Mysterious Visitor

Following the stairs down, Zhong Qing and Hei Bai quickly delved deep beneath the pagoda.

The sense of attraction that had lingered since entering the Secret Realm became increasingly clear.

At this moment, he could already directly perceive the location of that gate.

Before he had even reached the bottom floor, a primitive and weathered Bronze Gate covered in strange patterns seemed to appear in his mind.

And when he truly arrived at the bottom floor and saw that gate standing in the dark Void Realm, his pupils constricted slightly.

The appearance of this gate was truly exactly the same as what had just appeared in his mind.

It was not exceedingly massive, standing no more than ten zhang tall and several zhang wide.

Yet its Aura was incomparably heavy, as if a ten-thousand-zhang high mountain stood before his eyes.

Within the tightly closed crack of the door, boundless mystery seemed to be hidden, giving one an urge to push it open.

Zhong Qing walked to the front of the gate, paused for a moment, and slowly reached out to touch the Bronze Gate.

A rough texture greeted his hand; although cold and hard, it gave Zhong Qing a peculiar feeling—not like touching a dead object, but rather something full of vitality, like mountains, rivers, heaven, earth, the sun, and the moon.

Although he could not perceive anything special about this gate, just based on this feeling, he understood that the origin of this gate was absolutely beyond imagination.

And the System's reminder sounded right on cue.

"Ancient Bronze Gate discovered."

"This item is extremely important."

"Please host, take it immediately."

Arriving before the Bronze Gate and hearing the System's prompt, Zhong Qing finally understood.

It turned out that the thing the System wanted him to find here was not something related to the gate, nor was it something behind the gate.

It was actually this gate itself!

"System, what is this gate? What is behind the gate? What important significance does it hold for me?"

He asked, puzzled.

But the System only replied: "Please host, explore it yourself in the future; when the time is right, the System will naturally provide a prompt."

Zhong Qing curled his lips; why was this lousy System pulling this trick again?

He did not immediately try to put away the Bronze Gate, but hesitated for a moment, then channeled his spiritual energy, wanting to try pushing the Bronze Gate open.

But as expected, the Bronze Gate did not budge in the slightest.

It made sense; Immortal Master Mingshe was likely an existence at the Three Yang Realm or even a higher Realm during his lifetime, and he had spent countless years without finding a way to open the gate, let alone Zhong Qing, who was currently at the Sanyin Realm.

"It seems I can only do as the System said and leave it for future exploration."

Zhong Qing shook his head, and with a thought, intended to put the Bronze Gate into his Small World.

However, the Bronze Gate did not budge.

Zhong Qing was surprised; this was the first time he had encountered something the Small World could not store. Even the golden pagoda above, though it could not be stored all at once due to its massive size, could have the parts he touched stored inside.

Since the Small World didn't work, how was he supposed to take this thing?

He couldn't even push it an inch, let alone move the whole thing away.

Fortunately, the System's voice sounded again right on time.

"The System will collect the Ancient Bronze Gate for the host."

The next moment, a beam of light shot out and landed on the Bronze Gate.

The Bronze Gate instantly vanished from its spot, leaving behind only a patch of dark Void Realm.

At the same time, in Zhong Qing's Sea of Consciousness, a Bronze Gate could be seen standing upright.

"The System stored it in my Sea of Consciousness?" Zhong Qing was startled, but upon sensing, his body felt completely normal; apart from the extra gate in his Sea of Consciousness, nothing else had happened.

He attempted to envelop the gate in his Sea of Consciousness with his Divine Thought to influence it, and with a loud boom, the Bronze Gate suddenly appeared before him.

Zhong Qing's heart stirred, and he covered the Bronze Gate with his Divine Thought again; the next moment, the Bronze Gate vanished once more.

It seemed that since this gate was stored in his Sea of Consciousness, he could release and retract it at will, but apart from that, he could do nothing, and the Bronze Gate had no effect on him personally.

Moreover, just releasing and retracting it once left Zhong Qing feeling somewhat dizzy, as if his Divine Sense had been over-consumed; it seemed that releasing this Bronze Gate placed quite a burden on him.

Although storing the Bronze Gate didn't cause him any abnormalities.

Yet what he did not know was that someone above was shocked to their core.

At this very moment, above ground.

Inside the pagoda top, Ming Suxin sat cross-legged in the Void Realm, with mysterious runes circling her body, constantly imprinting into her form.

Immortal Master Mingshe, who was watching Ming Suxin receive the Legacy, suddenly sensed something and shuddered.

"This... how is this possible!"

Immortal Master Mingshe was shocked beyond measure; in his agitated state, his very existence almost failed to maintain itself and dissipated.

"The Aura of the Bronze Gate... has disappeared!"

Having spent countless years here both in life and after death, and having founded this vast Secret Realm with the power of the Bronze Gate, he was more sensitive to the Aura of the Bronze Gate than anyone, even though he could not approach its main body now.

During his lifetime, he had wracked his brains and exhausted all his means, yet he had not been able to affect the Bronze Gate in the slightest.

Yet at this moment, the Aura of the Bronze Gate had actually just vanished like that.

Although it seemed to reappear for a split second afterward, it immediately vanished again; this time, he truly could not sense anything at all.

He immediately thought of Zhong Qing.

"The Bronze Gate... was it taken by that young man?"

Although it was hard to believe, the only fact before his eyes was that he had to believe it.

"How did he do it?"

In his shock, Immortal Master Mingshe was almost listless, muttering subconsciously.

Originally, although Zhong Qing seemed somewhat mysterious in his eyes, he only had the cultivation of the Sanyin Realm and was so young; he had never thought Zhong Qing could do anything to the Bronze Gate.

Yet now, this young man had directly taken away the Bronze Gate that he had not been able to move even a fraction during his lifetime.

Such methods were simply beyond imagination.

"Bronze Gate... so that's it, is it a gate?"

Just at this moment, a cold and indifferent voice drifted over.

Immortal Master Mingshe suddenly snapped back to his senses, his gaze fixed, and his figure instantly vanished, appearing outside the tower.

He saw that before the Legacy pagoda, beside the stairs leading underground, a handsome youth with bare feet, wearing a white robe with an open chest and disheveled long hair, was standing with his hands behind his back, gazing downward.

Immortal Master Mingshe felt a slight shock in his heart.

When exactly had this youth appeared? He hadn't even noticed.

One had to know that although he only had a wisp of Divine Thought left, he had merged with the rules of the Secret Realm, and everything within the Secret Realm was under his control; even an ordinary Three Yang Realm Cultivator could not escape his perception.

"What a pity, I just arrived, and the Aura disappeared."

The handsome youth shook his head slowly: "It seems this is Heaven's will; are we destined not to meet?"

Then he turned his head and looked at Immortal Master Mingshe's phantom, seemingly unsurprised by his appearance.

"Senior Mingshe, I have long admired your name; greetings to you."