever entered or left The gate of all demons, every single one has needed to report in advance and undergo verification from inside and out. I do not know why Chuguo would let you recklessly rush here. But I have reason to believe they do not respect The gate of all demons, nor the larger situation of war between the two races. The deputy in Chuguo responsible for The gate of all demons has grossly failed his duty! I will write to the Chu Court and demand an accounting."

The light in Qin Changsheng’s eyes grew ever more sharp, like the long blade on his knees that seemed already unable to be constrained by its scabbard: "The gate of all demons is the only portal in the present world that leads to the Monster Realm; it will absolutely not be lightly opened to the outside. Never mind that Master Xingnian has not yet reached the gate— even if he were already outside the gate, he would still have to wait the full term, and only when every risk is erased would he be allowed to enter!"

With that gaze, he slashed his eyes toward Zhaowu: "Who gave you the courage to open your mouth and demand the gate be opened to welcome him?"

"When two armies clash, one still cannot lightly open the city gates. When two countries war, one still cannot casually relax the border passes. Now that the two races are at war, whom is it you wish to open the gate to receive?"

"Zhaowu, what do you think we are doing here? What do you think I am sitting guard here for?"

"You cannot truly believe that our Human Race sleeps on pillows without a care, that the war with the Demon clan is nothing but children’s play, can you?"

"If that were so, how would your Zhi Wen Bell have gone missing? Why would Zen Master Ming Zhi have died? Why would Master Xingnian now be in peril, and why would you, Zhaowu, need to be here kicking up this unreasonable fuss?"

"Has the blood battle of Wuling truly been so long ago? That statue of the Demon Emperor Yuan Xi still stands in the Ancient Imperial City—how have you not gone to look upon it from afar even once?!"

This string of repeated interrogations cut like a succession of straight blades, their edge gouging the heart, hacking Monk Zhaowu until he was left battered and begrimed.

"I... he..."

This august Yandao True Monarch, who back then had even debated the Dao with Huang Weizhen, now painfully closed his eyes, mouthing and mouthing, yet was unable to utter a single complete sentence.

Of course he knew all that Qin Changsheng was saying!

Of course he knew that no one would support him in opening the gate.

Why had he lowered his voice to a hoarse roar? Because he knew he could not cast everything aside.

But he truly wanted to save him!

That one who had hidden among the Demon clan for five hundred years, who had sworn he would reclaim the Knowledge and Hearing Bell for the Mountain Gate and put an end to a hundred generations of tragedy—did he know that in the present world, there were people waiting for him?

Did he know that there have always been people believing in him, many people believing in him?

"If you truly wish to go to his rescue, the road over there has been open all along." Qin Changsheng’s voice was cruel beyond measure.