Chapter 305: The Gate
Deer looked joyfully at the newly born Blood Qi Warrior. Back then, when Duan challenged him using the ancient tradition, how could he not have any resentment in his heart? But he was the chief. Despite being very angry, Deer chose to be magnanimous and forgive Duan.
He kept telling himself that Duan also acted for the sake of the tribe and tried to listen more to Duan’s ideas. Gradually, his relationship with Duan became closer day by day.
With Duan becoming a warrior, the entire Deer Tribe became stronger. This reaffirmed Deer’s path of leadership: strict on the outside but lenient on the inside.
At night, Deer, unable to contain the excitement in his heart, pulled Duan and Zi out of the cave. Facing the moonlight, he whispered:
“The method of storing food is our tribe’s greatest secret. As long as we keep this secret, every winter we will have more food than the surrounding tribes. Our people will survive the winter safely, we will exchange for more population, there will be more children, and the children will grow up. After the time of two hands passes, our tribe will definitely become powerful. Even if we can’t match the Kam Tribe, the difference won’t be too great.”
Zi looked at Deer with her left eye. Fine wrinkles had quietly crept onto the corners of Deer’s eyes; he had begun to age.
“As long as we devoutly believe in the Invisible King, we will surely become stronger. The whispers will protect us.”
Duan’s eyes flickered, as if pondering something. He looked up at the moonlight and said softly but firmly:
“I want to go to the Kam Tribe. Since they are stronger than us, there must be things worth learning. I want to figure out the secret of the Kam Tribe’s strength and bring it back to our tribe!”
Deer looked at Duan, whose eyes burned with fervent flames, so like himself when he was young, and said softly, “I support you. But remember, remain firm in your belief in the Invisible King, and do not believe in foreign gods!”
Zi didn’t speak. She danced around Duan, signaling him to kneel.
As Duan slowly knelt, Zi exposed her right eye, which had been covered by animal skin, and opened it.
The ringed six-pointed star pattern rotated in her eye, dreamlike and illusory, with countless mysterious Runes appearing and disappearing within.
One moment the bright moon hung in the sky; the next, when Zi’s right eye opened, dark clouds instantly covered the sky. It seemed as if elves were singing and demons were roaring—all sorts of incredible phenomena appeared.
Invisible whispers and dream mist spread, and in an instant, torrential rain poured down.
Zi, Deer, and Duan were not washed by the rainstorm. A peculiar force field seemed to envelope them, blocking the rain.
Deer looked at the supernatural phenomenon before him with reverent eyes. Zi, with her dreamlike right eye, seemed to be draped in a sacred veil in his eyes.
Duan looked at all this in disbelief. Even the strongest ambition was thoroughly convinced and subdued at this moment. Humans always held awe for the incomprehensible unknown.
Zi murmured softly.
“Warriors of the King, come with me to have an audience with the Invisible King.”
The invisible dream mist no longer spread but swirled around the three of them. The ringed six-pointed star pattern suddenly expanded, and the three vanished instantly.
The Luca Grassland, which had just been drenched by torrential rain, saw the clouds scatter and the rain cease in an instant. Soft moonlight spilled down, making everything seem like a dream.
The moment Zi wanted to open her right eye, Ace sensed her thought. If Ace didn’t want it, Zi’s right eye couldn’t open.
Ace agreed. The right eye opened, and a faint amount of Mana drained away. This time, Ace carefully sensed the difference.
Some fundamental property of the Pocket World seemed to respond violently to Ace’s appearance. All these natural phenomena were the cheers of the Pocket World.
“A deity descends from the heavens, all things worship, and the world rejoices? This seems to exist in ancient myths. Legend says that at that time, humans and gods lived together, and the gods had not yet raised the Mt. Kaya to the Outside of the World. In this Pocket World, am I enjoying the treatment of an ancient deity?”
In the dream, Ace murmured.
The rules of this Pocket World were much more fragile than those of the Material Plane. Ace’s Level 1 Runes seemed to become the incarnation of rules here; just his aura could trigger drastic changes in the Pocket World.
If not restricted by Mana, this would be Ace’s best testing ground and experience ground. He could experience in advance the mighty power of a deity where “time comes, and heaven and earth join forces.”
Regrettably, the Mana concentration in the Pocket World was close to zero. In this defective environment, Ace couldn’t exist freely and could only seal himself within the dream, maintaining the Mana concentration within the dream environment.
Originally, Ace’s dream couldn’t possibly accommodate reality. But in the Pocket World, the dwelling dream Ace had carved out was actually slowly becoming real. By now, the dream could even allow lives of the Pocket World to enter with their true bodies.
“If I can decipher the mysteries within this, perhaps I can make the True-Illusion Dream world become reality in the Material Plane as well.”
As the three entered the dream, Ace muttered to himself.
Duan looked at this bizarre and motley world. With Ace’s movements, thoughts, and words, the entire world changed constantly, leaving one at a loss.
Waves of whispers came, causing Duan to instantly lose his reason. The incomprehensible information almost burst his head.
“This is the King’s Kingdom. Although the King pities us, there are occasionally whispers. You must maintain reverence and piety for the King in your heart to keep your sanity in this kingdom.”
Zi touched Duan’s forehead. A wave of coolness washed over him, restoring Duan’s reason.
Duan glanced at Zi and discovered that Zi’s right eye had disappeared, leaving only an empty socket.
“Zi, your right eye…”
Zi gave a strange, soft smile, leaned close to Duan and Deer’s ears, and said to both of them, “You have seen the truth.”
Deer looked at Zi in shock, recalling the words of the Kam Tribe people: “The dwelling of the Harvest King is the Divine Kingdom.”
Deer said in a voice somewhat muffled from biting his tongue, “You are the dwelling of the Invisible King, a living Divine Kingdom!”
Zi neither affirmed nor denied it. A somewhat secretive smile, soul-stirring charm, and terrifying majesty brushed past the hearts of the two simultaneously.
“I prefer to call myself the Gate.”
Following Zi’s footsteps, they stumbled forward, kowtowing with every step, slowly approaching that majestic and pitch-black silhouette. Mortals to gods, even beside a deity, were like blind men touching an elephant—forever unable to glimpse the whole picture, unable to understand the whole picture.
Zi led Deer and Duan, prostrating deeply beneath the majestic pitch-black silhouette. At this moment, Deer’s traditional belief in the Invisible King was tremendously consolidated, and Duan also submitted his personal ambition and aspirations beneath the majestic Invisible King.
The deity did not speak. In fact, it wasn’t that He didn’t speak, but that communication was impossible.
As an existence with a Life Level far higher than the lives of the Pocket World, any thought or word Ace leaked would turn into whispers that the lives of the Pocket World could neither understand nor imagine.
The soft moon gradually set, and the morning sun rose. With the first ray of sunlight, the three returned to the front of the cave. Zi covered her tightly closed right eye with the animal skin eyepatch and glanced at the two with her left eye.
Deer and Duan subconsciously avoided Zi, as if she possessed some kind of sanctity that allowed no blasphemy.
(End of this chapter)
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