allonlinenovel Chapter 1909 The New Gatekeeper
Chapter 1909 The New Gatekeeper
The voice was so ancient it seemed to come from the very end of time.
It doesn't vibrate through the air, but resonates directly deep within each person's soul.
Bearing the weariness of countless ages, and also a barely perceptible, almost relieved sense of relief.
Inside the main hall, everyone instantly held their breath.
The Cangming Decree, suspended above the stone platform, emanated a slowly flowing, azure light, like a warm current in the deep sea. The light was not dazzling, yet it seemed to contain the weight and tranquility of an entire ocean.
Mingchuan held the Star Pivot Token and felt the gentle and stable resonance between the two tokens.
It's not about master and servant, not about confrontation, but rather like old friends who have fought side by side for many years, reuniting after a long separation.
“…Senior?” he asked softly, his voice sounding exceptionally clear in the empty main hall.
The light of the Cangming Token flickered slightly.
The aged voice rang out again, this time with a wistful smile:
"The new master of the Order is much younger than I expected."
"The last one to hold the order, that old fellow Xinghen, started complaining about having no successor when he was three thousand years old. In the end, he complained for thirty thousand years and still didn't find a single person who was worthy of his attention."
"It is I who have been sitting in this Xuan Shui Abyss for seventy thousand years, and have finally met you."
Seventy thousand years.
This number is like an invisible giant hammer, striking hard into everyone's heart.
What does 70,000 years even mean?!
The Spirit Realm has a recorded history of only tens of thousands of years. Even the oldest sects in the Holy Realm, which are said to have been passed down for thousands of years, are only a little over ten thousand years old.
This gatekeeper, who called himself Cangming, sat alone in this ruin for 70,000 years.
Mingchuan's throat tightened, and he bowed deeply: "Junior Mingchuan, along with fellow practitioners, pays respects to Senior Cangming."
Behind him, Ye Chuhan, Lin Ruowei, Chu Huai, Mu Yaoyao, and A Xiong also bowed solemnly.
To face such an ancient sage who guarded the ages, who retired after achieving great things yet still left behind a legacy awaiting future generations, any disrespect would be a desecration of this steadfast commitment.
"No need for such formalities."
Cangming's voice remained calm, carrying an air of detachment that seemed to have seen through everything. "I am but a wisp of remnant soul clinging to life, residing within the Cangming Token, awaiting a destined person to complete the final handover. This broken body returned to the starry sea seventy thousand years ago."
"Seventy thousand years ago..." Chu Huai couldn't help but speak, his voice filled with suppressed excitement, "Senior, the handover you mentioned is..."
The light of the Cangming Order slowly turned towards Chu Huai.
A rare touch of gentleness appeared in that aged voice:
"Young friend who cultivates the Dao of Profound Water, you still possess a trace of the Daoist tradition I left behind in the Spirit Realm. Is your sect called the Profound Heaven Sect?"
Chu Huai was startled.
The Xuantian Sect has a history of seven thousand years. It is said that the founder of the sect found a broken stele with ancient water magic engraved on it by chance on the shore of the East China Sea. After a hundred years of studying it, he founded the sect.
That broken stele has always been regarded as a treasure of the sect and is enshrined deep in the ancestral hall.
He never imagined that the origin of that broken stele was so distant.
"Yes, Senior." Chu Huai's voice trembled slightly.
"Seven thousand years... it's not easy for it to have survived to this day." Cangming's tone carried a hint of satisfaction.
"Back then, I was ordered to guard the Xuan Shui Abyss. Knowing that I had no hope of returning, I engraved the Xuan Shui Dao that I had comprehended throughout my life on three trial tablets and cast them into the nearby mortal and cultivation worlds, waiting for those with the right destiny."
"Over the past seventy thousand years, two of them have been lost without a trace. Only the one kept by your sect has been passed down intermittently. Although no one has been able to reach the threshold I expected, the flame has not been extinguished, which is already a great fortune."
He paused, and his aged voice seemed to penetrate the Cangming Decree, giving Chu Huai a deep look:
"And today, you arrive with the new master of the Order Token, and you bear my Xuan Shui Daoist essence. Moreover, you recently underwent tempering by the laws, and touched the threshold of the Nascent Soul stage..."
"This is the law of cause and effect."
"Young friend, are you willing to accept my Cangming Decree, succeed as the seventh gatekeeper, and take charge of the Xuan Shui Abyss?"
These words shocked the entire hall!
The seventh goalkeeper!
This is not just about inheriting a token, but also about inheriting a heavy mission to guard against the eternal void and resist the annihilation!
Chu Huai's face turned deathly pale, his lips trembled slightly, and he was unable to speak for a moment.
At this moment, faced with this sudden and weighty entrustment, he felt an unprecedented sense of trepidation.
"Senior..." Chu Huai began with difficulty, "This junior is merely at the peak of the Core Formation stage, what merit do I possess..."
"Virtue and ability?"
Cangming's voice suddenly carried a hint of amusement, not mockery, but genuine amusement:
"Young friend, what level do you think I was at when I succeeded as the gatekeeper?"
Chu Huai was taken aback.
"Early stage of Nascent Soul? Integration stage?" Cangming asked himself, answering calmly, "Neither. When I was taken away from the East Sea fishing village by the previous Xuan Shui Gatekeeper, I was just a seventeen-year-old boy who had just established my foundation. I didn't even know what a Nascent Soul was."
"That old fellow shoved the Cangming Token into my arms and said that this place would be under your control from now on, and then he closed his eyes and breathed his last."
"I held the token and cried for a whole day and night, and almost threw it into the sea."
"And then what happened?" Ah Xiong couldn't help but ask.
"Later..." Cangming's voice carried a faint trace of reminiscence, "Later, the whispers of the Void invaded several worlds. I fled, learned, and fought all the way, and it took me three thousand years to truly become worthy of this token."
"The gatekeeper is never born to be one. The moment you pick up the token determines what kind of person you will become."
He paused, and the aged voice fell on Chu Huai again:
“Young friend, I ask you, if you refuse today, the Xuan Shui Abyss will be without a master, and this node of the Zhou Tian Zhen Xu Great Array will be completely silent. If the Gui Xu Rift breaks through from here, the Spirit Realm, and even all the heavens and myriad worlds, will face the torrent of destruction.”
"Will you regret it then?"
Chu Huai fell silent.
Countless images flashed through his mind.
The Xuantian Sect's thousand-year heritage, the broken stele in the Ancestral Hall, the focused faces of the sect's disciples practicing water magic, the mortal town on the shores of the East Sea that has relied on the Xuantian Sect's protection for generations...
Water not only nourishes all things.
Water can also bear immense weight.
He slowly raised his head, the fear in his eyes fading into a calm.
“Senior,” Chu Huai’s voice was steady and firm, “this junior is willing to accept this command.”
"Not for merit, not for fame or position."
"Just to protect everything I want to protect."
Cangming remained silent for a moment.
Then, the aged voice, carrying the first and last smile of relief in seventy thousand years, said:
"it is good."
"it is good."
"These are the words that the guardian of Xuanshui should say."
The moment the words fell, the suspended Cangming Order suddenly shone brightly!
The azure light was no longer gentle and restrained, but rather like the deep sea upside down and the ocean overturning, instantly filling the entire main hall!
Every wall, every stone pillar, and every crystal mirror was awakened by this vast light of the mysterious water, and ancient and dazzling runes lit up together!