The night lamp quietly burned on the desk.
Time passed second by second. The soft rustling of turning pages was especially clear in the silent night.
Su Muchen flipped through the Chronicles of the Gatekeepers while writing down several records that looked suspicious in his usual notebook.
He had finished another book.
This was already the sixth book tonight. The contents were largely the same—what year, what month, what day, what hour, the Gatekeeper opened the Gate, and returned.
The earliest records could even be traced back more than six hundred years. The handwriting had changed several times, but the format had barely changed at all.
The more he read, the heavier his eyelids became. The words before his eyes seemed to overlap layer upon layer, and no matter how hard he tried, he could not line them up properly.
He put down his pen, rubbed his brow, and pulled over the backpack at his feet. From inside, he took out a matte-finished stainless-steel thermos.
He unscrewed the lid, and a faint stream of heat drifted from the mouth of the bottle, carrying the distinctive fragrance of matcha mixed with a hint of honey’s sweetness.
He first picked up the teacup in front of him, which was already empty, and slowly poured it about seven-tenths full with the pale-green liquid before setting it back on the table.
When he turned his head, he happened to meet Xiao Yuan’s gaze.
Xiao Yuan was not staring at the thermos. He was watching the way Su Muchen poured the tea, as though observing some ordinary little part of daily life, yet there seemed to be something more to it than ordinary daily life.
Su Muchen noticed.
He looked down at his own cup of matcha, then up at the empty tea bowl in front of Xiao Yuan. After half a second of hesitation, he said, “…Want a cup?”
His tone sounded as though he had merely mentioned it casually.
Xiao Yuan did not answer immediately.
But his gaze had already said everything.
Su Muchen did not wait for him to say yes or no. He directly reached over, took Xiao Yuan’s tea bowl, filled it about eight-tenths full, and pushed it back.
The movement was decisive, as if this matter did not require any unnecessary confirmation.
The matcha liquid gently swayed in the bowl, steam rising along the rim.
When Su Muchen put down the thermos, his gaze swept across the table.
Xia Lanshi was sitting at the other end of the desk, flipping through a record. He raised his eyes from the pages at exactly the same moment and met Su Muchen’s gaze.
Xia Lanshi’s expression was very calm, even carrying a hint of the polite attitude of I didn’t see anything.
But Su Muchen somehow felt that he had seen everything.
Su Muchen was silent for a moment and felt that not giving Xia Lanshi a cup would seem a little unreasonable.
Besides, this matcha had originally been prepared in a quantity meant for three people.
“Would you like a cup too?”
Xia Lanshi raised his brows slightly, as though somewhat surprised that he had been included among those being invited.
“This tea… is different from the tea in Dasheng. It’s called matcha, and honey has been added. It can help keep you alert, but it won’t make you unable to sleep.”
As he explained, Su Muchen had already taken Xia Lanshi’s teacup and poured him a cup.
Xia Lanshi lowered his head and looked at the pale-green liquid in the cup.
The tea was clear and lustrous, with an extremely fine layer of foam floating on the surface. It carried an elegant fragrance he had never smelled before—not like medicine, not like tea, and even less like any beverage he was familiar with, yet somehow it made people feel inexplicably at ease.
Su Muchen said, “Your constitution tends to be cold. The honey can balance out the cooling nature of the matcha.”
After hearing this, Xia Lanshi seemed to have been persuaded by the phrase “your constitution tends to be cold,” or perhaps he was simply curious.
Then he took a small sip.
When it entered his mouth, the faint bitterness of the matcha came first. It was very light and was immediately covered by the sweetness of the honey. As it slid down his throat, it left behind a warm, smooth aftertaste. Unlike tea, which would leave a slight roughness on the tongue, this felt more like something warm that would never reject him.
“…It is indeed gentle.”
Xia Lanshi put down the cup, his tone carrying a hint of surprise that even he himself had not noticed.
Su Muchen tightened the thermos lid and placed it beside the table.
“That’s good.”
Xiao Yuan lowered his head and glanced at his cup of matcha before taking a small sip.
Compared with the iced Americano he had drunk last time, this was not as bitter. To him, it was a very unique flavor.
The fragrance of tea mixed with the scent of old paper, slowly spreading around the desk.
After finishing his tea, Su Muchen picked up his pen again and carefully copied the suspicious records he had marked earlier into his notebook, stroke by stroke.
He turned a page.
Suddenly, his gaze stopped on a line of text. His breathing tightened as he checked it several times.
“Found it.”
His finger pressed against that line.
On the yellowed page, the light ochre ink carried the marks of the passing years. There were several obvious pauses between the strokes, as though the person writing it had been so shocked while putting pen to paper that he had once set down his brush to think.
Written in flowing semi-cursive script were the words:
“On the twenty-second day of the ninth month of the eighteenth year of Tianjia, at the third quarter of the Chen hour. I carried the order from Jiyuan and entered the Gate. The Gate shook like thunder, its light illuminating ten zhang, and the earth shook without end. After passing through the Gate, only then did I realize that the sequence of time was different. Later, I encountered the Gate Master. Upon seeing me, his expression suddenly changed, and he asked, ‘Why have you come at this time?’ I answered him truthfully. The Gate Master remained silent for a long while before saying, ‘You have come from five days in the future.’ Only then did I realize that the claim of the sequence of time being reversed was not false.”
Xiao Yuan and Xia Lanshi’s expressions both tightened, and they immediately leaned over to look.
Su Muchen lowered his voice and read it word by word.
“In the same passage through the Gate, the time when he entered was the twenty-second day of the ninth month, but the time when the Gate Master received him on the other side was a full five days apart.”
This record completely confirmed Xia Lanshi’s earlier speculation—
When the Gate was severely out of control, it really could distort the timeline.
“This means that Sheng Chengxiu may have fallen into Dasheng earlier than we thought.”
Xia Lanshi’s expression darkened.
“However, when Xiao passed through the Gate last night, the celestial phenomena and the timing of our rescue matched perfectly. There was no time difference when he landed. This means the distortion caused by the loss of control may be random. Sheng Chengxiu may have arrived earlier, or he may have arrived at the same time.”
Su Muchen spoke, trying to find a sliver of optimism in the despair.
“We still have to prepare for the worst.” Xia Lanshi’s gaze turned cold. “Afterward, I’ll readjust the military orders and expand the time range for searching for Sheng Chengxiu and the Gate Key to one month, or even half a year, earlier.”
Xiao Yuan nodded decisively.
“Proceed accordingly.”
The three returned to silence.
Under the dim yellow lamplight, only the soft rustling of turning pages remained.
Suddenly, Xiao Yuan’s hand stopped.
His gaze locked onto the yellowed page, and a cold gleam surged in his dark eyes.
“What’s wrong?” Seeing that something was off with his expression, Su Muchen could not help asking.
Xiao Yuan did not answer immediately. He merely turned the ancient book slightly so that the lamplight illuminated those lines of text more clearly.
The edge of the page had already been worn away, but the ink remained clear and cold, as though the person who wrote it had recorded, in the most restrained and suppressed manner possible, a tragedy he had witnessed with his own eyes.
In his low, slightly cold voice, Xiao Yuan slowly read those lines:
[Volume One: Gate Punishment]
“Gate punishment is the punishment imposed by the Gate. Those chosen by the Gate receive the command to guard it, yet must not recklessly interfere with cause and effect. If one interferes excessively, the Gate Cables will bind themselves around the body, strangling the flesh and devouring the living soul. In minor cases, one loses years of life; in severe cases, one loses one’s life entirely. This is the thread of cause and effect, not a thing of the present world, and is therefore the compensation of cause and effect.”
Then his finger pointed to a line of tiny handwritten notes at the edge of the page.
“Side note: Examining the Gatekeepers throughout history, three died suddenly in the prime of their lives. All three had interfered too deeply with cause and effect and were strangled to death by the Gate Cables. At the time of death, their bodies were torn beyond recognition, their souls had nowhere to return, and the Gate Cables remained wrapped around them until the very end.”
After hearing the final word, Su Muchen’s fingers curled slightly.
Those cold words contained not the slightest literary embellishment. They merely recorded the facts plainly, yet they were more suffocating and heavy than any terrifying legend.
Because they had personally seen how those mysterious black lines had twisted themselves into Xiao’s flesh like living creatures.
“The Gate punishment Xiao suffered was not an isolated case.”
Xiao Yuan raised his head and looked at Su Muchen, his voice low and cold.
“These three people were all killed by the Gate Cables when they attempted to forcibly change the cause and effect between the two worlds. If Xiao tries to reveal those secrets imprisoned by the Gate again, next time, those black lines will take his life directly.”
Su Muchen felt his spine turn cold, a chill shooting straight up from the soles of his feet.
Last night, Xiao had merely said a few more words about his analysis of the situation in Dasheng, yet he had almost been torn apart on the spot by those mysterious black lines.
What exactly was the “Gate”?
How could it make the Sheng family pursue it relentlessly for hundreds of years, while also making the Su family use the lives of countless generations to guard it for hundreds of years?
“…We absolutely cannot let Xiao act recklessly again.”
Su Muchen gritted his teeth and murmured.
He remembered what Su Qianqian had personally told him—
“The Gatekeepers throughout history have never lived long.”
Looking at Xiao Yuan, who was currently exhausting himself over the situation in Dasheng, and Xia Lanshi, whose body was frail, Su Muchen simply could not bring himself to say those cruel costs aloud.
Especially not to Xia Lanshi.
Xia Lanshi sat to one side, his eyes lowered as he flipped through the illustrated records in his hands.
Listening to their conversation, he merely trembled his eyelashes slightly and did not speak. His gaze was so deep that no one could tell what he was thinking.
Xiao Yuan steadied his mind and continued reading.
This book truly deserved to be called Guimen Sanlu. It recorded the exploration of and reverence for the “Gate” by countless generations of Gatekeepers.
————————
[Volume Two: Guichen Mark]
The Guichen Mark is the seal by which the Gate chooses its Gatekeeper.
Its shape is like the other shore, its color like congealed blood, hidden beneath the skin.
It may appear on the palm, the wrist, or the heart meridian; its location is not fixed.
It does not appear normally. Only when the Gate moves, the body grows hot, or emotions become intense does it appear.
When the mark appears, the Gate responds; when the mark disappears, the Gate falls silent.
From the day they inherit the mark, every generation of Gatekeepers shares the same fate as the Gate—when one prospers, both prosper; when one suffers, both suffer.
[Volume Three: Anchor]
The Anchor is the form of the Gate.
The Anchor can be seen; the Gate cannot.
The Gate has no form and does not reside in any single world. It can only stand by borrowing the Anchor.
Every world has an Anchor. Each guards its own world, yet all ultimately return to one Gate.
What people see as the Gate is not the true Gate, but rather the shadow the Gate leaves behind in the mortal world.
As long as the Anchor is not destroyed, the Gate will not be lost. If the Anchor deviates, the Gate will correct itself.
Side note: In the past, people mistakenly believed that destroying the Anchor could sever the Gate. They tried burning it with fire, but it would not burn. They struck it with axes, and the axes split. They chiseled it, and the chisels broke. The Anchor remained unharmed. Later, they learned that the Gate protects its own form; it cannot be damaged by human strength.
————————
Xiao Yuan’s gaze remained fixed for a long time on the words “every world” and “each guards its own world.”
This meant that apart from the Dasheng where he lived and the high-rise world where Su Muchen lived, deep within the ancient Gate, there might even be other unknown times and worlds connected to it.
————————
[Supplement to Volume Three: Gate Protection]
The Gate does not choose people, nor does it protect people. It only protects its Anchor. Anyone who attempts to destroy, seal, or move the Anchor will inevitably receive a response from the Gate.
The Gate’s punishment is unpredictable and does not injure people in only one way. What is taken is always the thing they can least afford to lose.
It may injure the body, take away possessions, disrupt one’s fortune, or cut short one’s life.
The Gate does not hold grudges, but its laws cannot be violated.
[Volume Four: Compensation]
Whenever a Gatekeeper opens the Gate, something must be sacrificed.
It may be years of life, blood, or spirit. It depends on the distance, size, and duration of the Gate.
Therefore, seven or eight out of ten Gatekeepers who die in the prime of their lives do not meet a good end.
Yet those chosen by the Gate have no way to avoid it and no way to escape.
Once they accept its command, they must bear its consequences.
[Volume Five: Gate Master and Key]
The Gate Master and the Key together form one body.
When the Key exists, the Gate Master can return; when the Key is lost, the Gate Master will have difficulty returning.
The two resonate with each other. Even when separated by worlds, they can still respond to one another.
Yet this resonance is not an auspicious sign. It is instead because their threads of cause and effect are connected.
The more tangled the threads, the heavier the fate. When the life ends, the thread is severed.
————————
When Xiao Yuan read this far, his gaze locked onto the five words—
“do not meet a good end.”
His dark eyes were deep and solemn.
He silently calculated in his heart:
How many times has Xiao opened the Gate so far?
And after remaining in Dasheng, how many years of his life has he forcibly consumed?
A person like Xiao would never casually squander his own life merely because of a moment of anger.
His long fingers unconsciously tightened on the desk.
Xiao had been willing to sacrifice his lifespan and open the Gate three times to forcibly save Xia Lanshi.
It was absolutely not because of personal feelings.
Instead, in Xiao’s ultimate plan, the chess piece known as “Xia Lanshi” had to stay alive.
And he was also one of those pieces.
The sentence at the beginning of Volume Five pierced his heart like a heavy needle.
“The Gate Master and the Key together form one body. When the Key exists, the Gate Master can return.”
Su Muchen was the Key, while he was the “Gate Master of Dasheng” sensed by this Gate in this lifetime.
Between them existed the deepest and most inseparable thread of fate.
If something happened to Su Muchen, he would never be able to set foot inside Guichen Studio again in this lifetime.
But if he died, what would happen to Su Muchen?
“When the life ends, the thread is severed.”
At that time, would Su Muchen be trapped in Dasheng forever, forgotten in a world where he no longer existed?
At this thought, Xiao Yuan’s knuckles turned faintly white, and an unprecedented heaviness rose in his heart.
If one day, he had no choice but to die…
Should he send Su Muchen back to Guichen Studio first?
Xiao Yuan remained silent for a long time.
He began thinking about what he should do if that day truly came.
How he could make sure Su Muchen returned alive.
Or perhaps make some other arrangement.
He temporarily suppressed his thoughts and continued turning the pages.
————————
[Volume Six: Gate Sacrifice]
There are two kinds of Gate sacrifices: the first is called Stabilizing the Balance, and the second is called Crossing the Balance.
The Gate does not choose what is sacrificed; people choose for themselves. Therefore, the crime lies with the people.
Every sacrifice offers a living soul. The soul is extinguished, while the physical body remains in the mortal world.
The Sacrifice of Stabilizing the Balance:
Its purpose is to pacify the Gate.
Living souls are offered according to the sequence of time to make up for deficiencies in the balance and stabilize the world’s Anchor.
This is the ordinary duty of Gatekeepers throughout generations. It does not seek to strengthen anything, but merely allows the two worlds to remain in their proper places.
The sacrifice occurs silently and unnoticed, without the people of the world realizing it.
The Sacrifice of Crossing the Balance:
Its purpose is to cross the Gate.
Anything that cannot be born, endured, or continued in its own era will not be tolerated by the Gate.
To cross this boundary, one must first offer a sacrifice in order to make the Gate “fall silent temporarily.”
This is a sacrifice to cause and effect. One may sacrifice oneself, another person, or many people.
The greater the thing being crossed, the greater the sacrifice demanded.
One thing, one sacrifice. Not the slightest amount may be lacking.
If the sacrifice is insufficient, the Gate will devour the person itself, and the one who crosses will never return.
Side note:
Every generation of Gatekeepers performs the Sacrifice of Stabilizing the Balance.
In more than a hundred generations, the Sacrifice of Crossing the Balance has been recorded only three times:
One crossing of troops: hundreds of craftsmen entered the world, becoming wealthy enough to rival entire regions within one year. Three hundred and seventy-six people were sacrificed.
One crossing of a canon: details have been lost.
One unknown incident: the person sacrificed never returned, and the sequence of time between the two worlds fell into complete chaos for three months before recovering.
Afterward, the next four generations of Gatekeepers established an ironclad prohibition:
Better to abandon the object than to open the Crossing of the Balance.
The Gate has neither joy nor anger. It only seeks balance.
[Volume Seven: Gate Balance]
The Gate has balance.
When balance is lost, chaos follows. When chaos reaches its extreme, it returns to its natural state.
People can disrupt the Gate, but cannot overcome it.
If the Gate loses its balance, it will seek its own balance.
It may break one’s lifespan, one’s life, or even a world. All are methods of the Gate.
Side note:
In the past, someone attempted to keep the Gate open for a long time in order to allow merchants and travelers to pass through.
Three days later, the sequence of time between the two worlds fell into complete chaos.
The Gate closed itself, and that person died suddenly.
Afterward, no one dared to keep it open for long again.
————————
Xiao Yuan’s gaze remained on the section concerning the “Sacrifice of Crossing the Balance” for a long time, his eyes dark.
So there were two kinds of Gate sacrifices.
One was the Gatekeeper’s Sacrifice of Stabilizing the Balance, whose purpose was to stabilize the Gate.
The Su family had been secretly performing this sacrifice all along.
The other was the Sacrifice of Crossing the Balance.
That was the sacrifice carried out to forcibly bring something that could not cross the Gate to the other side.
His gaze fell on the words—
“Three hundred and seventy-six people were sacrificed.”
So many human lives had been used to pay this price of cause and effect.
This should not be done.
At least, he absolutely would not do it.
His gaze continued down to the section concerning the Gate’s balance.
He remembered that when the Gate lost its balance and went out of control a few days ago, Su Muchen had said that several of the Sheng family’s bodyguards and Gatekeepers had been swallowed by the light.
That had not been a natural disaster at all.
It was the “compensation” forcibly collected by the Gate in order to restore the balance between the two worlds.
Therefore, those who attempted to use the Gate for trade, conquest, or even to obtain unprecedented power were all the most foolish gamblers in the world.
Everything had a price.
The more one wanted, the more life and fortune one had to pay.
That was the Gate’s rule.
It was just that there was no point saying this to those madmen whose eyes had been blinded by greed.
The only thing he could do was carve these rules into his very bones and blood, and never repeat the same mistakes.
————————
[Volume Eight: Gate Fissures]
When the Gate remains open for too long, a fissure between worlds will form.
The fissure is not a crack in the earth, but the unfinished cause and effect between the two worlds, accumulated until it becomes a gap.
When a person remains inside the Gate for too long, they may lose their way home.
The body may perish while consciousness remains, the soul may survive while the world refuses to accept it.
Over time, they no longer know whether they are human.
Anyone who has been separated from their world for too long will approach when they see living people and gather when they see the Gate.
They do not know what they seek, nor do they know where they are going.
Those who hear their voices are not only the living.
There are also those who have lost their way home.
They may see an old acquaintance standing outside the Gate,
yet be unable to approach.
When the Gate remains open for too long, both worlds will hear their voices.
Those who hear them may not necessarily be human, and those who come may not necessarily have a way back.
[Volume Nine: Rules of the Gatekeeper]
There are four prohibitions for Gatekeepers.
First: Do not seize the Gate.
Second: Do not choose the Master.
Third: Do not favor one world.
Fourth: Do not become attached to cause and effect.
[Volume Ten: Final Chapter]
The Gate is neither a dead thing nor a living thing.
It is neither good nor evil, neither partial nor biased. It is the law itself.
The Gatekeeper is not the master of the Gate, but its servant.
Hold a heart of reverence and caution. Do what should be done and guard the rules that should be guarded.
In the end, the Gate will choose its place of return.
All things in the world have somewhere to return, only the Gatekeeper… [damaged] dust.
————————
After closing the book, Xiao Yuan looked solemnly at Su Muchen, his tone leaving no room for argument.
“This book absolutely cannot remain in Dasheng. It records the most fundamental taboos between the Gatekeepers and the Gate. In the hands of someone who knows nothing, it would be regarded as a demonic book. But if it fell into the hands of someone who understands it, they could completely grasp the Gate’s weaknesses.”
“Tomorrow, you will return to Guichen Studio and take this book back with you.” Xiao Yuan looked at him and instructed seriously, “Don’t touch this book.”
Seeing that his expression was more serious than ever before, Su Muchen understood the importance of the matter. He solemnly took the book, sealed it back inside the confidential case, and said nothing more.
Then Xiao Yuan took out two books and handed them to Su Muchen.
Su Muchen lowered his head to look.
One was the ancient Su family book he had previously entrusted to Xiao Yuan to read.
The other was very new, looking like a book that had only recently been bound.
Written on its cover were the words:
《歸門本錄》 — Original Records of the Returning Gate.
Xiao Yuan said, “I have retranslated and recopied the contents of the Su family’s ancient book. You can read it when you have time.”
Su Muchen held the two books in his hands.
He had almost forgotten that this book existed. He had never expected that, despite being so busy, Xiao Yuan had still found the time to reorganize this ancient book for him.
“Thank you, Jingyuan. I’ll study it when I have time.”
He placed those two books into the confidential storage case as well, because he knew that the contents of these books certainly could not be allowed to leak either.