A blood-red moon hung high in the night sky.
Its eerie crimson light pierced through the gaps between the clouds, staining the entire night with a sinister hue.
The clouds moved slowly across the face of the moon, sometimes obscuring it, sometimes spreading apart.
The light of the blood moon enveloped the roof of Guichen Studio, outlining it in an unreal silhouette.
It was as though the shop were slowly emerging from this alley, transforming into something larger than the building itself—something far older, deeper, and more profound.
The alley was eerily quiet.
There was no sound of wind, no distant traffic, not even the occasional stray cat could be seen.
It was as though someone had cleared the entire street in advance.
Sheng Chengxiu sat in the back seat of the sedan, the windows already raised, isolating him from every sound outside.
The engine hummed quietly, like a beast lurking in the night, ready to unleash a slaughter at any moment.
He wore the latest smart glasses, with several layers of real-time data panels floating before his field of vision.
Surveillance footage around Guichen Studio, live feeds transmitted by drones, personnel deployment updates, and a scan of the building facades along the entire Changning Alley were all updating steadily at the edge of his vision.
【Thermal imaging scan: Two human heat signatures confirmed inside, located in the front hall. Scan behind blast door: Failed.】
【Target 1: Su Muchen, whereabouts—unknown.】
【Target 2: Su Jinye, whereabouts—unknown.】
【Target vehicle: Jaguar F-Type R Specter, license plate: NEG-6124. Currently on the expressway heading toward Hailing City. Occupants: Unknown.】
Sheng Chengxiu’s gaze swept over each line of information.
He knew he was walking into a trap.
He also knew that Su Jinye would not leave Su Muchen inside Guichen Studio, because he would never place the “key” in the middle of the battlefield.
Su Muchen’s “disappearance” was the most reasonable arrangement.
He raised a hand and tapped his earpiece.
“Five minutes before Group C arrives, send the drones in first. The target is the Gatekeeper.”
“Understood.”
He made another phone call.
“President Sheng.”
“Proceed according to the original plan. If I don’t make contact within two hours, give the secure box to the chairman.” Sheng Chengxiu’s tone was as calm as if he were giving instructions about an ordinary matter. “He’ll know what to do with what’s inside.”
“Yes.”
After hanging up, he did not immediately get out of the car.
He remained leaning against the seatback, his gaze still fixed on the real-time data before him.
All the information pointed to the same conclusion: there were only two personnel on duty inside Guichen Studio, the blast door had not yet been completely breached, Su Muchen was not there, and Su Jinye’s car was traveling away from Yunjing City on the expressway.
Everything was reasonable.
Precisely because it was too reasonable, he knew that at least half of that information was false.
Then another message entered his field of vision.
【Blast door decryption progress: 99.2%】
His eyes narrowed as he watched the number slowly fluctuate.
Just a little more.
The metal door was gradually losing its defensive strength, like a wall being ground thinner and thinner, about to completely collapse within minutes.
As long as he crossed that door, he would stand before the Door’s true location.
“…Only 0.8% left.”
He murmured,
“Su Jinye, whatever trap you’ve set, I’ll see it with my own eyes.”
◇◆◇◆◇
At the same time, inside an old-fashioned apartment in the old district of Yunjing City.
This was Su Muchen’s first time coming to Xiao’s residence, but he had no interest in studying its layout.
At this moment, he sat on the edge of the sofa, his gaze fixed on the surveillance wall opposite him.
The wall consisted of twelve display panels, every screen running steadily.
—The front hall of Guichen Studio, the view of the back entrance, the corridors on the first and second floors, the surveillance cameras on both sides of Changning Alley, and an aerial view of the surrounding buildings.
Everything was so peaceful that it looked like a frozen painting.
Meanwhile, Su Qianqian was busy at the computer desk not far from him.
She wore a headset, her fingers never stopping on the keyboard as she continuously communicated with Su Jinye and the other personnel.
Su Qianqian sat at the computer desk a short distance in front of him, her headset hanging over her ears, her fingers flying rapidly across the keyboard.
Her speech was nearly twice as fast as usual as she spoke simultaneously through multiple communication channels.
“…Received. North side in position… East side standing by… Electronic warfare vehicle confirmed… Signal interference coverage confirmed…”
Su Muchen didn’t understand most of those terms, but he could feel the increasingly taut rhythm in the air.
Like a line being pulled longer and longer, about to snap.
He lowered his head and looked at the hand gripping his phone.
His fingertips had turned slightly white from the force, while the surveillance feeds on the screen showed nothing unusual.
But all personnel were already in position, and Xiao’s plan was proceeding on schedule.
This silence was more unbearable to him than any noise.
He remembered what Xiao had said that morning:
“Today will be very dangerous. Stay in the room. Don’t run around, and whatever you do, don’t come to Guichen Studio.”
The tone sounded like he was protecting him.
But looking back on it now, Su Muchen suspected it had been more like an excuse to send him away.
He stared at the surveillance screens, and a thought surfaced in his mind.
A thought he didn’t want to acknowledge, yet found increasingly difficult to ignore:
Was Xiao planning to… kill Sheng Chengxiu?
Not kill him directly, but use some method to make Sheng Chengxiu die.
He sat there for a long time, his thoughts churning without finding an answer.
That person who always lazily said, “I’m just an ordinary shop assistant,” was now very likely doing something that even he himself didn’t know whether he could turn back from.
At that moment, every screen on the surveillance wall suddenly erupted into snow-like static at the exact same time.
Su Qianqian’s reports also became even faster.
Amidst it all, he vaguely heard the words “electronic warfare vehicle” and “signal interference.”
Suddenly, he remembered what Xiao Yuan had said:
“—You must judge for yourself and make your own choice.”
Should he continue waiting?
Wait for Xiao to complete his plan?
Wait for Sheng Chengxiu to step into the trap?
He didn’t know.
He only knew that if Xiao really intended to go that far, he had to reach Guichen Studio before Xiao made his move.
He couldn’t let Xiao resolve the matter that way.
Perhaps Sheng Chengxiu deserved to die, but Xiao shouldn’t be the one to kill him.
Ending things that way would make Xiao lose something that could never be restored.
When Su Muchen stood up, Su Qianqian was looking down as she entered commands and did not immediately notice his movement.
“Qianqian. I’m sorry.”
His voice fell into the air of the apartment.
Su Qianqian’s fingers paused on the keyboard for an instant.
She turned her head, and the moment her gaze met his, she seemed to realize something.
“You—”
Su Muchen had already turned and run.
His footsteps echoed urgently outside the door, one after another, like a countdown being compressed.
Su Qianqian shouted something behind him, but he didn’t hear it clearly.
It might have been “Wait” or “Don’t go,” but those words had already been swallowed by the echoes of his footsteps.
He only knew that he had to run.
When he rushed out of the apartment building, he happened to look up and see the blood-red moon.
It was like the eye of some ancient creature, gazing down at him.
He ran along the sidewalk through the old district toward Guichen Studio, feeling his heartbeat rapidly pounding against his chest.
A five-minute journey now seemed like five kilometers.
But he couldn’t stop.
Because he knew that before he reached that place, someone was waiting for him.
That person might once again be planning to sacrifice himself.
The person who had told him, “You only need to take care of Guichen Studio and the Door. I don’t want you involved in anything else.”
The person who, in the night, had said in a calm voice that he wished he were an ordinary person.
Only now did Su Muchen realize—
If the operation failed, had Xiao actually left himself a way out in his contingency plans?
He had only run a short distance when he felt as though he could barely breathe, his legs aching.
As he ran, he pressed the button on the side of his phone, which could directly connect him to Xiao.
But the signal wasn’t going through.
“Wait for me. If anything happens to you, I swear I won’t forgive you!”
◇◆◇◆◇
Sheng Chengxiu listened to the reports, his gaze fixed on the intelligence constantly streaming into his field of vision.
He looked at the thermal imaging display.
Then he said quietly,
“Group C, move in.”
A brief reply came through the communications channel:
“Received.”
Through the surveillance feed, he saw several figures emerge from the shadows on both sides of the alley entrance.
They paused for a moment in front of Guichen Studio.
Then one of them gently manipulated the lock with a tool, and the door silently opened a crack.
Several figures disappeared inside one after another.
Sheng Chengxiu watched the feed without looking away.
About two minutes later, a report came through the communications channel.
“Everything normal. The shop has been cleared. The guards have been knocked unconscious. No other heat signatures.”
Sheng Chengxiu did not immediately give the order.
His gaze fell on the image of the Guichen Studio door that had already been opened.
He still felt that things were going too smoothly.
No other ambushes had been detected inside the shop so far, and the two guards had been subdued without difficulty.
But Group C’s report had no problems.
The thermal imaging had no problems.
The surveillance footage had no problems—
At least not at this moment.
He pushed open the car door and stepped out.
The night wind came toward him, carrying the damp scent of the stone pavement unique to Changning Alley.
When he entered the alley, his steps were steady, neither hurried nor slow, as though he were merely attending an appointment.
The door of Guichen Studio was half open.
Sheng Chengxiu paused at the entrance for a moment.
Then he walked inside.
The front hall was exactly as he remembered.
The counter, the shelves, the chair by the window.
Everything remained just as it had during his last visit.
But his gaze did not linger on any of these things. Instead, he looked directly toward the rear room.
The metal blast door had already been opened.
Members of Group C stood beside it, waiting for him.
Now, as long as he walked through, he would be able to see the truth the Sheng family had spent years desperately searching for.
“President Sheng.”
Sheng Chengxiu did not respond.
He finally crossed through the door and entered the corridor.
The corridor was somewhat darker than the front hall, with only a faint light coming from the far end.
When he reached the end of the corridor, he saw his subordinates standing there.
They had already finished searching the “Doors.”
The Doors here were all somewhat different.
There were ancient wooden doors and modern metal doors.
Time and space intersected here, like a disordered dimension.
There were not many Doors.
All of them could be opened.
Except for one.
The door to the rear chamber.
An old, deep-vermilion wooden door.
Its surface was ordinary, with only a single bronze ring embedded at its exact center.
The bronze ring was engraved with intricate patterns, resembling clouds and yet like flowing water.
Under the dim yellow light, the bronze ring gave off a dull sheen, as though it were absorbing the light itself.
Sheng Chengxiu stood before that door and did not immediately reach out.
Was this the Door?
The Sheng family had been searching for it for more than three hundred years.
Ever since he learned about the Door, he had worked for so long, spent countless amounts of money—
and finally, he was able to see it.
There was no resplendent gold and jade, no strange phenomenon surrounding it.
It was merely an old-looking door.
He finally reached out and touched the door panel, then the bronze ring.
He felt the texture of the wood and the coldness of the metal.
The corners of his lips rose uncontrollably.
It was not his usual elegant smile.
Nor was it a cold sneer.
It was the expression of a pilgrim who had finally seen God.
The ecstatic joy of that moment.
Behind this Door lay the path to the other world.
Now, as long as he proved that it was real, this operation would not have been in vain.
Just as Sheng Chengxiu was about to verify something further, a strange sound suddenly came from behind—
In the dim light, several shadows flashed out from the inverted walls and the ceiling.
Silent, swift, caught completely off guard.
The people Sheng Chengxiu had brought were knocked down without exception before they had any chance to defend themselves.
Only after seeing this scene did Sheng Chengxiu notice the sense of incongruity he had felt the instant he entered the rear corridor.
The surveillance screenshot he had seen earlier was fake.
The layout diagram he had analyzed from the footage was wrong.
The actual corridor was not that spacious, and the ceiling was not that high.
That was because those spaces had been used as concealed doors.
And behind the concealed doors were the ambushers.
At this moment, several ancient shadows stood before him.
Their skills had been tempered over hundreds of years, all for the sake of guarding this Door.
Footsteps came from the other end of the corridor, echoing through the brief silence.
“President Sheng.”
The voice came from the depths of the corridor, its leisurely tone carrying the chill of the night wind.
“Nice moon tonight. Care for a walk?”
Su Jinye stood at the end of the corridor.
His posture was relaxed, like someone who had merely happened to pass by.
He wore the same black combat uniform as the other Gatekeepers.
But his eyes were different.
There was no looseness, no hint of a smile.
It was like another face revealed beneath a slowly lifting curtain.
A cold killing intent quietly spread through the night.
Sheng Chengxiu understood.
His thermal imaging scan had never shown the true situation from the beginning.
The sheen on the equipment of those people was different from ordinary protective gear.
There was an extremely faint matte reflection on its surface.
Sheng Chengxiu recognized that material.
It was a composite material capable of shielding thermal imaging and life-form detection.
And the false surveillance information was another trap Su Jinye had laid.
Su Jinye slowly walked over and stopped at an appropriate distance.
His voice returned to its usual calmness, though it still carried a chill.
“President Sheng, your people are already asleep.”
Sheng Chengxiu did not need to confirm.
Because the moment he saw those people suddenly appear, he already knew the result.
“Su Jinye, you calculated against me.”
Su Jinye did not deny it.
Sheng Chengxiu did not panic.
He still maintained his usual composure and confidence.
“You knew I would come.”
“Yes.”
“You knew what preparations I made.”
“Yes.”
Sheng Chengxiu was silent for a moment, then gave a low laugh.
It was not mockery, but more like confidence born from confirmation.
He knew Su Jinye would definitely set a trap.
But he had never expected that the trap would consist of more than ten layers.
Each link connected to the next, every thought meticulously calculated.
Even his way of thinking had been included.
The progress of the blast-door breach had also been under control.
The operation he believed he had chosen to carry out today had all been within Su Jinye’s calculations.
It was as though Su Jinye knew him like the back of his hand.
“But you still let me through the Door. Because you wanted me to see it with my own eyes.”
Su Jinye did not answer.
His silence was itself an answer.
He looked at Sheng Chengxiu, without any unnecessary emotion in his eyes.
Then he said,
“Since President Sheng wants to see it so badly, then I… will take you on a slow tour.”
As his words fell, he moved.
His speed was faster than Sheng Chengxiu had expected, without the slightest warning.
Sheng Chengxiu only had time to see a dark shadow sweep across the edge of his vision.
The next second, both his wrists were restrained.
The force was precise—not enough to break his bones, yet sufficient to make escape impossible.
As Su Jinye escorted Sheng Chengxiu toward the rear chamber, he did not struggle.
His heartbeat was faster than usual, but he did not stop.
He knew that Su Jinye truly wanted to kill him.
And that he truly intended to show him the Door.
“President Sheng, don’t blink.”
Su Jinye’s voice was low.
With one hand restraining him, he raised the other.
His fingertips traced the cloud-and-water patterns on the door, as though drawing an ancient talisman.
As his fingers moved, blood-like light seeped through the crack of the door, flickering like breathing.
Sheng Chengxiu simply watched his movements.
He watched the red light suddenly appear.
He watched the Door change.
The cloud-and-water patterns on the bronze ring began to flow.
It was not an illusion.
They were truly moving slowly, like some living creature being awakened.
His breathing hitched slightly.
Not from fear, but from joy and shock.
Because he had finally witnessed it with his own eyes.
The Door was real.
Everything written in the surviving fragments was true!
The cloud-and-water patterns on the Door began to twist, spreading outward from the bronze ring across the entire door.
One by one, writhing red lines coiled and intertwined, forming blossoms as they opened.
They resembled flowers from the other shore—
Manjusaka.
The edges of every petal carried a faint light, like blood vessels, like roots, like ancient patterns awakening.
The entire door was filled with crimson.
The petals trembled slightly, glowing with a thin red light in the darkness.
The ancient Gatekeepers stood around the Door like shadows, performing some kind of sacred ritual.
The scene was extraordinarily eerie and solemn.
Yet in Sheng Chengxiu’s eyes, it was so beautiful and sacred.
He did not close his eyes.
He did not even look away.
His gaze remained firmly locked onto the Door, like a person who had finally seen the answer.
“I wonder if President Sheng is satisfied? However… this isn’t a free tour. Everything comes with a price.”
Su Jinye pressed him against the door panel.
There was no fluctuation in his voice.
When the coldness pressed against Sheng Chengxiu, he felt an extremely fine vibration rising from deep within the door panel.
The flowers trembled more violently, as though responding to some kind of summons.
“This is what ‘you people’ have always wanted to see.”
Su Jinye’s palm pressed against Sheng Chengxiu’s shoulder while his other hand restrained both of Sheng Chengxiu’s hands, firmly pinning him against the door.
“Once you’ve seen enough, take the secret into the grave.”
Crimson light suddenly erupted.
The Manjusaka trembled in unison, and blood-colored threads emerged from their centers.
They writhed and coiled around Sheng Chengxiu’s body.
They crossed his neck, wrapped around his torso, and refused to let go.
Sheng Chengxiu felt no pain.
It was more like a sensation of being examined, as though a gaze from the bottom of an abyss were looking at him, evaluating his blood, his bones, his soul.
Although he did not panic, he knew that if this continued, he would be in danger.
And he had already seen almost everything he wanted to see.
“Group B, Group D, move!”
He immediately issued the order.
Gunshots erupted from the perimeter.
Distant gunfire pierced the night of Changning Alley.
His reserve Group D was launching its assault.
His Group D had the greatest combat strength, including several veterans who had followed him for many years.
Sheng Chengxiu struggled slightly, but Su Jinye still did not loosen his grip.
He did not panic because of the gunfire outside.
“President Sheng, surely you don’t think you’re the only one who prepared contingencies?”
The corner of Sheng Chengxiu’s eye twitched slightly.
He threatened,
“If you kill me, all the investigation materials and Su Muchen’s blood test reports will fall into my grandfather’s hands. You know what that means, don’t you?”
But Su Jinye did not loosen his grip.
He was unmoved.
In Su Jinye’s eyes, Sheng Chengxiu saw nothing but unwavering killing intent.
As though no matter what price had to be paid tonight, he was determined to kill him.
Those dark, pitch-black eyes were like an abyss.
For the first time, Sheng Chengxiu finally realized—
Su Jinye was abnormal.
He was not a normal person.
It was as though he had no human emotions and was not bound by morality.
He was simply a machine acting to achieve its objective.
The hand Su Jinye had clamped onto Sheng Chengxiu’s shoulder tightened further.
His voice came low, like the night itself:
“…So what? After all, you people never intended to let us go.”
Sheng Chengxiu finally understood.
He was colder than Sheng Chengxiu.
And more ruthless.
Sheng Chengxiu had still left himself a way out.
Su Jinye had not.
He remembered something Sheng Wenchang had once told him—
“Gatekeepers never need evidence to act. They only need results.”
He had underestimated the extent of the Gatekeepers’ madness.
The gunfire outside continued.
Chaotic, intermittent, like tangled threads twisting around one another.
Sheng Chengxiu felt the Door vibrating more and more violently.
His entire body was already wrapped in those red lines resembling blood vessels.
Something inside his body was being touched by the Door.
It was not physical contact.
It was something deeper.
Like countless invisible hands reaching from within the Door, grabbing his soul and trying to drag it inside.
His breathing and heartbeat unconsciously accelerated.
This had nothing to do with fear.
It was an instinctive biological survival response, forcing his body to produce a reaction that did not belong to him.
His blood accelerated.
His heartbeat pounded heavily.
Something unknown was being activated inside his body.
At the same time, the Manjusaka pattern on the door panel suddenly stopped.
Then, as though infused with some kind of power, it began to tremble violently.
In that instant, Sheng Chengxiu saw a change in Su Jinye’s expression.
Su Jinye’s pupils contracted slightly.
That tiny change was like an unexpected signal piercing through his defenses.
The gunfire from outside had already drawn near.
Someone had broken into Guichen Studio.
Everything happened almost simultaneously, so quickly that even Sheng Chengxiu had no time to react.
A single, silent gunshot pierced the night.
Crimson blood blossomed like a flower.
At that moment, Sheng Chengxiu felt the pressure on his shoulder loosen.
He had no time to think about how it had happened.
He only saw Su Jinye’s right shoulder turn red.
Blood splattered onto the door panel and the flowers, yet did not drip.
It was as though it had been absorbed, accelerating the expansion of the Manjusaka.
The door panel vibrated even more violently.
The Manjusaka pattern on the door expanded and twisted wildly.
Dark-red light erupted from the crack of the Door, intertwining and devouring another, deeper and more distant cold-white light across the door panel.
As though two different powers were being injected into it simultaneously.
At that moment, Sheng Chengxiu finally felt fear.
That fear was not because of Su Jinye.
Nor was it because of the gunfire.
It was because he realized—
The Door was losing control.
He tried to move, but the red lines on the door panel still coiled around him, tightening like living creatures.
Su Jinye stepped back half a pace, one hand pressing against the wound on his right shoulder as he reassessed the situation.
When his gaze moved away from the door panel, he looked toward the rear entrance.
Then his expression changed.
Su Muchen was standing there.
He was panting heavily, his collar disheveled, his face pale, as though he had run all the way here.
His gaze swept across the rear chamber of Guichen Studio.
First, he saw the wound and blood on Su Jinye’s shoulder.
Then he saw Sheng Chengxiu pinned against the Door.
Finally, he saw the Manjusaka surging wildly across the Door.
For a moment, he didn’t know which one to deal with first.
He could only instinctively shout:
“Su Jinye, stop!”
When Su Jinye’s eyes met his, Su Muchen saw a rare, almost uncontrolled emotion in them.
“—Don’t come over!”
But it was too late.
The Door opened completely at that instant.
The petals of the Manjusaka scattered.
The eerie red and cold-white lights intertwined within the fully opened Door, illuminating the entire rear chamber as bright as day.
The light spread outward, surging forth like mountains collapsing into the sea.
Su Muchen felt someone grab him from behind.
It was Su Ningning.
She dragged him backward with such force that he could not break free.
As she shouted,
“Retreat! Everyone retreat!”
In that final instant, Su Muchen saw it.
Sheng Chengxiu was swallowed by the light.
And Xiao, who was closest to him, was being swallowed as well.
Before being swallowed, Xiao only glanced over, confirming that Su Muchen had been pulled away from the light by Su Ningning.
His tense shoulders finally relaxed.
Then he was submerged in the light.
The light continued spreading outward.
Su Muchen saw Sheng Chengxiu’s subordinates trying to escape, but some of them were not fast enough.
When the light touched them, their bodies scattered like torn pieces of paper, dissolving and disappearing into the void.
Other Gatekeepers were unfortunately caught in it as well, likewise torn apart and vanishing.
Everything was spiraling out of control before Su Muchen’s eyes.
Su Ningning dragged him to the wall surrounding the back courtyard.
Fortunately, the light did not continue spreading.
It slowly contracted and faded, like a tide receding.
The rear chamber darkened again.
The Door closed once more.
Silence returned.
It was as though everything that had just happened had been nothing more than an illusion.
But shell casings, splintered wood, overturned chairs, and marks from stray bullets across the walls remained in the rear chamber.
All of them told Su Muchen that it had not been an illusion.
Su Muchen suddenly tore himself free from Su Ningning’s grip and stumbled toward the Door.
He reached out and touched the door panel.
His palm felt only coldness.
As though nothing had ever happened.
As though the Door had never lost control.
He knelt before the Door and pressed his forehead against the cold wood grain.
“…Is this the method you were talking about?”
His voice was very low, choked with emotion.
Sheng Chengxiu was indeed gone.
But Xiao…
had disappeared too.